Spill All With Andrew - The BookTok Boy

Interview with: Andrew Tong

Okay, funny enough, I had NO clue who Andrew was before running into him at a cocktail table at Day 2 of the FaeBall. Andrew was an influencer at the FaeBall and leading panels, but I wasn’t familiar with his content. KB and Andre were at the table talking with him and I only approached to ask them a question, with zero intentions of being pulled into a conversation with Andrew. Well, flash forward 24 hours and KB had mentioned a guy who read Zodiac Academy to whom she sent a shirt too, well that guy is Andrew. When KB introduced us, the first words out of my mouth to him were, “Oh my God, you’re the ZA boy” and he just laughed and said that he guessed he was. Well, at this point I shouldn’t be standing here having a probably too long conversation about Zodiac Academy and events. To be fair, we were the only ones who finished ZA. Flash forward to Andrew calling himself a “micro-influencer” and pulling up his social media, to which I flip out - he is NOT a “micro-influencer”. Well as one does, I follow him, and I get a high-five for joking about finally hitting one thousand followers on TikTok. And that’s it, the end of the conversation.

Well, flash forward 12 hours, I am sitting at KB and Andre’s table on the floor scrolling through social media and OF COURSE, I happen to scroll to one of his TikTok’s. The TikTok where he is in the shower and likes it, right when he walks up behind me. Epic, I know. Well, it’s cool, I just said, “Hey, micro-influencer, you want to interview with Romantasy Illustrated?” And THAT is what led to one of the most entertaining interviews. So, you’re welcome, please enjoy this one. It only came out of some weird run-ins and introductions to his content.

What we took out of the conversation with Andrew is that books are an outlet and source, getting to talk about what it means to be an influencer and the honor of being invited to events. When Andrew realized that so many of his friends were going to be there, he jumped at the opportunity to attend the FaeBall.

Now something absolutely wild, Andrew got into BookTok two years ago by first reading the Crescent City series, which is wild. After House of Sky and Breathe, he didn’t know anyone else who had read the book, so he made a video asking to talk about the book and people jumped in. When asked about his reading order, “I just decided to read one day randomly and picked the Crescent City book, which I thought was standalone, and I had no idea who Sarah J. Maas was.” His SJM reading order was the Crescent City books, then ACOTAR, then going to TOG. Going on, “Throne of Glass is by far her best series.” And Dorian is the best character and Andrew accepts no other answer, not even getting him started on Manon.

When talking on Zodiac Academy, he goes on to discuss that he loves how the Twisted Sisters leave you on your toes, they leave you feeling such intense feelings. It doesn’t feel overwhelming, the story is constantly growing and building. The series is wrapped up so well. “If you didn’t like that they wrote another book, you can catch these hands, because I wish they would have written a tenth.”

Soul Characters: Manon and Dorian

Favorite Books: Empire of Damned by Jay Kristoff

Go To Genre: JUST fantasy and romantasy (have purposefully worked my way out of everything else)

“If it’s not a fantasy I’m not sure if I even want to read it, I need to be able to escape into a different world that has nothing to do with where I am living in real life.”

TBR: One Dark Window, “My TBR is endless, never-ending!”

About the Bookish Community: ”It’s friends, it’s love, it’s joy, it is getting to go to these events and meet people just because you all like the same things.“

When talking about being a male in this community, Andrew goes into what a great vibe it is. That he doesn’t feel alone in this community because of the friendships that have been made. For Andrew, it isn’t about the clout. First, you won’t enjoy it for very long.  Encouragement and advice for men,

“If you are interested in reading fantasy events and there are tons of books that don’t have the romance, that a lot of men like to read, and there is a whole community of men there, like Brandon Sanderson’s followers who like that genre. There is something out there for everyone, you might need to do a little research, take a look around, and find something that piques your interest and sparks your mind. And I, reading isn’t for you, try an audiobook,”

Thank you for reading our chat with Andrew, there were a lot of laughs, high fives, a few disagreements (Chaol is not for me and Tower of Dawn is not her best book in the Throne of Glass series), and only one hotel lock-down mid-interview. We look forward to seeing more of Andrew's content and seeing him at future events.