Reviews

This book is so different for me. I usually stay away from a lot of swearing and even fantasy to be honest. There were a handful of references used that went over my head, but it didn’t take away from the story too much.

I really enjoyed the magic system. The Thaumite stones being the source of this world's magic was logically consistent and not overly complicated.

When the main character Davi dies, she wakes up in a pool of water. She’s woken up in this pool of water thousands of times. It’s where she first opened her eyes in this other world. It could be months or years before she died, but it’s always the same restart point. I will say that the choice to make the reincarnation process more like Dark Souls rather than Groundhog’s Day does add stakes to her adventures. She can’t just die and wake up or rewind time to the moment just before her mistake, to try again. The more time that passes and choices she makes from the starting point, means it’s more difficult to start all over.

Around the 40%-70% mark, when Davi is at a point of no return, she's wrapped up in some political and survival drama, and it starts to drag. There were two big plot points that happened back-to-back and I found it quite strange how many similarities there were between them. It felt a bit too repetitive.

Two different Kingdoms. Both have a prince/princess that wants to over throw the king and makes an attempt. Why make them so similar?

Also, a lot of talk about not having enough food and worrying about supplies and packing them and unpacking them. The original gimmick (reincarnating/returning to start) is barely even mentioned at this point and it starts to feel like everything is a bit too convenient. When everything keeps working out and everyone is relatively unscathed, it feels somewhat ridiculous in a not-so fun way, and slows the pace down. It does start to pick up again after 70%, because Davi will start to talk about lessons she’s learned over the vast amount of lives she’s lived and in general the action increases.

Reading the author’s note at the back, I totally see that the Isekai anime/manga sub-genre was a big inspiration. Other than the definitional similarities, this story really played as an anime in my mind. It has levity and doesn’t take itself too seriously and also has times of high action and character growth.

This is a bit of a guilty pleasure as a self described prude. If you give this a try you may find a new favorite. Beware, there is a bit of Millennial cringe.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

tillyj92's review

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a hilarious, wacky fantasy book, a mashup of Dungeons & Dragons and video games and causality paradoxes! I had a total blast reading this; from the first few pages I was tickled by the concept and along for the laugh-out-loud ride.

Davi, a regular human from our regular world, is caught in a seemingly never-ending time loop in a fantasy land, one where she is apparently part of a prophecy to save the Kingdom from a Dark Lord. After hundreds of attempts to fulfil the prophecy, always eventually getting killed and ending up at the beginning all over again, Davi decides to try a new direction and become the Dark Lord herself. We follow her misadventures gathering her horde of minions and forging alliances; she may have the advantage of hundreds of lives in this world, but becoming the Dark Lord is no walk in the park.

I always enjoy when a comedic fantasy novel is self-aware, and the irreverent humour in this one really worked for me, but I think it could be hit or miss for others. I chuckled at all of the cheeky references, and it was fun being in Davi’s weird filthy little head. There were also some surprisingly heartfelt moments alongside all of the dirty jokes and pot twists, and I am eager to read the second book after that cliffhanger!

Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

danreadsitall's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

"How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying" yup you read that right. This new book from Django Wexler (out May 21, 2024) is FUN...with a dash of disassociation from the horrors that Davi has dealt with.

Davi, is having a rough go of it, torture isn't how she wants to spend the evening dying this time. She is old hand at the whole, trying to stop the evil army thing, just hasn't worked out for her well the last couple hundred times. When she wakes up the next time she is going to attempt something different. No more being the hero. Davi is going to be the next Dark Lord. Armed with whatever is in the pockets of the first person she meets/murders she is going to work to climb the ranks of the "monsters" and lead them to victory over the human kingdoms. Still have to some fun doing it though.

Narrated by Jeanette Illidge, listening Davi is hilarious, reading her must be a blast. Or a challenge to say all of that without laughing.

Thank you for the early copy Hachette Audio.

Reasons to read:
-Profit sharing for the horde!
-Just because you are trying to become the Dark Lord doesn't mean you have to be a bad boss
-Davi is a riot with correct opinions about many things
-It has to be cathartic to deal with people who have killed you before
-Excellent side characters

Con:
-Why are "decent bosses" something I look for in a fantasy book?

staceyrz's review

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adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

3.5

kindlycryptid's review

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Pushed myself to get past the Prologue, but once I learned I wasn’t even half way through the first chapter I physically threw the book down.
Painfully cringey dialogue completely took me out of the fantasy; I’m convinced this book is an isekai because the writer is too lazy to worldbuild and just wanted to shoehorn his horny standup act into his writing.

evenstar98's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

meltingpages's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

"I am the Dark Lord, not Lord of the f*cking Boy Scouts."

This was a fun book! But I will say to anyone looking to read this that the humor can be very crud (which I'm fine with myself) and there are a LOT of popular references made, as the main character Davi is actually from our world.

The biggest issue that I had with this is how Davi was so sex-obsessed and preoccupied with how good in bed she thinks everyone would be, that it's clear she's written by a man. (Not once in my life have a heard a woman say she's been 'wanking hard enough to give herself tennis elbow').

There are also a LOT of footnotes, which I know doesn't bother a lot of people but I truly hate having to stop to read footnotes, so I wish those had been worked into the main story somehow.

"Everyone who followed me did it because I told them I would become the Dark Lord and lead them to glory. I can't exactly say, 'Whoops, guys, it's too scary, how about we hit Taco Bell instead?"

But I did find a lot of the references to be pretty funny, and I definitely laughed quite a few times.

"If I'm being honest, they probably do the best job on 'Stairway to Heaven', but 'Achy Breaky Heart' is a solid effort, and you haven't lived until you've heard six hundred orcs belting out 'If you wanna be my lover' at the quickstep."

Overall this was just a fun read, but it didn't really hit the spot that I thought it would. I'd say to give it a go, especially if any of these quotes made you snort laugh like I did. For the humor alone I'll definitely be picking up the sequel.

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