In October 2020, popular TikTok creator Alyse Cline, posted a video recommending the series to her followers. Nevertheless, it was a shock to her when Zero Repeat Forever started trending on BookTok. Over the next two decades her prolific production of YA fiction novels garnered her a number of awards, including the Monte Miller Award, the Westchester Fiction Award, and the BC Book Prize. Vancouver-dwelling Prendergast got her start in screenwriting at the turn of the century. It’s a fact that has swayed the trajectory of Prendergast’s career. When BookTok went mainstream, it was easy enough to brush it aside as yet another frivolous, teen-dominated internet niche - but two years in, BookTok has morphed into a social force with tangible economic impacts. Within mere months, that tiny corner would become colloquially known as BookTok, or Book TikTok.

Fast forward to 2020: in the midst of global shutdown, a tiny corner of the internet was growing quickly enough to shake industries. It was back in 2017 when Prendergast released her young adult (YA) sci-fi adventure, Zero Repeat Forever. 1, 2021, she posted a TikTok of Zero Repeat Forever with the caption: “TFW I sold out of book 1 in a day.” By the time Christmas rolled around, she was posting about the consequences of that success: her book was sold out at major Canadian retailers, with no hope of a speedy restock. “My book went viral!” reads the text of her first post. Its initial purpose was to celebrate an unexpected success: her novel, Zero Repeat Forever, was hitting top charts on Amazon. In October 2020, young adult novelist Gabrielle Prendergast made a TikTok account. “TikTok made me buy it” display table at Bolen Books.

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