Reviews with content warning for War - How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

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How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

6 reviews

ninjamuse's review

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dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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jcreads85's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

4.5/5 Stars

First I'd like to thank Orbit Books for approving my request to read this eARC via NetGalley of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler.

To be completely honest, I don’t think any review could do this book justice unless it was read slightly unhinged – perhaps by Jim Carrey? - with musical accompaniment by Jack Black, but in the style of Bowser. And that basically set's our stage...You will like this book if you grew up with, and loved, Redwall, Ready Player One, World of Warcraft, Groundhog Day, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Lord of the Rings. Basically, you will love this books if you like witty banter, found family, epic journeys, pop culture references, non-animal characters, and a tale that plays out as a MMO...on repeat?

To begin, if you started this book and stopped at the 15-20% mark, I encourage you to persist. Because I did the same. It was so very chaotic (my first note is "jumps right int with torture; tone is set"), without a clear plot established by that point that I could only read a bit at a time and moved on to other books that captured me earlier in their tale. But once you cross over (haha as if, right Davi?) I didn't want to put it down. Now, for those determining if you are going to pick this book up – don't let this scare you. It is not slow. It's strange. And up through the 20% mark you're getting a little backstory and world history, while watching Davi on repeat (think Groundhog Day trope). Davi has an objective, you just don't know when you'll be on the, uh, stable, storyline.

Not going to lie, I loved the journey but was a bit exasperated to see that this wasn't a stand-alone. I really, really want more fantasy stand-alone novels in my life. I know MANY of my fellow readers love a series, but if you are also like me, you need fewer series on your TBR. And no one likes to jump into an unfinished series, am I right?!

Now, for the meat of the tale. Davi, our resurrected, prophesized heroine is done with her fate. Our 20 year old presenting 1000 year old main character is done trying to save the world from the Dark Lord takeover and has decided, on her 278th life (the count it a general guestimate...) that she's switching sides. She's going to become the Dark Lord. The only problem, just a minor thing, is she's a resurrected nobody to the Wilder's (non-humans) and thus has to establish her legitimacy and gain a horde.

The tale takes place over a two month span, on the way to the Convocation where Davi plans to throw her hat into the ring to become the Dark Lord. Along the way, we, the reader, are sharing the experience via a breaking the 4th wall.

Davi herself is a tactical genius, but rather unhinged and lacks a filter. She comes off as winging it all the time, and may either have ADHD... or be generally psychologically broken (but yeah, 300+ resurrections later can do that to a person). I also found it odd that she had so many pop culture references (I'll leave those surprises for you to discover) yet couldn't remember much about her own life back on Earth.

I truly loved the story. I loved the supporting characters, diverse creatures, and the Dark Lord trials. Thought the confrontations and battles with other tribes were done well (tho, still felt like it should have been longer than 2 months...). But Chapters 10 & 11 tried to break me. The betrayal!

This book has footnotes every chapter. In general, they are unimportant. They are hilarious, however. And just feed into our understanding of Davi's character as they are an extension of her inner monologue. And I was okay with them from the start but only realized 57% of the way through that I only had to click on the number within the chapter to read the footnote and not wait until the end. Don't be me, learn and adapt sooner.

Triggers: Suicide, Talk of Suicide, Torture, Murder, Sexual Innuendos, Talk of Masturbation, Swearing, Cross-species relations

Nothing sexual is explicit – basically all implied, closed door

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sarrie's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

TL;DR: I haven’t laughed this hard at a book in a hot minute. Definitely not for people who don’t like humor or sarcasm in their books book definitely for me.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so, so much to the publisher!

Plot: Davi is stuck in a loop of ‘Wake up and try to save the Kingdom, die a horrible death, wake up and try again’ and she decides she’s going to do the opposite. Madness follows.
Characters: I really enjoyed this cast. Davi is our strongest character, but everyone was fun and I enjoyed seeing them react to the madness that follows Davi.
Setting: Loved the world, I am excited to see more of it in the upcoming books.
Magic: The detail on the magic is light, but intriguing all the same. I would be throwing back those magic stones like candy.

Thoughts:

How to Become The Dark Lord And Die Trying is going to go down as the funniest book I read in the first half of 2024. I can’t say something else is going to come along later, but I highly doubt that.

This is the story of Davi who was isekai’d (transported) to another world. She woke up in a pool of water, and told ‘You’re the Chosen One’ and taken to train and save the Kingdom. The problem is that that was about 1000 years or so ago and Davi has died and been reset to that beginning more times than she can count. She’s gotten almost to saving the kingdom, died horribly and reset. She’s only gotten down the road a ways, died horribly and reset. The biggest problem being, the world resets and behaves almost exactly the same each time. Can you imagine your mental state after this? Because though she only remembers a handful of things of her life on Earth - she definitely remembers all the lives and deaths and torture she’s gone through as the Chosen One. This time she decides, she’s done. She’s going to become the Dark Lord this time and say screw it. Thus begins our absolutely bonkers adventure.

Davi is crude, rude, and a bit ruthless if I’m going to be honest. I loved her of course - don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately, I can see her not working well for a lot of readers. She’s been through hell and back more times than she can actually count so as far as I’m concerned she’s probably allowed more than a few passes. She meets and makes friends with a lot of unexpected characters, my favorites of course being Tsav, Mari, and Droff. The story is told entirely in her PoV so we’re along for every pop culture reference she remembers, each time she dies and resets, and the moment when she finally realizes her life is actually changing course for a change.

The book, in the last third really starts to change things up, and for me it left me even more excited for the next book. I cannot wait to get my hands on the physical of this and to read that next volume. This was irreverent, hilarious, gross, and all around a blast of a time. If you enjoy pop culture references (I know it’s not one everyone does), and comedy in your fantasy you have to give this a try.

5 out of 5 Stone Eaters because I want so many more of those guys, they were the best.

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devynreadsnovels's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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kaitebooktoklady's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

This book was so much fun! I’m many places Davi was giving Zac from “Saved by the Bell” vibes with the first-person fourth-wall breaking writing style. The story was adventurous, entertaining, and certainly makes one think about what would happen if you just chose the other path instead. Would certainly recommend!

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lastblossom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

tl;dr
Snappy and fast-paced meta-commentary, with a surprising amount of heart. There's also a heavy dose of Adult stuff.

Thoughts
"Irreverent" might be the word here. At least, it certainly starts that way. The blurb says Groundhog Day, but the whole time I read it I kept thinking Re:Zero (an assumption that is confirmed by the author's notes in the back). For those of you not into anime, think Live Die Repeat with Tom Cruise. The hero Davi dies violently and often, until the only thing she has left is cynicism and anger. Her foray into becoming the Dark Lord starts as a lark born from frustration and a desire for novelty, but it quickly turns into more as she gets closer to her goals, and further from her old lives. Most reviews will probably say this book is very funny, very crude, or both. (It's both.) But for something as snappy and flippant as this, it also has a surprising amount of heart, with Davi's hurt melting into care the further she gets on her journey. Is becoming the Dark Lord also a journey of healing? The characters she gathers for her horde are a motley crew with their own interests, and it's incredibly easy to care about them as well. The cliffhanger ending is telegraphed well, but still comes as a real punch to the gut, and I'm very curious to see what happens next. Content-wise, there's a good deal of swearing, front-loaded at the start of the book, but present throughout. People die, often horribly. Sex is had with great enthusiasm, although the descriptions tend to be brief. There's also a load of meta commentary including tons of pop culture references and D&D talk, which will probably resonate with genre-savvy readers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own!

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