BroTok 2 Electric Boogaloo
a continued compendium
And we’re back, with even more men of BookTok! I am (mostly) not on Threads because I find the energy over there to be intensely overwhelming (even compared to BookTok, which tells you something!) so I only see bits and pieces of the conversations happening on BookThreads. But I know that last week there was a conversation about if there are enough books about boys for male middle grade and young adult readers. This is kind of a both, and situation for me (sure, there could be more AND teenage girls read plenty of books about boys and men, especially in school, and seem to turn out just fine), but I do think it’s interesting to continue this conversation about men on BookTok and what they are reading in light of that constant debate. Because, as BookTokers like our new fav Smitty have shown us, there are plenty of books for male readers to discover. So, without further ado, more classifications of the types of men on BookTok.
Influencers
You might be saying, Alyssa, all of the men on BookTok are influencers. And this might be true, depending on your definition of influencer. But the men I’m describing here are broader TikTok influencers who dip their toes into the BookTok waters in order to expand their audience.
Kian McCaffrey mostly posts about outfits and getting roasted by his fans, who think his glasses make him look like Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks. But Kian also has an occasional series about BookTok, where he reads popular books recommended by “the ladies of BookTok.” His most recent selection was Ana Huang’s King of Wrath, a contemporary arranged marriage romance about a billionaire and a jewelry heiress who is also the daughter of his worst enemy (gasp).
Kian is, predictably, astonished. Isn’t that the point? “Who let me read this…my innocence is slowly diminishing as I read, book by book,” he says. This video has 1.5 million views and the Audible brand account commented on it. But I ask again, why do we care?
Among Kian’s revelations are that many romance novels are interconnected, like “a Marvel cinematic universe of spicy books.” His review kind of devolves into protestations of his heterosexuality as he talks about listening to the audiobook narrator’s deep voice and needing to stop listening. I’ve never heard a straight woman say the female voice narrating her audiobook is too sexy.
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But he’s still going to read the next book in the series - of course he is! These are some of his most popular videos. Kian isn’t the only influencer dipping his toe into BookTok content, and for good reason. They can read the books, pretend to be scandalized, and rack up the views.
Which leads us to:
Sexy Narrators and Role Play
Devon Braithwaite, who as far as I can tell does not narrate any of the official audiobooks for Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros, has built a TikTok following of 167,000 by posting sexy quotes from ACOTAR and Fourth Wing. You will note that he also looks a lot like the various AI-powered representations of shadow daddies. Good for Devon for finding a niche and taking it seriously, even if it’s not content that I am personally interested in consuming.
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Breaking the Fourth Wall
In fanfiction, a popular adage reminds people not to break the fourth wall - that is, don’t share fanfiction with the people it’s about, or the actors who play the characters it’s about. People rarely listen, even though the interactions that come out of this choice are uncomfortable at best. So on BookTok, of course we have videos of teenaged hockey players reacting to hockey romances. This could be worse, but we all know how bad this can get (see the Seattle Kraken BookTok scandal of 2023). Leave these poor boys alone! That said, if an actual hockey player wanted to start a channel where he reacted to hockey romances, sure.
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As a side note, my favorite hockey-related tiktok is this one from 2020, where a Canadian girl guesses hockey players’ nicknames:
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WHOLESOME.
Wannabe Comedians
Andr3w has 1.3 million (!!!) followers on TikTok. He seems to be a lawyer but does a lot of talking to the camera about politics and funny things from his daily life. He also recaps books like Throne of Glass and Fourth Wing, the latter in an 8 minute (!!!) long video - “I read books so you don’t have to,” he starts. Despite the fact that it seems like he hated Fourth Wing, he rated it 3.65/5 stars. This is how you know romantasy has entered the mainstream, I guess. I don’t think his review is particularly funny or insightful, but clearly a million other people do, so your mileage may vary.
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Authors
Pickup Artists and Men’s Rights Activists
Unfortunately, in my quest for BookTok men, I discovered The Way of the Superior Man. Published in 1997, it’s the current #1 bestseller in the sex and sexuality category on Amazon. According to @lastrealoneleft, “this book is 190 pages of pure game.” One of the most interesting things about the popularity of this book on TikTok is that it is being sold in TikTok shopping storefronts (unlike many other popular BookTok books). Just look at this tok from BookTokShop6, captioned “Kings, don't let her know you have this book 👑🤐.” Thanks I hate it.
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John Green Talking About TB
Is it surprising that John Green, king of YouTube, understands how to make a short form video? Absolutely not. I just thought we needed a palate cleanser here.
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To conclude: all of this reminds me of a passage from Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns): “Forgive me, but being a guy is so easy. A little Kiehl's, a little Bumble and Bumble, a peacoat, and Chuck Taylors, and you're hot.” It’s not that hard to be a man on BookTok! All you need to do is read books and respect women.
Imaginary Celebrity Book Club
WWTCR - what would Timothée Chalamet Read? What would Club Chalamet think about his choices? If he isn’t a reader, at the very least, he chooses a lot of interesting book adaptation projects. And if he’s the manic pixie dream boy everyone wants him to be, maybe he’d pick something like Didion and Babitz, an exploration of newly discovered letters between the pair. Whatever he chose, it would probably be more interesting than The Way of the Superior Man.
There will be a November link roundup for paid subscribers this Sunday, and then I’ll take next Friday off. Through the rest of the year, barring any obvious new trends that pop up, I’m planning to dive deep on audiobooks, narrators, and trending audio, monster romance, holiday romance, and found families - but is there anything else you’d like to know about? Have you read anything particularly weird, wild, or wonderful, lately? Please free me from the prison of my own algorithm xoxo
“seems to be a lawyer” lol
John Green consistently wins the internet.
Not quite what you asked for, but definitely wonderful: middle grade rec starring a girl (gasp) and boys will love (double gasp) based on completely anecdotal data. I gave The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman to my 12 yo nephew last year. He loved it and recently asked me when Hartman's next book will be out. Published by Little Brown, I will sing this book's praises to all who will listen. (Full disclosure: Aubrey is my writing critique partner, but, also, her next middle grade book has already received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. So my praise isn't completely biased).