Novel & Cerita Booktok Awards 2025

Man, I was so deep in the BookTok Awards rabbit hole this year, refreshing constantly. From what I saw, the big winner for Fiction was absolutely 'The Unmaking of June Farrow'—Adrienne Young's book just dominated the 'Make Me Sob' category too. It felt like everyone was talking about it.

I was low-key surprised 'The Serpent and the Wings of Night' by Carissa Broadbent didn't sweep Fantasy, but 'Fourth Wing' still had that insane hold from last year and won Best Romance Fantasy. The 'Dark Academia' category went to 'The Atlas Complex', which... okay, sure, the Olivie Blake stans showed up in force.

What really got me was the 'Hidden Gem' award going to 'Alecto the Ninth'—like, is a book in a massive series even a hidden gem? But the meme campaigns for it were next level. The whole voting process felt chaotic in the best way, just pure fandom energy.

BookTok Festival 2025 hasn't happened yet, so there's no official list of exclusive releases. But based on last year's trends, I'd expect the big, splashy exclusives to center on romance and romantasy authors who already dominate the platform. Think someone like Chloe Liese or Rina Kent might debut a limited-edition paperback with special sprayed edges or bonus chapters specifically for the festival. The real 'exclusive' often isn't a brand-new book nobody's heard of—it's a special edition of a book that's already been hyped to the moon and back on the app.

I'm more curious about whether any dark academia or literary fiction will get a spotlight. Seems like the festival exclusives tend to play it super safe, sticking to tropes that are guaranteed to trend. Would love to see them take a risk on a debut author from a niche subgenre instead of just handing another exclusive to an established BookTok darling.

Man, I'm already marking my calendar for 2025. The main panel I'm not missing is 'The Rise of Dark Romance,' mostly because I need to hear the authors justify some of those plots. Last year's debate got so spicy.

Beyond that, the daily 'Trend Discovery' sessions are crucial. I found my favorite series ever at one of those tiny publisher booths in 2023. They basically hand you a new TBR on a silver platter.

Oh, and the live-recorded 'Spicy Chapter' readings in the evenings are low-key hilarious. Just a bunch of people pretending they're not blushing.