How I Ended Up Here
I have loved books for as long as I can remember, and my algorithm knows it.
So when a video popped up of a girl moving into what I believe was her new home, I watched it. I enjoyed it. Then I kept scrolling. Nothing complicated about that.
But if you know how TikTok works, you know that watching one video is basically an invitation to watch seventeen more.
That girl was Larry Reads. Suddenly she was everywhere. More book videos, more glimpses into her life, and eventually, more people arguing about her. Along the way I was introduced to Marianna and Yana, and I found out the three of them are apparently known as the "Big Three" of BookTok.
The Big Three? Since when? Who decided that? And why does a nickname for three women who like to read make so many people upset?
I honestly had no idea.
Before anyone gets the wrong impression, I do not follow Larry, Marianna, or Yana. Their videos show up on my For You Page every now and then, and sometimes I watch, laugh, leave a like, and move on with my day. That doesn't make me a fan, and it doesn't make me against them. I just don't know enough about them yet.
But the more I watched people talk about these three, the more I realized I was curious about something bigger:
Are we criticizing harmful behavior, or are we sometimes judging people for having opportunities and lifestyles we can't relate to?
Those are not the same thing. And I think BookTok is a really interesting place to see the difference.
First, Let's Talk About How Big BookTok Got
BookTok did not invent online reading communities. People were sharing book recommendations on blogs, Goodreads, Tumblr, and YouTube long before TikTok came along.
What TikTok changed was the speed. You don't have to sit through a thirty-minute review anymore. Someone can tell you a book has enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and a morally questionable man who apparently needed therapy rather than a girlfriend, and you are searching for the title before the video even ends.
I'm not judging. I understand.
It also made reading feel less lonely. You can finish a book at midnight, open the app, and find thousands of people already talking about that same ending. If you don't have friends in real life who read, that means a lot.
And it turned into big business. According to Circana BookScan data reported by Publishers Weekly, around 59 to 60 million print books sold in 2024 were connected to BookTok. That's about 20% more than the year before. TikTok counted nearly 53 million #BookTok posts by April 2025.
Even Barnes & Noble felt it. After years of people wondering if it would end up like Borders, the company opened about 60 stores in 2024 and planned another 60 for 2025. I don't think BookTok saved it all by itself, since new leadership and better stores played a big part. But BookTok made bookstores feel exciting again.
There is a downside, though. When you see enormous bookshelves and special editions all day, it's easy to confuse loving books with buying books. You do not need a perfect shelf or a sprayed-edge edition to be a reader. Libraries, secondhand shops, ebooks, and audiobooks all count.
The reason I bring all of this up is simple. When a hobby sells this many books, the people at the center of it stop being just "girls who read." They become part of a business. That brings opportunities, and it also brings a lot of scrutiny.
So Who Are the Big Three?
Larry Reads, whose real name is Larissa Cambusano, makes romance-focused book content on TikTok and YouTube, along with more and more lifestyle videos. In October 2025, Pine Reads Review named her one of thirteen book influencers worth following, mostly because of her enthusiasm. That makes sense to me. People don't always follow creators for deep literary analysis. Sometimes they just enjoy watching someone get really excited about a book, even if they never plan to read it.
Marianna is another creator I’m still getting to know. From what I’ve seen so far, she’s open about voting, and she doesn’t seem to be trying to look perfect. I’ve noticed the same thing with Larry. In a space full of perfectly lit shelves and color-coded tabs, that stands out.
Yana, also known as YannaReads, is the one I know the least about. Most people seem to know her because of one controversy, which I'll get to in a minute.
The three of them are actually friends. They aren't just three names an audience stuck together. Yana's May 2025 YouTube vlog with Larry and Marianna is one example. And people love a friend group online. We get attached to the inside jokes and the dynamic, and before long, we start treating an ordinary friendship like a TV show we're allowed to analyze. Who's closest? Who changed? Who's influencing who?
But we do not know these people personally. We only know the parts they choose to film.
Who gave them the nickname?
As far as I can tell, nobody official did. It isn't a TikTok ranking or an award from a publisher. It seems to have spread through fans. I couldn't find who said it first or when, so I'm not going to make up an origin story.
By June 2025, people were openly debating it. Someone on Reddit asked why these three were called the Big Three when none of them were even her favorites. The replies were all over the place. Some people knew the trio. Some had never heard of them. Others named their own favorites, like BritandHerBooks, Trayreadthat, and Eden. And some people didn't think BookTok needed a Big Three at all.
That thread taught me something important: the people who are famous on your For You Page may be complete strangers on mine. Someone who watches dark romance and someone who watches historical fiction are basically using two different apps. Of course nobody agrees on who runs BookTok.
You can think the nickname is silly. You can think other creators deserve more credit. But if fans decide to call three friends the Big Three, I don't understand why the three friends should be the ones on trial for it.
Yana and the Six of Crows Moment
In August 2024, Yana posted a video about starting Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows. According to The Independent, she was about 34 pages in and commented on how small the print was and how much text was on each page.
The internet did what the internet does. People took her reaction as proof that she wasn't used to "real" books. Pretty quickly, the conversation went from "I disagree with her opinion" to "she can't read and shouldn't be a book influencer."
Some of the criticism was fair. Thirty-four pages isn't enough to review a whole book. If you present yourself as someone people should trust about a book, it's reasonable for them to ask how much of it you've actually read.
But not enjoying dense writing is not the same as not being able to read. Some people love fantasy with complicated politics, a huge cast, and a map in the front. Other people want a romance they can finish in one bath. Neither one says anything about how smart you are. It just says what you like.
There is a real conversation to have about what makes a review helpful. Turning someone's honest first impression into a week of ridicule is not that conversation. It doesn't make anybody a better reader. It just makes reading feel like a test you can fail in front of everyone.
"There's No Way She Read That Many Books"
One of the biggest accusations against book influencers is that they can't possibly be reading as much as they say. A hundred books a year? She's lying. Two hundred? She must be getting paid to pretend.
And I'm not making this up. In January 2026, someone started a Mumsnet thread asking whether book influencers were using AI to fake their reading, and one commenter called a creator's claim of 500 books in a year "clearly nonsense." A few weeks before that, Book Riot editor Danika Ellis wrote a whole article about how every end-of-year reading wrap-up gets flooded with comments suggesting the creator didn't really read those books, or that audiobooks, romance, YA, and graphic novels shouldn't count.
That is what I might say too, if I assumed everyone's life looked like mine. But just because I can't imagine doing something with my schedule doesn't mean someone else can't do it with theirs. So let's actually do the math.
50 books a year: about 48 pages a day, or about 1 hour of reading
100 books a year: about 96 pages a day, or about 2 hours of reading
200 books a year: about 192 pages a day, or about 4 hours of reading
(Based on 350-page books at 50 pages an hour.)
A hundred books a year is about two hours of reading a day. That's a lot, but it's less time than many of us spend on our phones. Now add audiobooks. A ten-hour audiobook at 1.5x speed takes less than seven hours, and you can listen while you cook, clean, or drive. Add shorter books, faster readers, and people whose actual job is reading, and two hundred books stops sounding impossible.
For these creators, reading kind of is a job. Book influencers can earn money through sponsorships, ads, and affiliate links, and some of them can build their whole day around reading. That is a luxury many of us don't have. But having a luxury isn't the same thing as lying.
Could someone be exaggerating their numbers? Of course. But that is a claim, and claims need evidence. "That number is bigger than mine" is not evidence.
And reading fast doesn't make you a better or worse reader. The person who reads ten books a year while working two jobs and raising kids is a reader. The person who reads two hundred is a reader too. Their goals don't have to compete.
Just Because You Hated It Doesn't Mean She Was Paid
Here's another one I see all the time. A creator gives a book five stars, someone else thinks it deserves two, and suddenly the five-star review must have been sponsored.
Why is it so hard to believe that people enjoy different things?
I have read books that were predictable and rushed, and I still had a great time. I have also read books everyone called a masterpiece that did nothing for me. A five-star rating can mean "this is beautifully written," or it can mean "this made me happy during a really hard week." Both are honest.
Now, paid promotion is a real issue. If a creator is being paid to recommend a book, viewers deserve to know that. But a sponsored post isn't automatically a dishonest one, and most positive reviews aren't sponsored at all. If someone has proof of undisclosed ads, that is worth talking about. If the only proof is that she loved a book you hated, that's just taste.
Sometimes people just like things. Imagine that.
When Success Becomes the Problem
This part has nothing to do with books.
When a creator first starts posting, people connect with how relatable she is. Maybe she lives in a small apartment, works a regular job, and buys her books with her own money. Viewers follow her, comment, share her videos, and celebrate every milestone.
Then it works. She can afford a nicer home. She starts traveling. Brands start reaching out. Her life stops looking like ours.
And some of the same people who cheered her on start to feel like she changed.
I understand that feeling. If you followed someone for book reviews and now you mostly get home tours, you're allowed to miss the old videos, and you're allowed to stop watching. But supporting someone early on doesn't give us ownership of her future. She isn't obligated to stay struggling just so we can keep relating to her.
This always makes me think of the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus built wings out of feathers and wax so he and his son could escape, and he warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun because the heat would melt the wax. Icarus didn’t listen, flew too high, and fell into the sea.
Usually that story is a warning about pride and recklessness. But when I look at the internet, I think about it differently.
What happens when the people cheering for your flight start deciding you’ve flown high enough? What happens when the success they once celebrated becomes the very thing they resent? And who gets to decide how close someone is allowed to fly to the sun?
There's even a name for it: tall poppy syndrome, when people cut down whoever grows taller than everyone else.
To be clear, not every criticism comes from jealousy. That would be a ridiculous thing to say. Sometimes people really do make reckless choices. But I do wonder whether three smaller creators making the exact same videos, without the nickname or the money, would get anywhere near this much hate.
And yes, I think gender plays a part
This isn't just a BookTok problem. It is a society problem. No one has to defend themselves more than a woman climbing the ladder.
When a woman becomes successful, people want receipts. How did she afford that house? Did she really read all those books? Who does she think she is? The Big Three are three young women in a community made up largely of women, built around genres like romance that people have made fun of for years because women love them.
I don't think that is a coincidence. And I stand by that.
Criticism Isn't Hate, and Accountability Isn't Jealousy
I want to be very clear about something. Nothing I've said means creators should be protected from real criticism. The book world has real problems, like misleading advertising, shady business practices, harassment, and discrimination. Being popular shouldn't protect anyone from that.
Why I follow Laura Rae Says
There is a reason I follow Laura Rae Says on every platform, and it goes far beyond enjoying her content. I have followed her for about two years, since she was still known as BookLoverLaura, and I was even part of her book club.
What I appreciate most about Laura is that she never leaves you guessing about where she stands. She is open about what she believes, what she supports, and what she refuses to support. She talks about controversies in the book community and publicly challenges behavior she considers wrong, even when it brings her hate or, as she has discussed, threats of legal action.
I respect that.
I do not want to follow someone for years only to discover that the values I thought we shared were never really there. That is why transparency matters to me. I want to know who I am supporting, not just what they are selling me.
I also do not believe I can comfortably separate the art from the artist. What people say, do, promote, and put their money behind matters to me. If a creator's values fundamentally conflict with mine, I am not going to ignore that just because I enjoy their work, especially when books, merchandise, and entertainment have become so expensive.
You are entitled to your own standards, and I am entitled to mine. But having standards does not mean I automatically dislike creators whose beliefs I haven't had the chance to understand yet.
Where that leaves the Big Three
That brings me back to Larry, Marianna, and Yana. I am not a devoted follower of the Big Three, but I am not against them either. I don't follow them, but I haven't blocked them. I have enjoyed some of their videos, and I am curious about their experiences and their success. For now, I am comfortable watching, occasionally liking a video, and learning more.
I don't need to decide today whether they deserve my long-term support. But if I ever do choose to follow them, I want that decision to come from what I have learned about them, not from their fans telling me to love them or their critics telling me to hate them.
And I wish more people gave themselves that same room. Questioning someone's reading speed is not the same as finding real proof of harmful behavior. A viral accusation isn't proof. A Reddit comment isn't an investigation. Silence isn't a confession. And being popular doesn't make someone guilty or innocent.
If a creator does something that truly goes against your values, you can leave. Unfollow, stop watching, stop buying. You don't need anyone's permission. But we can hold people accountable without giving up our common sense.
Not every video needs a verdict. Sometimes the most responsible thing you can do is just keep scrolling.
Maybe We Should Stop Trying to Melt Everyone's Wings
So, do Larry, Marianna, and Yana deserve to be called the Big Three?
Honestly, I think that question matters more to some people than it should. It's an informal nickname. It doesn't stop anyone from following other creators, and it doesn't make the rest of BookTok less important.
Nobody owns BookTok. Not three creators, not the biggest accounts, not the publishers, and not the people who think their taste is better than everyone else's. It belongs to everyone who loves talking about books, including the people who never post a single video.
What I really took away from this rabbit hole is how we react when someone's life starts looking different from ours. Someone reads more than we think is possible. Someone makes a living from what we treat as a hobby. Someone buys a beautiful home. And instead of admitting we don't know their circumstances, we fill in the blanks with suspicion.
Going back to Icarus, I wonder if we sometimes get so focused on how high someone has flown that we stop asking whether they actually did anything wrong. We enjoyed watching them build their wings. We cheered when they finally left the ground. But once they flew higher than we expected, the height became the problem. The success became too much. The lifestyle became unrelatable. And the person we once celebrated became someone we wanted to see brought back down.
But there’s another side to the story. Sometimes people really do make reckless choices. Sometimes the warnings are right. We should be able to see both.
We can celebrate success without excusing bad behavior. And we can ask for accountability without turning someone’s downfall into entertainment.
As for me, I'm still learning about the Big Three. I occasionally enjoy their videos, but I don’t know any of them well enough to have a real opinion yet. If I find out our values line up the way they do with Laura, maybe I'll follow them one day. If I find out they don't, I'll make a different choice. Until then, I'm happy just watching.
Not every successful woman needs to be defended or destroyed. Sometimes people are just enjoying books, and that should be enough.
Now I want to hear from you. Do you think the Big Three deserve the nickname? Have you ever stopped supporting a creator because your values didn't line up? And do you think BookTok has become more judgmental as its creators have become more successful? Let's talk about it in the comments.
Sources & Further Reading
The Big Three, r/Booktokreddit (June 2025)
13 Must-Follow Book Influencers on BookTok & BookTube, Pine Reads Review (October 2025)
BookTok Made Reading Cool Again. Has It Also Made It Less Fun?, Elite Daily
Can Bibliotherapy Drive Book Sales?, Publishers Weekly (March 2025)
Celebrating World Book Day With #BookTok, TikTok Newsroom (April 2025)
TikToker Sparks Debate Over Six of Crows, The Independent (August 2024)
BookTok Has Saved Barnes & Noble, Yahoo Finance (February 2025)
People Aren’t Lying About Reading. You’re Just Insecure., Book Riot (December 2025)
Book / Reading Influencers using AI to make it seem like they are reading books they aren’t?, Mumsnet (January 2026)
Illicit Liaisons: Book Chat With Laura Solar From Laura Rae Says (July 2026)
