Fantasy Book Chat with Lou

The show DC Lou. Lou, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. So I stumbled upon your bookstagram. You had a video that was talking about, you know, something major that happened in your life. And you know, you really poured into the book community, the book community poured into you. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to do my part. And I'm going to talk to him on the show. But your vibe is amazing from your videos, your recommendations. So before we kind of take a look at some of your favorites tell us a little bit about who you are and what really made you want to showcase your reading journey on social media okay yeah first of all thank you for having me this is insane um but yeah so i joined book talk like a little over a year ago and really it was because i was in the worst reading slump of like my life it was like seven months of no reading at all um and so I was like why not document my journey and try to like reach 50 books in the last four months of like 2025 um so that's what got me started and then quickly I learned like how awesome the community is like everyone has been so kind so sweet I have gotten maybe one or two not so nice comments but I that's a win that is a win um so yeah it's just really been about like documenting my journey and and reading and pouring into the community as to like what i love to read um i wouldn't say i like to like recommend this is what you should read it's just i like to say this is what i'm liking at the moment this is what i'm vibing with um and if you like that too maybe we can be friends and like recommend each other some books because i'm always looking to add to my ever-growing tbr obviously um so yeah it really I mean I don't know I just feel like specifically on the TikTok space I feel like it's kind of like family in a way like they just I've I've was able to create so many really awesome friendships many who have left the TikTok space and is now like in my real life like getting to hang out with some of these people the funny group chats it's just been it's been so crazy and so like I don't know it's it's a lot but I'm loving every second of it and even the ones that like the hateful comments it's like I still evoke those emotions out of you you still sat and clicked on it and watched it so you know thank you like you said I still take that as you know not really criticism but I've done my job so thank you very much exactly and I also I feel like it's good to like I know it can be hard for people who might be getting more negative than positivity but I feel like it's always good to remind yourself that um like this is what you're creating this is your space and to really focus on the positive that you're getting um because you can't control like how people perceive you and i think that that's like the biggest learning curve for me but i do remember when i first went live i was so nervous so tiktok live i'm talking and um i got just you know a little goblin that came into the live and they made a not so nice comment saying hey is this guy's eyes are they really far apart is it just me and but i genuinely was like you know what i'm just gonna laugh it off and i actually did think that was pretty funny but um why i say that is because when i laughed and like made a joke of it they then commented oh you know what i wasn't really i wasn't serious i was just joking i'm glad you could take a joke so not seeing that all the hate comments that you may or may not get is a joke but it's just good to like not take it seriously you don't know these people and you don't know like what they're going through and why they're pouring into the internet space in that way so yeah now when it comes to reading what would you say is like your number one go-to genre oh for sure fantasy uh but i have been dabbling in dark romance okay i feel like you can never go wrong with dark romance though like it's always that little spice you know anytime you need to like kind of switch it up a little bit i think that's that's anything romance anything dark i feel like it's gonna be good specifically dark because it's like so unhinged and it does it is like such a good palate cleanser and i i kind of treat a lot of the dark romance that i've tried out so far as like more horror and more like thriller leaning than like true like romance i have read like Kennedy Ryan and that's like what i feel like just a really wholesome beautiful you know style of romance and then you've got like the Haunting Adeline which is a little different so speaking of books you sent over a couple of your favorite and i know three is usually like a very difficult task to ask people to do and so one of them that you like is the Sword of um Kaigen now tell me a little bit about what's involved in this storyline so the sword of Kaigen it takes place in this like alternate historical timeline of feudal japan um where essentially women are meant to stay at home be caretakers etc and um there is war coming to this island um we follow one of our main characters well we follow a slew of characters but one of main characters she used to be sort of this freedom fighter and she had to kind of strip away all sense of self in order to become and fill this role as a mother as a caretaker and it's set in this um world the magic system is very reminiscent of like Avatar: The Last Airbender so we have like the elements um but it's sort of it's what i loved about it so much was it was this perfect blend of this just such a well um written and detailed fantasy story that's a standalone but it also dove so deeply into family connections it's sort of this family drama um and it really illustrates or talks about like what it means to be a mother and how that could be different from person to person um so i just i don't know i loved it there not only was it beautifully written it was just such an engaging story and it's one of my favorites because it it just i was hooked from page one and it didn't rely only on the action which is there's plenty of that but like i said there's just this beautiful exploration of emotion family um and finding oneself again and then you also liked uh Dark Dawn by Jay Kristoff now this one is one that i have not heard of before and even though you liked it what would you say would be like a pro and a con with this story if there is a con um with Dark Dawn specifically the con would be i would say two of them one is that it's the third book in the series so you have to commit to get to it but also if you do commit i for me at least like i found myself so attached to the characters that we were you know going on this journey with from book one that by book three like um I posted a video of it I was just a mess crying I like just snots the my eyes are red I had to take multiple breaks during this like the last little I think 50 to 60 pages that I was reading but it is worth it um I think one of the many pros is Jay Kristoff as an author in general from what I've experienced with his writing is he likes to um tell stories in like just a unique way so what was really cool about the Nevernight Chronicle was that there was footnotes throughout the story which added an element of world building of history of lore but also allowed the narrator because it's told in third person to add a little bit of his own flair his own personality his commentary on the story in general and i just think that that added bonus of the footnotes just like elevated the storytelling to another level that i've never experienced before um but it's a grim it's a grim dark fantasy shadow versus light magic female assassin vengeance plot line so there's just a lot to like about it um yeah and i think i'm just i'm a sucker for his writing and then you also like uh Slewfoot which are actually i think like the second person as long as i've been doing this show you're like the second person to recommend this book and i love the cover of it it's very like ominous a little bit like you're just very intrigued so tell me what really drew you to Slewfoot um like on a surface level the cover like the way that the layout of the book it's different it's a very wide book so it just like jumps out at you on the shelves but i love a story that centers around um female rage i love a story that um is a big kind of like to the patriarchy and that's what that book is um so you have like this Salem witch kind of trial-esque era of the new americas right and you follow this main character Tabitha who is married she's content with her life a series of events happen that put her in like a fight or flight mode to like keep what's hers um and then you have like this folklore element to it that just adds this like perfect spooky vibe um so i think that those things combined i was like oh yeah i think i'm gonna like this i and i read the first line i was like oh sold um it is not super scary but it can get a little gory um and and it's just like for me it's like the way i view Hocus Pocus as like the movie you need to watch every single halloween or every single spooky season that's how i view Slewfoot it's like the halloween book that i feel like should be read every year and anything that's like like you said it's gory not super scary but it's just like the kind that keeps you on pins and needles which i think is like the part and this is the perfect time to read around this time even though i celebrate like halloween year round in my brain because just like anything halloween spooky like that's that's just my forte and so a little before i let you go is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there especially since reading is so huge again um first and foremost i would say read what you want i know there's so much discourse uh on online as to what's a good book to read or good genre versus a bad genre i would say read with you what you want because i first had this like you know i wouldn't say um negative outlook but i just wasn't interested in reading sort of any romance genre like at all just because i was like it's not gonna be fulfilling and i'm glad that i tried it out because i'm on the other side now it's you there's so much to gain from contemporary romance from dark romance even um that i feel like the these people who assume like the this the role of like authority on the book in the bookish space might say oh that's not a good book not true just read what you want enjoy what you're reading um also if you want to create a book talk or a bookstagram truly just just post the content just post it it doesn't have to be perfect my first video looked like i recorded it on an ipad from 2005 just post it be yourself and you never know like what could happen you might also be on tv with sydney so i mean anything could happen um yeah just it this is it's your life do what you want don't let outside pressures dictate what you want to do because if you do you're going to be stuck at a standstill and i've heard someone say um this a little while ago and it like always stuck with me um you are allowed to take up space you don't have to make yourself smaller for anyone else so just do that take up space live boldly live loudly and and read more please thank you so much I love your videos keep doing what you're doing they're so fun they're so engaging and thank you for taking the time to come and chat with me and fellow book lovers out there and for your recommendations we greatly appreciate it thank you so much