People encounter several sides of Tik Tok on a daily basis, and one side that many people are familiar with is Book Tok. Many people share what books they are reading right now on Book Tok, along with a brief summary and a star rating. With regard to Book Tok, I have a love-hate relationship. While it is exciting to hear about other people’s current reads and book recommendations, some people actually overhype particular books. They mislead people by claiming a book is amazing when it isn’t really all that.
It’s possible that Colleen Hoover has been on your mind a lot lately thanks to Tik Tok or frequent mentions of her by your friends. She has written numerous books, in which her most well-known is “It Ends With Us”. She has also written Ugly Love and November 9. I recently began reading Colleen Hoover’s books, and “It Ends With Us” was the first one I picked up. My younger sister enjoyed the book as it was fairly new and was not that popular at the time. Therefore, I had very high hopes. Whilst reading this novel, I found the plot rather engaging as it shows a powerful woman facing and battling difficulties that many can relate to (domestic abuse). With that being said, I found it quite insulting that people within the Book Tok community perceived Atlas to be a hero who saved the protagonist, Lily, during the difficult period in her life when it was in fact, herself who persevered and fought the endless battle of abuse she seemed to be stuck in. In addition, I found it disappointing that people on Tik Tok were romanticising certain characters such as Ryle, who mistreated Lily by manipulating her and lying to her. This further exacerbates my point that readers within the Book Tok community do not fully understand the meaning behind Colleen Hoover’s novels and put forward a false narrative of the type of books she writes. I strongly believe that it is not Colleen Hoover herself but, in fact, the ‘fans’ who claim to be true Colleen Hoover supporters. Nevertheless, I did love several of her books and even talked to my friends about them. The one book that I do think needs to be more acknowledged is definitely “Verity”. I was on the edge of my seat reading that book, eager to find out more. This book definitely makes you think about whether or not to believe the letter or the manuscript, and I honestly think it is one of her underrated novels.
I was able to ask my friends some questions about their opinion on Colleen Hoover and they had a lot to say:
What attracted you the most to start reading a Colleen Hoover book?
F: I have only read one book by Colleen Hoover in its entirety, “Ugly Love”. A friend of mine who enjoys Colleen’s writing had been urging me to read it for a while. I decided to do some research on Tik Tok and discovered that this book was actually quite well-known, but the reviews I read were wildly disparate. I was extremely intrigued by that.
J: “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover was the first book I ever read, and I did it in order to step outside of my comfort zone because I had always liked historical fiction. Her writing served as a launchpad for diversifying my reading tastes.
What was the first book that you read and what were your opinions?
F: I read “Ugly Love”. In fact, I gave it 4.5/5 stars at first, which is an AMAZING score, but I’ve always stated that I wish I could go back through my Instagram story highlights and change that rating to more of a 3. In retrospect, the girl was such a pushover, and the novel was really monotonous. It was really quite annoying. Additionally, it felt like there were too many sexual scenes. I felt that was given far too much attention than needed. It also had a heavy traumatisation vibe to it, but I had heard that it was common for her to do it in her books. The book’s advantages were that while being repetitive, it was nonetheless interesting.
J: I was drawn to read the infamous “It Ends With Us” because of the social media frenzy that it generated. Just for the writing, I would only award the book 2.5 out of 5 stars. To put it frankly, it felt very simplistic and childish. It persisted, however, I suppose I can understand why certain parts of the story are fairly innocent to represent the development of the main character.
I: “It Ends With Us” was the first book I ever read, and I did it amid the Instagram and Book Tube frenzy, as well as several friend recommendations. The plot was extremely well constructed, and I fell in love with the novel. Since everyone has their own view and it is hyped for a reason, I won’t say that it was overrated. Despite how much I adored it, I preferred Ugly Love.
What do you think the most underrated book is by her and why do you think it does not get the hype it should get?
F: I don’t really have an opinion on this because I haven’t read many of her works, but I would like to add that I was not really a huge fan of her writing style. I usually go for more books by authors whose writing I enjoy, or at the very least add them to my reading list, but I didn’t with her. I just had the impression that I would love her writing more in high school than I do today. Of course, everyone is different.
Do you think she is overrated? or do you think Tik Tok is the issue or is it other social platforms that are the cause of this?
F: Perhaps overrated is not really the right word, in my opinion, simply because social media and Book Tok are beneficial to many authors. Since her followers (like my friend) appear to truly enjoy her work, I wouldn’t say it is overrated; rather, I would say that it is not for me. She is not overrated because she also has her fair number of critics. She has, in my opinion, benefitted from Tik Tok MASSIVELY, more so than other authors. If it makes sense, Colleen Hoover is such a Book Tok author. And it’s virtually hard to be a reader, a Tik Tok user, and not know who Colleen Hoover is. She and Book Tok are a perfect pair.
J: We give Tik Tok’s ideas a lot of weight because of the way it frequently brings a single book, person, thing, or fashion to the limelight. When used in a controlled manner, social media attention benefits authors like Colleen’s marketing, but when unregulated, it frequently results in disappointed readers who label the works as ‘overrated’.