Say it with me folks: if its spicy its not YA Also there is a sane (clean) side of booktok as well as authortok but they get buried by the spice readers
@@LesbianImpact Young Adult, it means the main characters are teenagers between the age of 15-19. Theres also 'NA' meaning new adult consisting of characters above the age of 20
What annoys me sm is ppl defend ya books with tons of explicit detailed scenes in it (some are in schools) by saying tweens/teens see that kind of stuff anyway-it still is exploiting minors to literal 🌽 like don’t mislabel it for kids bro?? 😭
@@catlady8256 exactly. I read above grade but if I got spooked by a closed door s*x scene in middle school (in my schools library too) I don't even want to know what's out there under the YA label being recommended to voracious reader tweens
You missed a real gem where “Trigger Warnings” in dark romance books are being sensationalised to the extent that if a dark romance book has trigger warnings, it is used to PROMOTE the book. And the more trigger warnings, the more hit a book is.
I’ve always noticed that group tends to be the ones to virtue signal the most. You’d think triggering topics would have the opposite effect. I guess it’s usually those that are the most vocal the ones that are secretly guilty.
they make me want to make a fake booktok account just so i can recommend normal books that are very well known so i can make fun of them for asking "where the spice" is
@@jclyntoledosometimes, if the librarians don’t know, the manga section will have ecchi or explicit scenes in it. My friend’s gotten books with smut in it too but it’s not like they knew in the first place 🧍🏾
@@mayadargeon2172right? I did some sneaking around at the public library, my mom's bestie was the librarian but her and my mom consider the library sacred, if it's allowed for my age, I could get it, she never told on the adult trash (some of those 60s trashy novels....oh my!!) I checked out and hid. But parading it about like it's quality literature and making videos is questionable... If it's transformative transgressive work, then yes, but I'm not sure it's healthy to over focus on personal fantasies & create trends that may affect youth sexual development very negatively. Things can be private without being shameful.
'the Alpha sensed that she was his mate... but didn't know how to tell her. so he kidnapped her instead.' HELP?? WHYS THIS SO FUNNY TO ME I CANT BRATHE
It's a bit like a little boy with a crush pulling a girl's pigtail for her attention because he can't articulate his feelings... Except way dumber and sounding delusional from any outsider's perspective. "Why the hell are you handcuffing me to this chair!?" "BECAUSE I AM THE ALPHA WOLF AND WE ARE FATED MATES!" "...what?"
The best stories are ones that reach to the darkest depths of human nature. The ones that make you lose any futile faith in humanity’s “goodness”. Dostoevsky is the greatest author ever for a reason.
Ironically, I think the fan fiction community is way more wholesome than booktok. Idk if y’all have read the comments sections on ao3, but everyone’s always so supportive and open to having intelligent conversations lol (which is what I thought booktok would be like… oh how wrong I was 💀)
Lol ikr had to delete all reels apps and don't use RUclips shorts because booktube made me not enjoy reading for a bit 😢 but in comparison a03 is so lovely like I get to have massive rants with people about characters we mutually hate or love and have supportive conversations 😜 I love ao3 writers and readers it's such a lovely community on there 😜💕
I've read 100x better fan fiction and original character stories on AO3 than book tok or even IG book recommendations. There are such incredible writers on AO3 and they TAG TW! 👏 👏 I'm not up for some non-con in the middle of nowhere without a heads up. The amount of book reviews I watched or read, where the readers gets surprised by SA or dub-con and then after that scene it's weird AF to be blindsided like nothing happened. Haha I've yet to be let down by AO3, unlike, cough, Colleen Hoover and her love of making the MC needlessly suffer. Seriously, that woman's poor main characters are always suffering. 😢😂 @@moomin469
@@calleum8234not to burst your bubble, but many Ao3 writers do receive rude comments. Authors just block and remove comments or make it archive users only. But yeah, they generally are nicer :)) Edit: grammar
Believe it or not, there was a time where booktok was actually normal. During the pandemic, a lot of people got into different activities, reading being a huge one. Booktok rose to popularity mostly because they did give good book recommendations and sometimes would even dress as the characters. A lot of videos about “convincing you to read *_____* based on the aesthetic of it” were especially popular because the visual representation of the book was alluring! Since those days of happy rom coms, light fantasy, suspenseful dystopian, or basically anything to mark the best era of what booktok was, it has devolved into what was discussed in the video. It’s honestly pretty sad because I loved booktok almost as much as I loved books in general because the community was so much fun to be a part of. Now I steer clear of it as much as possible.
I do recall some books without romance that Tiktok ever hyped up, like The Secret History, Babel, If We Were Villains, etc.; but those are because of the Dark Academia aesthetic which became extremely prevalent back in 2020 up to this day.
there is a whole other side on booktok besidew the smut girlies but that part definitely gets pushed aside a bit BUT there are booktokers that recommend thrillers/ classics/ lgbtqia+ books. i‘d definitely recommend using tags to find that side of booktok 😅
there are some non-smutty books famous on booktok, but from my experience, most of them aren't very great either. i've read song of achilles, babel, and no longer human. both were subpar compared to the amount of hype they were getting, so i wouldn't be too optimistic.
I literally screamed at the part where the aLpHa didn’t know how to tell the girl that she was his mate so HE KIDNAPPED HER INSTEAD I AM CRYING AHAHAHA
Honestly, if people want to read Dark Romance that’s all fine and dandy, BUT WHEN THEY TRANSLATE IT TO REAL LIFE THATS WHEN SHIT GETS MESSY. As someone who has been stalked, and assaulted, it boils my blood when Booktok “girlies” find out and say: “Woww, that’s so romantic. Partner goals. 😍 “ OR when they say, “It’s not affecting anyone in real life.” Really, Tiffany? Really? Because your younger sister thinks it’s ok, and cute, and romantic, when a guy is LITERALLY 👏 STALKING 👏 HER AND PUTTING HER SAFETY AT RISK!! These types of books are best kept in fiction, or in YOUR own 🌶️ life, don’t extend it further than that!!
@@daniboy4153 Most definitely. They always reference Pride and Prejudice in BookTok books for some reason. They keep trying to make a character like Mr. Darcy but fail miserably.
Honestly, the side of booktok feels like a fever dream. It is one thing to read these in your private time and another to make POVs around this and visualize material 💀
As a teenager, I'm disgusted. I know most of the audience of these books are us. I did read smut before, but now I just stay away from it because I feel like it was rotting my brain, and honestly I'm happier this way and I don't regret it. I feel tempted sometimes, but I don't read anymore. Also, I am DISGUSTED AND DISAPPOINTED by the people who read toxic "romance". I love stories that have a toxic or psychological aspect to them (if they are actually meant to be messed up) but NEVER romanticisation of abuse and SA. Do they really think that SA, kidnapping, r4pe, stalking, human trafficking, etc. Is hot? Yeah, no, they need God.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. At least the author should know their audience and tell them SA, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment,… are crimes and should never be supported by anyone irl.
That werewolf kidnapping thing around 7:15 is terribly stupid if you think about this from the woman werewolf perspective. "I'm kidnapping you because you're a werewolf-" "I'm a WHAT?" "And I'm one too! I am an Alpha!" "Oh, great. Another alpha male. Sounds just like my last ex boyfriend, the dumbass who drained my bank account. I could barely afford this plane ticket!" "Don't you see? We're fated mates, meant to be!" "No, you're delusional, and I'm gonna end up a corpse behind a warehouse."
BRO I have legit been called a “fake reader” because I choose to read Classics, nonfiction, and theological/philosophical stuff, or even the actual BIBLE. Like?😭😭 everybody has their preferences. The booktok people are crazy.
I’VE SEEN GROWN WOMEN SHAME PPL FOR NOT READING “REAL BOOKS” OR “INNOCENT NOT REAL ADULT BOOKS” WHEN THEY SAY THEY LOVE BOOKS LIKE THE HUNGER GAMES-LIKE SORRY NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO READ BOOKS ABOUT SHIRTLESS MEN 😭⁉️
Oh my god yes. I love classics, and nowadays they are primarily what I read. I saw a video of a woman calling smut books "fun” and saying that anybody who refused to read said "fun” books was too prestigious. I’m not prestigious AT ALL. It’s just that my taste involves classic literature! And when I do read non-classic shit, it’s still not smut, because I just don’t like smut. I’m a child rape and exploitation victim… I get triggered reading SA scenes, so these people who act like anybody who hates dark romance is boring piss me off. Even consensual smut makes me a bit uncomfortable. It’s just not something I enjoy reading and it doesn’t make me an asshole.
The “dark romance” girlies are so unhinged. I realized this when I saw several posts asking for books with as many triggers as possible. I know that what you read in fiction doesn’t necessarily reflect real life but if ALL you’re seeking out in books about assault and abuse under the guise of romance, I’m concerned NGL.
@@soumia117parents point them to the TV instead of raising them so by the time they are teens they are craving affection and because of what their little abuse and sex glorifying teen shows told them they turn to intimacy and books about such. They think that's what love is. That's the closest I can get, but I don't know why they don't understand blatant abuse and manipulation.
I wrote an essay once on the treatment of female characters in the YA genre. The YA genre is typically made by and for preteen to adult women, and, despite being a place of female dominance, still exhibits misogyny (as it is often a learned trait). I mentioned older books, like Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, as well as ACOTAR by Sarah J Maas. I was the most biased towards ACOTAR, tbh. The main heroine's (Feyre) first lover (Tamlin) was abusive, and she was saved from this abuse by another man (Rhysand) abducting her, who was her next lover. A lot of her political power came from her role as the men's' partners. She hates on one of the other woman (Ianthe) in the book, who is shown as a hyper-feminine, hyper sexual, beautiful yet evil woman. Another female character (Mor), who is remarked as being the most beautiful woman to exist in the world of the story, was raped. Point being: the woman in this story found purpose through the men they were connected to, as opposed to finding something personal in themselves; they were not allowed to be beautiful or freely sexual unless they served a misogynistic purpose of hating other women or serving as a victim of a man. Anyways, TikTok's audience is also largely younger generations, and booktok is still largely supported by women. My point with my essay is the same here: what do we teach adolescent women when we advertise and support material to them that is misogynistic, and in the case of bookTok, unhealthy and obsessive and weird? I do not have any examples of books from bookTok that I can rant about, but I will share some of my favorite normal books, and some do have intentionally feminist themes: The Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon - 800ish page fantasy epic that explores four main pov's of characters from vastly different cultures that all exist in the same world. In this lore, things like queerness and racism aren't a thing in that they are accepted as completely normal human things that exist, so they are not remarked upon. The cast is diverse in identity, looks, culture, and in age. One of the main characters is an older sapphic woman in a long-term relationship with another woman; another character is asexual and very strong in personality (she is my favorite); another character is gay with gay parents. Another book in the series has a disabled character. TLDR, diverse cast in a good fantasy epic. Cannot hype it enough. Skyward Sword by Brandon Sanderson - easily read (seriously, accessible writing style and language) sci-fy fantasy about a girl who wants to be a pilot to protect her home planet from alien invaders. Very strong willed and positively weird and unique lady. I really loved seeing her mature over the course of the book and still stay true to herself. Circe by Madeline Miller - retelling of Circe from Greek mythology. I really enjoyed this because it felt so real. Its an exploration of a woman's not so perfect life. She is good and bad, she has love and hate. I also enjoyed how alone she was. It was quite comforting to read how she found power and purpose for herself by herself. If you read all this, thanks lol
See it's comments like these that are the best, and those books are what booktok SHOULD be promoting lol, but I could find nothing but spice when I searched "booktok". Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that out :) sorry I gave you two homeworks lol, I'll definitely check those book recs out!
@@RayLikeSunshine Thanks and np! Rest assured that I love ranting about these topics, and I did do my homework after. I hope the books interest you, but if not, no worries :)
I’m reserving “Skyward” at the library right now - it sounds fascinating! Some of my friends have been recommending Sanderson for a while, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Thanks for giving me the nudge. (PS - I’ve already read Circe, and I enjoyed it.)
I'm probably a bit late for the discussion, but also as an Italian it's so disturbing to see how many italian mafia boss smut books are out there. Not to mention that some English authors use Italian words in the middle of the dialogue, and that's okay but no Italian will ever say those words in that context 😭 I cringed so hard when I saw a reel where the guy called his love interest "bambina", which is technically the correct literal translation but it's not the same as calling someone "baby" in English, idk it just sounds weird. It's used for example if you're a girl and your parents would say to someone "lei è la mia bambina (she's my [female] child/baby)." But that word is never used in a sexy way! I heard italian couples calling each other "bimbo/bimba" instead, which is a cuter version of "bambino/bambina", and that's way better and more accurate to the English "baby". Because if a guy ever called me "bambina" in a sexy way, I would think he's insane 😭
It’s probably cause bimbo has its own cultural context in English too so they would want to lean into something that sounds more “foreign” and doesn’t have the English connotation
A few years ago, booktok was mostly about (YA) fantasy novels that included fairies, magic, worldbuilding... all the good stuff. Like the cruel prince, six of crows, percy jackson, the song of achilles (not nesecarily fantasy but whatever). There were ofcourse other 'sides' of booktok, but i feel like this fantasy genre definitly dominated most of tiktok, and it was awesome. It was so fun and people got really creative with making book recommendations, making fanart, cosplaying etc. (Great example is shots by sophia, who is doing gods work still). It was just all about this magical and immersive stories and how they made people feel. Now booktok is... people bragging about how much smut there is in a book. Everyone is entitled to their own preference, but i miss the time were it wasnt just about the smut but about the story. Booktok now is so different from what it originally was and that pains me. Please look up some old booktok compilations or something on yt from booktok, just so know it wasnt always like this.
miss it when they recom it with the soldier, poet and king as the background sound lmaoo but seriously tho there will be no tt vid recommending a book where the comment doesnt ask abt spice.
@@rosythxt9399 omg yes those wore the days. Cant say I ever stopped listening to that or other booktok used songs lol. (Fairytail? Pierre? Runaway? And yes def soldier poet king. All still bangers)
I think the only booktok book I ever even enjoyed was The Cruel Prince so 😬I was even hesitant about reading it in the first place because of how booktok is now
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with a smut book every once in a while, it's a perfectly human urge afterall. I can't wrap my head around people that read NOTHING BUT spicy romance novels. There are people on Goodreads that have 200+ under the belt per year, every single one a romance. Don't they ever get bored of it? I need a long break if I read two back to back. At that point, you're not a reader, you have a p*rn addiction.
to be fair though, we need to differentiate between romances and romances *with* spice, I'm a romance enthusiast but stay clear of spice althogether because I'm asexual. Additionally, sometimes books tagged as romance on goodreads have it as 2nd genre or subplot (that's not to say people don't hyperfocus on the romance though)
One time I saw one of the book ads where one of the male love interests ripped out FMC’s IUD without explicit consent- I also saw one with a vampire’s fangs coming out of his gums to slice FMC and I’ve thought about the mechanics of it for far too long
I love this video because as a book-reading girlie, I found this very disturbing too. I read smut (sometimes) too but not Dark Romance. NEVER Dark romance. I feel like it affects impressionable youngsters the most because tell me why my sister's 16-year-old friend told me that Zade Meadows from "Haunting Adeline" is boyfriend goals and what he does is hot 🤢. There is a line between fiction and reality and she's blind apparently 🤦🏽♀. I tried telling her how creepy that book was but I don't think she's changing her mind anytime soon...
Lmfao. I read Haunting adeline about a year and a half ago (I was 16) I HATED him. And have talked about him to most my friends (they're all 17 some 18). IMO, teenagers are not as impressionable as ppl claim they are. Ur sister is just wild (I'm 18). Also, she'll likely grow out of it.
I feel like if your traumatized in a certain way you'll find certain normally fucked up characters hot...haven't read the book but you made me curious now
I just want to comment that today, a lot of books that are labeled as "Dark Romance" can't be defined as "Romance" because they are more like a psychological (horror) thriller. A healthy relationship in an actual Dark Romance novel will never come with romanticizing abuse. The male protagonist can be the world's most dangerous man, but the moment he hurts his love interest in any way or purposefully oversteps her boundaries, it's not "Romance" per definition, but straight up abuse. It's so sad to see how "Dark Romance" has become a synonym for abuse and toxic relationships just because it sells well this way.
it’s gotten so bad, they ask if ANY book has spice. It could be literature classics, or even masterpieces “Hey girly!! 🤪 Does the book have 🌶️🌶️” And it’s Don Quixote
And here I'm getting book recommendations from reddit, and they pointed me towards fantasy coffee shops and living gingerbread men and bread golems fighting a war. That Mickey Mouse smut voice had me cackling out loud 🤣
@@cassualtea2040I think the coffee shop is "Legend and Lattes". It has good reviews throughout the booktuber community, and it's on my tbr. I am not sure about the gingerbread tho. It sounds interesting
What I hate the most is them not wanting anyone to criticize their nasty book because ‘it’s dark this is how it supposed to be’ therefore it shall not be criticized. will damn I’m a critical reader this is how I function. I consume and critic most of the content I read, watch and listen to. Edit: typo
People always use the excuse 'it’s called dark romance for a reason,' but where is the romance? Because last time I checked, sexual assault is not romance and should not be romanticized ever. People can read what the hell they want, but I do believe that if you are choosing to read books where they are romancing sexual assault , you need help just due to the fact that you’re not having a good mindset to have. These are the same people that write comments saying 'I want a guy like him' despite the fact he just sa the female lead. Like, how am I supposed to root for this guy if he just went and did heinous crime against his poor woman?
I’m convinced most of these ppl who make these TikToks and think these things are ‘romantic’ have never actually dated or even have any romantic relationships because wait until they find out you’d basically never find anyone like that😭😭
I had no idea what BookTok was before this video. My girlfriends' roommates would always make recommendations to my girlfriend and I about books to read citing BookTok. Honestly, I thought it was sweet and thought it was endearing they liked books so much. Until my girlfriend told me that all these books are just thinly veiled smut. My girlfriend, whom I love and have an awesome relationship with, doesn't like the books they recommend at all. Also makes a lot of sense when she told me neither one of them have ever been in a real relationship.
i was talking to some people the other day about how recently things like domestic abuse have been put on a pedestal in some books (*cough* colleen hoover) and some of them said that's what makes the book interesting to them 💀
I'm the opposite. I like issues like that in books because it's a bad thing and I prefer stories with bad endings. I like to feel dissapointed when something doesn't work out, I want to cry when someone dies a terrible death, and I want to feel hopeless for someone like I'm there with them I hate romanticizing bad things because it ruins the whole point. Not even in books, I love videogames where I can be a bad person and make terrible choices so I get my sweet, sweet karma at the end
Unfortunately, I read the author’s note at the end of Colleen Hoover’s book where she explicitly points out this is her rendering of an account that she heard about between her mother and father before getting divorced. The situation did end in divorce between the two hot and heavy leads wanting to bang every chance they could, but the meshing of worlds could not be resolved without making the story tragic.
What’s even more embarrassing is that people will comment on those cringey biker guys that are holding The Haunting of Adeline book and they’ll say “booktok has arrived” or something like that… like no… we’re leaving.
dude theres always one in every biker videos like wtf?? and on top of that they don't realise the bikers don't give a shit about the booktop thing it just boost their likes and content💀😭 it is so cringe though like stop pls
9:35 I paused this and I read it and there’s a tense change halfway through and I know now for sure that the people on booktok prioritize smut over grammar and that makes me sad
it’s been affecting the fantasy side too because if i have to see fourth wing one more time i might lose my mind like give me back my beautifully written, gut wrenching fantasies
Same like with lightlark (which I've heard is as bad as fourth wing) like how did Alex aster make a book recommended as Ya written like a middle grade but also with a fingering sex scene ??????
I want to recommend you some normal and really good fantasy I love, then: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, and Circe by Madeline Miller. They are some of my favorite fantasy books/authors.
EY EY DON’T DISS FOURTH WING listen the smut was unnecessary and terrible but the book itself is acc pretty good I just wish Vi wasn’t so horny. Other than the seggs aspect it’s actually really good
ummmmm do you want good fantasy w dragons and GooD characters? Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini!!! Book 1 (Eragon) is mid, but the rest are SO good He also has a science fiction book called To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars. One sex scene, non graphic maybe half a page long.....ft some of the most humanly written and diverse women I've seen in fiction in general.
As a reader and even writer of smut I don’t have TikTok but I see this stuff come up in my insta feed and it always weirds me out. I heard the saying that 🌶️ booktok is the female equivalent of men with severe porn addictions and I can’t agree more. It even got so bad where they sexually harassed a real life hockey player and don’t understand the boundaries between fiction and reality. Btw the concept of werewolf romance seems cool but probably since I’ve been interested in werewolves since I was a kid and want to write about them someday (most likely sfw things tho).
I see this in the romance book subreddits as well. Women asking for books with specific explicit sex scenes and just objectifying men in anyway possible.
@@souei9289 It’s sad. I’ve looked into stuff about porn addictions before and a lot of it is catered towards men, which I think gives a false impression that women aren’t effected by porn addiction and the stuff that comes with it ex: objectification and frying your dopamine receptors. With the Alex Wennberg situation a lot of them treated his harassment like a funny joke and they’ve even tried to get a 16 year old boy to try and read smut. More awareness needs to be raised of this because this extreme behavior is harmful and not normal at all.
Saying they as blanket statement is wild...no group is monolithic. You yourself participate, so I’m surprised you can’t see that every single group has bad apples.
I've read some of these books, and OMG. I can't believe how much corn these books have. The bad thing is that these books have very “cute” and “YA” covers. I honestly thought Icebreaker was a cute YA romance. But after seeing people mention how “spicy” this book was. I was immediately concerned for the YA readers. Some people share actual YA, and the booktok community immediately recommend “actual” YA books. Most of the books they recommend are all 18+ Or even 21+. It’s hard to say this, but most of these people are touch-deprived. I still remember when a popular booktok content creator. She harassed a famous hockey player who had the exact resemblance to one of the characters she had read in a book romance. The wife of a popular hockey player had spoken up, and she immediately “defended” herself, saying it was a joke and to not take it personally as it was just a book girlie crush. She went to a few games and screamed some very inappropriate things at some of the players, and it was honestly disgusting. Another thing goes with people who share the content of their bikes, and booktok community quickly go and harass them.
The NHL team had to pull some of their social media posts and put out a release that it was not okay for horny women to be sending their players unsolicited inappropriate messages 💀 unhinged
Yeah I remember that it was very weird because the Krakens I believe promoted her and gave her a tickets and other free stuff to promote the team. Then wanted to pretend like they didn’t know what her content was or that they didn’t fly her out. They were as much to blame as her.
What's the difference between 18+ and 21+ for reading a damn book lol. A lot of the people in these comments seem really sex averse for some reason. Smutty books have always existed and teens are going to be exposed to it in one form or another. You can't shelter them from every possible thing you think may damage them because it has some type of sexuality involved. It reminds me of the arguments back in the 90s of how video games were corrupting the youth and causing mass shooters. Y'all really just clutching pearls here and it's kinda hilarious. Not really shocking when you see stuff like this and then read studies showing gen z is having way less sex than any other generation. For instance, y'all can't even say the word "porn". You self censor. You can't nerf the damn world. If you think these trends are bad, don't look at what people were doing during the sexual revolution in the 60's.
As someone who exclusively watches BookTube, this made my soul melt inside. I feel like on BookTube those sorts of books are talked about much less, simply because what value are you going to provide in long form content? None because there is no value you CAN provide with these sorts of books. Hence the only way people promote these books are chunks of text on screen with the damn night driving clips. I know this was a video commentary/comedy video, but if you do want book recs from the internet, stick with RUclips & find channels that share the same sorts of reading tastes you do. That way you won't be getting thrown Hunting Adeline or Den of Vipers your way unsolicited. 💀
i feel this so much!! i exclusively watch booktube, ene though i’ve read a lot of “tiktok” books as well. read so many cute romance fantasy and literary fiction stories bc of it, however everything that is anywhere close to hunting adeline and reverse harem and dark romance maffia shit stays far the fuck away from me 😂
@@lucafrances The only dark book I read was Den of Vipers 2 years because it was a gift & I felt like I had to read it...but then I'm like who tf thought this was a good gift to give? (My old friend wasn't a reader so I'm sure someone recommended it which frightens me haha). I think there are some gold mines with romances. I actually enjoy Ali Hazelwood & Emily Henry books. But many I read Icebreaker recently & lost my trust all over again. Most my "Tiktok" recs don't even come from TikTok but IG reels 💀 But I'm trying to get better about staying away from the hyped books until the hype settles down & more nuances opinions come out about them. That's my goal at least, here's to hoping I stick to it haha
When BookTube talks about these books, it's usually to tear into them. Which is honestly so much fun to me. But, yeah, I feel like BookTube has better, less smutty recommendations. Maybe it's because RUclips would demonetize the hell out of their videos if they talked about it too much, idk
HOT TAKE: The werewolves aren't even werewolves they are shapeshifters (like in twilight), they shift into wolves. Werewolves turn at full moon and it mutates the existing body so they still have some human structure.
@@middleeasternforhire8985 YES! That would be so fun to read. If one of them was the werewolf in the group and turning them against each other (kind of like the game) or even an adventure story about a rag-tag group from villages or bigger cities just hunting the werewolves and other creatures the terrorize them.
Traditionally, werewolves turn into an actual wolf. That whole half-man/half-wolf thing came from early Hollywood films, most likely trying to save money on special effects. But I agree this stuff has more in common with twilight than actual werewolf stories.
i read 200 books in 2023 and got an actual reading addiction which actually caused my life to spiral. instead of being happier and more intelligent i was just insatiable and not seeing friends or eating all so i could read. i blame tiktok (and my hyper fixation problem), but this year im making myself read much less ‘smutty’ books and FORCING myself to read only one book a week. i didn’t realise it could be an issue or even mine before i was seriously depressed. feel much better now tho ✌🏼
As an author who can't really utilize booktok for promotion because I DON'T write these niches, this video was HILARIOUS. Fated mates, mafia romance, reverse harem, alien smut, taboo step-whatever relationships....the list goes on and on, and these authors are making bank with a few Tiktok videos. Meanwhile, many non-smut authors are like "oh, I'll try booktok"....and often get nowhere. Crickets. Very sad. And, it is indeed very concerning some of these dark romance tropes and how young much of the audience is. Or, you know, Colleen Hoover, whose books are ....kind of regular romance? But with every single male lead a walking red flag....multiple red flags....a red flag convention, if you will....she was one of the first authors to blow up on tiktok, and every girl in my husband's high school English class reads and loves her books, which honestly horrifies me. "Boyfriend goals" should not be a guy who was responsible for burning down the female lead's family home, which also left her scarred, and the guy also gets off on her scars....like WTAF. My daughter is 30, and I don't want her reading and idealizing that.
While i agree with everything you're saying, a 30 year old woman should absolutely be able to read a book where the love interest is a walking red flag and have the critical thinking skills to know it's not something to idealize 😭
I am a 16 year old girl who has alwwys been a bookworm and i tried reading a coho book after she blew up. I was horrified, her writting is so bad and so vulgar. I think the reason lots of people are getting sucked in is because they’re mindless and addictive.
Why do you think your daughter doesn’t have the critical thinking skills to differentiate between fantasy and reality? Why are you not addressing how women authors are often forced into YA...when it should be in adult fiction. Censoring things for adults who get the difference....because of kids who’s parents are not paying attention is wild. 💀 That is why I see the joke often “ I like in books what I don’t like in real life”. Many readers of smut are in committed relationships....which makes sense since more than half of the US pop who are women are paired up with someone. People enjoy reading things, exploring fantasy in a safe way....without real people. It is sad how anything women like , like erotica has been deemed horrible.
@@xdani_thethinkingneko I love how everyone is making assumptions about how I see my daughter because of my comment. 🙄 Look, she can ultimately read what she wants. But even though she is 30, Mama Bear still wants to protect her, and sees a bit of her in the teenage girls reading Hoover's books. And obviously my personal opinion isn't going to stop anyone from their reading choices. I am not here to kink shame or erotica shame, but my personal opinion is also not going to change when I think there are far better books out there for them to be reading than Hoover's. And I'm not sure where the YA vs. adult fiction came into this. Hoover is not considered a YA author. Genres are all marketing tools anyway. In indie author land, anyone can publish anything and consider it whatever genre they want....doesn't mean it will SELL in that genre, since it still has to meet certain tropes to hit with readers. No one is forcing women into any boxes in indie author land.
Thank you. Even Booktube is less smutty but still really dominated by the romance genre. Why is everything romance or young adult? The occasional self help like "atomic habits" or whatever the hit is this year to prove they can read a book that doesn't have someone falling in love but that's about it. Does no one read any other books?
Well basic romance is easy to write and read (compared to fantasy, sci-fi, historical, detective, which all require some knowledge). And there are tons of YA online.
Honestly man. Literally everything in casual literature is centered around romance. As someone who is not interested in romance, at all, it gets quite tiresome lmao
Booktok is people who didn't spend alll their time reading wattpad and over the years acquired better reading taste and now those people find out about reading and its not in wattpad ..
I think this phenomenon isn't just happening in booktok/light novel/fanfic world, it's also in webtoons and mini dramas. Not that all of them have smut/18+ , it's more like there's no rationality in the plot and character. Things just happen because the characters needed to be together. When we read it we need to just "turn off our brains". 😅
Exactly, reading is supposed to stimulate our brains and allow us to critically think/reflect on the text. But now people are just using it for brainless smut.
It's OKAY to read/write something just for smut, but the authors NEED to label these stories as explicitly 'porn without plot'. We can't have PWP mingling with ACTUAL stories.
This is the first vid ive seen and WOW i was was so sure you had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, bc the quality? Impeccable, can't wait to binge your content!
Tbh at this point I sometimes wonder if it can be compared to cornography addictions-same dopamine hits just different mediums. Obviously they’re different but the obsession with smut and “spice” is getting to those levels.
I think porn and smut books are the same in terms of their negative effects if not read or watched in moderation 🙃 the only advantage of smut over porn is there's no chance of s*x trafficking in written smut but other than that in terms of smut/porn addictions I'm pretty sure they are the same 🤔
Yup, it's definitely the same. The definition of p0rnogr@phy is content made in the intention of making the consumer get that kind of s€xu@l "kick". It's sad that people make it seem as it is so innocent and harmless
I genuinely subscribed when you asked us to because "you have been doing all the smutty roleplay by yourself". It does take a toll on you to be on that side of booktok. Stay strong, mate, your sacrifice shall not be in vain.
Funny story, my friend gave me a PERCY JACKSON series book 3 in exchange for a smut book that I didnt even realize was a smut book, I thought it was just a fantasy romance but nah..(I didn't see the warnings istg). But I gladly traded it for the Percy Jackson book, best trade ever (she's a minor btw, book too Is so bad, it reached children)
I'm a huge lover of fantasy books, but as I get older all of them have "spicy" romance in them. If you like that, that's fine, but man, I miss the days when I was Reading The Land of Stories or Fablehaven, instead of some of these frankly creepy dark romances.
My sister says she likes reading ya despite being a full adult because it's fluffy it's cute, and now spicy marketed as ya will take over... and most of it is dark romance. Like ma'am?! Ma'am?! That is in no way romance! These books have no place in being published 😭they should be on wattpad and ao3.... I even heard people comparing the rise in smut books being published to fast fashion, and I have to agree on it
Recommendation : the Inheritance Cycle Book 1 is average (NOT at all bad)...prolly bcs the author himself was 16/17 when he wrote it, but the 3 other parts are SO damn good! Main story wraps up conclusively in 4 books, but there are a couple more _if_ you want to keep engaging with the world
Booktok is literally where everyone found It Ends With Us from!!!! Like a book romanticizing abuse and everyone was literally crazy over itttttt likeeeeeee the girls in my class almost died😂😂😂 When I read the book I was just so disappointed like... Kileleyii 😂😂 Kilonshele??Also your video is so funny😂😂😂 I just subbed❤❤
Booktok started out as my favorite place to be and community. Back in 2020 it was all about promoting (mostly YA) new and emerging authors, talking about books with good plot and storylines, books with unique themes to them. It was a fun time - kinda like being in a small little book club with your friends because everyone knew everyone. THAT was how small booktok was compared to other communities on the app. But then the horrid summer of 2021 came… the “hot girl summer” where everyone collectively (and I will admit myself that I also dipped my toes in it) agreed to strictly read romance books. From then on came Colleen Hoover, Penelope Douglas and all these horrible people (who happened to be authors) that everyone loved to read because of the smut. It’s insane how many indie and new authors are being overshadowed by smut authors because of how addicted so many booktokers were to smut. I saw an author recently republish her duology so she could add spicy scenes in them. NOTHING ELSE JUST SMUT!!! I have a pretty big platform on booktok but I’ve long since stopped posting because of how much it’s affected my reading time and mental health. People were genuinely trying to gaslight me into thinking I was wrong for not enjoying a book or I was stupid for liking a hated book. It’s just gotten worse over the years and blended into instagram and booktube. Not only that but also in the publishing industry itself. I genuinely think literature will never go back to how it was and that actually makes me so sad and it makes the little girl in me sad, but there are still hidden gems of authors we can read if we look past all the new types of books that are being promoted!
Spying some Chad Chad inspiration and that is amazing! I really hope you follow in her footsteps and get a well deserved blow up🙏Your humor is spot on for this style of video!
booktok is actually insane. like i’ve taken recommendations from videos out of curiosity and they’re always really bad. i don’t understand the need for there to be soooo much smut in books? i get that everyone has their own preferences but there’s so many posts about books that contain smut and since they’re typically the most popular, everyone runs to those books, they become the main thing to look for and it hides the very few videos people recommend that aren’t dark romance/super smutty. apart from the smut, the problem is that i can barely find a good romance novel now. all i see is colleen hoover, red flag plots, or rich mean ceo who has a soft spot for the main character 😭 and don’t even get me started on goodreads they’re pretty much filled with reviews from booktok readers who enjoyed the book and thus, the book has a high rating. give me a good romance, the kind where they hold hands in like chapter 15 after they’ve finally confessed their love and are in the honeymoon phase, yk the giddy feels you associate with romance! not alpha x omega dominance :/ anyways, since you can’t find romance on romance booktok, yt has become my bestie for that so if you have the same problem too with tiktok, i recommend you do that too
Booktok is seriously so odd. I really love to read, and some time ago, I wanted to look at some romance recommendations because I don't read it often and was looking to branch out. But it's so concerning how abuse and these really horrific situations are masked as dark romances and things like that - -so many videos that I found were recommending some really worrying books and romanticising things like stalking and even rape. And if someone pointed out any issues, they would be bormabarded with people saying that it's "just fiction". It just worries me with how normalised these things are becoming and how desensitised some are.
Omg LITERALLY ITS CRAZY 😭😭😭 This comment section has made me feel better tho that I'm not the only one who thinks the romantisisation of toxic relationships is crazy 😭😭 I remember a few years ago when I was 16 this like 30 Yr old got in an argument with me when I said they shouldn't romanticise sex trafficking and they kept coming at me and I had to block them as they wouldn't stop it was crazyyy 😭😭 it was funny tho because at the same time they were arguing with someone else who was defending me and then the person defending me ended up giving me a book recommendation and we had a nice chat about art and books in the 30 year olds comment section 💀
I am LIVING for the way you’re reading these excerpts-it just makes them seem all the more ridiculous. No problem with enjoying this stuff, of course, I just personally find it funny. Got me giggling and shit.
I cannot read dark romance/mafia romances. Read a fair share of then on Wattpad because I'm masochistic like that apparently, and now every time I see a super popular mafia romance, I read literally the first paragraph and roll my eyes so hard, my head starts to hurt. I remember the last time I visited the bookstore, I had no intention of buying any novels and said I'd just browse (mistake on my part). While browsing, I checked out a few romances published by Mills&Boone and I swear...I crack up every time I read those titles. It's like reading the titles of those really bad dark romances on Wattpad. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. It was so bad!
The Greek Billionaire Contract Bride The Spaniard's Love Pact Instigating the Billionaire's Love I kid you not if you were to search these online something similar would come with the Harlequin logo.
@@crystaleefyffe1230 These are the kinds of titles that have me rolling my eyes and going, 'Oh for heaven's sake. People actually read this stuff?' The titles are so clichéd that you could literally predict the whole story based on the title.
@@amyrajpat5696 Some people like predictability! My mom loooves crime stories - she reads something new almost every week (and watches every single crime drama there is too of course). You'd think she'd get tired of it at some point, but nope! Give her two books with practically the same story but with a different murder weapon and a victim name and she'd love them both just as much haha
Dark romance books are so bad on wattpad. They are all generic and consist of the same thing, every.single.darn.time. The authors put no thought into the books except for the smutty, aka most corny, parts. They aren’t good whatsoever. Especially the mafia ones. My gosh that’s an entirely different Ted talk.
@@remigal899 And let's not forget the never ending and overused trope...actually I don't know if this qualifies as a trope, but the male lead always has these cringe nicknames for the female lead as if it's supposed to be cute.
This whole thing is a phenomenon that both greatly disturbs and transfixes me, tbh. Like...watching the downhill slope that (I believe) has led us here from the sidelines has been-something. An Experience. From "urghhhh literary analysis is soooo fake, the curtains were just fucking blue" grumping back when people didn't genuinely believe tumblr is a dead platform, to the combo of over-analysis (where interpretations are done almost exclusively in bad faith) + the general 'moral' panic common on twitter...to many of the tiktok girlies refusing, REFUSING, yes, to read a book unless there is 'spice' in it, or at least 'romance'... It's all variations on the same anti-intellectualism, of course, but it really does feel like going from bad to worse to oh my God. Anyway. So sorry for the psychic damage you received and also, love your editing style, just as an aside.
![Jordan Adetunji - KEHLANI REMIX (feat. Kehlani) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EeJ8n5PxFGE/mqdefault.jpg)
Say it with me folks: if its spicy its not YA
Also there is a sane (clean) side of booktok as well as authortok but they get buried by the spice readers
What is YA?
@@LesbianImpact Young Adult, it means the main characters are teenagers between the age of 15-19. Theres also 'NA' meaning new adult consisting of characters above the age of 20
@@fatimasyed2780 ohh ok ty
What annoys me sm is ppl defend ya books with tons of explicit detailed scenes in it (some are in schools) by saying tweens/teens see that kind of stuff anyway-it still is exploiting minors to literal 🌽 like don’t mislabel it for kids bro?? 😭
@@catlady8256 exactly. I read above grade but if I got spooked by a closed door s*x scene in middle school (in my schools library too) I don't even want to know what's out there under the YA label being recommended to voracious reader tweens
You missed a real gem where “Trigger Warnings” in dark romance books are being sensationalised to the extent that if a dark romance book has trigger warnings, it is used to PROMOTE the book. And the more trigger warnings, the more hit a book is.
see now that there just ain't right
That sounds alot like what rap music did in the 90s with the "parental advisory" sticker.
It’s the explicit lyrics side effect.
I’ve always noticed that group tends to be the ones to virtue signal the most. You’d think triggering topics would have the opposite effect. I guess it’s usually those that are the most vocal the ones that are secretly guilty.
@@KaptynEllieguilty of what? 😂
when booktok finds out about fanfiction its over 😭
I think it's already happening 😢
@@lumis2004 OHNO 😭😭💀💀💀💀
That side of booktok already does. They probably are the ones making wattpad
Their just evolved wattpad writers
...that moment when you see a comment on AO3 and can tell they just discovered it after, say, FFN or Wattpad or Booktok.. >.
booktok brainrot is so insane, they‘ll probably ask where the „spice“ is in a Dr. Seuss book 😭
they make me want to make a fake booktok account just so i can recommend normal books that are very well known so i can make fun of them for asking "where the spice" is
No! Stop! Don't hop on Pop!
@@Venom8itezdo it please 😭
It's also been rotting people's brains to the point where they've been asking if actual classics have "spice" in them.
fun fact the first book ever written was actually werewolf smut
Some Russian literature goes crazy not gonna lie
not a classic, ofc, but i saw someone ask if percy jackson had “spice” in the wild 🧍♂️
@@clusterofbees HUH?????? THE CHILDREN’S BOOK SERIES????
@@wooogie672 unfortunately yes
BookTok has HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS binge reading dark romance in the school library and asking their librarians for more spicy books .... wtf
At the library? 😭 Why does a school library have explicit books anyway? 😭
I'm surprised it's not banned in school libraries.
@@jclyntoledosometimes, if the librarians don’t know, the manga section will have ecchi or explicit scenes in it. My friend’s gotten books with smut in it too but it’s not like they knew in the first place 🧍🏾
I mean... I did that too, without even tiktok. Hell, I did it in middle school. Although, I did read more stuff than just trashy romances.
@@mayadargeon2172right? I did some sneaking around at the public library, my mom's bestie was the librarian but her and my mom consider the library sacred, if it's allowed for my age, I could get it, she never told on the adult trash (some of those 60s trashy novels....oh my!!) I checked out and hid. But parading it about like it's quality literature and making videos is questionable... If it's transformative transgressive work, then yes, but I'm not sure it's healthy to over focus on personal fantasies & create trends that may affect youth sexual development very negatively. Things can be private without being shameful.
'the Alpha sensed that she was his mate... but didn't know how to tell her. so he kidnapped her instead.'
HELP?? WHYS THIS SO FUNNY TO ME I CANT BRATHE
I STARTED WHEEZING LIKE BRO 😭☠️
@@Ihatesocietyman LITERALLY SAM,E LMFAOO IMAGINE BEING TOO EMBARASSED TO CONFESS TO SMB SO U JS KIDNAP THEM?? 😭😭
@@__________________________971 FRR LIKE-- GET TO KNOW EM FIRST?? 😭☠️
It's a bit like a little boy with a crush pulling a girl's pigtail for her attention because he can't articulate his feelings... Except way dumber and sounding delusional from any outsider's perspective.
"Why the hell are you handcuffing me to this chair!?"
"BECAUSE I AM THE ALPHA WOLF AND WE ARE FATED MATES!"
"...what?"
Ahhhh😭
the urge to write clean stories that don’t glorify sensitive topics as good things is STRONGG 💪💪
The best stories are ones that reach to the darkest depths of human nature. The ones that make you lose any futile faith in humanity’s “goodness”. Dostoevsky is the greatest author ever for a reason.
Damn who hurt you
@@wildpcpanda1534 Yes
@@wildpcpanda1534because they don’t want to glorify shitty stuff???
@@wildpcpanda1534the book tok spice ratings 💀
"when he refuses to wear protection," is the most staggering thumbnail. wtf am i about to watch?😭
Chileans asking for sex...
Sorry I live in Chile and here men dont like to wear condoms
Welcome to hell
“When he refuses to wear protection” Aaahhhh so what I’m hearing is SA
@@izzyd6369 my favorite genre: unwanted pregnancy
@@arlynnecumberbatch1056💀
Ironically, I think the fan fiction community is way more wholesome than booktok. Idk if y’all have read the comments sections on ao3, but everyone’s always so supportive and open to having intelligent conversations lol (which is what I thought booktok would be like… oh how wrong I was 💀)
Lol ikr had to delete all reels apps and don't use RUclips shorts because booktube made me not enjoy reading for a bit 😢 but in comparison a03 is so lovely like I get to have massive rants with people about characters we mutually hate or love and have supportive conversations 😜 I love ao3 writers and readers it's such a lovely community on there 😜💕
As a big ao3 reader... YES
Fr finding a mean comment on ao3 is rarer than a blue moon
I've read 100x better fan fiction and original character stories on AO3 than book tok or even IG book recommendations. There are such incredible writers on AO3 and they TAG TW! 👏 👏 I'm not up for some non-con in the middle of nowhere without a heads up. The amount of book reviews I watched or read, where the readers gets surprised by SA or dub-con and then after that scene it's weird AF to be blindsided like nothing happened. Haha I've yet to be let down by AO3, unlike, cough, Colleen Hoover and her love of making the MC needlessly suffer. Seriously, that woman's poor main characters are always suffering. 😢😂 @@moomin469
@@calleum8234not to burst your bubble, but many Ao3 writers do receive rude comments. Authors just block and remove comments or make it archive users only. But yeah, they generally are nicer :))
Edit: grammar
As an asexual searching for book recommendations on tiktok..is definitely something.
Fellow ace here, I concur 💀
As an aroace book enjoyer….yup 💀
Same...😐
As an aroace...Indeed
It’s so bad I just wanna read a book man 😭😭
Believe it or not, there was a time where booktok was actually normal. During the pandemic, a lot of people got into different activities, reading being a huge one. Booktok rose to popularity mostly because they did give good book recommendations and sometimes would even dress as the characters. A lot of videos about “convincing you to read *_____* based on the aesthetic of it” were especially popular because the visual representation of the book was alluring! Since those days of happy rom coms, light fantasy, suspenseful dystopian, or basically anything to mark the best era of what booktok was, it has devolved into what was discussed in the video. It’s honestly pretty sad because I loved booktok almost as much as I loved books in general because the community was so much fun to be a part of. Now I steer clear of it as much as possible.
It is truly a sad loss, but the bookstagram community is still alive and well, and a lot more wholesome and well-rounded than what booktok is now!
Exactly
Booktube is also more aware and mature than booktok. Basically booktok is stuck in 2016 booktube.
Has TikTok ever hyped up a book that wasn't porn or had no romance in it?
At this point, I use TikTok to know what to avoid.
I do recall some books without romance that Tiktok ever hyped up, like The Secret History, Babel, If We Were Villains, etc.; but those are because of the Dark Academia aesthetic which became extremely prevalent back in 2020 up to this day.
there is a whole other side on booktok besidew the smut girlies but that part definitely gets pushed aside a bit BUT there are booktokers that recommend thrillers/ classics/ lgbtqia+ books. i‘d definitely recommend using tags to find that side of booktok 😅
It does hype some thrillers and lit fic, especially dark academia. It’s not all smut, just mostly 🙃
@@danielleoliver1734 What of this isn't Romance?
there are some non-smutty books famous on booktok, but from my experience, most of them aren't very great either. i've read song of achilles, babel, and no longer human. both were subpar compared to the amount of hype they were getting, so i wouldn't be too optimistic.
I literally screamed at the part where the aLpHa didn’t know how to tell the girl that she was his mate so HE KIDNAPPED HER INSTEAD I AM CRYING AHAHAHA
Wdym? Kidnapping your mate is hot! And the kidnapper's hot so who cares?? /sarcasm
Lmfao
I screamed more at the typo. "So she kidnapped her."
365 days minus the werewolf lol (no I never read it I just get too much enjoyment watching long-form videos ripping bad books to shreds)
This was every werewolf fic on wattpad when I was 13 tbh. 😂😅
Honestly, if people want to read Dark Romance that’s all fine and dandy, BUT WHEN THEY TRANSLATE IT TO REAL LIFE THATS WHEN SHIT GETS MESSY. As someone who has been stalked, and assaulted, it boils my blood when Booktok “girlies” find out and say: “Woww, that’s so romantic. Partner goals. 😍 “ OR when they say, “It’s not affecting anyone in real life.” Really, Tiffany? Really? Because your younger sister thinks it’s ok, and cute, and romantic, when a guy is LITERALLY 👏 STALKING 👏 HER AND PUTTING HER SAFETY AT RISK!! These types of books are best kept in fiction, or in YOUR own 🌶️ life, don’t extend it further than that!!
It’s crazy how at the time of its publishing Pride and Prejudice was considered pornography and now we have this.
Pride And Prejudice has a better couple and better romance than anything from BookTok. Hell it has better writing and side characters.
@@daniboy4153
Most definitely. They always reference Pride and Prejudice in BookTok books for some reason. They keep trying to make a character like Mr. Darcy but fail miserably.
@@AbnormallyOnline
Darcy would never abuse or hurt Elizabeth.
@@daniboy4153
Exactly!
NO FRIKIN WAY. as a HUUGE fan of pride and prejudice, i never found the book NOR the movie as corn. Mr Darcy would NEVER harm Elizabeth. Ever.
Honestly, the side of booktok feels like a fever dream. It is one thing to read these in your private time and another to make POVs around this and visualize material 💀
babe... people BEEN doing this. Have you ever looked at the comments or gifs in Wattpad comments? It is just that TikTok is the THING now
We do recover guys i promise ….
You're just prude
“least sexy voice possible” and it’s just a British accent IM DYING
No it was giving mickey mouse 😭
the laugh was definitely mickey mouse coded 😂
How was that british😭 is that what we sound like to Americans?
lmao @@starsandsuch7778 😂
@@riverisenby556yes
3:18 ok but that Mickey Mouse laugh at the end ☠️😂
As a teenager, I'm disgusted. I know most of the audience of these books are us.
I did read smut before, but now I just stay away from it because I feel like it was rotting my brain, and honestly I'm happier this way and I don't regret it. I feel tempted sometimes, but I don't read anymore.
Also, I am DISGUSTED AND DISAPPOINTED by the people who read toxic "romance". I love stories that have a toxic or psychological aspect to them (if they are actually meant to be messed up) but NEVER romanticisation of abuse and SA. Do they really think that SA, kidnapping, r4pe, stalking, human trafficking, etc. Is hot? Yeah, no, they need God.
I’m getting sick of it!
I agree with you wholeheartedly. At least the author should know their audience and tell them SA, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment,… are crimes and should never be supported by anyone irl.
Same I used to read that junk but then I stopped and started reading YA stuff that is actually meant for my age group and I feel so much better
Reading smut at young age really messes up people’s minds and views on relationships which another reason I stopped
Booktok is making us readers look so bad 😭😭
Agreed 😅
Absolutely 😭and I hate it sooo much how the community has been reduced to this
I know! It's gotten really bad...
Fr
Fr and worst thing is they deny about their borderline porn addiction
Literal teenagers, MINORS, MINORS are reading the wildest smut ever. This should NOT be normalised, it leads to things like corn addictions.
It really does
You can say porn. You're not wrong though.
Exactly
@@Nyct03m1 nah the comment might get taken down so just to be safe yknow
Corns are delicious
"does it have spice ;)" No this is diary of a wimpy kid
oh god this reminded me of the diary of wimpy kid fan fiction phase like the no nut november one
@@1twasmeBarry omg I GOT FLASH BACKS TO NO NUT NOVEMBER NOOOO
That werewolf kidnapping thing around 7:15 is terribly stupid if you think about this from the woman werewolf perspective.
"I'm kidnapping you because you're a werewolf-"
"I'm a WHAT?"
"And I'm one too! I am an Alpha!"
"Oh, great. Another alpha male. Sounds just like my last ex boyfriend, the dumbass who drained my bank account. I could barely afford this plane ticket!"
"Don't you see? We're fated mates, meant to be!"
"No, you're delusional, and I'm gonna end up a corpse behind a warehouse."
BRO I have legit been called a “fake reader” because I choose to read Classics, nonfiction, and theological/philosophical stuff, or even the actual BIBLE. Like?😭😭 everybody has their preferences. The booktok people are crazy.
Fr man novels are so awful these days you can only find me in kids section picking up fairytale books 😂
People who gatekeep reading are so pretentious
I’VE SEEN GROWN WOMEN SHAME PPL FOR NOT READING “REAL BOOKS” OR “INNOCENT NOT REAL ADULT BOOKS” WHEN THEY SAY THEY LOVE BOOKS LIKE THE HUNGER GAMES-LIKE SORRY NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO READ BOOKS ABOUT SHIRTLESS MEN 😭⁉️
@@catlady8256 nah😭😭😭 I’ve been called innocent and it’s like um bro have you READ the Bible? Russian literature? That crap is CRAZY
Oh my god yes. I love classics, and nowadays they are primarily what I read. I saw a video of a woman calling smut books "fun” and saying that anybody who refused to read said "fun” books was too prestigious. I’m not prestigious AT ALL. It’s just that my taste involves classic literature! And when I do read non-classic shit, it’s still not smut, because I just don’t like smut. I’m a child rape and exploitation victim… I get triggered reading SA scenes, so these people who act like anybody who hates dark romance is boring piss me off. Even consensual smut makes me a bit uncomfortable. It’s just not something I enjoy reading and it doesn’t make me an asshole.
The “dark romance” girlies are so unhinged. I realized this when I saw several posts asking for books with as many triggers as possible. I know that what you read in fiction doesn’t necessarily reflect real life but if ALL you’re seeking out in books about assault and abuse under the guise of romance, I’m concerned NGL.
there gotta be some psychological explanation why some women are obsessed with morally bankrupt books
They’re equivalent to men that like to watch torture 🌽 or something and become addicted to it
both parties are pretty fucking weird💀🙏🏽
My reply went missing again ☹️
I bet there is ;-; something deep in humanity I suppose
@@soumia117parents point them to the TV instead of raising them so by the time they are teens they are craving affection and because of what their little abuse and sex glorifying teen shows told them they turn to intimacy and books about such. They think that's what love is. That's the closest I can get, but I don't know why they don't understand blatant abuse and manipulation.
10:49
He's a laufey stan confirmed, im subscribing right now
I started finishing the song in my head 😂
Fr same Laufey is a W 💜
I wrote an essay once on the treatment of female characters in the YA genre. The YA genre is typically made by and for preteen to adult women, and, despite being a place of female dominance, still exhibits misogyny (as it is often a learned trait).
I mentioned older books, like Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, as well as ACOTAR by Sarah J Maas. I was the most biased towards ACOTAR, tbh. The main heroine's (Feyre) first lover (Tamlin) was abusive, and she was saved from this abuse by another man (Rhysand) abducting her, who was her next lover. A lot of her political power came from her role as the men's' partners. She hates on one of the other woman (Ianthe) in the book, who is shown as a hyper-feminine, hyper sexual, beautiful yet evil woman. Another female character (Mor), who is remarked as being the most beautiful woman to exist in the world of the story, was raped. Point being: the woman in this story found purpose through the men they were connected to, as opposed to finding something personal in themselves; they were not allowed to be beautiful or freely sexual unless they served a misogynistic purpose of hating other women or serving as a victim of a man.
Anyways, TikTok's audience is also largely younger generations, and booktok is still largely supported by women. My point with my essay is the same here: what do we teach adolescent women when we advertise and support material to them that is misogynistic, and in the case of bookTok, unhealthy and obsessive and weird? I do not have any examples of books from bookTok that I can rant about, but I will share some of my favorite normal books, and some do have intentionally feminist themes:
The Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon - 800ish page fantasy epic that explores four main pov's of characters from vastly different cultures that all exist in the same world. In this lore, things like queerness and racism aren't a thing in that they are accepted as completely normal human things that exist, so they are not remarked upon. The cast is diverse in identity, looks, culture, and in age. One of the main characters is an older sapphic woman in a long-term relationship with another woman; another character is asexual and very strong in personality (she is my favorite); another character is gay with gay parents. Another book in the series has a disabled character. TLDR, diverse cast in a good fantasy epic. Cannot hype it enough.
Skyward Sword by Brandon Sanderson - easily read (seriously, accessible writing style and language) sci-fy fantasy about a girl who wants to be a pilot to protect her home planet from alien invaders. Very strong willed and positively weird and unique lady. I really loved seeing her mature over the course of the book and still stay true to herself.
Circe by Madeline Miller - retelling of Circe from Greek mythology. I really enjoyed this because it felt so real. Its an exploration of a woman's not so perfect life. She is good and bad, she has love and hate. I also enjoyed how alone she was. It was quite comforting to read how she found power and purpose for herself by herself.
If you read all this, thanks lol
man this entirely distracted me from my homework LOL
See it's comments like these that are the best, and those books are what booktok SHOULD be promoting lol, but I could find nothing but spice when I searched "booktok".
Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that out :) sorry I gave you two homeworks lol, I'll definitely check those book recs out!
@@RayLikeSunshine Thanks and np! Rest assured that I love ranting about these topics, and I did do my homework after. I hope the books interest you, but if not, no worries :)
best comment!
I’m reserving “Skyward” at the library right now - it sounds fascinating! Some of my friends have been recommending Sanderson for a while, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Thanks for giving me the nudge.
(PS - I’ve already read Circe, and I enjoyed it.)
I'm probably a bit late for the discussion, but also as an Italian it's so disturbing to see how many italian mafia boss smut books are out there. Not to mention that some English authors use Italian words in the middle of the dialogue, and that's okay but no Italian will ever say those words in that context 😭
I cringed so hard when I saw a reel where the guy called his love interest "bambina", which is technically the correct literal translation but it's not the same as calling someone "baby" in English, idk it just sounds weird. It's used for example if you're a girl and your parents would say to someone "lei è la mia bambina (she's my [female] child/baby)."
But that word is never used in a sexy way!
I heard italian couples calling each other "bimbo/bimba" instead, which is a cuter version of "bambino/bambina", and that's way better and more accurate to the English "baby". Because if a guy ever called me "bambina" in a sexy way, I would think he's insane 😭
It’s probably cause bimbo has its own cultural context in English too so they would want to lean into something that sounds more “foreign” and doesn’t have the English connotation
Ti giurooo non c’è la faccio più con tutti i mafiosi
I can’t help hearing “bambinos” in the voice of the dad on the sitcom “Friday Night Dinners”, AKA the least sexy voice imaginable.
yea my dad called me bambino
My grandma calls me bambina 😭 that is possibly the least sexy name a guy could call his partner
A few years ago, booktok was mostly about (YA) fantasy novels that included fairies, magic, worldbuilding... all the good stuff. Like the cruel prince, six of crows, percy jackson, the song of achilles (not nesecarily fantasy but whatever). There were ofcourse other 'sides' of booktok, but i feel like this fantasy genre definitly dominated most of tiktok, and it was awesome. It was so fun and people got really creative with making book recommendations, making fanart, cosplaying etc. (Great example is shots by sophia, who is doing gods work still). It was just all about this magical and immersive stories and how they made people feel. Now booktok is... people bragging about how much smut there is in a book. Everyone is entitled to their own preference, but i miss the time were it wasnt just about the smut but about the story. Booktok now is so different from what it originally was and that pains me. Please look up some old booktok compilations or something on yt from booktok, just so know it wasnt always like this.
miss it when they recom it with the soldier, poet and king as the background sound lmaoo but seriously tho there will be no tt vid recommending a book where the comment doesnt ask abt spice.
@@rosythxt9399 omg yes those wore the days. Cant say I ever stopped listening to that or other booktok used songs lol. (Fairytail? Pierre? Runaway? And yes def soldier poet king. All still bangers)
at this point most of them just have straight up porn addictions, like wdym you can't read anything that doesn't have smut
I miss the old booktok. Fantasy was definitely the main side of it
I think the only booktok book I ever even enjoyed was The Cruel Prince so 😬I was even hesitant about reading it in the first place because of how booktok is now
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with a smut book every once in a while, it's a perfectly human urge afterall.
I can't wrap my head around people that read NOTHING BUT spicy romance novels. There are people on Goodreads that have 200+ under the belt per year, every single one a romance.
Don't they ever get bored of it? I need a long break if I read two back to back.
At that point, you're not a reader, you have a p*rn addiction.
to be fair though, we need to differentiate between romances and romances *with* spice, I'm a romance enthusiast but stay clear of spice althogether because I'm asexual. Additionally, sometimes books tagged as romance on goodreads have it as 2nd genre or subplot (that's not to say people don't hyperfocus on the romance though)
One time I saw one of the book ads where one of the male love interests ripped out FMC’s IUD without explicit consent-
I also saw one with a vampire’s fangs coming out of his gums to slice FMC and I’ve thought about the mechanics of it for far too long
I love this video because as a book-reading girlie, I found this very disturbing too. I read smut (sometimes) too but not Dark Romance. NEVER Dark romance. I feel like it affects impressionable youngsters the most because tell me why my sister's 16-year-old friend told me that Zade Meadows from "Haunting Adeline" is boyfriend goals and what he does is hot 🤢. There is a line between fiction and reality and she's blind apparently 🤦🏽♀. I tried telling her how creepy that book was but I don't think she's changing her mind anytime soon...
It's a definite grey area when people start conflating fantasy with reality, easy to escalate as well since it desensitizes people so easily
Lmfao. I read Haunting adeline about a year and a half ago (I was 16) I HATED him. And have talked about him to most my friends (they're all 17 some 18). IMO, teenagers are not as impressionable as ppl claim they are. Ur sister is just wild (I'm 18). Also, she'll likely grow out of it.
I feel like if your traumatized in a certain way you'll find certain normally fucked up characters hot...haven't read the book but you made me curious now
Isnt he a stalker and grapist
I just want to comment that today, a lot of books that are labeled as "Dark Romance" can't be defined as "Romance" because they are more like a psychological (horror) thriller. A healthy relationship in an actual Dark Romance novel will never come with romanticizing abuse. The male protagonist can be the world's most dangerous man, but the moment he hurts his love interest in any way or purposefully oversteps her boundaries, it's not "Romance" per definition, but straight up abuse. It's so sad to see how "Dark Romance" has become a synonym for abuse and toxic relationships just because it sells well this way.
ngl i hollered when u pulled out the mickey voice lmfaoooo
mickey mouse just went public domain so you know ya boi had to jump on that posthaste
Same 😂
sometimes i’ll just blurt out in a luigi or mickey voice, not sure why- it might be a way of coping
I GOT TO THAT PART RIGHT AS I SAW YOUR COMMENT LMAO
it’s gotten so bad, they ask if ANY book has spice. It could be literature classics, or even masterpieces
“Hey girly!! 🤪 Does the book have 🌶️🌶️”
And it’s Don Quixote
Listennn my generation did the same thing but it was Fanfiction in quiet shame, not published books or tiktoks that anyone can see 😭😭
And here I'm getting book recommendations from reddit, and they pointed me towards fantasy coffee shops and living gingerbread men and bread golems fighting a war.
That Mickey Mouse smut voice had me cackling out loud 🤣
I NEED to know what this is.
@@cassualtea2040I think the coffee shop is "Legend and Lattes". It has good reviews throughout the booktuber community, and it's on my tbr. I am not sure about the gingerbread tho. It sounds interesting
The gingerbread book is probably A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher. It was a very fun and enjoyable book!
Have u read the ACOTAR series?
@@ifeo3429 I adored this book, was definetly a 4.75. Do you have a recommendation for a similiar book with the same vibes?
What I hate the most is them not wanting anyone to criticize their nasty book because ‘it’s dark this is how it supposed to be’ therefore it shall not be criticized. will damn I’m a critical reader this is how I function. I consume and critic most of the content I read, watch and listen to.
Edit: typo
If that were true the criticism wouldn't bother them lmaoo
I like to straight up tell them I hope they get help with their 🌽 addiction someday (they get so frustrated lol)
@@Isabel-sr8epprobably because that’s really fucking stupid. I’d just think you weren’t smart enough to understand nuance.
And their dark romance books don't even have romance, it's just kidnapping, stalking, rape, SA and more awful things
People always use the excuse 'it’s called dark romance for a reason,' but where is the romance? Because last time I checked, sexual assault is not romance and should not be romanticized ever. People can read what the hell they want, but I do believe that if you are choosing to read books where they are romancing sexual assault , you need help just due to the fact that you’re not having a good mindset to have. These are the same people that write comments saying 'I want a guy like him' despite the fact he just sa the female lead. Like, how am I supposed to root for this guy if he just went and did heinous crime against his poor woman?
You’re about to checkered flag
KA-CHOW 😂😂😂😂😂😂
4:57 I laughed so hard I actually cried I can't do this skjdhbfj
I’m convinced most of these ppl who make these TikToks and think these things are ‘romantic’ have never actually dated or even have any romantic relationships because wait until they find out you’d basically never find anyone like that😭😭
I’ve never been in a real relationship, I’m literally 16 and I HATE dark romance. These girls just don’t have common sense sorry.
RIP their future love lives 🥲
THATS WHAT IM SAYING!!!!! ITS KINDA UNHEALTHY 😭
@@serenegenerally girl KINDA would be an understatement ig😭😭😭😭😭
I had no idea what BookTok was before this video. My girlfriends' roommates would always make recommendations to my girlfriend and I about books to read citing BookTok. Honestly, I thought it was sweet and thought it was endearing they liked books so much. Until my girlfriend told me that all these books are just thinly veiled smut. My girlfriend, whom I love and have an awesome relationship with, doesn't like the books they recommend at all. Also makes a lot of sense when she told me neither one of them have ever been in a real relationship.
As someone who only likes fluff when reading and nothing sexual, romance books scare me at this point.
Me reading fanfic: I like fluff and angst but no smut please
They're are really scary especially the dark romance....some of them are fucked
i get you, my man. my friends only like smut and they just?? don't get?? why i like fluff???
fluff rocks ❤
same lol. ppl are too addicted to sex honestly
The micky mouse/carl weezer smut voice has now solidified me as a permanent subscriber, I’m here for life now
8:49 I CAN'T THIS WAS SO FUNNY 😭
i was talking to some people the other day about how recently things like domestic abuse have been put on a pedestal in some books (*cough* colleen hoover) and some of them said that's what makes the book interesting to them 💀
Colleen Hoover being so popular on booktok is the proof that we should not trust their recomendations lol
if i see someone recommending colleen hoover, its an immediate redflag
I'm the opposite. I like issues like that in books because it's a bad thing and I prefer stories with bad endings. I like to feel dissapointed when something doesn't work out, I want to cry when someone dies a terrible death, and I want to feel hopeless for someone like I'm there with them
I hate romanticizing bad things because it ruins the whole point. Not even in books, I love videogames where I can be a bad person and make terrible choices so I get my sweet, sweet karma at the end
Unfortunately, I read the author’s note at the end of Colleen Hoover’s book where she explicitly points out this is her rendering of an account that she heard about between her mother and father before getting divorced. The situation did end in divorce between the two hot and heavy leads wanting to bang every chance they could, but the meshing of worlds could not be resolved without making the story tragic.
What’s even more embarrassing is that people will comment on those cringey biker guys that are holding The Haunting of Adeline book and they’ll say “booktok has arrived” or something like that… like no… we’re leaving.
"we're leaving" lmaooo
dude theres always one in every biker videos like wtf?? and on top of that they don't realise the bikers don't give a shit about the booktop thing it just boost their likes and content💀😭 it is so cringe though like stop pls
YESSS😭this absolutely needs to stop😭they tend to forget that booktok is not limited to that circle they’re in and generalize 😭
They’re all so Reddit coded ewww 😭
How did the booktok × biker combo even start? it literally just spawned in one day
9:35 I paused this and I read it and there’s a tense change halfway through and I know now for sure that the people on booktok prioritize smut over grammar and that makes me sad
5:16 That's how I was telling my little, pure, innocent sister her bedtime stories.
it’s been affecting the fantasy side too because if i have to see fourth wing one more time i might lose my mind like give me back my beautifully written, gut wrenching fantasies
Same like with lightlark (which I've heard is as bad as fourth wing) like how did Alex aster make a book recommended as Ya written like a middle grade but also with a fingering sex scene ??????
I want to recommend you some normal and really good fantasy I love, then: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, and Circe by Madeline Miller. They are some of my favorite fantasy books/authors.
@@moomin469What tf i was about to read lightlark but not anymore
EY EY DON’T DISS FOURTH WING listen the smut was unnecessary and terrible but the book itself is acc pretty good I just wish Vi wasn’t so horny. Other than the seggs aspect it’s actually really good
ummmmm do you want good fantasy w dragons and GooD characters? Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini!!! Book 1 (Eragon) is mid, but the rest are SO good
He also has a science fiction book called To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars. One sex scene, non graphic maybe half a page long.....ft some of the most humanly written and diverse women I've seen in fiction in general.
As a reader and even writer of smut I don’t have TikTok but I see this stuff come up in my insta feed and it always weirds me out. I heard the saying that 🌶️ booktok is the female equivalent of men with severe porn addictions and I can’t agree more. It even got so bad where they sexually harassed a real life hockey player and don’t understand the boundaries between fiction and reality.
Btw the concept of werewolf romance seems cool but probably since I’ve been interested in werewolves since I was a kid and want to write about them someday (most likely sfw things tho).
I see this in the romance book subreddits as well. Women asking for books with specific explicit sex scenes and just objectifying men in anyway possible.
@@souei9289 It’s sad. I’ve looked into stuff about porn addictions before and a lot of it is catered towards men, which I think gives a false impression that women aren’t effected by porn addiction and the stuff that comes with it ex: objectification and frying your dopamine receptors. With the Alex Wennberg situation a lot of them treated his harassment like a funny joke and they’ve even tried to get a 16 year old boy to try and read smut. More awareness needs to be raised of this because this extreme behavior is harmful and not normal at all.
Saying they as blanket statement is wild...no group is monolithic. You yourself participate, so I’m surprised you can’t see that every single group has bad apples.
@@xdani_thethinkingnekothe irony.
@@souei9289 i dont see the problem since it's all fiction anyway. I prefer that than seeing real life people.
10:29 LAUFEY MENTIONED!!!!! RAHHHHH
RAAAAHHHH 🦅
I’m in love with the way you explained this. I hate Booktoks and the way they took away from reading 📖. This video made my day 😭
I've read some of these books, and OMG. I can't believe how much corn these books have. The bad thing is that these books have very “cute” and “YA” covers. I honestly thought Icebreaker was a cute YA romance. But after seeing people mention how “spicy” this book was. I was immediately concerned for the YA readers.
Some people share actual YA, and the booktok community immediately recommend “actual” YA books. Most of the books they recommend are all 18+ Or even 21+. It’s hard to say this, but most of these people are touch-deprived.
I still remember when a popular booktok content creator. She harassed a famous hockey player who had the exact resemblance to one of the characters she had read in a book romance. The wife of a popular hockey player had spoken up, and she immediately “defended” herself, saying it was a joke and to not take it personally as it was just a book girlie crush. She went to a few games and screamed some very inappropriate things at some of the players, and it was honestly disgusting. Another thing goes with people who share the content of their bikes, and booktok community quickly go and harass them.
The NHL team had to pull some of their social media posts and put out a release that it was not okay for horny women to be sending their players unsolicited inappropriate messages 💀 unhinged
bruh i thought haunting adeline was a gothic romance bc of that fucking cover. Wanted to gouge my eyes 10 pages in.
@@TheAppocalyptorsame I was so disappointed 😭
Yeah I remember that it was very weird because the Krakens I believe promoted her and gave her a tickets and other free stuff to promote the team. Then wanted to pretend like they didn’t know what her content was or that they didn’t fly her out. They were as much to blame as her.
What's the difference between 18+ and 21+ for reading a damn book lol. A lot of the people in these comments seem really sex averse for some reason. Smutty books have always existed and teens are going to be exposed to it in one form or another. You can't shelter them from every possible thing you think may damage them because it has some type of sexuality involved. It reminds me of the arguments back in the 90s of how video games were corrupting the youth and causing mass shooters. Y'all really just clutching pearls here and it's kinda hilarious.
Not really shocking when you see stuff like this and then read studies showing gen z is having way less sex than any other generation.
For instance, y'all can't even say the word "porn". You self censor.
You can't nerf the damn world. If you think these trends are bad, don't look at what people were doing during the sexual revolution in the 60's.
Hollywood dont give a fuck about making good werewolves movies, but at least we have wattpad
wattpad is truly a gift to peoplekind
Wattpad? Over Ao3?
Exactly at least there are gay werewolf stories on wattpad.
Many of them are toxic, fetishize abuse and heteronormative but there are good stories too
just wait until they dig deep enough into the wattpad adaptation where we do get toxic gay wattpad werewolves the movie
I mean... there's Twilight? Or Harry Potter?
WEREWOLF BALLS 🗣🗣🗣7:35
HELP OKSWKEIDJOJFIO-
I have been waiting for someone to talk about this for ages. Thank you sir.
As someone who exclusively watches BookTube, this made my soul melt inside. I feel like on BookTube those sorts of books are talked about much less, simply because what value are you going to provide in long form content? None because there is no value you CAN provide with these sorts of books. Hence the only way people promote these books are chunks of text on screen with the damn night driving clips. I know this was a video commentary/comedy video, but if you do want book recs from the internet, stick with RUclips & find channels that share the same sorts of reading tastes you do. That way you won't be getting thrown Hunting Adeline or Den of Vipers your way unsolicited. 💀
i feel this so much!! i exclusively watch booktube, ene though i’ve read a lot of “tiktok” books as well. read so many cute romance fantasy and literary fiction stories bc of it, however everything that is anywhere close to hunting adeline and reverse harem and dark romance maffia shit stays far the fuck away from me 😂
@@lucafrances The only dark book I read was Den of Vipers 2 years because it was a gift & I felt like I had to read it...but then I'm like who tf thought this was a good gift to give? (My old friend wasn't a reader so I'm sure someone recommended it which frightens me haha). I think there are some gold mines with romances. I actually enjoy Ali Hazelwood & Emily Henry books. But many I read Icebreaker recently & lost my trust all over again. Most my "Tiktok" recs don't even come from TikTok but IG reels 💀 But I'm trying to get better about staying away from the hyped books until the hype settles down & more nuances opinions come out about them. That's my goal at least, here's to hoping I stick to it haha
When BookTube talks about these books, it's usually to tear into them. Which is honestly so much fun to me.
But, yeah, I feel like BookTube has better, less smutty recommendations. Maybe it's because RUclips would demonetize the hell out of their videos if they talked about it too much, idk
can you recommend any booktubers?
@@amorekoos Lit Vibes With Five, Katherine Karas, Leora Aileen
HOT TAKE:
The werewolves aren't even werewolves they are shapeshifters (like in twilight), they shift into wolves.
Werewolves turn at full moon and it mutates the existing body so they still have some human structure.
I want some horror wear wolf books not anything romantic just a bunch of DUDES hunting a terrifying blood thirsty monster
@@middleeasternforhire8985 YES! That would be so fun to read.
If one of them was the werewolf in the group and turning them against each other (kind of like the game) or even an adventure story about a rag-tag group from villages or bigger cities just hunting the werewolves and other creatures the terrorize them.
@@charitypeeler7415 fr fr
in twilight they aren’t even werewolves their j straight furries 😭 or like shape shifters (like u said)
Traditionally, werewolves turn into an actual wolf. That whole half-man/half-wolf thing came from early Hollywood films, most likely trying to save money on special effects.
But I agree this stuff has more in common with twilight than actual werewolf stories.
i read 200 books in 2023 and got an actual reading addiction which actually caused my life to spiral.
instead of being happier and more intelligent i was just insatiable and not seeing friends or eating all so i could read.
i blame tiktok (and my hyper fixation problem), but this year im making myself read much less ‘smutty’ books and FORCING myself to read only one book a week.
i didn’t realise it could be an issue or even mine before i was seriously depressed.
feel much better now tho ✌🏼
Glad to hear you’re doing better! It’s hard to pull yourself out of a depression
my gosh
im so glad ur setting these goals, i hope for nothing but prosperity for you as you achieve them :) here for you
you got this girl, you can do it! :) we’re all here to support ya 🫶🏻
The real MVP here, damn. Reading the excerpts in that voice really is everything. Thanks for the laugh.
As an author who can't really utilize booktok for promotion because I DON'T write these niches, this video was HILARIOUS. Fated mates, mafia romance, reverse harem, alien smut, taboo step-whatever relationships....the list goes on and on, and these authors are making bank with a few Tiktok videos. Meanwhile, many non-smut authors are like "oh, I'll try booktok"....and often get nowhere. Crickets. Very sad. And, it is indeed very concerning some of these dark romance tropes and how young much of the audience is. Or, you know, Colleen Hoover, whose books are ....kind of regular romance? But with every single male lead a walking red flag....multiple red flags....a red flag convention, if you will....she was one of the first authors to blow up on tiktok, and every girl in my husband's high school English class reads and loves her books, which honestly horrifies me. "Boyfriend goals" should not be a guy who was responsible for burning down the female lead's family home, which also left her scarred, and the guy also gets off on her scars....like WTAF. My daughter is 30, and I don't want her reading and idealizing that.
While i agree with everything you're saying, a 30 year old woman should absolutely be able to read a book where the love interest is a walking red flag and have the critical thinking skills to know it's not something to idealize 😭
I am a 16 year old girl who has alwwys been a bookworm and i tried reading a coho book after she blew up. I was horrified, her writting is so bad and so vulgar. I think the reason lots of people are getting sucked in is because they’re mindless and addictive.
Why do you think your daughter doesn’t have the critical thinking skills to differentiate between fantasy and reality? Why are you not addressing how women authors are often forced into YA...when it should be in adult fiction. Censoring things for adults who get the difference....because of kids who’s parents are not paying attention is wild. 💀 That is why I see the joke often “ I like in books what I don’t like in real life”. Many readers of smut are in committed relationships....which makes sense since more than half of the US pop who are women are paired up with someone. People enjoy reading things, exploring fantasy in a safe way....without real people. It is sad how anything women like , like erotica has been deemed horrible.
People love to infantilize women. It is sad tbh@@ladygodiva2
@@xdani_thethinkingneko I love how everyone is making assumptions about how I see my daughter because of my comment. 🙄 Look, she can ultimately read what she wants. But even though she is 30, Mama Bear still wants to protect her, and sees a bit of her in the teenage girls reading Hoover's books. And obviously my personal opinion isn't going to stop anyone from their reading choices. I am not here to kink shame or erotica shame, but my personal opinion is also not going to change when I think there are far better books out there for them to be reading than Hoover's. And I'm not sure where the YA vs. adult fiction came into this. Hoover is not considered a YA author. Genres are all marketing tools anyway. In indie author land, anyone can publish anything and consider it whatever genre they want....doesn't mean it will SELL in that genre, since it still has to meet certain tropes to hit with readers. No one is forcing women into any boxes in indie author land.
Thank you. Even Booktube is less smutty but still really dominated by the romance genre. Why is everything romance or young adult? The occasional self help like "atomic habits" or whatever the hit is this year to prove they can read a book that doesn't have someone falling in love but that's about it. Does no one read any other books?
I read mostly thrillers, magical realism, and cozy mysteries. I like historical fiction too. I think the romance girlies are just real loud
I agree I agree
I read theology-related stuff (like the Bible) and also fantasy or books where romance is more of a side-plot and clean
Well basic romance is easy to write and read (compared to fantasy, sci-fi, historical, detective, which all require some knowledge). And there are tons of YA online.
Currently reading Howls Moving Castle and The Lunar Chronicles. I recommend, as they’re pretty solid
Honestly man. Literally everything in casual literature is centered around romance. As someone who is not interested in romance, at all, it gets quite tiresome lmao
At this point if I see a table at a bookstore that says something like "Booktok Recommends!" I know what not to buy
Booktok is people who didn't spend alll their time reading wattpad and over the years acquired better reading taste and now those people find out about reading and its not in wattpad ..
I think this phenomenon isn't just happening in booktok/light novel/fanfic world, it's also in webtoons and mini dramas. Not that all of them have smut/18+ , it's more like there's no rationality in the plot and character. Things just happen because the characters needed to be together. When we read it we need to just "turn off our brains". 😅
Exactly, reading is supposed to stimulate our brains and allow us to critically think/reflect on the text. But now people are just using it for brainless smut.
nah fr! its so concerning :(
@@zya41 It's like fast food, it's tempting to eat but if we eat it everyday it's potentially harmful to our bodies & we won't get proper nutrients.
It's OKAY to read/write something just for smut, but the authors NEED to label these stories as explicitly 'porn without plot'. We can't have PWP mingling with ACTUAL stories.
@@olivesareoliver 🤣
Okay but that Laufey reference got me dying 🤣
YES I thought I was the only one who noticed 😅
Haha yes!
8:56 "he didn't know how to tell her." Have you seen Searching 2018 movie?
This is the first vid ive seen and WOW i was was so sure you had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, bc the quality? Impeccable, can't wait to binge your content!
Tbh at this point I sometimes wonder if it can be compared to cornography addictions-same dopamine hits just different mediums. Obviously they’re different but the obsession with smut and “spice” is getting to those levels.
I think porn and smut books are the same in terms of their negative effects if not read or watched in moderation 🙃 the only advantage of smut over porn is there's no chance of s*x trafficking in written smut but other than that in terms of smut/porn addictions I'm pretty sure they are the same 🤔
Yup, it's definitely the same. The definition of p0rnogr@phy is content made in the intention of making the consumer get that kind of s€xu@l "kick". It's sad that people make it seem as it is so innocent and harmless
the jackhammer joke and vampire dinner party joke were the highest tier of jokes, subscribed pookie
i'm a real commentary youtuber now, i was called pookie :D
Never been on tiktok, much less BOOKtok, but I'm obsessed with reading and you are hilarious.
i am so glad to see your channel growing dawg 👍 i hope you keep having success like this
ty for the shoutout! and i hope that whoever is writing these prompts for booktok never checkered flags 😌 🏁 great video :)
hope you get to 1 million subs soon :D, congratulations on your success so far, keep it up!
Your "least sexy voice" unlocked a core memory of Tea from YuGiOh the Abridged
YGOTAS MENTIONED 🗣️😮💨😩
I genuinely subscribed when you asked us to because "you have been doing all the smutty roleplay by yourself". It does take a toll on you to be on that side of booktok. Stay strong, mate, your sacrifice shall not be in vain.
Funny story, my friend gave me a PERCY JACKSON series book 3 in exchange for a smut book that I didnt even realize was a smut book, I thought it was just a fantasy romance but nah..(I didn't see the warnings istg). But I gladly traded it for the Percy Jackson book, best trade ever (she's a minor btw, book too Is so bad, it reached children)
I'm a huge lover of fantasy books, but as I get older all of them have "spicy" romance in them. If you like that, that's fine, but man, I miss the days when I was Reading The Land of Stories or Fablehaven, instead of some of these frankly creepy dark romances.
fablehaven changed my life as a kid
My sister says she likes reading ya despite being a full adult because it's fluffy it's cute, and now spicy marketed as ya will take over... and most of it is dark romance. Like ma'am?! Ma'am?! That is in no way romance! These books have no place in being published 😭they should be on wattpad and ao3.... I even heard people comparing the rise in smut books being published to fast fashion, and I have to agree on it
Go read some middle grade fantasy! Honestly, the best stuff ever. I would recommend the Wilderlore series and the Simon Thorn series!
Recommendation : the Inheritance Cycle
Book 1 is average (NOT at all bad)...prolly bcs the author himself was 16/17 when he wrote it, but the 3 other parts are SO damn good!
Main story wraps up conclusively in 4 books, but there are a couple more _if_ you want to keep engaging with the world
Oh yeah. So many books now have *** scenes for no reason (only that it sells them more)
This channel will be huge. Loving the humor lol
we'll get there, glad you're onboard :)
Booktok is literally where everyone found It Ends With Us from!!!! Like a book romanticizing abuse and everyone was literally crazy over itttttt likeeeeeee the girls in my class almost died😂😂😂 When I read the book I was just so disappointed like... Kileleyii 😂😂 Kilonshele??Also your video is so funny😂😂😂 I just subbed❤❤
I couldn't even finish that book😂it gave off wattpad vibes and I'm over the wattpad era jo tori oloun😭😔
Booktok started out as my favorite place to be and community. Back in 2020 it was all about promoting (mostly YA) new and emerging authors, talking about books with good plot and storylines, books with unique themes to them. It was a fun time - kinda like being in a small little book club with your friends because everyone knew everyone. THAT was how small booktok was compared to other communities on the app. But then the horrid summer of 2021 came… the “hot girl summer” where everyone collectively (and I will admit myself that I also dipped my toes in it) agreed to strictly read romance books. From then on came Colleen Hoover, Penelope Douglas and all these horrible people (who happened to be authors) that everyone loved to read because of the smut. It’s insane how many indie and new authors are being overshadowed by smut authors because of how addicted so many booktokers were to smut. I saw an author recently republish her duology so she could add spicy scenes in them. NOTHING ELSE JUST SMUT!!! I have a pretty big platform on booktok but I’ve long since stopped posting because of how much it’s affected my reading time and mental health. People were genuinely trying to gaslight me into thinking I was wrong for not enjoying a book or I was stupid for liking a hated book. It’s just gotten worse over the years and blended into instagram and booktube. Not only that but also in the publishing industry itself. I genuinely think literature will never go back to how it was and that actually makes me so sad and it makes the little girl in me sad, but there are still hidden gems of authors we can read if we look past all the new types of books that are being promoted!
Spying some Chad Chad inspiration and that is amazing! I really hope you follow in her footsteps and get a well deserved blow up🙏Your humor is spot on for this style of video!
top tier compliment right here :,)
booktok is actually insane. like i’ve taken recommendations from videos out of curiosity and they’re always really bad. i don’t understand the need for there to be soooo much smut in books? i get that everyone has their own preferences but there’s so many posts about books that contain smut and since they’re typically the most popular, everyone runs to those books, they become the main thing to look for and it hides the very few videos people recommend that aren’t dark romance/super smutty. apart from the smut, the problem is that i can barely find a good romance novel now. all i see is colleen hoover, red flag plots, or rich mean ceo who has a soft spot for the main character 😭 and don’t even get me started on goodreads they’re pretty much filled with reviews from booktok readers who enjoyed the book and thus, the book has a high rating. give me a good romance, the kind where they hold hands in like chapter 15 after they’ve finally confessed their love and are in the honeymoon phase, yk the giddy feels you associate with romance! not alpha x omega dominance :/ anyways, since you can’t find romance on romance booktok, yt has become my bestie for that so if you have the same problem too with tiktok, i recommend you do that too
This guy has a talent for getting people to subscribe after just one video. Like wow. Keep doing what you're doing
The Mickie Mouse voice in the beginning had me dying, especially the laugh at the end 🤣
Booktok is seriously so odd. I really love to read, and some time ago, I wanted to look at some romance recommendations because I don't read it often and was looking to branch out. But it's so concerning how abuse and these really horrific situations are masked as dark romances and things like that - -so many videos that I found were recommending some really worrying books and romanticising things like stalking and even rape. And if someone pointed out any issues, they would be bormabarded with people saying that it's "just fiction". It just worries me with how normalised these things are becoming and how desensitised some are.
Omg LITERALLY ITS CRAZY 😭😭😭 This comment section has made me feel better tho that I'm not the only one who thinks the romantisisation of toxic relationships is crazy 😭😭 I remember a few years ago when I was 16 this like 30 Yr old got in an argument with me when I said they shouldn't romanticise sex trafficking and they kept coming at me and I had to block them as they wouldn't stop it was crazyyy 😭😭 it was funny tho because at the same time they were arguing with someone else who was defending me and then the person defending me ended up giving me a book recommendation and we had a nice chat about art and books in the 30 year olds comment section 💀
I am LIVING for the way you’re reading these excerpts-it just makes them seem all the more ridiculous. No problem with enjoying this stuff, of course, I just personally find it funny. Got me giggling and shit.
glad you enjoyed! i'll be sure to follow up posthaste :)
Oh, you *know* I’m looking forward to it
ive been so desensitized to booktok and the little trailer at the beginning really put into perspective how utterly insane it is.
I haven’t laughed so hard in awhile 😂😂😂😂😂 your editing is top tier
Your editing and sense of humor crack me up!! One of my favorite channels found so far in 2024, I look forward to your future videos!! 🤌
tysm :) looking forward to your future watches!!
"I think we're starting this off on the wrong paw" me if i was in that situation 😂😂😂
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS😭😭😭😭
okay I've just discovered your channel and I'm definitely staying for more
Those tiktoks became the most unintentionally comedic with your voiceover😂😂😂
I cannot read dark romance/mafia romances. Read a fair share of then on Wattpad because I'm masochistic like that apparently, and now every time I see a super popular mafia romance, I read literally the first paragraph and roll my eyes so hard, my head starts to hurt. I remember the last time I visited the bookstore, I had no intention of buying any novels and said I'd just browse (mistake on my part). While browsing, I checked out a few romances published by Mills&Boone and I swear...I crack up every time I read those titles. It's like reading the titles of those really bad dark romances on Wattpad. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. It was so bad!
The Greek Billionaire Contract Bride
The Spaniard's Love Pact
Instigating the Billionaire's Love I kid you not if you were to search these online something similar would come with the Harlequin logo.
@@crystaleefyffe1230 These are the kinds of titles that have me rolling my eyes and going, 'Oh for heaven's sake. People actually read this stuff?' The titles are so clichéd that you could literally predict the whole story based on the title.
@@amyrajpat5696 Some people like predictability! My mom loooves crime stories - she reads something new almost every week (and watches every single crime drama there is too of course). You'd think she'd get tired of it at some point, but nope! Give her two books with practically the same story but with a different murder weapon and a victim name and she'd love them both just as much haha
Dark romance books are so bad on wattpad. They are all generic and consist of the same thing, every.single.darn.time. The authors put no thought into the books except for the smutty, aka most corny, parts. They aren’t good whatsoever. Especially the mafia ones. My gosh that’s an entirely different Ted talk.
@@remigal899 And let's not forget the never ending and overused trope...actually I don't know if this qualifies as a trope, but the male lead always has these cringe nicknames for the female lead as if it's supposed to be cute.
STOP I SCREAMED WHEN U DID THAT LAUFEY REFERENCE BC SHES MY FAV SINGER HELPP
I was trying to watch this while at the gym and I kept dropping everything because I was laughing too much when you read the excerpts
i love reading but when i end up on booktok i have to question my own sanity 😭😭
also day just got better because of this video lmao
i feel that, I think imma need a second therapist after making this video.... glad you enjoyed :)
Man when I clicked on this video I thought you had like hundreds of thousands of subs, your content is so good
we'll get there soon :)
10:06 btw that’s a completely different thing. those have nothing to do with actually publish books
This whole thing is a phenomenon that both greatly disturbs and transfixes me, tbh. Like...watching the downhill slope that (I believe) has led us here from the sidelines has been-something. An Experience. From "urghhhh literary analysis is soooo fake, the curtains were just fucking blue" grumping back when people didn't genuinely believe tumblr is a dead platform, to the combo of over-analysis (where interpretations are done almost exclusively in bad faith) + the general 'moral' panic common on twitter...to many of the tiktok girlies refusing, REFUSING, yes, to read a book unless there is 'spice' in it, or at least 'romance'...
It's all variations on the same anti-intellectualism, of course, but it really does feel like going from bad to worse to oh my God.
Anyway. So sorry for the psychic damage you received and also, love your editing style, just as an aside.