As someone who *attempts* to read for pleasure year-round, I understand the struggle of wanting to pick a book you won’t be wasting time and energy on. With how busy a lot of college students are, it’s reasonable to want to find a book you’ll be able to unwind with and enjoy.
TikTok’s book reading community, AKA “BookTok”, is often the first place a lot of people search to find these books. And while I have found some worthwhile books on Tiktok, I’ve also been recommended a lot of highly questionable ones. While scrolling through my Goodreads recently, I realized that a decent amount of the books I’ve read recently have been “BookTok” books. So, I decided to go through and rate some of them! If you’ve been on the fence about reading any of these books, maybe this article will inspire you to pick one of these up or even delete it from your TBR permanently if it’s not your thing.
1. Funny Story by Emily Henry
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Genre: Romance
- Goodreads snippet:
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it… right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex… right?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194802722-funny-story
- Review:
I LOVE a good Emily Henry book. I’ve read most of her romance books, and this one might just be my second favorite. I read this book last summer, but my love for it is still fresh. As usual, her characters and dialogue always seem really realistic to me. I loved Daphne and Miles because I love a good “grumpy x sunshine” moment. If you’ve never read Emily Henry, I’d definitely recommend Funny Story to be your introduction to her. If you’ve been looking for a perfect summer romance, add this to your list immediately!
2. THE hOUSEMAID By Freida Mcfadden
- Rating: 4/5
- Genre: Thriller
- Goodreads snippet:
“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
- Review:
I read this for book club back in October and I honestly wasn’t expecting to get as into it as I did! I was listening to the audiobook while putting laundry away, getting ready, or doing my dishes, but I found myself literally just playing a mindless game on my phone while listening to it because I just kept wanting to know what happened next. Thrillers aren’t typically my first pick, but I thought this one was well-worth the read. I will say that there were a few lines of dialogue that I was rolling my eyes at, but I think the twists and overall story definitely made up for it. There is a bit of romance involved, but it pretty much fades to black before anything really happens. So, if you avoid anything “spicy”, I wouldn’t let the romance factor keep you from reading this book because it isn’t bad at all. Also, the movie adaptation with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried is coming out soon, so even more reason to add it to your shelf!
3. The Secret History by DOnna Tartt
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Psychological fiction, mystery
Goodreads snippet:
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
Review:
This is another book I read for book club and let me just say: I’m SO glad I did. While I will say that it’s a VERY long book (over 500 pages or a 24 hour long audiobook), I think it was worth it. Like any book, some chapters could be a little slow, but Donna Tartt’s beautiful writing style kept me intrigued throughout. I read this one over winter break and I think that was honestly the best time of year to read it. I got the full mysterious dark academia vibes this way. This book was interesting with the fact that it’s kind of a reverse murder-mystery. It’s confessed in the first few pages that their classmate is dead. The interesting part is discovering what drove these close friends to kill one of their own. I will warn you that you might have an empty feeling after finishing this book simply because of how good it is.
4. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Goodreads snippet:
Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods’ wrath.
They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13623848-the-song-of-achilles?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_11
Review:
I actually ended up having to read this book for a class, but I was already about ten chapters in. I’d heard raving reviews about this book for years, but never actually started it until this year. I’d never read any of Madeline Miller’s other novels, so I was pleasantly surprised by her almost poetic writing style. I grew up a Percy Jackson kid, so I was already super into the idea of reading another twist on Greek mythology. This might be controversial, but I did feel like some of the book really dragged for me in places. Some of the sudden time-skips also took me off-guard. I understand that they were necessary to attempt to follow the timeline of The Odyssey, but I felt like skipping years ahead sometimes squandered the character development and made the whole book feel off-pace. We get chapters upon chapters of Patroclus and Achilles growing up together in the beginning, only for their later years to feel kind of rushed with all of the time skips. I do think the book is worth reading for the ending alone, but the impact of the ending wouldn’t be had without reading the rest of the book, of course. If you decide to read this book, keep tissues handy. Overall, there’s no argument from me that it’s definitely a modern-day classic that I think everyone should have on their list!
5. Normal People by Salley Rooney
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Psychological fiction
Goodreads snippet:
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Review:
This is another one I’ve been seeing pop up on my FYP for a couple years now. I’d seen a couple clips of the show before and was intrigued, but always scared away by the warnings people gave: “You’ll sob”, “You’ll hate them both at points”, “If you’re looking for romance, DON’T read this book”, etc. And they were absolutely right! But, I’m still so happy I finally read this one. It can definitely be a frustrating read, but I think that’s the point. They felt like some of the most realistic book characters I’d ever encountered. No actual humans follow perfect character arcs or make the best decisions every time. It’s a great coming-of-age story, and I’m glad I read it in college because it gave me a new perspective about my own life and the relationships I have with my friends and everyone around me at this age. Once again, if you read this, keep the tissues handy!