Imagine this: books. Shelves upon shelves, walls crammed with tomes and titles, collections ranging from the KJV Bible to the Mortal Instruments, from Dickens to Riordan to Plato to Tolkien. Tables of rosewood, floors of marble laid with azurite, French windows with intricate frosted designs, and no smell other than that of well-worn paper and leather. Incandescent bulbs are aglow, hanging from a twenty-foot-high ceiling, as an incessant lashing of rain roars outside the shut windows. Despite the freezing downpour outside, the heat from the bulbs makes the room fairly toasty as you trundle in with a large mug of steaming hot chocolate, ready to peruse the aisles upon aisles of books.
In many ways, it is a highly desirable situation for any avid reader. Of course, there is little possibility of this being a realistic situation for any person, but the chances are never zero.
Now, when you read the first paragraph, and you took in the imagery, there was a part of you that pictured the aesthetic. I'm sure this is redundant, since I'm already talking about books, but here's the thing: I could just as well have asked you to imagine "a library, rain outside, you come in with hot chocolate". Even if that has the same essential meaning, and for any bibliophile, is still a dreamy situation, there is no competition here. Imagery is what your brain wants, what it needs.
Imagination.
And that is why BookTok talks in vibes.
A portmanteau of "book" and "TikTok", this social media sub-community of bibliophiles has been the subject of innumerable online discussions, from praises to criticism. However, all controversies aside, there seems to be one thing that BookTok has figured out pretty quickly.
There is no substitute for the imagination.
Book titles, unless extremely descriptive (see: Japanese manga titles), do not usually form a strong image in your mind. And with the new late-stage capitalist book publication systems, the blurbs at the ends of books are also being taken away. In this horrifying situation, how do you go about recommending books to your friends without either being well-versed in the story or, gods forbid, spoiling the story?
It was at this impasse that BookTok came up with this ingenious idea: you vibe.
The Hunger Games? Forestcore, anarchist. Harry Potter? Academia, wizardcore. Albert Camus? Absurdist, existentialist.
And then BookTok gave books not only an aesthetic but also a visual, something deeply rooted in synesthesia. Bows and arrows, castles, beaches, and even certain colours came to be associated with certain aesthetics, and thereby, certain books.
Synesthesia is often referred to as a "sensory crossover". Originally, it was used to describe exactly that: for example, looking at a picture of a well-made dish might make you feel like you can smell the dish.
However, with the localisation of the term, a lot of logic became pedantic. Now, people associate the Greek god Apollo with the colour gold or with the bow. But these are simply symbols of the deity, you say? Well, on spaces like Tumblr, Apollo has been associated with the feeling of getting braces removed, with the first time dyeing your hair, and even with chemistry lab gloves.
In the same way, oftentimes, books are represented by a visual idea that seems to encompass their general vibe. The feel of the book, and how it is similar to the vibe projected by some other object of scrutiny.
Essentially, BookTok has not replaced imagery. Since we made that point a while ago, there is no substitute for imagination.
No, what BookTok has done is create a different medium of imagery. In the day and age of the Internet, maybe relying on word of mouth, which may or may not contain spoilers, is an unnecessary ordeal. Instead, you have BookTok.
All you have to do is open TikTok (or an alternative for countries where TikTok is banned) and look up reviews of a book without spoilers, using the hashtags. More often than not, alongside a clean and distinct review (which seems to be the objective anyway), you could get an idea of the vibe of the narrative. Using words like "magical", "fae", "ethereal", and "homely", or using pictures of dimly lit castles, bright colours, and elongated shadows are some ways in which the vibe is slapped through the screen into the reader's head.
Honestly, aesthetic-centred reviews are why I read The Lord of the Rings in the first place, as well as many, many other incredible works.
Yet, although aestheticism and imagery on BookTok are extremely innovative as a recommendation mechanism, books are often misconstrued by readers on social media. Moreover, some reviewers might not even have read the work properly to scrape together a review for the revenue. Hence, it is always necessary to cross-check reviews with three or more accounts, if possible.
Altogether, bibliophiles on BookTok sure do love engaging with content in a bright and sensory manner. As long as all methods of interaction are healthy and content is productive, there is not much to critique in the vibe review methods. Although BookTok has its fair share of other issues, this ingenious mechanism is not one of them.