A review by c0d3nam3qt
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

4.5

Cross between Dungeons & Dragons and DeadPool. 

This novel has fourth-wall breaks and silly footnote interjections. Ridiculous, hilarious, vulgar.

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.