The Five Best Books on TikTok To Read

Unless you live under a rock, then you know how TikTok has helped many books reach a massive audience. We will be looking at the five best books on TikTok to read and why we loved these books. Keep reading to find out which books made our list!

TikTok Helping Books Become Bestsellers

Even if you aren’t on TikTok, you have most likely seen the effect of TikTok and the book community called Booktok. These are everyday readers sharing their favorite books in video formats with other users on the platform.

More often than that, these are users that aren’t paid to share their opinions on a book. Many of them do receive advance copies of books but their opinions are usually their own. And with the popularity of TikTok, these videos have helped many books top the bestseller lists.

Will TikTok Be Banned?

We can’t talk about TikTok without mentioning the threat of TikTok being banned in the United States. Right now, the United States government is trying to pass a bill that will ban TikTok. The video social media app is already banned on some college campuses and on government devices.

It may be months or even years when we learn the fate of TikTok in the U.S. But we know that if TikTok is banned, then book sales will also see a big dip in sales. Many readers use TikTok and the BookTok community to discover new books. And without TikTok, the publishing world will lose one of their most powerful tools.

Until that happens, just keep enjoying TikTok and the endless book recommendations it has to offer. We will be focusing on our five favorite books that got popular because of TikTok. Many of them are well known now but that wasn’t always the case. Before TikTok, not many people would have known about them. You can see the full list below!

The Five Best TikTok Books to Read

• Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros
• A Court of Thorns and Roses Kindle Edition by Sarah J. Maas
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Fourth Wing

A novel that took off because of TikTok is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. The BookTok community helped Fourth Wing top the New York Time Best Seller list. The success of Fourth Wing led to the second novel in the Empyrean series, Iron Flame, to be released early, only 7 months after Fourth Wing. And it paid off, selling over half a million copies in its first week.

Not many authors can sell this many copies unless their book is worth it. After reading Fourth Wing, I understood the hype and became a fan like everyone else. The worldbuilding and pace of the novel make it impossible to put down. I ended up reading it in under two days and needed to read the next book in the series as soon as possible!

A Court of Thorns and Roses

While Yarros’s series has become the face of the romantasy genre, a combination of romance and fantasy, Sarah J. Maas is not that far behind. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series has taken off and it had led to all of her books selling better as a result.

The BookTok community has made Maas a household name and many are comparing her success to J. K Rowling in her peak. That might feel like a stretch until you hear how Maas’s success has led Bloomsbury, the publishing company she is signed to, to increase their projections because of Maas.

Her novels have seen an uptick in sales as new fans discover her popular ACOTAR series as well as other series that she has released over the years. She is under contract to release six more books for Bloomsbury which looks like a steal for them.

The Silent Patient

There are some novels that everyone should read at least once and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is one of those books. The thriller debut tells the story of a woman who has stopped talking after murdering her husband. Psychotherapist Theo Faber transfers to the Grove to help Alicia Berenson talk again and find out what actually happened on the day of the murder.

What makes this novel special is the brilliant writing by Michaelides and the plot twists that he throws at you. After I was finished reading this novel, my jaw dropped. This is one of those books you have to read multiple times because it reads differently after you know the ending.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Out of all the books on the list, this is the one that didn’t really need a boost. But then again maybe it did. It has been a while since The Hunger Games series was released. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is a prequel set 64 years before The Hunger Games.

The novel may have gone unnoticed but many readers shared it on TikTok and loved it. Not many books can still capture the attention of a fanbase after a decade later. That alone goes to show you that the novel had to be captivating for fans to recommend it to others.

Lessons in Chemistry

Some novels are so good that readers have to share them with everyone they know. That is the case with Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The novel is considered one of the best novels of the 2020s and tells the story of Elizabeth Zott who becomes a beloved cooking show host after being fired from job as a chemist years prior.

Released in 2022, this was Garmus’ debut novel and won the hearts of many fans. It went on to win the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut award 2022 and was the most checked out book in many libraries in 2023. It makes sense why it is so popular on TikTok after seeing it win out popularity contests as well as being the most checked out book in many libraries.

Conclusion

That wraps up our coverage of the five best TikTok books to read. We chose just five out of the many popular books from TikTok out there. We do hope to continue sharing more popular books from BookTok in the future. With so many titles to choose from, this may be an endless list and that is fine with us. Until next time, happy reading!

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