Meet the ‘BookTok’ crowd supercharging Gen Z’s reading habits

BookTok – an army of dedicated bookworms on TikTok – have caused a ‘sales explosion’ in the world of Young Adult fiction. At the second annual Waterstones BookFest, Rachel McGrath meets the next generation of fiction fans

Lex Croucher and Samantha Shannon at Waterstones BookFest in August 2023 (Waterstones)

Half past 10 on a Thursday morning, on the third floor of Waterstones’ flagship Piccadilly store, and a crowd has already started to form. There are 20 minutes until the event begins and eager fans have already taken their seats in the front row. “We’re from Birmingham and we’ve travelled down for this,” says a seriously excited Humaira, 25, who has bagged a spot front and centre. “We’re OG [original] fans.” She’s sitting with school friend Adeeva and between them is a stack of around 15 books, lugged down (with care, of course) on the train. They’re waiting for the first talk and signing of the day featuring their idol, writer of Young Adult phenomenon Stars And Smoke, Marie Lu, alongside fellow romance authors Beth Reekles and Jenny Ireland.

Downstairs, fans have been queuing for an hour to get their hands on free copies of one of the hottest autumn releases, Molly X Chang’s To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, and the “It bag” du jour is a canvas tote with the logo of an iconic bookshop or novel. This is BookFest, a two-day event with panels, book giveaways, craft workshops and even careers advice aimed at a burgeoning generation of avid Gen Z readers. It’s basically BookTok IRL (“in real life” for the offliners among us).

Communal lockdown project BookTok, a devout corner of TikTok formed by voracious readers, has blossomed in the three years since its inception, and while there’s truly a place for everyone, its genres of choice are romance, mysteries, thrillers and fantasies. Fans debate the merits of tropes including “enemies to lovers” and “grumpy/sunshine”(where a “grumpy” character falls for a “sunshine” character), celebrate books that have left them sobbing, and worship at the altars of writers such as Lu, Reekles, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Colleen Hoover.