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The Next Big TikTok Books

Megan Mabee

Contributor

Megan Mabee has been filling notebooks with her story ideas and favorite book quotes since she first began reading. She enjoys board gaming, rewatching Miyazaki movies, and building Legos with her preschooler. Megan holds a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from UNC Greensboro and a Public Librarian Certification. Megan has worked in a college bookstore and high school library, and she now loves talking books in the public library where she works and as a Bibliologist at TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations.

Tor Books

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.

Old alliances quickly fracture as those who remain within the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities. Elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage, and still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed in his world-breaking plan.

The six Society recruits must decide what they're willing to betray for limitless power—and who will be destroyed along the way.

With the year wrapping up, many bookish folks may be wondering what the next big books of the new year will be. No matter how you feel about TikTok, it can be a handy tool to discover books lots of people are talking about. It’s important to caveat this with the note that Booktok still has a ways to go when it comes to uplifting diverse books, as it typically highlights white, cis, and straight creators and content. However, diverse books are making their mark on Booktok, too, and I’ve kept this in mind as I’ve researched the most popular books on Tiktok now to help me speculate on the next big TikTok books in the year ahead.

In an October 2023 article on Preply, Matt Zajechowski combined data from Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and Google search interests to create infographics on the most popular BookTok books in every state. He writes, “For BookTok community members, reading is all about finding stories that captivate their audience’s emotions — particularly their sense of romance. The top-five best-selling books due to TikTok are nearly all romances, and two of them share the same author.” Zajechowski goes on to list the following top 10 books on BookTok: It Ends With Us, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Ugly Love, The Wedding Date, The Hunger Games, Heartstopper, The Duke and I, They Both Die At the End, The Song of Achilles, and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Along with my research on BookTok and the web, my job places me in a fun spot to notice popular TikTok books. As someone who’s been working in libraries for almost five years now, I often pick up on the latest BookTok trends by taking note of which books develop a rise in requests and circulation. One of my favorite parts of my job is talking books with people. The joy of reading can feel so contagious, and I love that patrons often chat with us at the circulation desk about the books they’ve heard about on BookTok. While everyone’s BookToks will look different based on their own search histories and algorithms, working in a library provides me with an opportunity to hear about popular TikTok books across a broad spectrum of people.

So, combining my research with my library experiences, I’ve crafted a list of books I think may be some of the next big TikTok books in 2024. As a side note, while most of the books below are recently published or coming out in 2024, a couple are backlisters. I’m blending my analysis of popular BookTok genre trends with BookTok’s power of lifting up books from a few years back. Which do you think will be the next big TikTok reads of the new year?

cover of Game On by Seressia Glass

Game On by Seressia Glass

As Zajechowski (2023) noted, romance has taken center stage on BookTok, and I’m predicting this compelling romance by Seressia Glass will become a big TikTok book in the new year, as it also promises a gamer storyline, something Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has popularized as well. While Samara Reynolds moonlights as a gamer under an anonymous screen name, by day, she works as a consultant advocating for equal representation in video games, and her work sparks a surprising job opportunity from the game’s company’s CEO.

Book cover of Check, Please! Book 1: # Hockey

Check, Please! Book #1: Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

Ngozi Ukazu’s delightful YA romance merges together the BookTok uptick in hockey romances like Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker and Elle Kennedy’s The Deal with popular queer romance graphic novels like Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series. Former junior figure skating champion Eric Brittle has started his freshman year of college on the hockey team, and his moody team captain may have just caught his eye.

seven minutes in candyland book cover

Seven Minutes in Candyland by Brian Wasson

With her Summer I Turned Pretty and To All the Boys book series, Jenny Han has become another iconic BookTok author, and this new YA romance by Brian Wasson promises many of the heartwarming feels found in a Jenny Han book. This story, in particular, gives off some Lara Jean Covey energy from To All the Boys with its focus on friendship, family, love, sweet treats, and faking it ’til you make it. As the son of two famous therapists, candy-selling high school sophomore Kalvin Shmelton may have bitten off more than he can chew when he becomes the school relationship expert in a plot to win over his crush.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood Book Cover

Bride by Ali Hazelwood (Expected Publication: February 6, 2024)

One only has to notice the Goodreads Choice Awards adding the Romantasy category this year to know this sub-genre is exploding. With books like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses getting so much traction on Booktok, I think it’s fair to assume romantasy will continue to grow in 2024. After her bestselling debut, The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood has remained a popular BookTok author, and this popularity, combined with her first romantasy publication coming out in the new year, is sure to make this book big. This story involves the marriage of convenience between the daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman and the leader of a pack of Weres. Here’s me throwing my vote in for a resurgence in vampire romances next year, too.

cover of The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis

The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis (Expected Publication: August 24, 2024)

Speaking of romantasy, mythology retellings melded with romance like The Song of Achilles have grown big on TikTok, so I think this new 2024 queer Greek mythology retelling by Carolina De Robertis will get lots of notice too. When the beautiful Psyche gets left for dead, nonbinary Eros whisks her away to a palace where the pair will soon discover fiery passion and new love.

Murtagh Book Cover

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

While Fourth Wing’s popularity on BookTok seems to be contributing to the surge in romantasy fans, I think it’ll also spark an increase in interest in dragon books in general. As a dragon book kid, this makes my heart very happy. I think this new addition to the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini will be another big TikTok book in the new year, especially since TikTok appears to generate interest in books from 10+ years ago. Murtagh is such an endearing and complicated anti-hero from the original Eragon series, and it’ll be fun to see where this new dragon rider’s story takes us.

Darius the Great is Not Okay cover

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Books that give you all the feels definitely make for a major TikTok trend, and this heartfelt YA read by Adib Khorram is a backlist title I’d love to see make it big on TikTok in the new year. This story blends together the emotional ups and downs, exploration of mental health, and queer romance of other popular YA TikTok reads like They Both Die At the End and All the Bright Places. Plus, it’s got some cozy foodie vibes like another BookTok favorite, Legends & Lattes, with Darius’s love of tea making. As Darius navigates life with depression, he takes a memorable trip to Iran with his family.

cover of Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe; illustration of a blonde woman in an orange sweater lying facedown on a pink couch

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (Expected Publication: June 11, 2024)

Here’s another book with all the feels that I think will get a TikTok spotlight in 2024. This story also has a screen adaptation in the works with Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning, and Elle Fanning, and book-to-film adaptations often seem to spark a sizable amount of BookTok interest. When Margo gets pregnant in college, she decides to keep the baby and gets creative on how to make ends meet.

cover of Memory Piece by Lisa Ko; image of pink fire

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko (Expected Publication: March 19, 2024)

I am very much here for books like Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, another popular BookTok book, and this upcoming title by Lisa Ko promises lots of those feels as well. Like Tomorrow, this poignant story intertwines the nostalgia of the 1980s and ’90s eras with themes of complicated friendships and creating art. Plus, it’s got a dystopian slant, as it shows a dark near-future world — which, judging by The Hunger Games’ popularity on BookTok— is sure to make this one generate intrigue, too.

cover of Yours for the Taking

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

Another genre I predict will keep growing in the new year and cause a ripple effect on TikTok is climate fiction or cli-fi. I’ve been noticing these books on the rise, and I think they will continue to surge to the forefront of people’s minds, especially as dystopian reads like The Hunger Games are still trending. Set in the near future, Ava lives with her girlfriend in the remnants of a Brooklyn ravaged by climate change, where the only hope to survive lies in weather-resistant, city-like structures.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of the next big TikTok books, it is fun to speculate about what reads will become viral hits. Whether or not you think these books will make it big on TikTok in the year ahead, I hope they get you excited and talking about books.

What will you be reading in the new year? For more insight into the big books on TikTok, check out these 10 books trending on TikTok right now and these top 30 TikTok book recommendations of this year.