With its fairly recent rise to fame, social media app TikTok is responsible for the creation of a variety of trends. These range from artsy DIYs to silly-seeming dance moves and from sing-alongs to oddly funny memes. TikTok content is all user-generated, and most are posted with the purpose to influence others.
Among these phenomena is “BookTok,” a sector of TikTok users who see and/or create posts related to books. Some review their favorite books, while others merely give suggestions. What had started as a way to connect book lovers has become a widespread, cyclical process of book recommendations through the app. This in-app community has grown so strong that some popular novels are even coined as “BookTok books.” The hashtag trend has allowed many previously unknown authors to make a name for themselves far beyond Tik Tok.
One of the first recognized and now most popular BookTok authors is Emily Henry. A New York Times bestselling author, Henry writes fun and refreshing young adult fiction. Her two bestsellers, “People We Meet on Vacation” and “Beach Read,” gained much of their popularity from BookTok.
I adore both of these novels. I even admit I fell victim to the BookTok influence and devoured both back-to-back. Below, I’ve summarized each novel (without giving too much away). I’ve also included a song each story reminds me of, as well as my favorite quote from both.
“Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.” Taken from Henry’s “People We Meet on Vacation,” this novel is all summer vibes and best-friends-turned-more. Alex and Poppy are polar opposites in every sense: She wants adventure in the great unknown, and he prefers a night in with his favorite book. They live separate lives but vacation together once each year. Well, they had before everything got ruined two years ago. This novel follows them on their most recent vacation, where Poppy is determined to mend what was broken, while also flashing back on their past trips together. As the story unfolds, both are surprised to find their strictly friends vacation pact has been the makings of a love story all along.
“People We Meet on Vacation” is a perfect fit for Camila Cabello’s song “Used to This.” Though Cabello had written the song for her now-over romance with singer Shawn Mendes (*cries*), the song is about adjusting to a friend as a lover. Cabello sings, “I’ve known you forever, now I know you better… It’s gonna take me a minute, but I could get used to this.” Poppy and Alex are forced to navigate the new and exciting tension that blossoms between them, just as Cabello and Mendes, allegedly, had. The song is upbeat and optimistic — well-suited for Poppy and Alex’s happy ending.
My favorite quote from “People We Meet On Vacation” is the following: “The point was, Alex has known how to play the game, whereas I’d often felt like I’d read the pages of the guidebook backward, while the whole thing was on fire. When we were together, though, the game didn’t even exist. The rest of the world dissolved until I believed this was how things truly were. Like I’d never been that girl who’d felt entirely alone, misunderstood, and I’d always been this one: known, loved, wholly accepted by Alex Nilsen” (pg. 83).
I love this quote with my whole heart. I feel like it sums up Alex and Poppy’s rare and special connection perfectly. It also describes love in its purest form: being with someone who makes you feel most like yourself and accepts you as exactly that.
Henry’s novel “Beach Read” follows a romance writer and a literary author, both of whom are experiencing dreadful writer’s block. January is a happily ever after kind of girl, while Augustus prefers writing deadly action scenes and, well, not happily ever after. The two are unexpected neighbors for the summer. The stress of their not-going novels causes them to argue about which genre is harder to write. This leads to a deal: Augustus will write a rom-com, and January will craft a dark and scary story about death. Their summer consists of (fortunately) a whole lot of writing — along with some unplanned, real-life, beachfront romance of their own.
Taylor Swift’s “You Are In Love” always reminds me of “Beach Read.” The song is a series of details that describe a person falling in love. Toward the end of the song, Swift sings, “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words,” talking about love itself. In “Beach Read,” January spends a good portion of the novel explaining her devotion to romance and writing it. Both Swift and January have “spent their whole life putting it into words.” January’s journey in both rediscovering and then defending her romanticized take on love is one of my favorite parts of the novel.
My favorite quote from “Beach Read” states, “That was what I’d always loved about reading, what had driven me to write in the first place. That feeling that a new world was being spun like a spiderweb around you and you couldn’t move until the whole thing had revealed itself to you…Proving how difficult it was to write a rom-com was one thing, and I was confident Gus would see that, but getting him to understand what I loved about the genre – that reading and writing it was nearly as all-consuming and transformative as actually falling in love – would be a different challenge entirely” (pgs 110-111).
As an aspiring romance writer and already-avid romance reader, I felt this quote on every level. Henry is someone I strive to be, and this quote highlights her talent as well as her passion for the genre. Though narrated by the fictional protagonist, it is clear there are bits and pieces of Henry throughout her stories — an inspiring feature.
Henry’s romance novels are quirky, modern and thoroughly enjoyable. Though I can honestly say I’ve categorized both among my favorite romance novels, I have a soft spot for “Beach Read.” Mine and January’s shared passion for romance writing ties me to the book — as does Augustus and his dreamy novelist self. Still, I can never tire from indulging in Alex and Poppy’s unconventional adventures and best-friend love story.
BookTok brought me two unforgettable stories, as well as dozens of others. If you’re a book lover like I am, BookTok is the place to be. Simply search the hashtag, and after you scroll through a few, TikTok will begin fine-tuning your feed with these posts. However scary that might be, BookTok never disappoints.
Not to mention, Henry has a new romance novel debuting in May, “Book Lovers!” I can’t wait to see what BookTok has to say about it.