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Shes armed with Post-it notes in case she wants to mark a good quote.

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A caption informs us shes never read this author before, so shes not sure what to expect.

She opens the book and begins to read.

Its hard to overstate thestaggering popularityof Hoover, known as CoHo to her fans.

)TheTimesclaims she has sold more than 20 million books.

Shes the second-most-followed author on Goodreads, beaten only by Stephen King.

In many ways, it feels like the inevitable culmination of her decade in fiction.

Everyone harbors relentless angst and has uniformly excellent sex.

and more adult-oriented works.

While many of these authors have stuck around, its Hoover who has been flung into the stratosphere.

Hoovers beginnings as a self-published writer are crucial to understanding her popularity.

Hoover remained prolific well into a new decade, and then TikTok changed the game for publishing.

By 2021, that energy had moved away from blogs toward BookTok, and the results were seismic.

Shes also quietly encouraging of her readers vocal devotion to her work.

Videos of Hoovers work are often accompanied by the hashtag#TikTokMadeMeReadIt.

Writing highly emotional novels for so long also brings with it a lot of criticism.

Her romantic pairings typically bond over their shared trauma in lieu of other characterizations.

These criticisms have dogged Hoover since the beginning of her career, asGoodreadsreviewerscanattest.

(Shes also been called out for slut-shaming, which iseverywherein her early work.)

Nevertheless, millions flock to CoHo.

It helps that her primary readership lines up nicely with TikToks ownmain demographicof adolescent girls and young women.

Every declaration of love is lavish and ready to be doodled in your notebook.

Each tear shed builds to heaving sobs.

Subtlety is not a priority.

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