^(I know a better place for this discussion would be booktok itself but I haven’t yet figured out how to start discussions on Tiktok (sorry, I am indeed, too old).)
My confusion comes from this – I never encountered this mysterious “booktok” that everyone seems to know myself. I do get book content on Tiktok, content I actually enjoy. I get amazing recommendations from there, it’s my main source now for finding new books. I have never actually encountered someone talking positively about A Court Of Thorns and Roses, or Fourth Wing. I think A Little Life is another one that seems to be widely recommended in some circles but only backlash arrives to my For You page.
This doesn’t concern only content about specific books, but also other parts of reading-culture. I see complaints about book-fluencers buying hundreds of books per month, complaints about books only being described via tropes and commenters only asking “whether there’s spice”. All things that I have never encountered directly.
So how do other people (potentially you, the reader of this post) get in contact with so much stereotypical booktok content even when they quite obviously do not enjoy it? Did I just get lucky with my algorithm? Do these people engage with this content (as in, comment negatively on the videos) and therefore keep fueling the algorithm to show them more? Is it just hate-watching? Plese enlighten me.
by peccorina
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And for some positivity, I’d like to recommend some “booktokers” I personally enjoy (couldn’t tell you whether they’re all still active though):
zukythebookbum, brightacademia, cybrgloss.jpg, bigbooklady, sisiliareads, bridgetish, bookrvws, nicolereads98 (absolute favorite), _crushdesu
They’re mostly literary and translated fiction and “weird” books.