Book Recommendations for the Chronically Online

One of my very first friends on Substack, Elle and I quickly bonded over not just our love of reading and books, but of pop culture and our passion for being online. So when I asked her if she wanted to write a guest post for me, it was almost a no-brainer that she put together a list of books for the chronically online reader. I hope you love them—I know I have a few to add to my TBR.

I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Richardson’s work since the almighty algorithm placed her in my path. I read her book, TRAD, in one sitting, and I can’t shut up about it. In fact, I liked it so much that I invited her to write a post on my page about her experience writing the book.

During our chats, we’ve talked a lot about what it means to be chronically online, especially in today’s world where the line between who we are online and who we are in “real life” is increasingly blurred. So, when she asked me to share my list of books for the Chronically Online, I wanted to focus on books not so much that are popular online right now, but that deal with the topic of fame, visibility, and, especially, women on the internet.

My picks include fiction and nonfiction. In addition to being highly entertaining, many of them would also make fantastic book club picks. I know I’ve discussed more than a few of these with my friends as we reckon with what it means to be a woman living in 2026.

If you haven’t read this book yet, what are you even doing?? Elizabeth was kind enough to send me the complete book, and it was an easy 5 stars for me! I love how TRAD isn’t just about tradwives. Instead, it’s about how our online and offline identities merge in ways we often can’t anticipate and what the true cost of attention seeking really is.

When her far more successful friend Athena Liu dies in a freak accident, Juniper Hayward walks out with her unfinished manuscript and publishes it as her own, under the name Juniper Song. After a meteoric rise to the NYT bestseller list, the internet starts asking questions…

Yellowface runs on Twitter pile-ons, Goodreads star ratings, and anonymous accounts. June can’t stop refreshing her notifications like they’re oxygen as she races to save her reputation. Is there anything more chronically online than getting canceled?

Lili Lowe gets caught having an affair with her married politician boss. Rather than let it bury her, her mother Lydia turns the scandal into a business plan. Lili goes from booking meetings to booking talk shows while her sisters get dragged into the spotlight alongside her.

When I recommend this to friends, I recommend it as Kardashians meet Monica Lewinsky, and the perfect read after Yesteryear. Like Yesteryear and TRAD, The Lowe Job examines how we treat women in the spotlight and what it really means to share one’s life online.

Marcus, the nerdy star of a massive fantasy TV show, secretly writes fanfic about his own series. When April gets body-shamed online for her elaborate cosplay centered around the show, Marcus asks her out to publicly defend her. Marcus realizes he wants more, but a huge secret stands between them.

I wanted to include a few romances on this list, because nearly all of my friends met their partners online. This whole romance is built on forums, screen names, and DMs and on two people whose online lives come crashing into real life.

It’s 2015, and Orla and Floss come up with a shady scheme to manufacture internet fame. Decades later, a woman named Marlow lives in a town where government-appointed celebrities are constantly filmed for an audience of millions. Until she finally summons the courage to flee….

This is influencer culture taken to a dark endpoint, where being watched stops being a choice and starts becoming the entire architecture lives are built upon. Full disclosure - this was a 3-star read for me. But it’s incredibly thought-provoking and absolutely had to be included on this list.

After she goes viral for a single absurd post, a woman starts traveling the world giving talks and meeting her fans. She quickly becomes overwhelmed by life on “the portal,” then an emergency yanks her out of the feed and into something devastatingly real.

This book initially piqued my curiosity because it mixes several genres: lit fic, contemporary, and fantasy, all while providing a really unique take on what it means to be chronically online. After all, how does one reckon with the online self when it clashes with real life?

Akari, a Japanese teenager barely keeping her offline life together, is completely obsessed with J-pop idol Masaki. She spends hours and hours online, scrolling for Masaki news and writing her blog. When he’s accused of assaulting one of his fans, the scandal begins to shake the foundations of her identity.

A portrait of parasocial devotion, the book talks about the dangers of organizing your entire identity around someone who doesn’t even know you exist – and what happens when that anchor snaps. I’m fascinated by “stan culture” and have had this book on my TBR for quite some time. The Goodreads rating is 3.2, but some of the best books I’ve ever read have terrible ratings on the app, so don’t let that deter you if this one sounds interesting to you.

After Asha codes a wildly successful app that helps people invent their own spiritual rituals, she watches her husband become the beloved face of the app, despite the fact that she’s the brains behind the app. In an unexpected twist, he shoots to fame and starts being treated like a prophet.

I’ve long been completely fascinated by the near-religious devotion with which so many people treat prominent online figures. I haven’t read a book yet that dives so directly into this theme, and writing this post for Elizabeth reminded me that I need to bump this to the top of my TBR. If you’ve ever been interested in the way online communities seem to worship their leaders, or the way a woman’s work vanishes behind a man’s brand, this book is for you.

In Like, Follow, Subscribe, journalist Fortesa Latifi investigates the child influencer industry: the kids whose parents turn their potty-training and meltdowns into monetized content for millions of strangers. She talks to former kidfluencers, psychologists, and labor experts about the real cost this industry has on the kids at its center.

If TRAD is about choosing to perform your life online, this is about the influencers who never go a say and were raised inside a content machine.

Dunham’s viral memoir tracks the decade of her life from selling the Girls pilot to now. She talks candidly about how fame bent her relationships, body, and sense of self. Reviews say it’s both funny and raw, in signature Dunham style.

Dunham was one of the first people the internet adored then dragged. This is the view of what it’s like to really live that from someone who had the experience before we really had the awareness of what was happening.

Dell Danvers works a smoothie counter in Grand Central, watched on security cameras by a boss who could fire her over a single bad review. After an incident with a customer, she turns the camera on herself, livestreaming as she eats hotter and hotter peppers to raise money for her sick sister’s care.

Every other book here treats being watched as the price of fame. This one is about being watched as a condition of having a job at all, and going viral as the only way out.