Three BookTok Recommendations That Made Me Abandon Internet Reading Advice
As a lifelong passionate reader who adores all forms of literature, I discovered BookTok in 2022 after joining TikTok. This corner of the platform features users discussing their current reads and offering suggestions to fellow book lovers. While I've found some excellent recommendations through this cultural subset, the disappointments have significantly outnumbered the successes.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
This novel achieved cult classic status several years ago as the epitome of 'weird girl' fiction. The story follows an unnamed, miserable twenty-something woman living in New York around the year 2000. She chooses to self-medicate herself into the closest approximation of a coma to manage her overwhelming depressive episode.
While the premise is genuinely intriguing, the execution simply doesn't deliver. I recognize the anxiety that accompanies descending so far into depression that nothing holds meaning, and the subtle terror within a society where materialism reigns supreme. However, I grasped these concepts before even opening this book.
The subsequent 306 pages offered little additional insight into these subjects. I closed the book with the principal impression that while well-crafted, it was extraordinarily dull. I detested reading it so intensely that I initially blamed the writer, though I've since read two of her other works and adored them both. I'm uncertain why this particular book proved so utterly unmemorable, but I'm happy to leave it that way.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Another brilliant concept for a story that regrettably just didn't succeed. Our Wives Under the Sea is a sapphic romance between Leah and Miri. Leah, a marine scientist, has just returned home from a catastrophic expedition where the submarine she occupied lost contact and plummeted to the seabed.
Now reunited with her spouse Miri, it's evident that something is terribly wrong. The narrative alternates perspectives between Leah's nightmarish underwater captivity and Mira's silent battle to restore Leah to the person she once knew. I genuinely wanted to adore this book, but it felt like it was grasping for something it never fully delivered.
The concept of being stranded beneath the ocean, isolated from civilization and alone in the blackness is gripping and frightening, yet Armfield only ever portrays it as ordinary. The same applies to Mira's perspective. As her spouse starts transforming into an Eldritch nightmare confined to the bathtub, Mira phones her workplace and maintains the water flow.
I appreciate the notion of exploring what occurs when the individual you fell for is completely changed—both psychologically and physically—but I believe significantly more could have been accomplished with the characters. Their voices are remarkably alike, which might have been a deliberate artistic decision, but for me, it simply made the book challenging to complete.
Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede
Promoted as extreme horror fiction, Maeve Fly tracks the eponymous character through her existence in Los Angeles, employed at a theme park as a character performer playing a particular frosty princess. Additionally, she's interested in 'murders and executions'—a clumsy reference to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho.
Maeve's relentless monologues regarding Halloween music represent another attempt by Leede to honor American Psycho, but merely copying a classic isn't remarkable. Maeve Fly does nothing to advance the genre and feels like a teenager's fanfiction. It may be the worst book I have ever read.
The notion of a serial killer who happens to be a woman is hardly feminist or groundbreaking, yet C.J. Leede appears to believe she has achieved something genuinely daring by crafting a female protagonist who is thoroughly despicable. The characters are remarkably one-dimensional and their motivations are completely non-existent. Lengthy, overwrought depictions of violent murder and sexual assault do little to disguise the fact that this novel will never deliver on its own ambitions.
Conclusion: Why I'm Done With Internet Reading Advice
These three books, all recommended through BookTok, have solidified my choice to abandon internet-sourced reading suggestions. While the online book community can provide some excellent recommendations, the algorithmic nature of these platforms often leads to disappointing experiences. The books that gain viral popularity don't always align with individual reading preferences or literary standards.
As someone who values meaningful literary experiences, I've learned that personal discovery and traditional book recommendations from trusted sources often yield better results than trending online suggestions. The disappointment from these three popular books has taught me to be more selective about where I seek reading advice in the future.
