Welcome to my first-ever installment of the column entitled, Is it Worth the Hype?

Because of the continuously growing app TikTok, many books written by unknown authors have been made famous. For example, Colleen Hoover was an author for many years before she got popular. In 2012, she published her first book, Slammed. Only 9 years later was when the author was really recognized, and her career took off. The surge in her popularity can be attributed to the attention she has gotten from the #BookTok community on the app.

Her career really sparked when she wrote the beloved book, Verity. And while Hoover is a prime example of how one app can make such a huge difference for one book, that is just one case. There are many, many more. And as an avid reader, I will be going through all the books recommended by TikTok–and talking about them. 

Are they worth the hype or not? 

As Colleen Hoover is being talked about, let’s take a look into her books. She has released a lot of popular books. For example, Ends With Us, It Starts With Us, Ugly Love, Verity, and so on. And this reporter has read all. Starting off strong with It Ends With Us, this book is definitely worth the hype. At least in my opinion. The book circulates around a young woman meeting the seemingly perfect man, but things soon take a turn. I thought about this book for an alarmingly long amount of time after I was done, and I finished it in one sitting. I could not put it down, especially towards the end. This is a great starter book if you want to begin reading and or if you’re in a reading slump. It Ends With Us was the novel that started my reading journey. 

The next books are going to be put in the same category, because I have the same opinion about both. It Starts With Us and Ugly Love were surprisingly boring. I had high hopes for both because I heard such great reviews, especially It Starts With Us because it’s a continuation of It Ends With Us and as you could tell, I really enjoyed that novel. Ugly Love did not have a good storyline, and was just plain boring. It was hard to get through and when the book finally ended, I still felt the same as I did in the beginning. It was not good. And It Starts With Us also didn’t have the best storyline, and I felt as if the story was made quickly and not thought about well enough.The author should have left It Ends With Us as a standalone. 

By contrast, Verity was one of the best stories I’ve ever read. Although the beginning was slightly hard to get through, the end completely makes up for it. If you look at the big picture, it’s a great story from start to finish. Throughout the book there was great foreshadowing and details that you wouldnt understand until you read it all, and it has a jaw-dropping plot twist at the end. I 100% recommend this book. 

Backing away from Colleen Hoover, there are so many other authors that deserve recognition. Tahereh Mafi is the author of one of my favorite book series. Shatter Me is a dystopian based series which contains a frame story, which is when a story contains a story in itself. This series begins with a woman trapped in a room, and you slowly learn the reason she is trapped in there in the first place is because she killed a little boy. But it is not her fault. How can that be? You just have to read to find out. That’s only half of the story, and as you read it gets better and better. 

I love books with great plot twists. Books that will leave you thinking and wanting to reread the book over just to see if you missed anything. The Silent Patient meets all of those boxes and more. This book has two points of views, and shows how every story has two sides. A wife is found standing over her husband, who has been murdered. The issue is, the wife refuses to speak. For years, this woman does not speak. Until Theo, a psychotherapist  who is determined to find out exactly what happened, and get her to speak. 

One last book I will talk about is the rom-com, Better Than the Movies. The book is about a girl,  Liz, and her neighbor whom she most definitely hates, Wes. The entire book will have you smiling, frustrated, and in all, happy. It’s a great read and helped me get out of a reading slump. 

Many teens don’t read because they think it’s boring, and a waste of time. And I, a reporter who is doing a story about books, hated books at some point myself. Until I picked up a book that actually interested me, and that’s when I started reading and finding it enjoyable. So please, take these books talked about in this article into consideration, and read!