In my previous story for the Feb. 7 edition, I talked about “BookTok’s” latest obsession, “Fourth Wing.” However, author Rebecca Yarros is not the only one to gain popularity on TikTok recently. Colleen Hoover has been the talk of readers for a while, more now than ever with recent controversy.
As a reader myself, I am glad that more people are reading because of TikTok. I’ve loved reading since first grade and seeing some of my favorite authors and books gain more popularity has made me very emotional.
Even with this new rise of author fame, I am starting to wonder if we are promoting the wrong people. To me, this is the case with romance author, Colleen Hoover. She first gained popularity for her book “It Ends with Us”, nearly five years later after its release in 2016. According to Goodreads, a popular book rating app, “It Ends with Us” is rated 4.2 stars out of 5. With this rating in mind, I know that the book has been a reader favorite, but I argue that this book does not deserve such high ratings.
Everyone is entitled to read whatever they wish to, and I won’t argue with that. However, I think it’s important to speak on the data we have about TikTok’s users. According to App Ape, a site that organizes and collects data on user demographics, we know that in 2024, 32.5% of users are between the ages of 10 and 19. With this data I find myself reflecting on my middle school and high school years. When I was in secondary school, like most I was easily influenced to follow popular trends. With the dominating age demographic on TikTok being the most easily influenced, I find it important to keep an eye on what we are promoting.
Hoover, as a person, has received a ton of backlash when it comes to drama within her family, but because society has developed the “separate the art from the artist” mentality when it comes to cancel culture, I don’t want to focus on that backlash. I have read “It Ends with Us” as well as her book titled “Ugly Love” to understand my stand on the subject. I have never been more disturbed by a book in my life. Sure, I’ve read horror, but this is something entirely different. Hoover writes romance books so imagine my surprise when I start reading “It Ends with Us” and I witness the perfect example of a toxic and abusive relationship displayed as the ideal romance. I see 16-year-olds swooning over these characters and I am worried for their future, especially when it comes to relationships. Hoover writes in such a way that she romanticizes abuse and narcissism which can be bad for young readers.
The disturbing content within her books doesn’t stop there, some of the lines in her books have caused some concern all over “BookTok.” We see pictures of pages from her books that objectify children, saying things like “We both laugh at our son’s big balls.” The fact is this line simply didn’t need to be included. No person, let alone a parent, should be making inappropriate comments like these about children.
Book or not her stories completely desensitize readers from pedophile behavior on top of glorifying abuse to young readers. It is irresponsible that we are promoting this to young minds. There are so many other authors we can start recommending instead, such as Alexandra Bracken, Stephanie Garber, Marissa Meyer, and Scott Sigler. At the end of the day for every bad author, there are a hundred other good ones. We should start bringing attention to authors who truly deserve it and can make an impact on young minds.