Yes, No, Maybe: Men on BookTok (Part 1)
Booktokers: they're not just husbands!
As promised, this week, I’m diving into the classifications of types of men on BookTok, all rare species (so far). This will be part one of two, since I found too many rich texts to tackle in just one week. I could probably dedicate an entire issue to the screenshot above, Google’s AI-powered search result for my search for BookTok men. What a strange and fascinating collection of book boyfriends. Would I watch Edward Cullen’s booktoks?
Mostly I had one question as I dove deeper into this corner of BookTok: is Brandon Sanderson the Colleen Hoover of men on BookTok? (lots of women on BookTok read him, too).
But before I get to the men of BookTok, I do want to provide an update on how the election results are shaping content on BookTok. Towards the end of last week and over the weekend, many BookTok creators outed themselves as thinking that reading is not a political activity, complaining about the political discussions infiltrating the space. Here’s a link to a Wired article that does a decent job of summarizing the events of the past week.
I don’t want to provide any of this with oxygen, so I won’t link to them, but I will provide screenshots of some of the conversations happening.
It’s unfortunate that we need to clarify this, but Donald Trump is not a morally grey hero. Morally grey heroes aren’t real. No one wants a boyfriend who is also a serial killer in real life.
One thing I’d like to point out is that a lot of the discussions about conservative women on BookTok have quickly turned to a denigration of the types of books that are popular on BookTok. I don’t think this is particularly productive. All types of people read romance, and it isn’t an inherently anti-intellectual pursuit. There are PLENTY of reasons to criticize these jabronis without turning to “the books they read are trash and are rotting women’s brains.” I’d like to believe most readers can differentiate between fantasy and reality.
Meanwhile, liberal BookTokers are responding.
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Which finally leads us to “hot BookTok guy.” Apparently, it’s very easy to earn the title of “hot BookTok guy,” because this man is not particularly hot. He also voted for Trump.
The self-proclaimed “Thriller King of BookTok,” Jacob has amassed 157,000 followers. And surprise, surprise, he was the boyfriend of Callie, a controversial BookToker in her own right who we’ve previously discussed here (it seems like they broke up?). His content is a mix of short form book reviews and trending audio where he positions himself as a book boyfriend or implies that he reads romance to understand what women want. Even before he revealed himself to be a Trump voter, his content was smug and pandering. See the below video, where he touches all of the books his girlfriend doesn’t want him to touch:
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I do expect to see a fair amount of this type of bookfluencer moving forward as it becomes more and more obvious that there is money to be made in this space. Save yourselves.
Moving on from Jacob, we encounter @vinopapi23, a fascinating and far more authentic male BookToker. His video about books that “made me shed a thug tear,” below, was the first I organically saw in my quest to explore this side of BookTok, and it is a RICH TEXT:
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Smitty seems to primarily be a sci-fi reader, and his list of books that made him shed a tear mostly fit into that vein: The Sword of Kaigen, Blood over Bright Haven, Kingdoms of Death, The Reformatory, Rhythm of War, The Hero of Ages, Morning Star, AND Tuesdays with Morrie! Love that he closes with a tearjerker classic. Smitty has 193,000 followers and his videos frequently receive millions of views. He’s even sponsored by Sonic (the fast food chain, not the hedgehog). His enthusiasm is genuine and he’s recommending books I haven’t heard of. Plus, he loves Brandon Sanderson.
Another BookToker in this vein is Jonah, who uses the standard BookTok formats to talk about his favorites - mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but also Stephen King and anime.
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Smitty and Jonah are some of the genuine BookTok influencers on the platform whose style is very similar to many of their most popular female counterparts. If you or someone you love likes sci-fi or fantasy, they have some great recommendations - maybe I finally need to read The Will of the Many.
In a similar category is Tell the Bees, who creates videos about pop culture and books, but who definitely sits on the more literary side of BookTok. He’s an excellent, thoughtful follow providing fresh perspective. I, too, hated, Bunny.
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Boyfriends and Husbands
Easier to find on mainstream BookTok, at least in my feed? Boyfriends and husbands. There’s a certain subsection of BookTok that thrives off of male reactions to spicy romance novels (see - books my husband didn’t read, but he loved). The logical extension of this trend is videos of boyfriends and husbands reacting to popular romance. They don’t even need to be present in the video to be the main character, as seen below.
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There are also several couples with joint accounts, where both review books and trade recommendations. Cody and James are one very popular example, with 436,000 followers. They swap books, read through ACOTAR together, and even created content about their engagement.
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A lot of these videos seem to have been born out of a desire to get men to validate women’s taste in fiction, which might be why they feel off-putting to me. Cody and James are cute, but I don’t care if he likes ACOTAR or not. This all reminds me of one of my favorite internet essays, An Open Letter to the Female Hat-Wearing Dog From Go Dog, Go.
Men are more than welcome to read romance novels - everyone is welcome to read romance novels. But I’m not interested in their reading of them being presented for shock value, reinforcing a gender essentialist take that romance novels are only for women. I far prefer the creators who are earnestly sharing their reading and in search of genuine connection.
Next week, we’ll continue to explore types of men on BookTok (including influencers, authors, wannabe comedians, guys who say “good girl” in a deep voice, and John Green talking about Tuberculosis), and I’d love to hear from you - have you seen any particularly interesting toks from male creators? Please share!
Through the end of the year, I’ll be doing additional posts for paid subscribers (beyond monthly links), including my best of the year list, the books I’m most looking forward to in 2025, and my trend predictions for commercial fiction as we enter another Trump presidency and an era of turmoil and instability. Please consider a paid subscription if you’re interested in any of the above!
"All types of people read romance, and it isn’t an inherently anti-intellectual pursuit."
Preach.
Also, I sat in a class taught by Brandon Sanderson at a writer's conference where he sang the praises of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. He gets it.