#booktok slander

[artemis32]

I could write a dissertation on the effects of p*rn addiction in all these booktok girls and their recommendations - in fact I have, in a full ass 7 minute rant

[mynameistakensadtimes]

I JUST WANT TO GO ON THE FRED WEASLEY TAG AND NOT SEE PORN TUBBLER IS THE NEW BOOKTOK JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

[maevathon-waveathon]

a not-so-short rant on booktok

as much as i would LOVE to talk about how much the middle aged women on this side of tiktok are crazy, and how literally everyone will uplift the most horrible books (ACOTAR/colleen hoover books), my beef with this side of the internet lies in what it has done to the book industry as a whole.

to give context on my perspective, i have been a reader since i was a little kid. my mother was an english teacher who taught tenth grade and AP Lang. for most of her career. we are a family of very english and history oriented people. i was a reader from the age of like, three, and i’m currently fifteen. so that’s where i’m coming from.

i have been reading since before tiktok became a thing, so i have read many books. this was also a time when reading was sort of out of vogue (not cool) so the books were vastly different. i was introduced to high quality stores such as The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer, Percy Jackson, etc. every plot line was new to me and the communities were vastly different from what they are now.

then the pandemic hit, and everything changed. people began to turn to tiktok for ideas of hobbies, and many found books to be a fun little hobby. while this was very good for me, the kid who had NEVER been able to interact with people who liked to read before, it became very problematic when people began to start picking up on and twisting common tropes.

that’s when we come to the whole dark romance craze/plague of unoriginal YA novels that is so common today. dark romance romanticized the toxic stereotypes around certain material that is usually morally grey, and twisted it to just straight up novels about sex. it took away from what the “dark” part of dark romance really was, and turned me away from any book that has been remotely seen as darker in atmosphere, for fear that i am going to be subjected to this.

then we have the YA novels, which are getting so bad that they deserve a whole freaking paragraph. certain authors saw the words “enemies to lovers” and “prophecy” and “over complicated magic system that is never ever explained over 5 freaking installments” and decided that this was the PERFECT recipe for a book. no. no it was not. i am so sick and tired of mary sue protagonists and the same two love interests copy pasted (white boy with black hair and slightly tanned boy with brown hair) in every book and the complicated names and the PROPHECIES and the overuse of magic that i have started reading adult novels and liking them more. just because something is trending among a younger audience does not mean that every single person needs to copy it to try and turn a profit. i find myself more into books with original plot lines and interesting development than the same three books over and over again.

i am losing my mind looking at certain books and reading about the synopsizes of them just to find the same plot lines repeated and repeated and repeated and beaten to death with a stick. it’s what motivated me to start writing again in the first place, because i think the book industry is beginning to get too repetitive.

anywaysssss if anyone who sees this wants to hear updates on my current story idea feel free to ask i need to infodump to someone lmaoo.

[gem-andromeda]

Eveything on booktok rn is making my blood boil with the amount of women normalizing first person toxic relationships "omg i love DARK ROMANCE" MY SISTER IN SATAN THAT IS NOT DARK ROMANCE THAT IS A MANIPULATIVE RACIST STOP

[mainenorth]

Hunting Adeline has a The Most Dangerous Game reference don’t talk to me I’m inconsolable

[griffin-r-murray]

TW: R@PE, ABUSE AND DOMESTIC ABUSE AND STOCKHOLM SYNDROME AND TALK ABOUT KINKS. PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.

Why most dark romance is romantised abuse and r@pe;

You cannot completely separate fiction from reality, it is a reflection of your true desires and morals. R@pe, abuse, stalking and kidnapping is not romantic at all in any situation.

First let's start off with haunting Adeline and book like similar. CNC is a valid kink but this book and others like it are a horrible representation, it is straight up sexual assault and Stockholm syndrome.

The author herself (which I have beef with) straight up admitted zade r@pes Adeline. CNC is about communication of boundaries, safe words and creating a safe space with is not represented correctly. CNC can help survivors take control of a situation where control was taken from them in a safe environment with someone they trust.

Haunting Adeline has set CNC representation back with its disgusting amount of popularity and existence. If you honestly think a book that does survivors such an injustice with is misrepresentation has helped with your own experience with sexual assault I truly hope you rethink if it's actually helped you or just put a band-aid on such a deep wound and I really do hope you go to therapy and maybe look into some actual good representation of CNC if CNC is something you think could help you.

Zade is disgusting and not someone you should defend at all.

Now for the romantisation of abuse, kidnapping and overly possessive love interests; most kidnapping in dark romance books that turns into a "romance" is Stockholm syndrome. There is no and or buts about it, it is not cute, romantic or something you should romantises at all. Your gross fantasy is someone's reality. You cannot seperate these sorts of things from your view on it in reality completely.

Fictional desires that you obsess over are not fictional. If it makes you horny or if you think the outcomes of these (mostly women's) situation are at all appealing even in fiction than it is not apart of a fictional want anymore.

A lot of these men in fiction straight up abuse these (again mostly women) in books and it is just abuse and the women in these books are trapped in a horrible situation they put a pink bow on as a defense mechanism. I'm aware these women aren't real but the situations you romantise are lots women's reality.

They're are so many different types of books you can read with the same types of themes such as CNC and enemies to lovers that aren't romantised abuse.

It is not cute, quirky or sweet if you defend and obsess over these types of men. Liking men with red flags whether fictional or not in not cute and is something I recommend therapy for.

Please stop defending men like zade and other characters cause "they're just fictional", I have stated why many times.

Please stop romantising other people's nightmares for a fictional man.

[discountrosaluxemburg]

booktok discovering non-fiction is hilarious. like yes, there is a world of books outside of colleen hoover, 99% of which are much better quality.

[cursedlemon]

one of the most annoying things about booktok imo is the culture around the amount of books read. obviously reading is good, i like reading, it can be fun and educational and teach you stuff and blah blah, but at what point did it become a flexing point? at what point did someone become lesser because it takes longer to read a book? if you are getting through a book a day im genuinely concerned for you, book a week is even a bit concerning. do you enjoy the books you're reading, or are you reading for the sake of saying you're reading?

[bookswithairs]

Need someone to talk about books with. The only readers I know only read tiktok books. Who can I talk to about the weird shit I consume in the form of literature. Devastating.

[southlandghost]

Idk what I expected out of this story, but tapeworm baby was not it. -7/10 can't believe I paid full price for this 😭

[veggiefritters]

booktok girlies when the food has spice

[etherealflwrr]

I hate booktok

stop romanticising r@pe and very weird age gaps tbh people might not like me for saying this one but even if their legal age gaps like 19 and 50-60 or something like that it’s still weird.

I don’t mind if books have vannila smut in it like every now and then mabye once or twice but the books that them booktok girls are reading have women getting their back blown every 3 pages 💀

Also people defending that guy named zade meddows…ugh…cmon why are they defending a literal r@pist !!!

Also they need to wake up to this fact, p0rn addiction counts when it’s a book too !!! (the booktok girls just don’t wanna hear it)

“It’s dark romance” no it’s not, it’s s3xual a$$ult- stop defending this stuff.

Also they need to leave them motorcycle guys on Instagram / TikTok alone (tbh at the same time I’ve seen biker guys on there that are just really cringey and all of the comment section is just filled with booktok girls)

[thechaoticreader]

10 Booktok Books I Refuse To Read (&Why)

I'm feeling a little controversial today and while I'm a microscopic blog might as well!

*Disclaimer: If you like any of these books, slay! I'm happy for you! These are just my own consumer choices, and imo negative book reviews are just as helpful as positive ones!*

1. Any Colleen Hoover

I don't like her as a person and don't want to give her money

Her writing style feels like I'm reading bad 2010's fanfics

Her plots feel half-baked and contrived

It feels like her plot twists are just there to emotionally manipulate the reader not to actually make the book better

Every twist is predictable

I've never met a likeable CoHo character

I hate reading insta-love

All of the male Leeds (😉) are toxic and shitty

The breeding kink that underlies most of her books make me very uncomfortable

The pick me "not like the other girls" attitude of the female MC's makes me hate them when im supposed to be rooting for them

thats all I can think of right now but there's probably more

If you want Verity vibes but well written, read Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier

If you want the writing style, plot points and vibes of the rest of her work but for free, visit Wattpad or Fanfiction.net or even venture further into this very site

2. Haunting Adeline

Hate the writing style

The Q Anon subplot makes me so upset...like if I wanted to hear righty conspiracy theories and propaganda i'd hang out with my aunt...at least id get food out of that

I've been in abusive relationships and I'd find this book triggering and disgusting, not sexy

3. Fourth Wing

I just feel like I've grown out of the genre (I was an avid reader during the Y/A dystopia craze of the 2000's/2010's)

hate the writing style

the world building makes no sense

bad chronic illness rep

in general not a romantacy fan

4. Sarah J. Maas

Not a fan of her writing style

Not a romantacy fan

Don't have the attention span for MASSIVE series

5. Icebreaker

I grew up in Southern Ontario surrounded by hockey boys...theres not much less sexy to me than a bunch of hockey bros

6. Hidden Pictures

its transphobic :)

7. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

I loved the hunger games books and I'm afraid this will ruin it

8. Creedence

not into incest

don't find abuse hot

9. Cassandra Clare

not into incest

not into plagiarism

bad writing

series are entirely too long

10. The Pawn & The Puppet

bad writing

the worst mental illness rep I've seen in a long time

transphobia

badly handled eating disorder

toxic at best love interest

don't like the author

there's definitely more but thinking about this book makes me so mad

[wierdshenanigans]

You ever read a book and love it but you can see why people might have a problem with it? Like you like the book but someone else just couldn't get into it and you can see why? "I just got really bored while reading it. " Yes you did and I get you bby now go enjoy smth that you actually would love.

[justasillyartist]

People on ticktock who read and like acotar are delusional like they excuse when rhysand SAs feyre and locking nesta in the house of wind (which has a thousand steps down to the front door and nesta doesn't have wings to fly to the balcony they all use)and go on to day she wasn't locked up (she basically was) he also threatens to kill nesta because she told feyre she was going to die because of her pregnancy and rhysand feyres husband (feyre forgave the man who SA her and rhe proceeds to marry him or whatever they did)didn't tell her like......what

Rhysand also rules over land (or Idk what its called )where he only basically rules over one city and the rest is full of misogynist men who where women have no rights and there are loads of victims

And the inner circle is just so entitled like do they have any manners where in the highlords meeting they are basically making sure they get there way

I say there are probably more shit I have forgotten because I have touched the books in a while .

But oh who am I to judge how weird the booktok community has gotten because this most of the people who recommend a court of thorns and roses series

[theblognameistaken]

Despite being in booktok, I hate booktok. Their taste is so ass and they think they are looking at a writing of an major English student, when it's actually an grade five writting that even Wattpad elementary writers are better. I gagged every time I see an icebreaker book, it's pure smut with no actual romance, romance doesn't equivalent to smut. When I first read the writting of the specific page, I feel like maybe my Wattpad author phase wasn't so bad.

The smut doesn't even make it up for the story too.

Shatter me and cruel prince is what I think are pretty good, and deserve to have that kind of hype, I liked the plot and flow of the story.

But these books like icebreaker, anything Colleen Hoover, and Sarah J. Maas, twisted love, typical basic paperbacks cover like things we never got over or love and deception are better. IF they were posted on Wattpad, I would have appreciate those, because atleast, they weren't gaining millions of money for the most basic plot and writting I have ever laid my eyes upon on. I grief to the trees that died for this abomination look-alike abortion.