BookTok is quite possibly one of the weirdest sides of the TikTok algorithm. Don’t get us wrong, it’s nice that reading is such a popular thing now. However, the books attracting the most readers are utterly bizarre. Currently, a lot of the most popular books are romance books, which usually are super inappropriate. A lot of BookTok recommendations are books that glorify horrible relationships. These novels, if you can even call them that, showcase abuse and romanticize the trauma surrounding having a love interest be a part of life-threatening organizations.
As many weird things as there are in BookTok, I think the biggest problem is the number of people who read books that glorify abuse, either physical or mental, in a lot of romance books. Colleen Hover is a great example of this. Her books often showcase female main characters in horrible relationships. From borderline incest to literal physical abuse, Hoover writes it all. Not to mention, her writing “style” is simply bad and flat-out juvenile. I, (Sydney) personally read Verity and didn’t hate the concept behind it but the execution always falls flat. Hoover takes “traditional” families and relationships that have been glorified since the beginning of time in America and turns them on their heads, and not in a good way. She puts homewrecking on a pedestal and treats all sins as equally forgivable. Her books are inherently sexist and teach the far too young girls that read them to allow themselves to settle and be treated like objects and stay in toxic relationships. There are so many other really good romance artists who have a better moral compass when it comes to what happens in relationships, so many things in Hoover’s books are ridiculously out of pocket.
However, this is often forgiven because of the genre’s title, Dark Romance. Dark romance books are usually the type that includes things that are just morally wrong to do to a loved one. These books usually have darker themes in them like kidnapping, different kinds of abuse, and many more inappropriate topics. These books also tie into the issue of romanticizing the idea of your partner being involved with the mafia or having the idea of your partner being crazy like stalking, kidnapping, or being in some sort of abusive relationship.
In a lot of these types of books, there is always the idea that women are supposed to be small, ditzy, and frail which, obviously, isn’t true; people, especially women, come in different sizes and forms. Oftentimes, the man is described as big, strong, charming, and tall, and is described as dark and broadening. In our opinion, the stereotypes in these books make very little sense. Why does almost every book need to have a “Y/N” looking female lead? (You know, the stereotypical, long straight hair, skinny, shorter than average, only has one hobby, all her problems can be solved by having a man present type) What even is the point of thousands and thousands of love stories if they are all the same?
Booktok can be a good tool to find good popular books, but you’d have to dig for hours to see anything on your FYP that isn’t a romance book. It’s great that there is such a large community for books and advocating for reading, but a lot of the books they “advocate” should be considered a part of the banned books community. A popular tag to draw reader’s attention is labeling a book as banned; however, this mostly applies to classics that are seen as too controversial for the world we live in. Maybe instead of labeling masterpieces as banned, we should label books glorifying some of the worst things a human can go through as banned.
We’re not trying to take a stance on censorship here, but providing trigger warnings and labeling books for what they really are and not as cute and fun would be very beneficial. Reading these kinds of books isn’t some great moral sin but pretending that they aren’t problematic is another story. All-in-all, BookTok and the Dark Romance genre could use some fixer-upper, and we hope the majority agrees.
