The Emotions of BookTok
Giggling and kicking my feet
Friends! Hello! This might be a lighter one this week because my birthday is Sunday and so I’m giving myself a lot of little treat days this week and also doing a lot of fun reading. But next week, we’ll be back in the thick of it - I’m finally going to read Magnolia Parks so we can all understand what is going on there (all I know is that he cheats on her????). Since it seemed liked everyone enjoyed our little Lucy Score deep dive a few weeks ago, I’m going to periodically pick viral authors to write explainers about, for all of our sakes. And after that, a post I’ve been working on for awhile - how to diversify your TikTok feed. If there are any strategies you’ve had success with, let me know in the comments!
And now, let’s get into it - this week I’m giving you a breakdown of the emotions people use to recommend books on BookTok. Think about some big BookTok authors - Colleen Hoover, Kristin Hannah, Sarah J. Maas. They’re all wildly different, but at their core, they are writing emotionally evocative books. We all just want to feel something.
Crying in the Club
I know I wrote a bit about this a few weeks ago, but I think the prophecy is being fulfilled - 2025 is the year of crying on BookTok. Readers want big, emotional stories that allow them some catharsis - something that feels like it’s in short supply so far this year. And when the world is upsetting and you feel like crying all the time, it can feel so good to cry about fictional characters instead of your own problems. Last year, when I was feeling pretty miserable at my job, I read The Women and gained some perspective - things were bad but at least I wasn’t a combat nurse in the Vietnam War.
Crying books have always been popular on BookTok - I would categorize literally every Kristin Hannah book as a crying book, after all, and she is who I would choose as the reigning queen of BookTok. But what I’m seeing lately is a lot of performance of crying on camera, taking viewers viscerally along for the emotional journey of a book.
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And that brings me to Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone. I’ve had an ARC lying around for a few months, but I finally picked it up this week, since it released on Tuesday. I was riveted by page two. Promise Me Sunshine is a romance, but it’s also a sensitive and original story about grief, deeply emotional and warm. Lenny is a twenty-something nanny in New York whose best friend has recently died from cancer. She’s cast adrift, riding the Staten Island Ferry all night long instead of returning to the empty apartment they once shared. Then she meets Miles, the uncle of her current charge. Miles has also experienced his share of loss, and he recognizes the signs in her. In exchange for helping him learn to bond with his 7 year old niece, Miles will help Lenny learn to live again. And those aren’t his words - they’re written on a laminated list written by Lenny’s best friend, a list of activities that she needs to tackle in order to start her life again. This provides a perfect structure for the book, a romance novel where the romance plot is almost secondary to the journey of self discovery and healing at its core. It’s beautifully written and breathtakingly unique. My list of favorite books of 2025 is already getting very long, what a great year for books. This one hasn’t quite taken off on BookTok yet, but it’s still early - for the most part, new releases need a longer runway to gain viral traction on the platform. Still, here’s a few BookTokers in their feelings about Promise Me Sunshine:
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A close cousin to these books that made me sob? Books that absolutely wrecked me:
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I find this one particularly interesting - the aesthetic of this video does not scream heartbreaking books. And note the audio - this song, “Je te leaisserai des mots” by Patrick Watson, is the audio of choice for every TikTok about a sad book. It’s very cinematic and broadly emotional.
If you’re looking for a good crying book, here’s a few suggestions compliments of BookTok (and a couple compliments of me):
Some of BookTok’s favorite crying books:
My personal recs for upcoming crying books (in addition to Promise Me Sunshine, obviously):
There have been a lot of complaints online in the past few years that the books we categorize as romcoms aren’t actually funny - see Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez, two authors whose romances usually have an underpining of tragedy or angst, at the very least. But with books like Promise Me Sunshine, I think we’re seeing the two categories shift further apart. With the current ascendance of the big, emotional book (I haven’t read Great Big Beautiful Life yet but I suspect it will fit in this category), I think we’ll also see a resurgence in zany, funny, comedic romcoms as well. Which leads me to…
Giggling and Kicking My Feet
Giggling and kicking my feet has become BookTok parlance for swoony romance - a book that gives you butterflies, makes you blush and twirl your hair. They’re light, they’re effervescent, they’re a different kind of escapism.
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You’ll note that the level of spice does not impact a book’s status as a giggling and kicking my feet read. It’s not about the sex, it’s about the flirting, the tension!
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First Time Caller is a perfect example of a giggling and kicking my feet read - this one is for the lover girls, the hopeless romantics. I liked it a lot!
This Book Made Me Feral
So, if you’re not crying, and you’re not giggling, what are you doing? You’re reading smut that’s reducing you to a non verbal state:
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I don’t think this one needs much explanation. I’d also compare it to screaming, crying, throwing up, which was more in favor a couple of years ago but still gets a fair amount of play on BookTok. Here, we’re extending the emotional rush to the act of book collecting:
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Cringe Books
But what happens when the emotions get too big? Ew, cringe. I’ve seen a lot of discussion on BookTok about cringe books, whether that’s creators sharing lists of the rare romances that didn’t make them cringe, or more literary-minded creators cringing at the types of books that are popular on BookTok. These tend to feel more “not like the other girls” coded to me, or they’re battle lines in the war between millennials (cringe) and gen Z (not cringe).
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me every day.
And one final emotional state:
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Problematic Summer Romance
Finally, the title and description of bestie Ali Hazelwood’s surprise summer release got leaked this week, and I need it now. Problematic Summer Romance, releasing May 27, is romance set in Italy between a 23 year old woman and her brother’s 38 year old best friend. Of course, this immediately sparked age gap discourse, which to me only underscores the brilliance of the title and the premise.
Notably, it appears that the next Elsie Silver book will also be an age gap. On threads, I saw readers debating about whether the reason readers were scandalized by this announcement is because they’re traditionally published romance readers rather than indie romance readers (who it takes a lot more to shock, see Haunting Adeline, Credence, Morning Glory Milking Farm, and many more). I’m not sure I really agree that that is the dividing line, here, though. Do you have any thoughts? In the meantime, I’ll just be here, giggling and kicking my feet, waiting for Problematic Summer Romance to magically download and appear on my Kindle.
The age gap romance landing differently in indie vs trad spaces is really interesting! I wonder if part of the discourse stems from the fact that IRL people have many different thoughts on age gaps in romantic relationships? In theory, someone could find their own age gap romance away from a book unlike a shadow daddy partner (tragic but true!) which might make the age gap more difficult to engage with on the page.
Love this! I also just get excited seeing so many people get this into books! It's something people have always done—I remember reading about how people wore black armbands in the 1890s when Sherlock Holmes was killed off (before being brought back) to mourn the character—and it's so cool to see how that love of books changes but stays the same.