That Moment You Read ACOTAR…

Then Open TikTok and Enter a Parallel Universe

I know I’m not the only one who’s had this experience. 

When I finally read ACOTAR, I read it like a genre reader. I’d read fantasy. I love fantasy:

• I enjoyed parts

• side-eyed parts

• loved some characters

• felt “meh” about others

• understood the messy bits

• appreciated the arcs

• clocked the trope lineage

• took the world as it’s written

You know — a normal reading experience.

Then I opened TikTok.

And suddenly I was in a completely different reality.

Apparently:

• Rhysand is a brainwashing war criminal

• Feyre is “gaslit into love”

• Tamlin did nothing wrong

• Mor is a villain

• The IC was abusive to Nesta

• Nesta is the “true antagonist”

• The entire series is anti-feminist propaganda

• If you like X character, it means something about your real-life morals

• If you love the main MMC, your “reading comprehension is lacking”

Like… WHAT?!

Did we read the same books orrrr?

Because none of this is in the TEXT.

None of this is genre-contextual.

None of this is even analysis.

It’s:

• hot takes

• recycled headcanons

• moral panic

• ragebait

• algorithm-chasing

• people who read one genre series, trying to sound like critics

• creators staying in fandoms they don’t like because the content pays

It was such a jarring shift.

I went from having a perfectly balanced, nuanced reading experience to watching people:

• rewrite canon

• flatten characters

• moralize fictional dynamics

• drag fans for liking something

• treat headcanon as fact

• use ACOTAR as a clout machine

• argue the same 3 points every week in a different way

All I could think was:

“This isn’t a fandom — it’s a feedback loop.”

And it made me realize something important:

BookTok isn’t responding to books.

It’s responding to itself.

If you’ve ever read a popular series, then wandered onto TikTok and thought:

“Where the hell are they getting this from?”

You are not alone.

A LOT of readers are starting to wake up to the fact that the discourse is:

• algorithm-shaped

• hyperbolic

• moralized

• divorced from genre norms

• based on the same recycled takes

• and not remotely representative of how people actually read books

Reading the books does not equal engaging with BookTok discourse.

They are two completely different experiences.

And honestly?

I prefer the reading experience.