Review by Joanna Snellin

Masculinity has become a hot topic in recent years, and rightly so. With the internet a breeding ground for incels and misogynists, one can’t help but fear for the future of masculinity and what it’s like for teenagers exploring this rocky terrain. In response to this, there have been, thankfully, some insightful books on this topic. However, none were aimed directly at a younger reader until JJ Bola’s Mask Off – Masculinity Redefined. 

As a self-described emotional boy JJ Bola noticed that as he got older, like many men, he learnt to hide his big emotions and instead chose emotional repression and stoicism. In Mask Off, he recalls a moment when holding hands with one of his Congolese uncles (a common practice in Congolese/Francophone African culture) and noticing the disdain from the boys on the Tottenham estate where he grew up. He found himself torn between two cultures of masculinity and with this in mind, and aided by the years spent working with young men with behavioural and mental health problems, started to wonder: “what does it actually mean to be a man?” 

It has become fairly common knowledge over recent years that there is a crisis in men’s mental health. According to a survey of 1,000 men in the UK carried out by The Priory, 77% of men have suffered from stress or depression, 40% of men have never spoken to anyone about their mental health and of those, 29% say it is because they are too embarrassed to do so. An alarming 75% of registered suicide deaths in the UK in 2020 were men. Bola sensitively and eloquently tackles subjects like the ones above, as well as gang culture, sports, feminism, love and sex. He does so by using examples perfectly targeted at a more youthful audience such as non-Western cultural traditions, music, sport and social media, without being patronising or preachy. In the conclusion of the book, Bola gently reassures his reader that he knows dismantling the patriarchy and facing up to your own idea of masculinity can feel like an overwhelming task, but his belief that it is worth doing and doing properly is inspiring and uplifting. Instead of simply finishing the book with an inspiring message, Bola leaves us with ten actionable tasks that can help young men join in the fight against the patriarchy and embrace modern masculinity whole heartedly. I think if every boy coming into adolescence was given a copy of this book to read, the world would be a better place. This is not to say that this book is only for boys, it should be read by absolutely everyone.

Mask Off
Written by JJ Bola
2019, Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745338743
Reviews: The Guardian,

Joanna Snellin is currently studying for an MA in Children’s Literature at Goldsmith’s, University of London. Her background is in film and TV script development but she is now following her lifelong passion for children’s literature into a new career. Outside of her studies, she spends most of her time raising two wonderful little boys, who are turning out to be bookworms just like their Mother

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GLLI’s 2024 International YA Literature Month has been curated by Dr Emily Corbett. She is a lecturer in children’s and young adult literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she leads the MA Children’s Literature: Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature programme. Her research focuses on the growth and development of YA from literary, publishing, and cultural perspectives. She is also General Editor of The International Journal of Young Adult Literature and was founding Vice President of the YA Studies Association. Her monograph, In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024), has just been published by the University Press of Mississippi. You can find her contact details on her institutional website and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram via @DrEmilyCorbett.

Opinions expressed in posts on this site are the individual author’s and are not indicative of the views of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.