Hoover’s books are wildly emotional fans often describe being flung from devastated to exhilarated to moved, all within one reading session. Hoover’s romance novels have always attracted devoted fans who relate deeply to her descriptions of tortured young love (some persuaded Atria to create a print version of one of her e-book titles with a meme campaign in 2014). Although seven of her books were reviewed by trade publications like Kirkus Reviews upon release, major news outlets have taken notice recently as her popularity has grown.

Hoover’s dominance of the charts proves that #BookTok is not only a huge TikTok niche (the hashtag has been used on more than 60 billion videos) but also that the community of online book lovers can have a significant impact on sales. According to Atria, Hoover’s most popular books on TikTok have spent 151 weeks on the list combined, with no signs of dropping off, even though the most recent title currently in the top 15 was published four years ago, in 2018. 1 spot earlier this year, and has sold over 3 million copies, according to its publisher, Atria (the title also spent two weeks on the list in 2016 after its initial publication). One of these books, 2016’s It Ends With Us, has been on the list for 58 weeks, hit the No. As of this writing, her books hold four of the top 15 spots on the New York Times bestseller list for combined print and e-book fiction, including No. Online popularity has translated into explosive real-world success for Hoover.

“Most of those viewers have read the book, know someone who has read the book or they want to read the book themselves,” Keens, whose account has more than 11,000 followers, told me.

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