Cailin Riley Books

Before I was an author, I was a reader.

To this day, if I had to choose between identifying more as a writer or a reader, I would say reader. I wouldn’t have become the former if I hadn’t started out as the latter. As such, I still like to fully immerse myself in things like reading book blogs, Goodreads reviews and more.

Lately, I’ve been super surprised by the overwhelming presence of a few specific authors on my feeds. I’m not exaggerating when I say that on one Facebook group in one particular, one popular author was the subject of discussion on EVERY OTHER POST.

Yes, it was Colleen Hoover.

There were posts asking who had read which of her books. There were posts asking who else hated Verity. There were Instagram posts sharing artsy stylings of their copies. There were people sharing limited edition covers and seeking CoHo merch. There were posts debating about Hoover’s decision to create a coloring book based off of It Ends With Us.

One poor brave soul dared to post that they didn’t get the CoHo hype and could the group share other authors they enjoyed. They were promptly shredded to pieces as people clapped back that they are allowed to stan whatever authors they want and that her books got them through a tough time, thank you very much.

I totally get that people want to chat about culture and what’s ~trending~, but the idea of book chatter being mostly around a few mega-popular authors gets a little too echo-chamb-ery for me. If we’re all giving lip service to the same authors, who are already experiencing success, what does that mean for less well-known authors? What does that mean for us as readers?

And look, I don’t hate Colleen Hoover by any means. I’ve read most of her books and they kept me entertained. But they don’t blow me away and her mega-popularity surprises me. Did none of these people read Sarah Dessen’s emotional bombs as teens?!?

You like what you like. But when a very few authors become mega-popular because of BookTok and co., it can create an echo chamber where we all end up reading the same types of books. If we stick to only what people who are just like us suggest, we aren’t allowing ourselves to explore options that further challenge us.

And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.