BookTok’s 21 Biggest Hits of 2024

This book — about a voracious appetite for an elegant, simple life — has divided and captivated readers since its February 2024 release. Planning a wedding is already a grueling ordeal, so of course this soon-to-be housewife wants to make the day even more perfect by baking her own wedding cake. A London cookbook editor, Piglet is only known to people — and the readers — by her hurtful childhood nickname. Her desire to escape to a higher class has followed her her entire adult life, but when her fiance Kit discloses a terrible secret, Piglet’s control and appetite for food and a different life spiral out of control. It’s a personal reflection made urgent by the book’s ticking countdown until her wedding day, making it the perfect read for BookTok lovers desperate for something both captivating and thought provoking.

In Holly Gramzio’s debut novel, a young woman’s attic becomes a never-ending supply of potential husbands. Lauren, our protagonist, was pretty sure she lived in a normal apartment. But then men started walking down her attic stairs. Strangers, one at a time, and each of them convinced he was her husband. Like real life dating, each is varied, different. But instead of the journey it takes to get to know someone, she has a new beau in the time it takes him to make it down her attic stairs. He’s instantly a part of her life, complete with her friends, family, and acquaintances convinced he’s been there for ages. Since Lauren doesn’t have to leave her home to meet anyone, choosing a significant other becomes a daily game. While the premise could border on nonsensical, Gramzio’s whimsical take on dating in the modern age has captured readers’ attention online.

There are reading days when you have the mental energy to get lost in Anna Karenina, and there are days when you want to give your steamy brain a break. Pucking Sweet, the latest polyamorous hockey romance from Emily Rath, is more breather than heavy lift. But that hasn’t kept BookTok fans from enjoying another addition in the saga of the fictional Jacksonville Rays, the hockey team that’s been at the center of two previous novels from Rath. Poppy St. James is the public relations director for the Rays, and keeping her job and career on track means controlling a rambunctious group of hockey stars, including defensemen Lukas Novikov and Colton Morrow. Novikov is a playboy, Morrow is an angel who keeps following him into brawls, and Poppy is the head of a department without a working office phone — so things are already tense. But when a rough night leaves Poppy facing a big decision, she’s forced to reconcile with her own self worth and reconsider if her idea of a happy ending is keeping her from a real one.

Some people listen to true crime podcasts. On TikTok alone, there’s a whole community on the app dedicated to learning, talking, and discussing everything from recent news to decades long cold cases. I Have Some Questions For You takes that innate interest in murder and brings the reader along into every ethical debate about the genre. In the midst of a marriage crisis, film professor Bodie Kane goes back to her remote New Hampshire boarding school to teach a podcasting elective. Her time at school was awful. She wasn’t popular, the landscape was dreary, and her roommate, Thalia Keith, was murdered their senior year. But when the class begins to discuss Thalia’s case — and the man currently in prison for her murder — people’s certainty about the case is thrown into a new light. Bodie is required to contend with a horrible possibility: she might be the only one capable of solving Thalia’s murder. Makkai’s latest novel combines the intrigue of a classic thriller with probing theories about the ethics of true crime content online, and makes it a hit for even the most casual of BookTok readers.

Coco Mellors’ recent book is brimming with a childhood tinge of nostalgia, but readers don’t have to have personal experience to have the saga of three isolated sisters still manage to capture an indescribable essence of family and hope for better choices. Lawyer Avery, ex-boxer Bonnie, and high fashion model Lucky don’t really talk. But when their parents announce they’ll be selling the group’s childhood apartment in New York City, the three must come back and face the memory of their dead sister, Nicky. They’ve always been a group of four, and life as separate Blue sisters hasn’t been kind. But cleaning out the apartment pushes them to confront the worst choices of their adult lives, and decide how they want to live the future their sister never got a chance to do. Blue Sisters is a BookTok staple, its literary prose and straightforward family story managing to capture both the esoteric scholar and the feel-good airport reader.

There is no way to discuss the online rom-com lit scene without mentioning Yulin Kuang. The author, screenwriter, and director created the short-lived but wildly beloved CW musical comedy series I Ship It, and has written for Hallmark and Hulu’s Dollface. She’s also set to work on two upcoming Emily Henry projects: adapting and directing the Beach Read film and writing the screenplay for People We Meet On Vacation. So it’s no wonder that Kuang’s debut novel, about a tense writers room and the romance between an author and the head writer of her show, had BookTok readers flocking to hear more. Helen Zhang thought she left every memory of Grant Shepard and the shared accident that changed their lives forever behind in high school. But when the dream of turning her hit YA novel into a television series finally comes true, it comes with a catch: Shepard has accepted the job as a writer. In a classic enemies-to-lovers romp with a veritable ocean of emotional depth, Kuang’s debut novel has been a divisive read, especially for those who enjoy less stressful scenarios on the road to love. But for those interested in spice and character growth, life jumps out on every page.

Calling Liz Moore’s runaway summer hit a BookTok classic is an understatement. The bestselling author had dominated book lists all year. (There’s a reason why the wait time at most libraries extends into weeks.) But even TikTok’s book community recognized the stirring power of Moore’ most recent offering. The book takes place at the Adirondacks-set Camp Emerson during the summer of 1975. When Barbara Van Laars, daughter of the camp owners, goes missing, everyone, including the police, is thinking about how Barbara’s brother Bear disappeared almost 15 years earlier. Bear was never found, which makes Barbara’s search party even more desperate to find her. Everyone is a suspect: Barbara’s grieving and comatose mother, her camp counselor Louise who snuck out of the cabin that night to meet her boyfriend, even the camp director who grew up with Barbara. Part thriller, part class critique, God of the Woods masterfully turns the story of two missing siblings into an exploration of what constitutes a family and what makes a home.

The sprawling novel follows a moderately successful artist in the prime of her career. When she gets a meeting that could change everything, she decides to take the time — and break — to drive across the country and get some space from her husband and child. But it only takes roughly half an hour into the trip for her to pull over in a small town and start a laborious yet non-sexual affair with a young man she spots. The book is an open lens into the mind of a woman overwhelmed by the prospect of rest, and contemplating how aging and gender has changed her libido and concept of labor. All Fours is a weighty, meandering read. Feminist author, artist, and filmmaker Miranda July has a deep body of work about empowerment, female labor, and intimacy. To be frank, she didn’t need BookTok. But the young digital community swarmed around All Fours anyway, giving July’s second novel an online reputation to match its critical one.

The narrator of Kaliane Bradley’s debut book is a worker drone, a child of refugees who has spent her adulthood in government job after government job. Her recent gig: becoming a “Bridge,” someone who helps expatriates acclimate to their new surroundings. But after she accepts the job, she finds out that the newcomers aren’t from a different country or social system. They’re from the past — and they should be dead. After the government gains the power to time travel, they experiment with people whose lives should have been cut short. The Bridge’s assignment is Commander Graham Gore, a British officer who was assumed to have starved during a 1847 sea expedition to the Arctic. His friends are dead and now he can’t smoke inside and has to see women’s ankles and learn how to use the washing machine. Also people might be trying to kill him. Even with spies, time travel, and a workplace romance, Bradley’s book is a contentious read online. Some people are obsessed. Others can’t stand it. But everyone’s talking about it — and on BookTok, sometimes that’s all that matters.

Alexandra Tanner’s debut novel is a digital representation of overthinking, making it the perfect literary fixation for BookTok creators focused on works that synthesize real life. Worry’s narrator is 28-year-old Jules. When she’s not writing study guides for her job, Jules is addicted to scrolling the Instagrams of mommy bloggers, submerging herself in a world of anti-vax conspiracy theories, Christian baby names, and branded leggings. She also has to worry about her little sister Poppy, who has moved herself and a three-legged rescue dog (named Amy Klobuchar) into Jules’ small apartment. The two must interact in a 2019 Brooklyn, where MFAs are worthless and rent is high. While the book isn’t heavy on plot, its hyperspecific critiques of internet culture make it a wildly enjoyable and humorous read.

One of BookTok’s defining series is by author Sarah J Maas, and it has spawned an entire genre push in the publishing industry called Romantasy. While the hype started with A Court of Thorns and Roses, the first book in her series, the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, has remained the fan favorite. The series follows a young human girl named Feyre falling in love with an immortal Fae lord. But while the first book leans into a dark retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and Beast, the sequel takes an abrupt twist, showing Feyre falling in love with an entirely different Fae Lord. It’s darker, sexier, and the book you’ll probably see people recommend the most on a random for-you-page.

What if your school was built to kill you and your joints were already weak as it is? Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing takes a hard school year to the next level, throwing readers headfirst into the sweat-drenched life of Violet Sorrengail. After joining the nation’s war college to become a legendary dragon rider, Violet must keep herself alive and keep away from Xaden Riorson, the brutal wingleader. She has to remind herself that his parents were traitors, his friends are dangerous, and he’d kill her if he got the chance. It doesn’t matter that his eyes are dreamy. Or his abs are rock hard. Or he keeps looking at her. This book has everything: danger, war, dragon bonding, and enough wild sex in castle walls to keep even the neediest BookTok romantasy nerd fed for days — or however long it takes them to get through 500 pages.

“And they were roommates” doesn’t begin to describe the wacky housing circumstances that Emily Henry’s Funny Story throws readers into headfirst. Daphne loves her relationship with her fiancé Peter, so much so that after accepting he’s proposal, she agrees to move to his hometown. Sure, they’re in a partnership, but she lives in his house, she hangs out with his friends, and she’s basically taken on his life. So when Peter realizes that he’s actually in love with his best friend Petra, Daphne is shocked to find herself stuck in a town she never wanted to be in in the first place. She needs a place to live. And it just so happens that the only available room in Waning Bay, Michigan happens to belong to Petra’s ex: Miles. Trying to get back at their exes, the two end up fake dating. But in the process, they learn about what they really want out of life, and what it means to choose yourself and still find love in the process.

Some people just need an author to match their freak. And in Brynne Weaver’s case, whatever BookTok asks for, she delivers. The author’s most internet-famous work, Butcher and Blackbird gives readers an up close and personal look at Sloane and Rowan’s love story. After meeting at work, the two plan an annual scavenger hunt competition that takes them across the country and eventually into each other’s arms. Oh, and did I mention that they’re both notorious, psychopathic serial killers? So that work isn’t data entry. It’s finding people to string up and murder in increasingly deranged ways. And then they kiss. The first entry in Weaver’s Ruinous Love series, this book is so NSFW that some BookTok creators market it by posting its trigger warnings. But don’t yuck people’s yum. According to Deadline, Weaver has sold ​​over 1 million copies of her books in over 18 countries and the book is already being adapted into a feature film.

Before there was a Seattle hockey team asking people to please stop sexualizing their players during games, there was a hockey-themed wave on BookTok. It combined tropes and the romance genre all in one place and made every book that even featured hockey players popular. But at the heart of the trend was this fan favorite — and aggressively sexy — college novel by Hannah Grace. Icebreaker tracks aspiring Team USA figure skater Anastasia Allen as she tries to train for an upcoming championship. But after a snafu on the ice threatens to derail her career, hockey team captain Nate Hawkins steps in, and the two realize that there might be some steamier desires beyond their constant bickering. Don’t let the cartoon cover fool you — this book is full of sex. But Grace hasn’t shied away from the fact that the juxtaposing cover and content might mean younger people are reading. “I know people who are under 18 are reading my books and I can’t do anything about it,” Grace told The New York Times. “They’re going to consume content that is explicit. But I think there’s a better way to write it and portray it than has been given to other generations.”

BookTok isn’t all romance and intrigue. Sometimes, the community’s favorite thing is a good old-fashioned cry. And Hanya Yanagihara’s most famous work has remained a staple on the app for its sheer consistency in leaving readers physically and emotionally devastated. The book introduces readers to four friends with aspiring careers. Jude St. Francis, Willem Ragnarsson, Malcolm Irvine, and Jean-Baptiste “JB” Marion. But through flashbacks and shifting perspective, the 700-page tome reveals an agonizing pattern of trauma, abuse, addiction, sexual violence, and suicide for its main characters. Happy endings do not exist in this book, but they’re teased just enough to leave even the toughest reader wrung dry. 

While BookTok has a habit of allowing the most general, crowd pleasing options to rise to the top, sometimes the community’s popularity lands firmly on a deserving book. Such is the case with The Secret History, the famed 1992 novel from Donna Tartt. A secretive group of New England liberal arts students accept a newcomer into their ranks: transfer student Richard Papen. But as the group dives further into their studies, Richard reveals a terrible secret holding his friends hostage. By coming up with an even darker solution, the group is thrust into dark schemes of chaos and murder — ruining themselves and their lives in the process. Since The Secret History — a bestseller since its publication — rose to popularity once again in 2020, it directly inspired a resurgence of the internet aesthetic “dark academia.”

The best way to describe this BookTok darling is a drug-fueled sleep haze. The main character doesn’t even have a name, but readers get an immediate view that she’s rich, bored, and extremely tired. Rather than address any of her problems, the narrator convinces a sketchy psychiatrist to prescribe her a cocktail of pills that renders her increasingly comatose. She begins taking harder pills at an excess, leaving waking hours for walks and adventures that she can’t remember. At the heart of the story is a woman convinced she could be better if only she could sleep through an entire year. Like most of Ottessa Moshfegh’s books, My Year of Rest and Relaxation has little actual plot. But the book has become a go-to pick for BookTok creators who want to distinguish themselves from the romance crowd.

The Secret History walked so this dark, magical murder grad-school novel could run. Previously known for her steadfast work in the Harry Potter fanfiction community, Olivie Blake’s Atlas Six series went from a self-published novel to a New York Times bestseller because of BookTok. The series takes place at the Alexandrian Society, a secret group that admits an annual class of magicians and gives them access to some of the biggest secrets in the known and unknown universe. The catch? They only have a year before their mysterious initiation ritual. No one knows what it is, but someone has to die for the rest of the group to pass. This book leans heavily on the prose and world-building, but its rags-to-riches story has continued to make it a BookTok favorite. 

This debut fantasy novel by author R.F Kuang isn’t just another example of a strong female protagonist. The Poppy War is a military epic that charts orphan Rin’s journey from poor waif to student at the highly prestigious military academy Sinegard. There, she trains her body andher mind, eventually becoming a student of shamanism and learning how to speak to the gods. But when war breaks out, Rin finds herself not in tight ranks on the front line, but part of an assassin-heavy special forces group — one where all of her fellow soldiers are also shamans. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the midst of bloodshed, trauma, and addiction, but the worldbuilding makes it one of the go-to entry points for readers trying to dive into the fantasy space headfirst. 

What if Jack Kerouac’s On The Road was about two lesbians from Philadelphia? After graduating college, Bernie moves into a large shared home in Philly, where she tries and fails to fully join her housemates’ world. But when her former mentor and photography professor Daniel Dunn — who had his career ruined by a sexual harassment scandal — dies and bequeaths Bernie his run-down home, she and her roommate Leah decide to turn their road trip to her inheritance into an exploration of midwest. While Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Housemates has the quintessential meandering necessary for a road trip novel, it takes a major turn by allowing its queer, liberal main characters to address their own complicated feelings about art, love, and wealth in the middle of a giant, state-wide art project. Housemates has been a staple on the app since its May 2024 release — and has been dubbed by dozens of creators as the queer book of the summer.