Pop Culture Trend Drop: Fourth Spaces & the New Literary Scene
Published 31 July 2025
Stylus' monthly Pop Culture Trend Drop videos turn a 90-second spotlight on an emerging trend or developing discourse from the world of entertainment and online culture. With the Stylus eye for future-facing innovations, we break down what's happening, who it's reaching, and why it's key for your brand engagement messaging.
Spurred by mega-recommendation machine #BookTok (280 billion TikTok views), publishing’s new purple patch is powering a next-gen literary scene, providing readers with craved-for unplugged media experiences and community-anchored ‘fourth spaces’ (gathering places explicitly for bridging online shared passions with offline communion). From online book clubs and a reading-night renaissance, to spotlighting new favourite genres, big bibliophilic brand opportunities beckon.
Video Transcript
Have you discovered fourth spaces?
Evolving the third space, fourth spaces are community-anchored gatherings, specifically for bringing online passions offline, speaking to the 95% of US 18-35-year-olds interested in turning their online interests into real-world interactions. So, what’s powering them?
Enter the new-gen literary scene, activated by Gen Z and millennial women exploring their lives and selves through literature. Spurred by #booktok, this reading renaissance is generating an online book club boom and the #litgirl aesthetic.
And also inspiring new multimedia platforms tying literary passions to personal growth, like Sunnie, an offshoot of (almost billion dollar) TV/film literary adaptation powerhouse Hello Sunshine focused on Gen Zalpha girls/women, spanning online book club, digital zines, and US-wide in-person events. Sunnie focuses on self-discovery, confidence-building, and stories of young womanhood’s travails.
Certain genres are rising to the top of this literary scene including romantasy (that’s romance plus fantasy). Ever heard of 13-million-copy-selling ACOTAR? And sex-forward fiction, aka ‘spicy reads’, with #smutbook and #spicybooks reaching nearly 5 billion #booktook views.
While self-help books – like American personal-growth guru Mel Robbins’ mega viral Let Them Theory, about giving up trying to control other people’s actions, are enjoying renewed demand (as well as banking millions of podcast downloads).
This enthusiasm is fuelling a growing roster of reading-night fourth spaces like the London Girls Book Club and Book & Sip across the US, which pick up the grand tradition of literary salons, historically places of intellectual discovery often led by women.
Today’s reading nights dive into novels, essays, and poetry, frequently providing platforms for new writers.
These fourth spaces are about building much-desired bridges for turning digital discovery into offline cultural communion, providing rich unplugged media experiences.
For brands, bibliophilic opportunities that support fourth spaces beckon -for the brave, even in the #spicyreads movement.