Inside Jack Edwards' Library: 5 Books He Loved (And What to Read Next)

If you have spent any time in the literary corner of the internet, you know Jack Edwards. He is the man who turned "reading every book mentioned in a Taylor Swift song" into a high-art form. Jack has built a massive platform on one thing: impeccable vibes.

But here is the thing about the BookTok community — the recommendations are often just the entry point to much deeper, darker, or more complex literary rabbit holes. Jack Edwards introduces you to the aesthetic, but we are here to show you the architecture behind it.

We took five of Jack's all-time favorites and ran them through our discovery engine to find the high-probability matches that the BookTok algorithm usually misses.

Jack has basically made "Dark Academia" his entire personality at points, and The Secret History is the crown jewel of that genre on BookTok. It is moody, elitist, and full of Greek-quoting students making terrible life choices.

The AI-Powered Match: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

If you loved the "exclusive circle of pretentious students" vibe of Tartt's work, If We Were Villains is the logical next step. It swaps Ancient Greek for Shakespeare and adds a layer of theatrical obsession that feels even more claustrophobic. It is the book for people who liked the feeling of Donna Tartt but wanted a plot that moves at twice the speed.

Jack (and the rest of the BookTok world) sobbed through this memoir about grief, food, and identity. It is a beautiful, raw piece of writing that deserves every bit of the hype it got on social media.

The AI-Powered Match: Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho

While everyone on BookTok is talking about Zauner, Tastes Like War is the deeper cut. It is a finalist for the National Book Award that explores the same intersection of food, a mother's mental illness, and the shadow of the Korean War. If Zauner's book was the emotional entry point, Cho's book is the sociological and historical gut punch that follows.

Jack praised this for its depiction of friendship and the creative process within the world of video game design. It is a "modern classic" that remains a staple of BookTok's "must-read" lists.

The AI-Powered Match: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Zevin's fans often love the long-term "chronicle of a friendship" aspect. The Interestings follows a group of creative teenagers from a summer camp through the next several decades of their lives. It captures that same bittersweet reality: how talent, envy, and time change the people we thought we knew forever.

Jack is a self-proclaimed Sally Rooney enthusiast. He loves the "no quotation marks" misery and the hyper-specific, awkward intimacy that made this a viral BookTok sensation.

The AI-Powered Match: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

Dolan is often compared to Rooney because they are both Irish and write about young, complicated people. But Dolan is sharper, more cynical, and arguably funnier. If Rooney is about the pain of communication, Dolan is about the politics of it.

Jack often leans into the "unreliable, slightly unhinged female narrator" trope. Moshfegh's story of a woman trying to sleep for a year is the ultimate BookTok "no thoughts, just vibes" book.

The AI-Powered Match: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

If you liked the social alienation and the "outsider" perspective of Moshfegh's narrator, Murata's masterpiece is a must-read. It is about a woman who finds her only sense of purpose in the rigid, repetitive world of a Japanese convenience store. It is strange, haunting, and completely devoid of the traditional "hero's journey" fluff.

1. Look Past the "Current" BookTok Hype: Some of the best matches for modern hits were published twenty years ago.
2. Vibe over Genre: Stop looking for "more thrillers." Look for more books that make you feel the same way that one thriller did.
3. Cross-Reference your Curiosity: Use BookTok videos as a starting point, then use a tool like bookstoread.ai to see where that curiosity actually leads you.