Ezra-Oscar Franchi, Arts & Entertainment Editor  

At one point or another, you’ve probably caught me criticizing or ridiculing BookTok, or the book community of TikTok. 

To this, you might say, “Ezra, BookTok is so vast and encompasses tons of different genres, and you can’t possibly pass judgment on one entire section of the internet, that’s a completely bad faith argument and etc., etc., etc.,” to which I say, “Yes, I know, but don’t pretend you don’t know which genres I’m criticizing.”  

Two such genres are young-adult dark romantasy, or romantic fantasy, and a genre I’ve unofficially dubbed enshittification lit—or, I guess, if you want the more ‘scholarly’ term, platform decay literature.  

Enshittification, or platform decay, is the phenomenon in which the internet and its products and services decay. Platforms begin as high-quality markets focused on satisfying consumers, only to give buyers the digital middle finger when companies sell out to shareholders and reduce their products to utter slop. 

While enshittification focuses more on actual companies and websites, I’m using it here to define the slop genre that’s further perverting BookTok.  

Merriam-Webster defines “slop” as low-quality content produced through the use of AI, but I’d argue that AI doesn’t have to be used in the production of slop content. Slop is any low-quality content that doesn’t require digestion: the extreme de-funding of higher education in addition to AI’s permeation of literature is to blame for this phenomenon. This is part of the wider literacy crisis. 

What does ‘digestion’ look like? Digestion is thoughtful, paced reading, and a desire to investigate either the deeper themes of the book, or simply how it made you feel and why. Digestion isn’t flying through hundreds of books a year, hauls of all the latest hot novels on BookTok, or reading a book once only to face it with the sprayed edges outwards on the shelf.

YA dark romance/romantasy and enshittification lit have a lot of crossover, and arguably, these two genres are causing long-term, irreparable damage to literacy. I’m looking at the big picture here, not necessarily individual books or authors, because that would, in fact, be a bad-faith argument…however, for the sake of example, there’s one book that epitomizes these criticisms perfectly. 

Shy Girl by Mia Ballard has come under quite a bit of heat over the last few months, with several creators on YouTube accusing the author of using generative AI to ‘co-write’ the novel. Many people said they began to suspect the book because of its many repeated words and phrases: the word “sharp” appeared 159 times in 237 pages. 

The ‘female rage/revenge’ novel follows a young woman looking for a sugar daddy, and documents her life before, during, and briefly after her kidnapping. Just a few days ago, Ballard’s publisher, Hachette, canceled the book’s US release, citing the usage of AI as a major concern. 

What I’m pointing out (in far too many words) is that I’m so sick of being tricked by book recommendations on the internet. From real authors producing poorly-written trad-wife-esque dark romance to fake authors using dozens of AI-generated videos to promote their products, slop is everywhere you look. 

And so, I scroll, and scroll, and scroll through BookTube (I don’t think anyone else calls the book side of YouTube that, just let me pretend I’m being clever here) until I find a creator I think will deliver an honest review of a book. I frequent channels like Plant Based Bride, frankie’s shelf, and readwithcindy for this reason. 

These creators, across Goodreads and YouTube, deliver thoughtful and, at times, brutally honest reviews. These creators operate with integrity: they’ve never dishonestly reviewed a book for profit, unlike the various slop merchants I pass by every day on BookTok. 

Needless to say, I’ve spent a long time stumbling through the dark, misled by every glowing screen that promised an oasis and delivered slop. Two weeks ago, I finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. Next week, I’m taking you there. 

Headline photo from Time.