So many books, not enough time. Most avid readers share this sentiment. With so much to choose from, it can be hard to determine what to read next.
Like Alaina Leung, a creator on TikTok and Instagram, said: “As with every bookworm, I suffer from having a never-ending list of books that I want to read.”
To help narrow your TBR list, I spoke to a dozen BookTok creators about the books they’re most looking forward to reading in 2024. Some of these titles are new releases — The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black was named more than once, as were multiple Elena Ferrante books — while others are decades, even centuries, old. A TBR shelf is a sacred space, but it’s also one we should play with, a kind of ongoing curation of our future selves.
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“If you ask me tomorrow, my answer might change,” Haley Graham, otherwise known as @whatshalesreading on TikTok, said. “I’m a huge mood-reader, and I can never stick to a planned TBR… I’m drawn to character-driven stories, stories that are a little weird, [and] stories that are poetic or have dimensional characters.”
It’s easy to understand why TBR shelves are so varied. Creator Marisa Brand said she “honestly couldn’t tell you why I added [some of the TBR books] to my list… At some point, something piqued my interest about them — [it] could have been a BookTok review, a friend recommendation, or something I liked the sound of at a bookstore.”
Some of the books on your favorite creators’ TBRs are part of a series, meaning the upcoming books feel like automatic additions to their shelves. For instance, Kendra Keeter-Gray likes having a series on her TBR because “it’s nice knowing that I have [a finite] amount of books left in the universe to keep me entertained all year long.”
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Then there are hybrid genres like romantasy, a genre of fiction combining romance and fantasy that often includes strong female characters and sex scenes with men with wings. I have not read a single romantasy book that wasn’t recommended to me by TikTok. I feel pretty confident about my taste and knowledge with regards to literary fiction, poetry, and other genres, but if I want a fun romantasy read, I turn to TikTok or Instagram book creators.
Same with Sky Robinson, a creator who said she finds “almost all” of her TBR recommendations on the app. Maya Topiwala, another creator, said, “BookTok is an exciting and fun way to learn about new releases and re-popularize books that came out in years past.” Creator Georgia Wilder also gets many of her recommendations from friends and mutuals on BookTok but likes to “branch out and find books I haven’t heard of at bookstores and online on book subscription companies’ websites.”
Among the TBR recommendations from creators listed below, most but not all were initially discovered on social media. Creator Cait Jacobs finds new books by looking through publishers’ updates, following authors on social media, and, of course, BookTok.
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“I found BookTok is a great way to find authors and books I otherwise might never have discovered, as well as make me reconsider picking books I might have dismissed too quickly,” Jacobs said. “It also helps me keep up with what’s happening with series and authors I’ve loved for years.”
Their creator status also gives them early access to information and ARCs, or advanced reader copies. Like Dakota Bossard, a creator on TikTok and Instagram said, “As a BookTok creator I [learn] about upcoming releases directly from the authors and publishers I’ve connected with over the past two years.
“My platform has made it easy to stay on the pulse of what’s coming out and now I’m reading more new releases than ever before,” Bossard added. “It’s almost overwhelming, last year I received over 100 galleys, but as an avid reader it’s such a privilege.”
So what books are on your favorite BookTok creators’ TBRs? Some of the books on this list are new releases in 2024, some are classics, and some are just books that are getting a bit dusty on the shelf. You’ll see some repeats on this list, like The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo and The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black, which means both will surely take off online.
It’s hard to know what will become TikTok famous. But from romance and fantasy to literary fiction and classics, here are the books some of our favorite BookTok influencers will be reading this year:
Marisa Brand, @marisa_elle on TikTok and @marisaelle on Storygraph
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Cross the Line by Simone Soltani
at Barnes & Noble
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Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
at Barnes & Noble
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The Bookbinder’s Guide to Love by Katherine Garbera
at Barnes & Noble
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Ana Takes Manhattan by Lisette Decos
at Barnes & Noble
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The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson
at Barnes & Noble
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The Boyfriend Candidate by Ashley Winstead
at Barnes & Noble
Katherine Brink, @katiesbookobsession on TikTok
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Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
at Barnes & Noble
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Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban
at Barnes & Noble
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Babel by R.F. Kuang
at Barnes & Noble
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The Brown Sisters series
at Barnes & Noble
Dakota Bossard, @dakotabossard on TikTok and Instagram
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Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
at Barnes & Noble
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Worry by Alexandra Tanner
at Barnes & Noble
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All Fours by Miranda July
at Barnes & Noble
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We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons
at Barnes & Noble
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Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise by Lin Yi-Han
at Barnes & Noble
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Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
at Barnes & Noble
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All of Joan Didion’s work
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All of Elena Ferrante’s books
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The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
at Barnes & Noble
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The Idiot by Elif Batuman
at Barnes & Noble
Haley Graham, @whatshalesreading on TikTok and Instagram
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Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn
at Barnes & Noble
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Margos Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
at Barnes & Noble
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Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
at Barnes & Noble
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The Fury by Alex Michelides
at Barnes & Noble
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Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
at Barnes & Noble
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Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
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More of Toni Morrison’s work
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All of Heather O’Neill’s books
at Barnes & Noble
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These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
at Barnes & Noble
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Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
at Barnes & Noble
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Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
at Barnes & Noble
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Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
at Barnes & Noble
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Animal by Lisa Taddeo
at Barnes & Noble
Cait Jacobs, @caitsbooks on Instagram and TikTok
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So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
at Barnes & Noble
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To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang
at Barnes & Noble
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The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
at Barnes & Noble
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The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black
at Barnes & Noble
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A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
at Barnes & Noble
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The Celestial Kingdoms duology by Sue Lynn Tan
at Barnes & Noble
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Caraval by Stephanie Garber
at Barnes & Noble
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Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
at Barnes & Noble
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The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
at Barnes & Noble
Kendra Keeter-Gray, @kendra.reads on TikTok and @kendra.readz on Instagram
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Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez
at Barnes & Noble
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Love Unwritten by Lauren Asher
at Barnes & Noble
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Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto
at Barnes & Noble
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This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan
at Barnes & Noble
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Funny Story by Emily Henry
at Barnes & Noble
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The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black
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Alaina Leung, @alaina.wyl on TikTok and Instagram, and @awyl on GoodReads
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To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang
at Barnes & Noble
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Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
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The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
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Spider by Azma Dar
at Barnes & Noble
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Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott
at Barnes & Noble
Meara McNitt, @mearaisreading on TikTok
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The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
at Barnes & Noble
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A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
at Barnes & Noble
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Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
at Barnes & Noble
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Wisteria by Adalyn Grace
at Barnes & Noble
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Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
at Barnes & Noble
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The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
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The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
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Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan
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Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
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A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown
at Barnes & Noble
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The Toll by Neal Shusterman
at Barnes & Noble
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Gone Wolf by Amber McBride
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Moly Milosovic, @molysbookclub on TikTok and Instagram
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Lady MacBeth by Ava Reid
at Barnes & Noble
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The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
at Barnes & Noble
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Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
at Barnes & Noble
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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
at Barnes & Noble
Sky Robinson, @booksplussky on TikTok, Instagram, and StoryGraph
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The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest
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This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan
at Barnes & Noble
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The Wild Love series by Elsie Silver
at Barnes & Noble
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The rest of the New Haven series by JL Seegars
at Barnes & Noble
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The Magnolia Parks Series by Jessa Hastings
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Losers Duet by Harley Laroux
at Barnes & Noble
Maya Topiwala, @maya.reads on TikTok and @mnmbooks on Instagram
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Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel
at Barnes & Noble
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The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
at Barnes & Noble
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Bride by Ali Hazelwood
at Barnes & Noble
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The Boyfriend Wish by Swati Teerdhala
at Barnes & Noble
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That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming
at Barnes & Noble
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Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
at Barnes & Noble
Georgia Wilder, @georgialovestoread on TikTok, @georgiakwilder on Instagram, and Georgia Wilder on Goodreads
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Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas.
at Barnes & Noble
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The Wild Love series by Elsie Silver
at Barnes & Noble
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Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood
at Barnes & Noble
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A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft
at Barnes & Noble
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A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
at Barnes & Noble
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Defy The Night by Brigid Kemmerer
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The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
at Barnes & Noble
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Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass Series #5) by Sarah J. Maas
at Barnes & Noble
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Beach Read by Emily Henry
at Barnes & Noble
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Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
at Barnes & Noble
All quotes in the descriptions of these books should be attributed to GoodReads unless otherwise noted.
Source : Which books are going to go TikTok famous this year