BookTok’s 11 Most Talked About Books Of The Year (So Far)

What if Jack Kerouac’s On The Road was about two lesbians from Seattle? After graduating college, Bernie moves into a large shared home in Philly, where she tries and fails to fully join her housemates’ world. But when her former mentor and photography professor Daniel Dunn — who had his career ruined by a sexual harassment scandal — dies and bequeaths Bernie his run-down home, she and her roommate Leah decide to turn their road trip to her inheritance into an exploration of midwest. While Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Housemates has the quintessential meandering necessary for a road trip novel, it takes a major turn by allowing its queer, liberal main characters to address their own complicated feelings about art, love, and wealth in the middle of a giant, state-wide art project. Housemates has been a staple on the app since its May 2024 release — and has been dubbed by dozens of creators as the queer book of the summer.

This debut fantasy novel by author R.F Kuang isn’t just another example of a strong female protagonist. The Poppy War is a military epic that charts orphan Rin’s journey from poor waif to student at the highly prestigious military academy Sinegard. There, she trains her body andher mind, eventually becoming a student of shamanism and learning how to speak to the gods. But when war breaks out, Rin finds herself not in tight ranks on the front line, but part of an assassin-heavy special forces group — one where all of her fellow soldiers are also shamans. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the midst of bloodshed, trauma, and addiction, but the worldbuilding makes it one of the go-to entry points for readers trying to dive into the fantasy space headfirst. 

The Secret History walked so this dark, magical murder grad-school novel could run. Previously known for her steadfast work in the Harry Potter fanfiction community, Olivie Blake’s Atlas Six series went from a self-published novel to a New York Times bestseller because of BookTok. The series takes place at the Alexandrian Society, a secret group that admits an annual class of magicians and gives them access to some of the biggest secrets in the known and unknown universe. The catch? They only have a year before their mysterious initiation ritual. No one knows what it is, but someone has to die for the rest of the group to pass. This book leans heavily on the prose and world-building, but its rags-to-riches story has continued to make it a BookTok favorite. 

The best way to describe this BookTok darling is a drug-fueled sleep haze. The main character doesn’t even have a name, but readers get an immediate view that she’s rich, bored, and extremely tired. Rather than address any of her problems, the narrator convinces a sketchy psychiatrist to prescribe her a cocktail of pills that renders her increasingly comatose. She begins taking harder pills at an excess, leaving waking hours for walks and adventures that she can’t remember. At the heart of the story is a woman convinced she could be better if only she could sleep through an entire year. Like most of Ottessa Moshfegh’s books, My Year of Rest and Relaxation has little actual plot. But the book has become a go-to pick for BookTok creators who want to distinguish themselves from the romance crowd.

While BookTok has a habit of allowing the most general, crowd pleasing options to rise to the top, sometimes the community’s popularity lands firmly on a deserving book. Such is the case with The Secret History, the famed 1992 novel from Donna Tartt. A secretive group of New England liberal arts students accept a newcomer into their ranks: transfer student Richard Papen. But as the group dives further into their studies, Richard reveals a terrible secret holding his friends hostage. By coming up with an even darker solution, the group is thrust into dark schemes of chaos and murder — ruining themselves and their lives in the process. Since The Secret History — a bestseller since its publication — rose to popularity once again in 2020, it directly inspired a resurgence of the internet aesthetic “dark academia.”

“And they were roommates” doesn’t begin to describe the wacky housing circumstances that Emily Henry’s Funny Story throws readers into headfirst. Daphne loves her relationship with her fiancé Peter, so much so that after accepting he’s proposal, she agrees to move to his hometown. Sure, they’re in a partnership, but she lives in his house, she hangs out with his friends, and she’s basically taken on his life. So when Peter realizes that he’s actually in love with his best friend Petra, Daphne is shocked to find herself stuck in a town she never wanted to be in in the first place. She needs a place to live. And it just so happens that the only available room in Waning Bay, Michigan happens to belong to Petra’s ex: Miles. Trying to get back at their exes, the two end up fake dating. But in the process, they learn about what they really want out of life, and what it means to choose yourself and still find love in the process.

BookTok isn’t all romance and intrigue. Sometimes, the community’s favorite thing is a good old-fashioned cry. And Hanya Yanagihara’s most famous work has remained a staple on the app for its sheer consistency in leaving readers physically and emotionally devastated. The book introduces readers to four friends with aspiring careers. Jude St. Francis, Willem Ragnarsson, Malcolm Irvine, and Jean-Baptiste “JB” Marion. But through flashbacks and shifting perspective, the 700-page tome reveals an agonizing pattern of trauma, abuse, addiction, sexual violence, and suicide for its main characters. Happy endings do not exist in this book, but they’re teased just enough to leave even the toughest reader wrung dry. 

Before there was a Seattle hockey team asking people to please stop sexualizing their players during games, there was a hockey-themed wave on BookTok. It combined tropes and the romance genre all in one place and made every book that even featured hockey players popular. But at the heart of the trend was this fan favorite — and aggressively sexy — college novel by Hannah Grace. Icebreaker tracks aspiring Team USA figure skater Anastasia Allen as she tries to train for an upcoming championship. But after a snafu on the ice threatens to derail her career, hockey team captain Nate Hawkins steps in, and the two realize that there might be some steamier desires beyond their constant bickering. Don’t let the cartoon cover fool you — this book is full of sex. But Grace hasn’t shied away from the fact that the juxtaposing cover and content might mean younger people are reading. “I know people who are under 18 are reading my books and I can’t do anything about it,” Grace told The New York Times. “They’re going to consume content that is explicit. But I think there’s a better way to write it and portray it than has been given to other generations.”

Some people just need an author to match their freak. And in Brynne Weaver’s case, whatever BookTok asks for, she delivers. The author’s most internet-famous work, Butcher and Blackbird gives readers an up close and personal look at Sloane and Rowan’s love story. After meeting at work, the two plan an annual scavenger hunt competition that takes them across the country and eventually into each other’s arms. Oh, and did I mention that they’re both notorious, psychopathic serial killers? So that work isn’t data entry. It’s finding people to string up and murder in increasingly deranged ways. And then they kiss. The first entry in Weaver’s Ruinous Love series, this book is so NSFW that some BookTok creators market it by posting its trigger warnings. But don’t yuck people’s yum. According to Deadline, Weaver has sold ​​over 1 million copies of her books in over 18 countries and the book is already being adapted into a feature film.

What if your school was built to kill you and your joints were already weak as it is? Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing takes a hard school year to the next level, throwing readers headfirst into the sweat-drenched life of Violet Sorrengail. After joining the nation’s war college to become a legendary dragon rider, Violet must keep herself alive and keep away from Xaden Riorson, the brutal wingleader. She has to remind herself that his parents were traitors, his friends are dangerous, and he’d kill her if he got the chance. It doesn’t matter that his eyes are dreamy. Or his abs are rock hard. Or he keeps looking at her. This book has everything: danger, war, dragon bonding, and enough wild sex in castle walls to keep even the neediest BookTok romantasy nerd fed for days — or however long it takes them to get through 500 pages.

One of BookTok’s defining series is by author Sarah J Maas, and it has spawned an entire genre push in the publishing industry called Romantasy. While the hype started with A Court of Thorns and Roses, the first book in her series, the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, has remained the fan favorite. The series follows a young human girl named Feyre falling in love with an immortal Fae lord. But while the first book leans into a dark retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and Beast, the sequel takes an abrupt twist, showing Feyre falling in love with an entirely different Fae Lord. It’s darker, sexier, and the book you’ll probably see people recommend the most on a random for-you-page.