The BookTok hits being made into movies and TV, from Verity to The Housemaid

There aren't many bigger things that have ever happened to publishing than the rise of BookTok. The video-based social network has increasingly become home to a lively, active community of literature lovers, bestowing dozens of recommendations upon each other.

Inevitably, some books turn up over and over again. These BookTok favourites have seen soaring sales figures and often find themselves in bookshops under signs saying words to the effect of "TikTok made me buy it". Authors like Colleen Hoover and Freida McFadden have become household names in the world of BookTok, earning them millions of pounds in sales.

And when the literature world delivers sales by the million, Hollywood inevitably comes calling. Some of BookToks biggest hits — including Hoover's It Ends With Us and Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder — have already made it to the big or small screen, but there are plenty more on the way.

The Housemaid

One of the newest additions to the TikTok-to-movie pipeline is Freida McFadden's mammoth bestseller The Housemaid. Bridesmaids director Paul Feig is directing the film version of the story, with Sydney Sweeney in the titular role. She plays a young woman who lands a job working in the home of a wealthy couple and discovers dark secrets — naturally — with the woman of the house played by Amanda Seyfried.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Fantasy romance is big business in the world of BookTok, and those stories don't come bigger than Sarah J Maas's epic series A Court of Thorns and Roses. The first installment follows a mortal teenager who accidentally kills a wolf and is subsequently transported into a world of immortal faeries. There's violence, there's romance, there's sex. It's a real feast.

Hulu optioned the books for a TV adaptation in 2021, but the trail has gone a little cold since then. In the summer of 2024, the series lost its showrunner. Maas previously suggested she would be involved in helping to shape the adaptation.

Reminders of Him

Read more: Colleen Hoover's 'Reminders of Him' is getting a movie adaptation (USA Today)

BookTok queen Colleen Hoover's most recent novel is set to join It Ends With Us at the multiplex, with Universal setting a 2026 release date for an adaptation of Reminders of Him. The story follows its central character as she returns home after years in jail, but finds her attempts to bond with her young daughter rebuffed. Only a bar owner refuses to join the cold shoulder brigade, which means there's romance afoot, of course.

Verity

Hoover's 2018 novel Verity is one of her darker stories, telling the story of a down-on-her-luck writer given the chance to finish a novel series by the titular Verity, who is in a coma following an accident. As is often the case in these stories, not everything is as it seems and it turns out that Verity has her share of secrets hiding in her notes.

This film project is further along than some of the others on this list, with Hillary Seitz already penning a draft of the script that Hoover has since seen. This could be the next cab off the rank in the increasingly crowded Hoover-verse.

Regretting You

Hoover released Regretting You in 2019. It came out a year after Verity, but the film might just beat its predecessor to the punch. Crucially, it has a director in place, namely Josh Boone of The Fault in Our Stars fame. There's also a big-name cast, including Allison Williams, McKenna Grace, and Dave Franco.

Read more: Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? (Deadline)

The film will follow the increasingly fraught relationship between Williams and Grace as mother and daughter, with further strain put on their bond when Grace's character's father dies. Franco then portrays Williams' future love interest.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid is another of the biggest names on BookTok, with her 2019 novel Daisy Jones & the Six already adapted into a starry TV series on Prime Video. Her other biggest work, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, has Netflix on board for a film adaptation directed by The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland.

Read more: Daisy Jones and The Six star teases how series transcends original book (Yahoo Entertainment)

The story follows the musings of a faded Hollywood star who elects to give a very rare interview about her life to an unknown journalist. There will be flashbacks. Netflix picked up the rights after a few years of the project being in development as a TV series, so they're obviously keen on getting it to the screen.

Fourth Wing

Alongside the success of Sarah J Maas and her fairie-based romance, American author Rebecca Yarros has carved out her own space in the "romantasy" genre with Fourth Wing. We follow 20-year-old Violet as she is unexpectedly enrolled in a super-tough military college, working to become a dragon rider.

Moira Walley-Beckett, who used to write for Breaking Bad, has been tapped by Amazon to serve as showrunner for another of the studio's super-pricey fantasy series. The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time might just have a new competitor.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder S2

Read more: All the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder changes made by the BBC (Yahoo Entertainment)

The BBC and Netflix worked together in 2024 to bring forward a six-part adaptation of the first book in Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy. Fans got to watch protagonist Pip Fitz-Amobi investigate the historic disappearance of a teenage girl from her small village, uncovering plenty of dark secrets along the way.

Neither studio has confirmed whether a second season is going to happen, but there are two more books to adapt and plenty of story to cover. It would be a crime if the book's devoted fans didn't get to see the continued adventures and investigations of Pip unfold on screen.

They Both Die at the End

JJ Abrams was in charge of this TV series when it was set up at HBO, but Netflix has now added it to its list of acquisitions. Perhaps most intriguingly, Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny — who has dabbled in both acting and professional wrestling in recent years — is among the producers.

Adam Silvera's YA novel was first published in 2017, telling the story of two teenage boys who are shocked to learn they only have a day to live. During the early part of the pandemic, BookTok got hold of the story and suddenly Silvera found himself shooting up the bestseller lists. And now, his story is heading to Netflix. That's the power of BookTok.