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ninjamuse's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Violence, Murder, Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit and Classism
theaceofpages's review against another edition
I tried so hard with this one... I really did. The premise sounded great - someone stuck in a time loop gets tired of it and decides to flip the script and go their own way. And I often enjoy funny fantasy (Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors - no, I didn't mind the footnotes other reviews complain about but I have yet to find someone who can do them as well as Pratchett). But the way these were put together just didn't work for me, although I know it will for others.
My main problem was the main character. It was told from a first person perspective and I just couldn't stand her. She feels like a combination of an edgy teen and the stereotype of a horny cartoon character. And... yeah. That's not really my style. Apparently maturity doesn't come with spending a thousand years (give or take a few hundred) in a time loop. Take out the more graphic sex jokes and maybe tone down some of the violence and you have a lovely YA book. Maybe even MG if you tone it down enough. The actual writing style (minus the more adult contents/edginess) makes me think of something like Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart (which I loved as a kid!). I think the humour working for you is a massive, massive., massive part of if this book will work for you or not. I could see where the jokes were meant to be, but they weren't funny to me. Granted, there were one or two that made me smile, but overall they were more annoying than funny or enjoyable. I also found the constant references to Earth jarring. Especially as she supposedly doesn't remember much of her time there anymore?
I'd strongly suggest reading a sample if possible before going in so you can see if the writing style works for you. If it does, I think you'll have a great time. If it doesn't... Well it doesn't get any better. I think I would have loved this had it been written differently. But to each their own and I hope others have the fun time the author was aiming for!
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
My main problem was the main character. It was told from a first person perspective and I just couldn't stand her. She feels like a combination of an edgy teen and the stereotype of a horny cartoon character. And... yeah. That's not really my style. Apparently maturity doesn't come with spending a thousand years (give or take a few hundred) in a time loop. Take out the more graphic sex jokes and maybe tone down some of the violence and you have a lovely YA book. Maybe even MG if you tone it down enough. The actual writing style (minus the more adult contents/edginess) makes me think of something like Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart (which I loved as a kid!). I think the humour working for you is a massive, massive., massive part of if this book will work for you or not. I could see where the jokes were meant to be, but they weren't funny to me. Granted, there were one or two that made me smile, but overall they were more annoying than funny or enjoyable. I also found the constant references to Earth jarring. Especially as she supposedly doesn't remember much of her time there anymore?
I'd strongly suggest reading a sample if possible before going in so you can see if the writing style works for you. If it does, I think you'll have a great time. If it doesn't... Well it doesn't get any better. I think I would have loved this had it been written differently. But to each their own and I hope others have the fun time the author was aiming for!
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Gore, Animal death, Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Suicide, Blood, and Self harm
aglimpseinto's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The book is clearly meant to be a satire of the dark lord genre, while funny at points and I did love the mentions to pop-culture of our own world, the pace wasn’t the fastest and all the footnotes (that were a lot per chapter) make you break pace even more, as it contains interjections from the main character, for me those footnotes should have been just written as part of the chapter itself.
That said, it has a nice world building that is not too complicated, the premise is funny and it was easy to follow the story plot and all the characters.
This book is part 1 of a duology, I’m still uncertain if I’ll be reading the second book but it was a nice enough read.
That said, it has a nice world building that is not too complicated, the premise is funny and it was easy to follow the story plot and all the characters.
This book is part 1 of a duology, I’m still uncertain if I’ll be reading the second book but it was a nice enough read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Suicide
jcreads85's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Torture, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Self harm, Death, and Suicide
kayceeisbookish's review
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Confinement
sarrie's review
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!
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.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Murder, and Mental illness
devynreadsnovels's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Kidnapping, Gore, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and War
Minor: Sexism
bookishvice's review
I requested this ARC based on what it promised from the blurb--funny, lighthearted, a spin on "the one" trope. Unfortunately, after reading the first chapters, I confirmed NONE of those things were present, would be present, or were even in the same category as what this book actually is.
It's a female heroine written by a man, who delights to narrate her story with a filthy-mouth and an insufferable douche-bro attitude. There is gratuitous violence, casual wishes to die (in graphic detail), hypersexualized thoughts every other paragraph, and no emotional depth whatsoever.
If you are ready to deal with that bs attitude for 432 pages, then by all means enjoy the book. But I can't even begin to explain how far off the mark this book ended up being for me.
[Netgalley ARC]
It's a female heroine written by a man, who delights to narrate her story with a filthy-mouth and an insufferable douche-bro attitude. There is gratuitous violence, casual wishes to die (in graphic detail), hypersexualized thoughts every other paragraph, and no emotional depth whatsoever.
If you are ready to deal with that bs attitude for 432 pages, then by all means enjoy the book. But I can't even begin to explain how far off the mark this book ended up being for me.
[Netgalley ARC]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide attempt, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Violence
heather1023's review against another edition
This book has such a promising premise, but I had to DNF at 30% because I just could not do another 200 pages of Davi's irritating POV.
Several issues here:
I'm not opposed to cursing and strong language, but *literally* every single page had at least one "fuck" and the random page I decided to share with my husband when I ranted about how frustrating this writing choice was had SEVEN, plus a few other curse words. It was just gratuitous and didn't enhance the story in any way.
I'm also often on board with an irreverent, snarky FMC who knows how to wield a weapon, but I just never managed to find Davi likable. I frankly couldn't bring myself to care about whether she succeeded or failed at her goal, which is probably the cardinal sin of this book for me. If you're going to have a lot of gore and trauma in your book, at least make it meaningful and make your MC someone I can connect with and care about.
The other thing that I truly could not get past was that Davi supposedly can't remember where she is from, to the point of saying that *maybe* she's American? Yet she constantly makes very specific pop-culture references and even references Reddit at one point... So what, exactly, is the issue with her memory? She can recall random details about her home world but not anything about her life? Maybe this gets resolved or answered later on, but again, I can't bring myself to care.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Several issues here:
I'm not opposed to cursing and strong language, but *literally* every single page had at least one "fuck" and the random page I decided to share with my husband when I ranted about how frustrating this writing choice was had SEVEN, plus a few other curse words. It was just gratuitous and didn't enhance the story in any way.
I'm also often on board with an irreverent, snarky FMC who knows how to wield a weapon, but I just never managed to find Davi likable. I frankly couldn't bring myself to care about whether she succeeded or failed at her goal, which is probably the cardinal sin of this book for me. If you're going to have a lot of gore and trauma in your book, at least make it meaningful and make your MC someone I can connect with and care about.
The other thing that I truly could not get past was that Davi supposedly can't remember where she is from, to the point of saying that *maybe* she's American? Yet she constantly makes very specific pop-culture references and even references Reddit at one point... So what, exactly, is the issue with her memory? She can recall random details about her home world but not anything about her life? Maybe this gets resolved or answered later on, but again, I can't bring myself to care.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Suicide, Torture, and Rape
thisbookisbananas's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
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
5.0
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is an absolutely fantastic zany good time. It might be a contender for one of my favorite books this year! In this book we follow Davi, a human, who has somehow been dropped in a fantasy world as the chosen one to save the people. She’s stuck playing out all of these scenarios and always meeting her demise— only to restart her story as she always does. Except this time, she’s decided to eff being the hero and tries to be the Dark Lord who’s been terrorizing her instead. This book is chock-full of snark, all around humor and a rag-tag group who wants to bring on world domination. Davi is fantastic and her growth as a character is great. People should read this if they play RPG video games or campaign-based tabletop games. I will be purchasing a finished copy. I need the next book now. ::sigh::Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Cursing
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Gore