The “hockey romance novel” occupies a very circumscribed space in literature, but this obscure genre has been revealed to the general public since the wife of an NHL player sharpened her pen to berate some readers.
Felicia Wennberg, who is married to Seattle Kraken center Alex Wennberg, has criticized book enthusiasts for posting comments and videos about her husband on social media that are, she says, she, “predators and exploiters”.
Here is the genesis of this collision between three universes: professional sports, romance novels and TikTok.
On TikTok, people are sharing book recommendations and reviews under the hashtag
The romance novel features prominently in BookTok, as does its subgenre the hockey romance novel, which is part of the broader sports romance novel category.
Recent hits include Anna Zabo’s Scoreless Game and L.A. Witt, the love story between two teammates playing on the fictional Pittsburgh Griffins. In Overnight Sensation, by Sarina Bowen, an intern for the fictional Brooklyn Bruisers team moves in with a player after moving out of the condo she lives in with her father, the hockey league commissioner.
The success of these books sparked readers’ interest in hockey, and some professional and college teams courted this new audience.
In Australia, where hockey is not particularly popular, professional teams credit BookTok with their rising attendance and resurgence in popularity.
Melbourne Mustangs spokesperson Sarah Bricknall told the Hills Shire Times, a Sydney newspaper, that 15 to 30 BookTok followers have attended every home game since the team joined TikTok in May.
On the internet, the line between fictional and real players can blur, especially when teams use BookTok as a promotional tool.
A video posted to the Kraken’s official TikTok account (now deleted), which had begun to engage with the BookTok community, showed center Alex Wennberg walking down a hallway in a suit with the text when you accidentally become a booktok account
Posts posted on BookTok by readers name a real NHL player and talk about him as if he were a character in a hockey romance novel, therefore a fictional player. Still others show video footage of games superimposed with quotes from hockey romance novels; some are sexually explicit. Additionally, some BookTok readers have posted sexually charged comments on players’ personal social media accounts.
Emily Rath, author of Pucking Around, an Amazon bestselling hockey romance novel, wrote on TikTok that some readers are concerned about inappropriate comments from some other readers toward players this year.
“Real readers of hockey romance novels have been there before,” she wrote. We already saw all this in April, already we were ringing the alarm bells, we were asking for it to stop. »
The conflict moved from the confines of TikTok into the public sphere in July when Ms. Wennberg, wife of Alex Wennberg, got involved, writing that some comments about her husband had crossed the line: amused at first to see some of the videos and comments, things had since “crossed the line” between writing that you find someone attractive and speaking that “actually seems quite predatory and exploitative,” she said. written on Instagram Stories.
She went on to describe what she considers acceptable, such as positive comments about her husband’s appearance, and what she considers unacceptable, such as chanting krak my back to players during games. Kraken matches. She asked people to “think twice” about what they post online.
The response was a deluge of abusive language on his Instagram account.
Alex Wennberg then released a statement on social media decrying “despicable comments”.
“We can all accept a joke and funny comments. But when it gets personal and takes on such proportions that it affects our family, we have to tell you that we have it so far, he wrote. Enough, sexual harassment and denigration of our people and our relationship. »
The Kraken has since redacted the team’s messages directed to BookTok from its TikTok account.
Only a fraction of the BookTok community posted sexually explicit messages.
A TikTok creator, Kierra Lewis, is the author of a video pointed out by Felicia Wennberg as being unacceptable. Ms. Lewis has since posted a few videos in which she talks about the situation.
She said she sent a private message of apology to Felicia Wennberg on Instagram. She added that the Kraken’s TikTok account has unfollowed her, which makes her “confused and upset.”
In her videos about the controversy, Ms. Lewis expressed her frustration with the Kraken, who turned their back on her after encouraging her, and with Felicia Wennberg, who cited one of her videos as an example. . She defended her video production by saying that TikTok is an “entertainment” tool.
Ms. Lewis did not respond to a request for comment.
The Kraken said in a statement that it originally got involved with BookTok to connect with new audiences, but events showed “that unintended consequences can arise.”
“It is disappointing that a small percentage of online commenters have overstepped the mark. We see this as a learning curve for the organization and have taken appropriate action. »
