The best SFF books BookTok made me read

BookTok is a controversial platform, but its influence on the book industry cannot be denied. It’s also a great place to find science fiction and fantasy recommendations — if you know how to look past the big name titles that inundate the platform.

Over the past few years, BookTokers have built massive audiences by sharing their favorites from a particular genre, showing off gorgeously overflowing book shelves, or sharing reading strategies — like using color coded sticky notes to annotate and track favorite scenes. In particular, BookTok has popularized a style of video review where readers declare love and obsession over an emotionally evocative book and its characters, or a book with a high level of “spice” (BookTok’s way of indicating how smutty a book is.)

So, books that are wildly popular on TikTok tend to be those that cause an intense emotional reaction. Colleen Hover is one of the authors who has benefitted the most from the TikTok phenomenon. She outsold The Bible in the past year. BookTokers are also a fan of fantasy romance, drawn to the thrills and excitement found within its pages. TikTok is also one of the few platforms to have demonstrably increased book sales, to such an extent that a lot of bookstores — including major chains like Barnes & Noble — now have a “BookTok” table or featured area.

BookTok has courted both ire from critics who push back against the kinds of books that tend to become popular with the audience — and the type of drama that tends to blow up on the platform. BookTok is also a fan-hub for books, making it more convenient to talk about them. It’s up to you who you choose to follow. You may only find the best sellers or you might discover creators that shout out hidden gems. The platform has introduced me to science fiction and fantasy books I hadn’t heard of, compelled me to dig into a book that I’d been putting off reading for a while, and given me a small community to gush over a book with.

But it’s a lot of work to wade through the many creators and videos. And so I wanted to share my favorite SFF books that BookTokers ultimately led me to or kept me in the loop about — ranging from science fiction novellas to literary fantasy to spicy romantic fantasies to genuine classics that I’d long let molder on my to read lists.

BookTokers has compared this book with many other books. Alien, a film that I’ve always been way too scared to watch. But I love horror in written form — somehow what my brain creates is more tolerable than physical images — and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The Scurge between Stars The story combines science fiction with horror to create a suspenseful alien tale. The story follows the return of a space team, led by Jacklyn Albright.

It’s a quick read — both slim and fast-paced — and hits all the notes that you’d want if you’re in the mood for a monster-in-the-house kind of time. The book reads as a thriller but explores many science-fiction concepts, including intergenerational traumas, scarcity and how to survive an unsuccessful mission in space. Some of these core questions could use a little more unpacking — but for a debut, it’s pretty impressive.

As the author R.F. Kuang established herself as a powerhouse in the fantasy genre after releasing her Poppy War trilogies. However, I bumped the book to the top of my stack as it gained visibility through BookTok drama — specifically from an early reviewer saying that she rated the book “0 stars” as a result of feeling attacked as a white woman. My curiosity, like that of other BookTokers was aroused.

The book is excellent, and one of Polygon’s best of 2022. The blurb we used:

R.F. Kuang sharply critiques British imperialism and the bureaucratic institutions that hold it up — particularly academic scholarship and monarchy. Historical fiction intertwines with fantasy, as a cohort of four students pursue translation studies at Oxford’s Babel.

I hadn’t read YA fantasy in a number of years — I don’t have anything against the genre, and used to really love it. I felt completely intimidated by the genre and was out of touch with current trends. LegendbornI was drawn to the book after some of the SFF BookTokers that I follow praised its inventive use of genre tropes and the inclusion of a Black female protagonist. It felt like kismet when I was walking around my neighborhood and saw the two books in the series displayed in a bookstore window — so I took it as a sign to buy both.

The moment I saw the movie, I fell in love. LegendbornBree Matthews (16 years old) is the star of this retelling. She’s a gifted student in UNC Chapel Hill. But she can see monsters she shouldn’t be able to. She tries to find out what is causing the magic, but she is swept up in a society of witches that are dangerous because they have magical dangers and also hate the thought of having a Black child among them.

While BookTok didn’t “make” me read the Earthsea Cycle — I finally got a gorgeously illustrated omnibus from the library that I’d been waiting on for ages — I found TikTokers’ stories of what the series meant to them very moving. When I love a series, I’ll typically try to find beautiful pieces of writing around the book’s impact, just to get a clearer picture of what others have also found moving.

I was more of a sci-fi teen — and I still lean sci-fi — but as an adult I decided I wanted to make up for missing other seminal fantasy series during my childhood. So, in the last few years I’ve made it my goal to read His Dark Materials, The Lord of the Rings, and more. I started A Wizard of Earthsea early this year, and it just felt different in a way I couldn’t put my finger on. I needed to be in conversation with others to really understand what the fantasy genre owed to this series — and the more I read and watched, the more I was blown away. The series I’ve watched so far has been my favorite. TehanuThis fourth novel in the trilogy was released 18 years after its initial release. I love the commentary it makes on the first three books — themselves already so unique for their time. I’m still savoring the final two books, knowing that I’ll only get to read them for the first time once. Next: Left Hand of Darkness.

One of my favourite book influencers suggested this gem as a good sapphic. It’s a cozy mystery romance that also happens to be set on Jupiter. People have created a system of domes connected by public transport that takes advantage of Jupiter’s gravitational peculiarities.

It’s a thoroughly enjoyable rainy day read that mixes together some hard-boiled noir tropes (the down-on-her-luck detective, and the scientist who specializes in her field), some light commentary on the climate crisis, and a second chance sapphic romance. This novella goes well with black tea.

PiranesiSusanna Clare

When I worked as a bookseller in 2020, so many of my colleagues recommended this book, but also struggled to explain to me why they felt it was so good, mostly promising a “good plot twist.” I am, unfortunately, not a person who puts a lot of stock in a plot twist — if anything, it bothers me when books aren’t interesting outside of it. And when people praise books so strongly based on that twist, it makes me worry the rest of the book isn’t actually that good. The recommendation was ignored in favour of the other books on my to-read pile.

TikTok continued to surface the book in my feed and I finally decided that it was worth trying by 2022. The tone of the book was more enjoyable than its plot; it reminded my of Starless SeaIt’s a Matryoshka doll of storytelling, with lots of repetitive and lyrical language that fits the esoteric plot. It’s very much a Matryoshka doll of storytelling, with lots of repetitive, lyrical language which fits the esoteric plot. I also feel like I owe my colleagues a serious apology, because I finally understand why explaining the book’s plot was so difficult. I wouldn’t have done it any better!

You are the best! Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, and didn’t know he’d written a science fiction book years before, until I saw SFF BookTokers mention it (often comparing it to Douglas Adams.) The book was hilarious, and I didn’t realize how tongue-in cheek it would be. The book is less hard science fiction and more what the jacket describes: The protagonist is literally trying to figure out how he can live in a world of science fiction with all its quirks and dangers.

Charles Yu, who plays the lead character in this film, is a technician for time travel. He helps other people solve their timeline issues and basically save themselves. Metafiction is a strong element of the story, and I recommend this book to people I think will enjoy it or who are accustomed to that sort of humor.

The fantasy romance was a pleasant surprise. It’s a fun trope soup that reminds me of the YA books I liked years ago — think Eragon meets Divergent, The book is a bit smug, but not without some humor. Violet Sorrengail competes in a number of dangerous tests to become a Dragon Rider. Of course, Violet must also navigate a love-triangle between an overprotective friend from childhood and the emo battalion chief she has sworn to hate, against better judgement. This book shares many of the same themes as A Court of Thorns and Roses — absentee parent, found family, powerful magic wielding, annoying nicknames — a series I bounced off of. But if you like Feyre and Rhysand’s dynamic in A Court of Mist and Fury and are sick of hearing the word “mated,” then Fourth WingYou should give it a go.

Fourth Wing’s protagonist also has the same disability I do; namely unstable joints that make her extremely injury prone. There’s solid discussion of chronic pain and the kinds of challenges that Violet has to manage to become a dragon rider. I love the training sequence that shows Violet’s team constructing an aid for her, not Violet overcoming her limitations.

Mexican Gothic was one of my favorite fast-paced, blockbuster-style reads in 2020 — and while I knew Moreno-Garcia had a great back catalogue, I was a bit intimidated by where to start. I instead read all of her new books in the subsequent years. The Night of Velvet You can also find out more about the following: The Daughter Of Doctor Moreau (I’m impatiently awaiting my Silver Nitrate hold.)

While I was waiting for the new release, I kept hearing about it from a BookToker that I follow. Gods of Jade and Shadow As her favorite book, I took the plunge. It is a historical fiction book about a girl who embarks on an expedition with the Mayan deity of death. It has all the hallmarks of a Moreno-Garcia fantasy — it stars a small town woman in Mexico, who feels she is meant for something more, and embarks on a dangerous mission to get it. The first page had me hooked.

While I started this series off of a bookseller’s recommendation, it’s BookTok that has kept me in the loop on when the next book in the series is coming out. The series has become a favorite comfort science fiction read of all time for me, which — if you have read any of them — probably can tell you the exact kind of sarcastic I am.

The Murderbot Diaries is based on the Murderbot. It’s a robot that has no gender and can stream music in its helmet. This security robot essentially jailbreaks itself in order to do more fun things — such as wandering around a station, or making independent decisions — like the world’s most terrifying ROM hack. The crew struggles with what it means to be human throughout the show, and tries to accept Murderbot’s protestations despite his repeated denials. Yet the social rules which the machine rebels against have a striking resemblance with everyday capitalism. I can’t wait to read System Collapse.