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

This has an excellent audiobook and it's a really compelling story with a great main character. I enjoyed the whole adventure, thought I didn't realize it was a series opener because I am oblivious. It took me until the last 30 minutes of the book to go, oh, wait. I'll happily pick up the next one when it comes out, and I think I'd try the audiobook again just for the wonderfully expressive reader.

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violinknitter's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.5

This book could’ve been a short story. The plot-to-fighting ratio was concerning, to say the least.

First of all, I have never really gotten the footnote hate until this book. Just put the freakin' asides in parentheses and stop jerking me around the page.

Second of all, I've read books that were half detailed spicy-time where the FMC spent less time thinking about sex. Some men might be able to write convincing female characters. If this book is evidence, Wexler is not among them.

Also, sooo much fighting with detailed viscera. So much.

It was entertaining enough that I kept going to the end, but I’ve eaten an entire Totino’s Party Pizza before, too. It’s a cotton candy/potato chip type of book: a semi-entertaining way to spend a few hours, but it’s not going to give you much in the way of mental nutrition.

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madisonkc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I fucked with this shit fr

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ninjamuse's review against another edition

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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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theaceofpages's review

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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 sets 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-human 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 1000 year old presenting 20 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 against another edition

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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

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phantasmaboo's review

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funny lighthearted

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

2.0

Having read another trilogy from this author, I think that this one is a big miss for them. I struggled to think of what bothered me so much about this book, and it came down to balance, depth, and pacing. The book is supposed to be lighthearted and funny, but I found that the main character Davi was always "on", as it were. There were hardly any moments where we saw the growth or development of her character, and certainly no more than a surface representation of her. She was shallow and indifferent most of the book, having been defined primarily through her "training montages" and willingness to have sex. The moments that she had true growth that happened in the final third were outweighed by the middle third of the book where seemingly nothing happens rather than she grows her "minion horde". These moments pass by so quickly that you could almost miss them, and yet they were the areas that had the most potential. I felt like the book would have been loads better if there was room to breathe and more balance between comedy and world and character building.

Depth was also a problem. There were too many characters developed far too shallowly that I couldn't even really remember them all. There were even aspects of Davi's character that I forgot until the last third of the book, let alone any of the others. For example, I completely forgot that David -- true to the name of this book -- is stuck in a time loop. This is a key aspect to her character that doesn't get explored enough and almost feels like a way for the author to get away with torturing this female character over and over again in the name of "character development". Other than being mentioned in the first third and final third, the remainder of the book is absent any consideration of this detail.

The world building was also poor. By the end, all I understood was that some special rocks were eaten to give power. That's about it.

I know that this is the first book in a series, but I probably won't be checking out the rest.

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