Silent Reviews

About

Silent Reviews are reviews of products presented with no speech, instead relying on physical actions, emotions and body language to review the subject. The trend was started by BookTok TikToker @stephreadsalot in October 2023 and spread over the following months, resulting in silent reviews of products and subjects beyond just books. In January 2024, the creator of the trend claimed she was stepping away from it due to its oversaturation online. Some silent reviews incorporate elements of ASMR.

Origin

On October 9th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @stephreadsalot, a BookToker, posted a video where she reviews several books while remaining completely silent, using only physical actions to review the books, garnering over 300,000 views in three months (shown below).

The TikToker continued to post more silent reviews going forward, becoming one of her more popular video series. For example, on October 11th, she posted a silent review to TikTok^[2] that gained over 2.4 million views in three months (shown below, left). On October 13th, she posted a video to TikTok^[3] that gained over 2.6 million views in three months (shown below, right).

Spread

The trend became increasingly popularized both inside and outside of BookTok over the following months. On November 27th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @janyias_bookjournal posted a silent book review that gained over 9 million views in two months (shown below, left). On December 18th, TikToker^[5] @meitham posted a silent makeup review that gained over 3.4 million views in a month (shown below, right).

On January 8th, 2024, Business Insider^[6] published an article about silent reviews in which they interviewed the trend's originator, who claims that the ubiquity of the trend has made her unenthusiastic about posting more silent reviews. On January 10th, TikToker^[7] @stephaniepena__ posted a silent review of a box of cookies that gained over a million views in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References