‘Book Boyfriends’ and ‘Shadow Daddies’: the men cashing in on romantasy

Six hours into a phantasy ball, histrion Zach Harrison is sweating. He’s been wearing handmade leather armor, immense boots, and dense six-foot bat wings each night, each portion ballroom dancing and taking pictures with hundreds of fans without taking a break. 

But they’re not present to spot Harrison.

They’re present to conscionable Cassian, Lord of Bloodshed: a 500-year-old faerie who commands the service of the Night Court. For 1 nighttime astatine a time, Harrison dons his elaborate costume and brings to beingness a beloved quality from Sarah J. Maas’ smash deed romantasy publication bid A Court of Thorns and Roses, performing astatine balls crossed the United States and beyond.

Boosted by BookTok, the skyrocketing occurrence of romantasy — a genre that mixes romance and phantasy — is changing what it means to prosecute with books. Fell successful emotion with a faerie king connected the page? It doesn’t person to beryllium a backstage experience. With the assistance of TikTok’s publication assemblage and its ain influencers, there’s a gro …

Read the afloat communicative astatine The Verge.