Six hours into a fantasy ball, actor Zach Harrison is sweating. He’s been wearing handmade leather armor, huge boots, and heavy six-foot bat wings all night, all while ballroom dancing and taking pictures with hundreds of fans without taking a break.
But they’re not here to see Harrison.
They’re here to meet Cassian, Lord of Bloodshed: a 500-year-old faerie who commands the army of the Night Court. For one night at a time, Harrison dons his elaborate costume and brings to life a beloved character from Sarah J. Maas’ smash hit romantasy book series A Court of Thorns and Roses, performing at balls across the United States and beyond.
Boosted by BookTok, the skyrocketing success of romantasy — a genre that mixes romance and fantasy — is changing what it means to engage with books. Fell in love with a faerie king on the page? It doesn’t have to be a private experience. With the help of TikTok’s book community and its own influencers, there’s a growing world of book-themed fantasy balls. Now, you can spend the night twirling with him on the dance floor.
“There is a bit of weight that comes with being an established character that people love,” Harrison says. “It’s a chance for you to be part of that story that you’ve been lost in so many times. And come away with a picture.”
One of 2024’s bestselling authors, Maas has sold 38 million copies of the series worldwide, fueled in part by the rise of BookTok, which has upended the publishing business, propelling books like Maas’ (published in 2015) to the top of bestseller lists. Romantasy books are now a $471 million industry. Their success has been boosted by “bookish” creators and influencers on TikTok, where the hashtag “romantasy” saw a 300 percent increase last year.
Books like Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing are raking in huge profits, not only for publishers. The Boston Red Sox recently announced the team is partnering with Yarros for a special Fourth Wing-themed night at Fenway Park, complete with exclusive dragon-riding baseball swag and special editions of the novel. And beyond that, the genre has created a slew of microeconomies, including OnlyFans performers, UCLA romantasy writing courses, and reading retreats in the Catskills.
But perhaps the most elaborate trend that’s developed over the last year is fantasy balls. Often held in dramatic locations (think San Francisco City Hall), attendees spend between $100 and $400 on tickets (not including thousands spent on costumes) for these unofficial fan events. Balls vary in length and style, but many last six hours or more and include all-night dancing, photo ops, and open bars. Performers, many of whom are well-known “bookish” content creators on social media, are paid to embody characters like the shapeshifting faerie King Tamlin or bat-winged shadowsinger Azriel from the Court of Thorns and Roses series, staying in character all night, performing choreographed routines, and mingling with guests. A VIP ticket may include a dance with your favorite character.
Shaun Wada, a bookish content creator and performer who describes himself as “the dark-haired love interest from your fantasy novels,” thinks the surge in popularity of fantasy balls is related to the covid-19 pandemic and our desire for escapism.
“All of us were cooped up for so long,” Wada says, “And we just wanted to have that human connection again, and have fun and not be tied down with the mundane.”
Wada, who has appeared at several balls, says the scene has exploded in the last year. But it’s still more of a passion project than a viable career. Like most of these performers, Wada has a day job that supports him, and he says he’s personally invested $15,000 in costuming, including custom boots, for his roles.
The industry is still working out its best practices, Wada says, with tight margins, variable pay for actors, and no corporate sponsorships. Some big bookish influencers get $5,000 to attend a single event, but Wada will take just $2,000 or less so he can support specific events or other performers like him that he likes. And there’s a feedback loop: balls create more social media content, which, in turn, boosts the profile of TikTok creators turned performers, leading to more balls and more opportunities to perform. And it’s not just about showing up and wearing a costume. For a recent ball, Wada spent months training to perform choreographed ballroom dances.
Harrison, who had no idea what a “Cassian” was when an event booker initially reached out to him, has come to love the character and understand how much he means to fans. “There’s a slightly blurrier line between performer and performance in this space,” he says. “You want to make sure people are safe and taken care of.”
James Jericho, a Nashville-based professional musician who makes bookish content and has performed at balls, also emphasized the need to create a safe space for majority-female attendees.
Talking about the Court of Thorns and Roses character Rhysand, Jericho argues that while at times he’s an “absolute monster,” to the main character Feyre, he’s “everything.” “To Feyre, he’s her mate,” Jericho says, and in the realm of fiction, he believes “it’s 100% harmless.” As a performer, Jericho aims to understand why readers love characters like Rhysand, or Xaden from Fourth Wing. “You essentially have to be attracted to these men too,” he says.
Romance is the only genre largely written by women and queer people, for women and queer people. Part of the draw of romance, as a genre, is that it allows people to explore desire and sexual fantasy safely, even as the books have been dismissed as trashy or porny, says Netta Baker, an advanced instructor at Virginia Tech who studies romantasy and BookTok.
“It must be subversive,” Baker says, “if people have been so eager to make sure we felt shamed for reading it for 50 years, right?”
Baker also attributes the surge of popularity in romance to the current political climate. These faerie men may be six-foot-eight, have wings and claws or horns, and wield magical powers (they’ve been dubbed “Shadow Daddies”). But, in many of the books, they also represent a long-held fantasy: the devoted lover who might eviscerate his enemies but would never hurt his soulmate or violate her consent.
For its part, TikTok has noted the potential of bookish content to drive real-life sales. The company announced last year that it’s expanding into the publishing industry, with its parent company, ByteDance, launching its own imprint focused on romance, contemporary fiction, young adult, and romantasy.
Bookish content creators have propelled romantasy books to the top of bestseller lists. This has created demand for events like fantasy balls. The ball attendees and performers churn out their own videos, raising the profile of the bookish creators involved. And no one knows how far it could go, especially given that the threat of a TikTok ban still hangs over bookish creators’ heads. And although many of them maintain profiles on other platforms like Instagram, these performers know there’s no guarantee the romantasy ball trend will translate into a career.
“I’m acutely aware that the ride can end at any time,” Harrison says. His goal, like many of the fans at these balls, is just to “enjoy the dance, while the music’s playing.”
