CBC Books producer Bridget Raymundo has made a name for herself on TikTok by sharing book recommendations and timely jokes with her more than 45,000 followers as @bridgelikesbooks on the social media platform.
Raymundo is an avid participant within TikTok’s popular books and literature subcommunity known as #BookTok. Here’s the list of #BookTok titles she discussed with The Next Chapter‘s Ali Hassan.
The Next Chapter12:50Bridget Raymundo on the power of BookTok
Featured VideoThe Next Chapter columnist gives us an inside perspective on the social media literary world known as BookTok, where back-list books turn into best sellers.
Melissa Blair’s debut book, the fantasy novel A Broken Blade, is set in a world of magical beings including elves, faes and halflings. It is the story of Keera, a mysterious halfing who is known in the kingdom of Faeland as the King’s Blade, a dangerous spy and assassin.
When a figure known as the Shadow threatens the peace of the land, Keera is forced to track them down.
Melissa Blair is an Anishinaabe-kwe writer of mixed ancestry who splits her time between Treaty 9 in Northern Ontario and Ottawa. She also has a BookTok account where she shares her favourite books. Blair has since released the second book in The Halfling Saga, A Shadow Crown.
Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco
Silver Under Nightfall is a gothic fantasy novel set in the fictional kingdom of Aluria where vampires and the gentry are constantly at odds. When Remy Penderghast, son of a Duke and vampire hunter catches wind of a monstrous new breed of vampire, he is sent to investigate.
Due to his rumoured half-vampire blood, Remy is already considered an outcast when he is forced to join forces with a beautiful vampire heiress and her brooding vampire fiancé. Set on a dangerous quest, the three venture to uncover the true villains and perhaps become salaciously close to each other along the way.
Rin Chupeco is a nonbinary Chinese Filipino fiction writer and former graphic designer. Their other books include YA titles like The Bone Witch, and Wicked As You Wish. They are currently based in the Philippines.
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Immortal Longings is Chloe Gong’s debut adult fantasy. In the kingdom of Talin, an annual game is hosted in San-Er where citizens fight to the death in order to obtain wealth and esteem from the King.
The key to winning? Be skilled at jumping in between bodies. When ousted Princess Call Tuoleimi enters the games, she plans to win and bring down the crown but her plans are thwarted when she meets former aristocrat Anton Makusa. When they form an unlikely alliance, Calla is stuck between fighting for love and fighting for her kingdom.
Chloe Gong is a bestselling author born in Shanghai and raised in New Zealand. She is most well known for her acclaimed YA series, the Secret Shanghai Novels. Gong is currently based in New York.
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
In a dystopian version of New York City, a company called Death-Cast has been able to predict when people will die. They Both Die at the End follows two 18 year-olds, Rufus and Mateo, who are complete strangers that both receive a call after midnight that they are going to die sometime within the next 24 hours.
Connected through an app called Last Friend, the two decide to live their lives to the fullest together in this heart wrenching coming-of-age novel.
Adam Silvera is a bestselling young adult author and former children’s bookseller from New York. His other books include The First to Die at the End, More Happy Than Not, and the Infinity Cycle series.
The YA novel Delicious Monsters is set in Toronto and involves a girl named Daisy who can see ghosts. When her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario, Daisy discovers supernatural secrets that might be beyond her control. Flash forward a decade later and a teen named Brittney gets wrapped up in a mystery about what befell Daisy years prior.
Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian Canadian YA writer and blogger. Her debut novel, Blood Like Magic, was on the shortlist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary award for young people’s literature — text.
The Next Chapter15:10Liselle Sambury takes a page from Shirley Jackson’s classic The Haunting of Hill House in her latest book
Featured VideoLiselle Sambury sets a compelling story of mother-daughter relationships at a haunted house in her supernatural YA thriller Delicious Monsters.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Red, White & Royal Blue is an adult rom-com following the handsome First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz and the pompous Prince Henry of England. Determined to see his mother re-elected to office, Alex must rectify his public rivalry with the Prince and comes to realize there’s more than meets the eye.
As romance blossoms between the two young men, they challenge perspectives in their families and their countries.
Red, White & Royal Blue was adapted into a movie in 2023.
Casey McQuiston is an American writer of queer romance and young adult fiction. Their other books include One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games is a dystopian tale that follows a teenage girl named Katniss Everdeen, who lives in one of 12 oppressed districts controlled by wealthy residents of the Capitol. Each year, one boy and one girl are chosen from each district to fight to the death in a televised reality show called the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers for the games in order to save her sister and unwittingly sets off a district-wide revolution.
Suzanne Collins is an American author and screenwriter best known for The Hunger Games Trilogy. Her 2020 novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to The Hunger Games following the teen years of President Snow. The movie adaptation is set to release in late 2023.