LB* read her first gay smut book somewhat by accident. It was about seven years ago, and her aunt recommended J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The stories seemed like a typical vampire romance. That is, until the 11th book, Lover At Last, when the series introduced its first main romance between two male characters.
“It just opened up a whole new world to me,” LB, who asked to remain anonymous, says of the male x male romance genre, more popularly known as M/M. “And I just really haven’t gone back to anything else as my primary reading.”
LB—who recommends M/M books to her thousands of TikTok followers under the account @wreckitralph808reviews—is just one of many women who prefer gay romance books to their straight counterparts. A 2022 study done by the fan fiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) found that M/M slash fic—fan fiction between two men—was the most popular ship type at almost 26%. Of the survey’s 5,000 respondents, over 53% identified as cisgender women. The second-highest population was made up of people who identified as nonbinary, at 13%.
Where did M/M books come from?
The data didn’t come as a surprise to Mel Stanfill (they/them), one of the coauthors of the study and a professor at UCF, who considers M/M fan fiction—which has existed since at least the 1960s—the origin of the M/M book genre. “The classic example is Kirk and Spock in Star Trek in the ’60s,” they say.
According to Stanfill, the birth of M/M fan fiction in the ’60s was mainly due to two things: the lack of female characters in pop culture and the upswing of second-wave feminism, which focused on critiquing patriarchal cultural practices throughout society. “These were people who were compelled by these characters, and they wanted to think about their relationships, and their intense relationships were with other men,” Stanfill says. “Women would be able to think through a relationship that didn’t have an automatic gender bias and inequality. You could be an equal.”
The lack of gender stereotypes is also what makes the M/M book genre so appealing to women today, especially compared to the male archetypes that are often seen in straight romance books. “The media presents males as masculine and strong,” says LB. “It’s assuming that what we’ve seen of one person is going to appear as the collective. I don’t automatically assume every male I come across is going to be masculine, strong and have no emotions. Seeing different types of men in M/M romances is where I feel like it’s more intimate.”
Who reads M/M books?
But while women make up the majority of the M/M community, Stanfill has found that, contrary to popular belief, very few of them identify as straight. Most of them identify with queer sexualities, like bisexuality or pansexuality, where at least one of the genders they’re attracted to is men. Per Stanfill, this attraction to men is also represented in why gay smut, specifically, is so popular among the M/M community. “There’s kind of the impetus of lesbian porn, like one lady hot, two ladies hotter. One dude hot, two dudes hotter,” Stanfill says. “They’re sort of using these characters as dolls to have fun in a way that doesn’t feel personal and feels safer because it’s more distant and there’s no one that is a representation of them appearing in the story.”
LB, who identifies as pansexual, however, wants to make clear that there’s a fine line between attraction and fetishization, a misconception she and many members of the M/M community are trying to fight against. It’s not just two guys getting it on. That’s where the fetishism comes from,” she says. “These are real people. Not a character based off of a real person, but the genre itself is based off of a group of people that have struggled forever to be seen and heard.”
Stephanie Johnson, another M/M content creator who recommends books under her account @stephsometimesreads, also explained that the appeal of M/M books isn’t necessarily the sex, but the story of identity and self-discovery that’s told. “Whenever I’m asked, ‘Why M/M romance?,’ I say that I love to read about different types of love that I will never be able to experience in my real life,” she says. “It doesn’t matter that I’m reading about fictional characters. I still get to experience perspectives and connections that I wouldn’t normally be able to. I’m always drawn to reading about the courage it takes a character to come out to the world or internally confront their own sexuality.”
For LB, who grew up feeling like she should’ve been born a male, M/M books also provided an outlet to see life through someone else’s eyes. “While transitioning wasn’t my journey, reading the types of books where both main characters are male and present as male gave me that safe space to explore [my identity],” she says. “It gives me that little safe bubble to where I can explore that by myself and back off if I need to. I could be in that doorway between, and that was safe for me.”
Why is there backlash against M/M books?
Still, the M/M book genre isn’t without controversy. According to Dr. Bridget Kies, a professor at Oakland University specializing in queer media, there’s been significant backlash toward female authors who write M/M books, which is why the genre is often labeled as “M/M” and not “gay romance”—indicating the authors are often not gay men. “The readership wasn’t necessarily intended to be gay men or even LGBTQ people,” she says.
To combat the controversy, several female M/M authors have used male pseudonyms, a choice that has backfired on some. “Josh Lanyon was a highly prolific self-pub M/M romance author who got outed as actually being a woman with a male pen name,” Kies says. “And suddenly it seemed unacceptable to write an identity you didn’t live.”
And then there’s the criticism toward the M/M audience and the publishing industry’s preference toward books with muscular and masculine-presenting characters, something Christopher Rice, the male gay romance author behind the Sapphire Cove series, credits in part to the gay community. “The books that seemed to succeed sales-wise are ones in which the heroes both present as very stereotypically masculine,” Rice says. “I’d love to blame female romance authors for that. But the truth is, the fetishizing of masculine-presenting queer men above all others is something the gay community has been wrestling with for years.”
In his opinion, this stereotypical casting leaves something to be desired. “There’s something in me that switches off as a reader when both of the heroes are impossibly gorgeous or equally musclebound,” he adds. “Straight romance novels don’t feature heroines who are all Victoria’s Secret models and trust fund babies who land the man of their dreams.”
How popular are M/M books, really?
Despite the M/M genre’s increased visibility on TikTok, Stanfill notes there’s actually been a decline in popularity in recent years. “The amount of people that like male/male stories is actually decreasing over time,” they say. “It’s less dominant in younger groups than it used to be. In younger groups, there’s a large population of asexual people who don’t like sexual content or lesbians who want to see women content.”
There is some good news, however. While M/M books are on the decline, Kies also predicts an upward trend of other queer romance genres in line with readers’ change of interests. “Current trends indicate that sapphic (F/F or lesbian) romance is still much less popular than gay romance, but it is growing in popularity,” she says. “Nonbinary and trans romance books are published at rates even lower than sapphic, but they, too, are starting to become more popular, especially in YA categories.”
Still, whatever happens to the M/M book industry, its community is louder than ever. Search “M/M books” on TikTok, and you’ll find thousands of content creators recommending their favorite reads and effusing over the storyline, characters, and smut.
“It’s a whole community of not only the people who read it, but the people who write it,” LB says. “The common misconception is it’s just something we do. It’s an experience. Reading itself is an experience.”
The best M/M romance books, recommended by authors and TikTok
Curious to explore the genre? We asked M/M authors and TikTok content creators to recommend the best M/M books for first-timers.
You & Me by Tal Bauer
“I am not a slow burn person. I am very much into gratification. But that book is such a beautifully done slow burn to where you go along that journey with two single dads who both present as straight and find each other.
Tal—every single one of his books is an experience. It’s not a book. It’s not words on a page. It’s an experience. Specifically, that book spoke to me a lot because everything said that these two people shouldn’t be together. But it was woven so beautifully to make you believe from maybe page 10 that they should be together. It was just magical.” —LB, M/M TikTok content creator @wreckitralph808reviews
‘You and Me’ by Tal Bauer
$9.99
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To Catch a Firefly by Emmy Sanders
“I went through everything while reading this book. Personally, I want to be angry. I want to be sad. I want to laugh. I want to cry. I want to throw my Kindle across the room. I very much equate my reading experience to that.
It’s friends to lovers. It has the second chance element. It is neurodivergent. One of the characters has selective mutism, which isn’t something I had been exposed to very much. That book was something that let me explore a bunch of different emotions. It’s not too heavy. It’s something to kind of break you into the genre a little bit.” —LB
‘To Catch a Firefly’ by Emmy Sanders
$15.99
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The New Guy by Sarina Bowen
“This book features two men who are both very much interested in athletics but with two very different personalities. One of them is a natural caretaker and expresses that through the way he looks after his child, the way he cooks, and the way he looks after injured athletes. The other one has to grow into understanding his own ability to be someone who takes care of others.
All of that is set against the backdrop of an extremely competitive sporting situation with high stakes for everyone involved.” —Sarina Bowen, USA Today-bestselling author of M/M books like Him and Top Secret, both co-written with Elle Kennedy
‘The New Guy’ by Sarina Bowen
$14.69
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Breakaway by Avon Gale
“It’s a wonderful, deep character study of opposites attract—and a sexual journey that’s well-explored and carefully wrought.” —SB
‘Breakaway’ by Avon Gale
$0+
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For the Fans by Nyla K
“I made a TikTok the other week asking people what books they would consider core M/M BookTok books, and For the Fans was by far the most commented book. For the Fans is an ultra-spicy taboo romance between stepbrothers who create an OnlyFans account together to pay for college.
Despite being polar opposites, Kyran and Avi have an undeniable attraction to one another. And trust me, Kyran tries very hard to deny it. This high-heat story is full of pet names, first times, and the dirtiest of dirty talk.” —Stephanie Johnson, M/M TikTok content creator @stephsometimesreads
‘For the Fans’ by Nyla K
$20.66
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God of Fury by Rina Kent
“God of Fury is a dark M/M college romance that follows Nikolai and Brandon. When this book came out earlier this year, it had an immediate cult following, which is well deserved.
This story has a little bit of everything in it: It is an opposites attract, secret relationship, gay awakening story with a heavy dose of violence and chaos. The spice in this book does not disappoint when an eager bisexual Nikolai shows an uptight posh Brandon what he’s been missing out on. The all-consuming, possessive love that is in this story, combined with some seriously spicy scenes, makes for an easy five-star M/M book.” —SJ
‘God of Fury’ by Rina Kent
$21.59
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Sapphire Dawn by Christopher Rice
“I loved the challenge of making a romance hero out of a brash, outspoken proud former-porn-star-turned-porn-director who secretly longs for love but won’t compromise his career for a puritanical boyfriend.
Who hasn’t secretly longed to engage in doctor-patient role play with a former porn star on an actual porn set modeled after a doctor’s office? This is the stuff great marriages are made of.” —Christopher Rice, New York Times-bestselling author behind the M/M series Sapphire Cove. (Sapphire Dawn, the fourth Sapphire Cove book, is out June 25.)
Sapphire Dawn’ by Christopher Rice
$16.99
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The Prince’s Psalm by Eric Shaw Quinn
“My best friend Eric Shaw Quinn took the romantic relationship between Jonathan and David in the Bible—that’s right, the Bible—and wrote it as a swoon-filled, sensual, and epic love story called The Prince’s Psalm.
It wasn’t controversial at all. I mean, look at that cover! Promise.” —CR‘The Prince’s Psalm’ by Eric Shaw Quinn
$17.99
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