BookTok is a fickle thing. One minute, a novel based on a Star Wars fanfiction of Kylo Ren and Rey may be lauded as the best book of the year, nay, the decade, nay, the century. The next minute, a novella written by one of the sharpest minds of Russian literature might take the title of Best Book Ever. It’s difficult to predict what the BookTok hive mind will latch onto next (although you can safely say that they’ll always be lauding the latest YA or romantasy read).
To cut through the BookTok noise, we revisited the novels that have found their time to shine on the literary side of TikTok and compiled some of the ones that are genuinely worth the read, whether they be a new, steamy romance or a classic novel finding its second life on the app. While this list is in no way comprehensive (and may cause some fights to break out), here are several BookTok favorites that truly deserve the praise.
‘I Who Have Never Known Men’ by Jacqueline Harpman (1995)
I Who Have Never Known Men was a hard sell when it was first published in 1995 — maybe because it revolves around 39 women and a child locked in an underground cage. The French sci-fi novel, written by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman, is told from the perspective of the child narrator as she takes in the scared women around her and the silent male guards who hold them captive. The women do not remember how or why they were imprisoned, and they don’t know why the child has been locked in with them.
While the book initially saw little success, the re-release of its English translation in 2022 has led to it finding a new life among BookTokers, billing it as a “book that will change your life.” I Who Have Never Known Men currently has nearly 350,000 ratings on Goodreads and has been lauded by a new wave of Gen Z readers as an eerily accurate depiction of the modern-day woman’s oppression, isolation, and struggle towards freedom.
‘Yellowface’ by R.F. Kuang (2023)
Yellowface is less about cultural appropriation and more about blatant cultural robbery. R.F. Kuang’s wicked satire follows unsuccessful white author June Hayward, who finds herself in the unfortunate (but also fortunate?) position of being the only witness to Athena Liu, her frenemy-slash-ultrasuccessful-Chinese-American-author, choking to death. June decides to steal Athena’s last unpublished manuscript, a historical epic detailing the struggles of Chinese laborers during the First World War. The lies quickly start to pile up, and June must choose to either reckon with what she’s done or dig her grave even deeper. BookTokers who’ve analyzed the book have praised its takedown of racial biases and the inherent competitiveness of trying to make it in publishing; as Filipino BookToker @missbeabooks said in her review of Yellowface, “The publishing industry is wack.”
‘White Nights’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1848)
I don’t think the Russian novelist behind Crime and Punishment ever thought he’d be a BookTok darling, but here we are. White Nights, Dostoevsky’s 19th-century novella, has captured BookTok’s collective heart with its tragically romantic story about a very, very lonely young man looking for love in St. Petersburg. Perhaps in part due to its short length — the 2016 Penguin Little Black Classics edition of White Nights is roughly 128 pages long — and perhaps in large part due to the book’s tragic romance, a new generation of readers has discovered the world of Russian literature thanks to Dostoevsky. And yes, of course, readers have made White Nights Spotify playlists.
‘Earthlings’ by Sayaka Murata (2018)
BookTok loves weird stories, and there’s really no better way to describe Earthlings. Written by Sayaka Murata (who herself is quite the character), the novel centers on young teenager Natsuki, who isn’t “like other girls.” Except this time, the cliché is true: Natsuki believes she’s a magician from another planet, as confirmed by her best friend-slash-stuffed-hedgehog, Piyyut. Earthlings is one of those short reads that often finds its way onto either a BookTok list of books to get you out of a reading slump, or a list of some of the most bizarre books that BookTok has to offer (get ready for that last scene).
‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’ by Joan Didion (1968)
Is Joan Didion overrated? That’s not for me to decide (sips tea), but it definitely doesn’t help that the famous essayist has found a dedicated cult of BookTok devotees. Slouching Towards Bethlehem focuses on Didion’s experiences as a journalist in California during the 1960s, capturing her bleak, cold look at the cultural and social fragmentation of her beloved home state. BookTokers do love analyzing and annotating their copies of Slouching Towards Bethlehem; but sometimes I wonder if it’s more for that Didion aesthetic.
‘Tender Is the Flesh’ by Agustina Bazterrica (2017)
Where do we even begin with Tender Is the Flesh? Originally written in Spanish by Argentine author Agustina Bazterrica, this dystopian horror explores a world where cannibalism has become necessary. It follows Marcos, a vegan who works at a slaughterhouse to support his ailing father. The story takes a sharp turn when Marcos is given a breeding female (yes, this is what they call women meant for eating) as a gift. Marcos pities her and, instead of sending her to be slaughtered, proceeds to hide her in his home and tries to restore the little humanity left in her. BookTok buzzwords for the book include “weird,” “disturbing,” and “fucked up.”
‘The Song of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller (2011)
Say what you will about the BookTok algorithm, but it does know how to spotlight a good romance. The Song of Achilles plays on the elements of a classic Greek tragedy and transforms it into an angsty, sappy, and world-ending romance that would put all the other BookTok romances to shame (step aside, The Love Hypothesis). It tells the story of Patroclus, an awkward, would-be Greek hero who forms an unlikely bond with Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks.” There is a reason why The Song of Achilles continuously finds its way into content creators’ hands, leaving behind a plethora of sobbing BooKTokers in its wake. For those looking for another Madeline Miller masterpiece, turn to her 2018 hit, Circe, which reworks the Greek myth of its titular enchantress.
‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath (1963)
Perhaps the main reason why Sylvia Plath has become one of the patron saints of performative male literature is due to the prolonged longevity her famed sole novel, The Bell Jar, has found on BookTok. It follows Esther Greenwood, a 19-year-old undergraduate student who spends the summer navigating an internship at a publication called Ladies’ Day in New York City. While there, Esther can’t shake this constant feeling of dread, anxiety, and the fear that her life is slowly drifting out of her control. BookTok has latched onto the novel’s themes of mental health and coming-of-age in a time of crisis, turning it into one of the “essential reads” for anyone in their 20s.
