TikTok: it's not just for dances and crimes! The social media site is also home to #BookTok, a thriving community of book-lovers eager to share their latest reads. This kind of virtual word-of-mouth from popular TikTokkers has brought some older titles back on the bestseller lists. Here are some books for teens and adults that have been talked up on TikTok. These books cross many genres--historical fiction, fantasy, romance, contemporary...the one thing they have in common is that everyone's been talking about them. Find out why! And if you have a favorite book you've discovered via TikTok, please let us know at ya@mhl.org!
YA Books Popular On #BookTok
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Ace of spades
by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé A contemporary thriller by a debut author follows two Niveus Private Academy students who, selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, are pitted against an anonymous bully who reveals all of their secrets. |
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The inheritance games
by Jennifer Barnes When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance. |
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The cruel prince
by Holly Black A decade after her parents are murdered by the fey who have kidnapped her and her sisters, Jude harbors a seething hatred for a wicked faerie prince and becomes embroiled in court politics as part of her plan to exact revenge. |
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Felix ever after
by Kacen Callender Worrying that his combination of such marginalizing qualities as being black, queer and trans are too impossible to allow happiness, Felix turns vengeful in the face of transphobic hate messages before finding himself in a quasi-love triangle. |
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Small favors
by Erin A. Craig When strange events plague the town of Amity Falls, Ellerie must race against time to save everyone she loves from creatures who offer to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires for just a small favor. |
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Legendborn
by Tracy Deonn Wanting to escape her previous life after the accidental death of her mother, 16-year-old Bree enrolls in a program for high school students at the local university before her witness to a magical attack reveals her undiscovered powers as well as sinister truths about her mother’s death. |
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The gilded ones
by Namina Forna Inspired by the culture of West Africa, a feminist fantasy debut traces the experiences of an intuitive girl who is invited to leave her discriminatory village to join the emperor’s army of near-immortal women warriors. |
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These violent delights
by Chloe Gong Set in 1920s Shanghai, a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet follows the star-crossed romance of a flapper-turned-gang leader who must set aside her prejudices to work beside a rival to protect their city from territorial gangsters. |
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A good girl's guide to murder
by Holly Jackson As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past |
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Monday's not coming
by Tiffany D. Jackson Knowing when her best friend stops showing up at school that something is terribly wrong, Claudia, who depends heavily on her friend to defend her from bullies and help her navigate the toughest time in her life, is baffled when nobody around her seems to remember the last time they saw her friend. |
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Six crimson cranes
by Elizabeth Lim After unleashing forbidden magic, being banished by her stepmother and unable to speak or her brothers will die, Shiori’anma must find a way to save them with the help of a paper bird, a mercurial dragon and the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. |
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We were liars
by E. Lockhart A modern, sophisticated suspense tale by the National Book Award finalist author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks follows the revolutionary activities of four friends who turn against each other in the wake of trauma, differing political views and a devastating secret. |
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A court of thorns and roses
by Sarah J. Maas Dragged off to a treacherous magical land as retribution for killing a wolf, huntress Feyre learns that her captor, Tamlin, is one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. |
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Kingdom of the wicked
by Kerri Maniscalco Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden. Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems... |
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This is where it ends
by Marieke Nijkamp Minutes after the principal of Opportunity High School in Alabama finishes her speech welcoming the student body to a new semester, they discover that the auditorium doors will not open and someone starts shooting as four teens, each with a personal reason to fear the shooter, tell the tale from separate perspectives. |
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Heartstopper
by Alice Oseman A heartwarming celebration of friendship, first love and coming out follows the unlikely relationship between a shy teen and a popular rugby player who become more than friends while navigating the ups and downs of high school. By the author of Radio Silence. |
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Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before. |
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Salt to the sea
by Ruta Sepetys Racing to freedom with thousands of other refugees as Russian forces close in on their homes in East Prussia, Joana, Emilia, and Florian meet aboard the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff and are forced to trust each other in order to survive. |
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They both die at the end
by Adam Silvera In a near-future New York City where a service alerts people on the day they will die, teenagers Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio meet using the Last Friend app and are faced with the challenge of living a lifetime on their End Day. |
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The sun is also a star
by Nicola Yoon A scientifically minded girl who avoids relationships to help keep her family from being deported and a dutiful student who endeavors to live up to his parents' high expectations unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together. By the best-selling author of Everything, Everything. |
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Iron Widow
by Xiran Jay Zhao Offering herself up as a concubine-pilot to assassinate the man responsible for her sister’s death, 18-year-old Zetian discovers her true destiny as an Iron Widow and must use her strength to force her society to stop failing its women and girls. |
Adult Books Popular On #BookTok
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From blood and ash
by Jennifer L. Armentrout Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy's life has never been her own. The entire kingdom's future rests on Poppy's shoulders, something she's not even quite sure she wants for herself. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel. |
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Ninth house
by Leigh Bardugo Surviving a horrific multiple homicide, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks is unexpectedly offered a full scholarship to Yale, where her mysterious benefactors task her with monitoring the university’s secret societies. |
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The midnight library
by Matt Haig Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, or realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist, she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. |
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Beach read
by Emily Henry An acclaimed but blocked literary master and a best-selling novelist who has stopped believing in true love agree to a summer-long writing project that challenges them write well in each others’ styles. |
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It ends with us
by Colleen Hoover Falling for a stubborn but sensitive neurosurgeon after a youth spent working hard to earn an education and start her own business, Lily is frustrated by his aversion to commitment before reconnecting with a first love from the past she left behind. By a #1 New York Times best-selling author. |
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The unhoneymooners
by Christina Lauren Partnered with a nemesis best man on a paradise honeymoon when her bride twin gets food poisoning, a chronically unlucky maid of honor assumes the role of a newlywed before unexpectedly falling for her companion. |
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Red, white & royal blue
by Casey McQuiston After an international incident affects U.S. and British relations, the president's son Alex and Prince Henry must pretend to be best friends, but as they spend time together, the two begin a secret romance that could derail a presidential campaign. |
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The song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller This epic retelling of the legend of Achilles follows Patroclus and Achilles, the golden son of King Peleus, as they, skilled in the arts of war and medicine, lay siege to Troy after Helen of Sparta is kidnapped--a cause that tests their friendship and forces them to make the ultimate sacrifice. |
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Gods of jade and shadow
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia A dark fairy tale inspired by folklore is set against the Jazz age in Mexico’s underworld, where a young dreamer is sent by the Mayan God of Death on a life-changing journey. By the award-winning author of Signal to Noise. |
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Outlawed : a novel
by Anna North Forced to flee from a community that hangs barren women as witches, 17-year-old Ada joins a gang of outlaws under a charismatic former preacher who hatches a treacherous plan that risks all of their lives. |
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The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo : a novel
by Taylor Jenkins Reid When an aging and reclusive Hollywood icon selects an unknown magazine reporter to write her life story, the baffled journalist forges deep ties with the actress during a complicated interview process that exposes their tragic common history. |
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Honey girl
by Morgan Rogers After completing her Ph.D. in astronomy, a young, straightlaced, Type A personality black woman goes on a girls’ weekend to Vegas to celebrate and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t even know. |
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Such a fun age : a novel
by Kiley Reid Seeking justice for a young black babysitter who was wrongly accused of kidnapping by a racist security guard, a successful blogger finds her efforts complicated by a video that reveals unexpected connections. |
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Normal people : a novel
by Sally Rooney The unconventional secret childhood bond between a popular boy and a lonely, intensely private girl is tested by character reversals in their first year at a Dublin college that render one introspective and the other social, but self-destructive. |
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The invisible life of Addie LaRue
by Victoria Schwab Making a Faustian bargain to live forever but never be remembered, a woman from early 18th-century France endures unacknowledged centuries before meeting a man who remembers her name. |
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A little life : a novel
by Hanya Yanagihara Moving to New York to pursue creative ambitions, four former classmates share decades marked by love, loss, addiction and haunting elements from a brutal childhood. By the author of The People in the Trees. |