Booktok, the sensation that’s said to have brought reading back to the younger generation, is where I, a member of that younger generation, find most of my well-beloved (or not-at-all-beloved) reads. This article is about three of some of the most booktok famous series, and my personal opinion on them.

1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (2/5 stars)

Genre: Dystopian

Books in the main series: 6

Completed: Yes

Often referred to as a booktok romantasy darling (despite being firmly in the dystopian genre) for revered book boyfriend Aaron Warner, Shatter Me is likely one of the first books someone venturing into fantasy booktok would read. Shatter Me follows Juliette Ferrars, a girl whose touch kills all, as she navigates the world under the control of the Reestablishment, a vaguely dictator-like government that wants to ban all that does not ensure their power over the citizens of the world. As you may be able to see based on the rating I gave this series, I did not like it as much as I hoped too.

First off, like most booktok books, it is woefully overhyped. It is chalk-full of overly-flowery word use and, spoiler-alert, a weird entire hundred or so pages where Juliette finds her love interest’s dad, who is a horrible person, handsome. Speaking of her love interest, I never seemed to quite get over the fact that Aaron Warner has offed many people and was given about three pages of redemption before Juliette decided she wanted him. It’s even shown later on that if Juliette isn’t there to make him ‘tolerate’ the only people I liked in these books (Nazeera Ibrahim, an absolute girlboss, and Kenji Kishimoto, Juliette’s best friend and the savior of all six of these books) he’d treat them like garbage. Basically, he was horrible to everyone except Juliette, and while that might appeal to some people, it didn’t to me. From a technical standpoint, their love felt very forced and only really made sense after a big plot twist was revealed in the later books, but by that point the plot twist felt like Tahereh Mafi’s excuse for writing a bad plot.To be completely honest, I was more invested in the side characters’ love story than Juliette and Aaron’s.

On a positive side, Brooke Holmer (9), a certified Shatter Me lover, said that the series “shows a lot of different emotions and how other people react to their emotions which can lead to bigger problems,” which I surprisingly agree with. The emotions of Juliette, Kenji, and Aaron regarding the hellscape of a world they live in show three different degrees of optimism. Juliette sees the world as something to be afraid of, initially, and as the series progresses she discovers that maybe it doesn’t have to be. Kenji finds comfort in what he has left, almost content as long as he’s left alone with those he cares about. Aaron believes the world is already long gone and only wants to find a cure to save his sick mother. It’s Juliette’s increasing adamancy that the world can be saved that spurs both Kenji and Aaron into action, Kenji’s funny and uplifting spirit that keeps Juliette and Aaron going even when things get extremely tough, and Aaron’s resilience despite the hardships that have already hurt him that acts as a rock upon which Juliette finds herself able to lean on.

Some final notes with some minor spoilers: I don’t get all the hate on Adam. He made mistakes, yes, said things he shouldn’t have, and expected Juliette to be someone she wasn’t, but he was absolutely not as bad as everyone said he was. I expected him to go to the Reestablishment and betray everyone the entire time for all the hate he was getting. In other words, please hate the Reestablishment, not some teenage boy literally raising his brother while the world goes to hell and the girl he thought would be the one stable thing in his life leaves him for a bad person.

2. Caraval by Stephanie Garber (4/5 stars)

Genre: Fantasy

Books in the main series: 3

Completed: Yes

Another one of booktok’s darlings, but this time, I actually liked it.

Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart, a 5 star read for me, are two separate series set in the same world, with the events of Caraval occurring before Once Upon a Broken Heart. I decided to only include Caraval for fear that I would find some flaw in my perfect vision of Once Upon a Broken Heart that I’m all too content to ignore until my next reread. Just know that that series is amazing as well.

Caraval is about the journey of two sisters, Scarlett and Donatella Dragna, as they get lost in the magical game of Caraval, where they must remember everything is just part of the game. Until it isn’t. As they become embroiled in deeper and deeper schemes, they must fight to never lose each other and the people they come to care about along the way.

I must say that I was very intrigued with the concept of Caraval, the game. It seemed easy in the beginning not to fall for its tricks, but as I started playing along with Scarlett, the elder of the two sisters, I too fell prey to moments that felt far too real to have simply been part of a game. I fell in love with the world through Scarlett even though, somewhat unpopularly, Donatella ended up being my favorite sister. Jasmine Moawad (9)‘s statement of “Caraval is an amazing book; it sets you in a magical world. The plot is so different from everything else because it’s kind of fantasy but also mixed with the modern world” is one that I can only halfway get behind. I loved the world building and the characters; both were aspects of this book that I could easily give 5 stars to. The plot? I learned that that might be Stephanie Garber’s weak point. Caraval had an easy to follow, interesting plot but as the series progressed into Legendary and Finale, the second and third books in the trilogy, it felt like Stephanie was adding as much as she could to make the story more dramatic and it didn’t quite feel like a natural string of events. A plot line that I feel should have been emphasized more was briefly touched on and then moved on from, a character that was dead was suddenly brought back to life for what felt like nothing but conflict. Still, it was an overall enjoyable experience and I’d highly recommend it.

3. Lightlark by Alex Aster (3/5)

Genre: Fantasy

Books in the main series: 3

Completed: No

Lightlark is about Isla Crown, ruler of the Wildlings, as she enters the magical competition to break the curses placed upon her kingdom as well as the Starling, Sunling, Moonling, and Skyling kingdoms. She finds enemies in allies and allies in enemies, learning that she can trust no one, not even herself.

Starting with the characters, I find Isla’s love triangle with Grimshaw and Oro (atrocious names) ridiculous. It’s a main point for no reason, being the center of conflict for two of the three books. Isla herself wasn’t horrible, but her indecisiveness when it came to Grim and Oro was. She flip-flopped between them like it was a competition to see how long she could lead them on for. They’re both too good for her and I can’t wait for them to realize that. Many of the side characters were okay but honestly not worth mentioning here.

The world and the premise were what made me want to read this book in the first place. The idea of everyone having curses and a magical competition sounded very interesting and for a time, it was–then too much backtracking that didn’t make sense happened, and I lost track of what was real and what had already been recanted. The plot got so convoluted at one point that I considered not finishing the three books currently published (Lightlark, Nightbane and Skyshade) at all. Am I glad I pushed through? Yes. It gets better. Lightlark is undoubtedly the worst of the three, with abysmal foreshadowing and a heap of nonsensical plot twists thrown together in the last hundred pages for shock value.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint. It seems to me like Lightlark was slated as a standalone, since there weren’t many unanswered questions or reasons in general why there might be a second book. Everything was fairly wrapped up and if I didn’t already have the second book on my shelf I would have thought it a standalone. In contrast, Nightbane, the second book, I could tell was gearing up for a third installment: there were untied threads, questions I still had, and answers I’d begun to desperately want. Skyshade, said third installment, cemented the idea that I’d been slowly coming around to actually liking the Lightlark series. So while it started out a bit rough, I did end up enjoying the Lightlark series.

Please remember that all of these reviews are just my personal opinion, and the rating of these series will almost certainly vary from person to person. If any of what I said appealed to you, I would highly recommend reading the series to form your own view on it. Happy reading!