As times change, trends change with them. That goes for anything on the internet, even books. BookTok continues to thrive, showcasing teenager’s current favorite novels. BookTok’s current stars include romance, fantasy, and contemporary fiction page-turners to keep you on the edge of your seat. 

If you scroll through the #booktok tag on TikTok, two authors pop out of nearly every video: Colleen Hoover and Taylor Jenkins Reid. Colleen Hoover’s contemporary romances, including It Ends With Us and Ugly Love, are applauded for their emotional prose and dynamic characters. Her psychological thriller Verity revolves around a ghostwriter uncovering secrets from her client’s life and has a 4.35-star rating on Goodreads. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a captivating read that focuses on LGBTQ+ romance in the glamorous era of film stars. Her other popular books include Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones and the Six, both of which have stellar reviews. All three of these books take place in the same universe, so there are character cameos that make them all the more fun to dive into.  Both authors are currently at the top of the trending lists for BookTok, but don’t rely on other opinions–pick up some copies from the Green Level library and see if the stories are worth the hype. 

Although contemporary romance is in the spotlight, fantasy and mythological fiction continue to trend. Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology (which were recently adapted into a Netflix series) remain popular among readers for their worldbuilding and diverse characters. Fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope obsess over Jude and Cardan from The Cruel Prince trilogy by Holly Black. And when mythology is involved, Madeline Miller takes over the internet. Her retelling of The Iliad, titled The Song Of Achilles, is one of BookTok’s favorite novels for its tragically romantic prose. Circe, her retelling of The Odyssey, also receives high praise for its well-written characters. 

If The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Song of Achilles didn’t showcase BookTok’s love for tears, there are plenty more to do so.  E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars brought countless readers to tears with its painful plot twist, and They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera had fans rooting for a happy ending despite its depressing title. But the heaviest current favorite of the internet is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I’d recommend looking at its severe trigger warnings before reading that one.

Whether you’re searching for high-stakes fantasy, emotional romance, heartbreaking tragedy, or some combination of the three, there’s something on BookTok that will be perfect for you. But are the books really that good, or are they just trendy? That’s for you to decide. Go and pick up a copy of that novel you saw online–maybe it’ll become your new favorite.