These Are 5 TikTok Books That Actually Lived Up To The Hype

TikTok has given us an array of things we’ve learned and loved. Not sure what to cook for dinner tonight? You can head to the clock app to look for a new recipe. Want a new skin routine? The skin influencers and dermatologists have got you for that. How about a new book? Booktok has plenty of solid options. 

If you’re a bookish girl like me you will know that the world of books on TikTok is serious. When Booktok loves a book, they’ll let you know about it. But it’s not easy to decipher what books are actually worth reading. So we’re here to share some of the books we’ve discovered through TikTok that have blown our socks away.

They’ve made us cry, laugh and fall in love. Booktok is the gift that keeps on giving and these books will show you why.  

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

Mayowa Precious Agbabiaka London, who is a 30-year-old UK UX/UI Designer from London says she discovered this book through Black BookTok. “I gasped, I giggled and I even experienced second-hand embarrassment at some points,” she shares.

It’s about a second-chance romance divorced couple who own a restaurant together. “You see how they got together but also how and why they divorced, whilst following their journey of getting back together,” Agbabiaka adds.

“It made me think about messaging an older partner. It’s a 10 out of 10 book for me,” she says.

Anna-Maria Poku who is a 21-year-old Book Blogger from London was already a fan of the author but didn’t know she had another book coming out until she went on TikTok.

“As soon as I saw it and watched a few videos talking about it, I bought it,” she adds. “I liked it because it’s a wonderful exploration of Black love and second chances. I haven’t read that many stories where a divorced couple with kids, find their way back to each other so it was refreshing,” she explains.

Seven Days In June by Tia Williams

I read this book two years and it was one of my standout books of 2021. Funnily enough, I read this book before I was a big TikTok user. However, I saw it was a BookTok crowd favourite and I understood why.

Progaginst Eva Mercy is a single mother to a 12-year old but she’s an author of a sexy witch/vampire series called Cursed. We watch her deal with the struggles of being a single mother whilst juggling a career and dealing with daily migraines. All of this means finding love is hard but she happens to run into her first love Shane Hall who is also an author.

I’m a sucker for second-chance love so I automatically fell in love with the book. I’ve also never read a book where the main character struggles with an illness so that was interesting to read. It was perfectly paced, funny, and without spoiling it too much, had a happy ending.

Verity By Collen Hoover

You should already know that Collen Hoover absolutely runs Booktok. However, after reading a few of her books Aswan Magumbe who is a 22-year-old fashion journalism student from London wasn’t sure she lived up to the hype until she read Verity.

“It had so many twists and turns and it was the first time reading one of her books where I couldn’t predict how it was going to end,” Magumbe says.

“It’s one of those books that I’ll think about it sometimes and still have an internal debate about whether I agreed with the ending of an alternative. I think that’s why it lived up to the hype because there wasn’t an easy way out of that book and it was quite unexpected.”

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo By Taylor Jenkins Reid

Are you really a BookTok girly if you haven’t seen this book? 30-year-old Jessica Morgan who is a journalist from London loved the book so much that she read it in two days. This is quite telling considering she doesn’t usually listen to recommendations from social media as she thinks social media can often overhype things.

But, this wasn’t the case for this book. “The plot was so fascinating, full of scandal and actually read like a real journalistic memoir/intervew,” she says.

“There was a specific part of the book I loved because it was written from each of the characters’ perspectives and was cleverly placed together to offer a thrilling plot line with lots of twists,” she adds. 

“I really hope there’s a second book, I didn’t want the story to end!”

In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Fictional books are quite popular on the clock app, but non-fiction books like this one have made a name for themselves.

It’s a memoir that focuses on re-telling Machado’s queer abusive relationship. The book was awarded the 2021 Folio Prize and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction. Nabilla Doma who is a 27-year-old influencer marketer from London couldn’t put the book down.

“It’s so beautifully written, I haven’t read many books that focus on magical realism. The way she took a serious topic and retold it in such a metaphorical way was amazing,” Doma tells HuffPostUK.