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

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

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

7 reviews

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.

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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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kayceeisbookish's review

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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

bookishvice's review

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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]

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bloggingwithdragons's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

As a fan of author Django Wexler’s Burningblade and Silvereye trilogy, I was really excited to dig into How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which even had a spot on My Most Anticipated Books of 2024 list. It sounded like an absolute ride and a subversion of the tried-and-true trope of a character getting Isekai-ed into a new world and finding themselves designated as the Chosen One who will save the world. Though I was right and How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was definitely both of those things, with main character Davi deciding to quit trying to fulfill the prophecy of being the savior of the realm and to turn her sights onto something more manageable, i.e., becoming the Dark Lord, I found it just didn’t work for me.

From the very beginning of the novel to the end, I struggled to connect with any of the characters, but I found that I really didn’t care for Davi. Surely a female character being reborn in a new world with centuries of knowledge from past lives and aiming to use her wits to do what she, and not some prophecy wants, is the ultimate female empowerment story, right? Well…it seemed that Davi’s personality boiled down to two traits: obnoxiously horny and pop culture references. If you don’t mind constant fourth wall breaking and references to our own time, readers might really love all of Davi’s comments, which would be right at home in an episode of a geekier version of Gilmore Girls, but I found them jarring.

It’s a little shocking to read Davi yelling “LEEEROOOYY—” as a battle cry or screaming, “fool of a Took,” at someone in pivotal story moments. Though I can definitely appreciate the references, it really took me out of what was happening in the story and had me thinking more about where the references came from and not the actual story I was reading. And with the novel being absolutely littered with these kinds of references, it was hard for them not to feel stale, misplaced (as it often ruined the pacing for me, as I had to sit there and think about references rather than current story events), and over the top. It was also a little weird, as Davi mentions multiple times that she doesn’t really remember her original life and world (ours), which is from where these highly specific and often situational references stem.

References aside, the big other personality trait of Davi’s was her inability to separate her ambitions to becoming the dark Lord from her insatiable sexual urges. Who Davi has slept with in her over 1000 years of estimated existences, wants to sleep with, and shouldn’t-have-slept with takes up a very large part of the novel. And when the protagonist is admittedly making things up as she goes along, gets sidetracked by side quests left and right, and only has a vague goal of making it to a Dark Lord convocation in mind, the sexual remarks take up a pretty significant amount of page space, along with the aforementioned popular culture references.

It’s worth noting that the novel takes place in a high fantasy world populated with creatures such as orcs, humans, and wilders. The wilders come in many different forms, with some appearing like foxes, lizards, snakes, deer, and so on and so forth. These wilders, though humanoid creatures, have mainly animal traits, such as lizard eyes, deer antlers, or fox tails. Maybe you can see where this is going. Davi has no qualms about sleeping with Wilders and in one scene describes sleeping with a fox wilder as “really cute” because he wags his tail like a dog when licking peanut butter. While I know this is a fantasy setting with predominantly animal-esque sentient beings, I’m personally not really into allusions of this sort, which directly reference things in our own world, like pets, and wasn’t expecting to encounter it at all—let alone with characters who didn’t have much, if any, of an emotional connection with each other.

Having read multiple works by the same author, I can’t help but to notice a trend that gives me pause—most of the novels appear to predominantly feature WLW characters without any, or at least many substantial MLM counterparts. Likewise, there is also usually at least one super sex driven female character included under the pretext of comedy. I’m always a bit hesitant about male authors’ ability to depict these characters accurately from the sheer standpoint of experience alone, but I mostly liked the author’s portrayal of female characters in The Burningblade and Silverye trilogy. However, this representation of bisexual Davi in How To Become the Dark Lord And Die Trying felt shallow and even stereotypical to me because of the constant, weird sexual references and the lack of intimate relationships of any kind among other characters. While I’m all for a woman owning her sexuality, when her raging sexual desires become one of the sole defining character traits of the protagonist and a major plot point to which we are inevitably doomed to keep returning, that’s a bit much for my tastes and screams that it’s written by a male author. Here’s just a few of the incessant remarks pertaining to Davi’s sex life:

“I need to stop fucking people before I betray them.”*

‘‘If I’d known they were going to take you, I would never—’

‘It’s all right. I’m all right. Really. Everything was very consensual.’

‘You’re—’ she leans back a few inches to stare at me. ‘what do you mean?’

‘Quiet.’ I pull her close. ‘We have friends among the enemy. Well. More than friends, I guess. We have fuck buddies among the enemy’

‘I’m so fucking lost,’ Tsav says.”

“Great. Can’t a Dark Lord get a night of fornication with a minion without him getting all clingy? The worst of it is there’s not really anywhere else I can go to get my rocks off.”

“There’s Dark and there’s Dark, right, this isn’t HBO. And I am not going to be celibate for as long as this project takes, don’t fucking start.”

“Q: How does a girl with tusks go down on you?

A: Very carefully, and with commendable attention to detail.”

The biggest strength of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying for me was in its core idea of a protagonist rejecting their role as a chosen one and deciding to become the villain instead. It was interesting to see Davi figure out how to become her own brand of villain with her own morals, though I wouldn’t say she was at all consistent in her decisions. One minute she’s bashing in the face of an old wizard and the next she can’t stand to see anyone harmed.

While I didn’t think the execution of the awesome premise was the best, I did think what little focus of the novel that was dedicated to world-building was, if not super complex, at least interesting. There is reference to a magical system, which only humans can truly harness and there’s also a pretty unique naturally occurring substance known as thaumite. This thaumite comes in a variety of colors and can be absorbed by both beasts and Wilders to give them a variety of benefits. A red thaumite, for instance, gives Davi greater physical strength. Davi, through her original existence as what she thinks was a human nerd, is able to harness both the magic of humans and to utilize the thaumite, much like wilders. This puts her in some tricky positions, as she has to hide her magical powers from her Wilder minions, who naturally despise humans.

Though How to Become the Dark Lord leaves off on cliffhanger, while simultaneously setting up for its sequel, I don’t see myself reading future entries in the series. In all honesty, I’m not exactly sure who the intended audience for this book was, but it definitely wasn’t me (even though I consider myself a big fan of Isekai stories, female characters, and the Dark Side). I’d recommend this book to fantasy fans who are looking for something of a cozy, lower stakes fantasy, with plenty of unseriousness and sexuality to go around.

*All quotes taken from an ARC and subject to change at time of publication.

Content Warnings

shanajeanh's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

Absolutely hilarious right up til it punches you in the art with emotion. Great for anyone who's ever felt bad killing the monsters in games and asked if they could seduce the monsters instead. Also: has fantastic footnotes.

Content Warnings

heather1023's review against another edition

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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.

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