Since booktok and bookstagram has made the market explode, bookish people have been begging for an alternative to Goodreads. One with better statistics, half star and quarter star ratings and DNF’s. Prayers have been answered, but as the saying goes “careful what you wish for” – we seem to have gotten more than what we’ve bargained for. The market is suddenly flooded with bookish apps; The Storygraph, Fable, TBR-Bookshelf, Bookly , Reading List, Bookmory, Book tracker, Bookshelf, BookBuddy etc.

If you didn’t already know – Goodreads is owned by Amazon, so it’s positioned nicely in between the reader and the supplier and is linked with your amazon account and your kindle. So if you’re reading on your kindle you can access your goodreads from there. Another little known fact is that Advanced readers copies can be sent straight to your kindle, and are also therefore on goodreads. But the goodreads platform has been stagnant for well over a decade. We’ve seen them test a few beta versions of this and that, but so far no real structural change has come.

Enter The Storygraph (or just “Storygraph” as most people call it, drop the “The” sincerely, all of us.) Launched in 2019, The Storygraph was the answer to all the readers dreams; you could import your goodreads library and say goodbye to goodreads while supporting a black-female-owned business! Yes!

The Storygraph has everything we thought we wanted, we can give quarter ratings, pie charts and statistics, an “up next” feature which will inevitably be a never ending TBR, you can DNF, pause and review things like mood, pacing and give conent warnings. But then what’s the downside if we got everything we wanted?

It’s not built to work as a social platform – just yet. While I’ve grown and curated my friendships on goodreads (where it’s also impossible to find people!), The Storygraph seems to miss that part. It does however have a great section where you can find buddy reads and people to follow. But if you’re new and you don’t have a lot of friends, your feed feels like an abandoned parking lot. But as a personal journal and statistic for your reads – it’s perfect. So while The Storygraph was hailed as the new Queen, people like me, have been holding on to our goodreads. Which is great, cause now we have 2 apps to input all our stuff into. And if I’m being honest, the one I always forgot to update was The Storygraph. It’s hard to leave behind a wall you’ve grown accustomed to for 14 years.

Two years later, in 2021, fable entered the chat. I only heard about it in 2024 and at first glance it felt like too much of a step away from goodreads that I didn’t quite believe in it being the next big thing. But after using it a while, I see how it is going to take over as the number one book app. First of all – it’s very immersive. It has book lists galore, a quiz to help you find your next read based on your mood, great similar book recommendations, and you can choose between a wall of your friends list or a “for you” page – which is great when you don’t have any friends. I even got a like on the first review I ever posted – that doesn’t even happen on goodreads where I even have friends! And bonus – you can import your friends from goodreads (the ones that are on fable of course.)

There are book clubs you can join, and you can even create your own. (So that “Bookclubs” app that I downloaded a year ago was suddenly obsolete, much like vine when Instagram got reels.) It also gives you the stats, with monthly and yearly pictures you can share. (Much like “Bookmory”, so yet another app headed to the cemetary or useless apps.) It does not however, give you as many statistics as The Storygraph, but it does have quarter stars.

Fable seems to take the best of all platforms. You can track progress with streaks, on individual books, both percentage or pages. Post quotes on the wall, and see posts from other people reading the same book as you. It’s the most interactive app for readers who want to socialize, but with a low threshold. And to top it all off, it contributes 20% of their net profit to the World Literacy Foundation. What’s not to love here?

And just to top it off, fable also includes tv-shows. So all your favorite books that are now streaming, you can combine them. I’ve found a book club for reading books and then watching the show. There’s a Gilmore girl book club, a bookclub for each genre and you can follow and read along with the founder Padmasree Warrior. You can also use it to track the series you watch – not by episode or as advanced as trakt.tv (one app still safe here!) but logging series is a good bonus if you ask me. (But it makes me wonder why it’s just series and not movies too? I feel like Letterboxd easily could have been incorporated in fable, but I’m no IT-expert, so I should shut up now.)

To answer the question if goodreads has been dethroned – I would have to say maybe in the future, but not yet. It’s a little too early to tell. But unless goodreads updates it’s platform and actually brings us something new and not just rounded corners and bookmark challenges, I’d say that fable is winning this race and by the end of 2025 I might migrate fully to just one platform. For now, I’m updating all three as well as doing a physical reading journal. (Time consuming, I know!) Since I downloaded Fable, I have deleted the apps TBR. bookmory and bookclubs and the rest are in line to say farewell.

BUT if you will indulge me a few small reason to not delete goodreads: I follow some amazing reviewers on goodreads that share similar taste in books. I also see their reviews first on any book I look up. A lot of these reviewers are not on Fable – yet. And Fable is only usable as an app, not as a website.

Another issue I found was that Fable doesn’t have all the books that goodreads has. I was just given an arc that I logged on goodreads, but it can’t be found on Fable. I’m sure Fable will add the book to the library at some point, but it won’t be able to be added to my current streak, or monthly read. At The Storygraph I could add the book, but on Fable I have to request it be added. Goodreads also awards me with knowing my stats – if I’m a top contributor, a top reader or top reviewer. Lists I’ve been on for close to a decade. I can’t see these features on either The Storygraph or Fable.

To sum up, while I am convinced that Fable is the superior book app right now, I can’t let go of goodreads just yet because of a few details I’m not ready to let go of. I don’t really know what to do with The Storygraph yet either. But ff you are new to reading and/or tracking your books, I’d say Fable is the way to go if you’re looking to expand your bookish experience.

If you want to follow me on any of the platforms, please feel welcome to do so:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5477852-marie-stephanie

https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/marieandthebooks

https://fable.co/invite/?referralID=dhJjAkIYPm