Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

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.

Where to begin? Maybe I should start with preordering this one!
The worst things about How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying are probably the best too.
Firstly, the footnotes- I thought they were hilarious, but reading them on an ebook are not the most enjoyable (hence the pre-ordering a copy) (oh look, I can make footnotes too!)
Our main character Davi is not the typical female protagonist. This is both a fresh of breath air as well obvious she was written by a male.
Because Davi is basically pulled from modern day life, the book is full of references and fourth wall breaks, which can be a nice break from the long chapters but sometimes drone on a bit too long themselves.
Lastly, the chapters are long, but they make sense! I can see this easily adapted to a tv show!
Overall I did enjoy it. 3.75 stars. Thank you NetGalley and Orbit.

This was a super fun, light read that I would recommend to most anyone in the mood for an irreverent fantasy. I was constantly reading some of the ridiculous lines aloud to my partner as I couldn't contain them to just myself.

That said, it does drag a bit in the middle and it ends on a cliffhanger, but I will be anxiously looking forward to the next one!

Really funny first book in a series! Gives me big isekai fantasy vibes, which is predominantly a genre in the east, but the west appears to finally be catching on!

Sincere thanks to Orbit Books for approving me to read their eARC of this book. Was very happy to get approved for this one due to the description and needing a humorous read.

Overall: 3.5 - I enjoyed reading this book, especially the beginning. Towards the middle, it started to lag (but many books usually do). At the end? I find I did want to continue reading the next book in the series.

Who is this book for? People who can read without taking it seriously. I expect this book might be off putting to more serious readers, because of the narrator’s tongue in cheek humor which includes many references to current contemporary culture. The narrator also uses vulgar language as a heads up. But if those things don’t bother you then you’re in for an interesting read.

What worked for me:
-The beginning. It is interesting and not a set up I can recall reading before. It pulled me in and I went into “have to read what happens next” type of mode. The blurb of the book already mentions groundhogs day and that the main character is in a time loop. That, with the background and characters makes this feel like you’re living a real life video game (which as a nerd, I just loved).

-I also liked the world that was made (felt medieval), the different species of creatures and the magic system the author made.

-Ending: I enjoyed reading the end and it picked up pace there.

-Cliffhanger: I usually always hate these but this one I approve of. It’s a natural end which I really appreciate. I hate the cliffhangers that end right in the middle of something, feels like an authors trap to get you to read the next book and leave you wondering the entire time until you do. I just don’t like that kind of manipulation.

But here, the ending felt natural, but still created a set up that leaves you curious and wanting to go into the next book. I wish more authors would follow this kind of approach and tact for cliffhangers.

What didn’t work for me:
-The latter part of the middle. Albeit most books usually do lull around there, I just found myself lacking the motivation or lure to read on. After the very interesting beginning, the middle part of the book seemed to be a similar pattern. They run into enemies/issue and need to overcome it… the situations and people are very different but it just felt familiar by then because the stakes were the same. The reason, motivation, everything was same as in the previous obstacle.

-The lack of twist or surprise: there was only one thing that I was like oh I didn’t realize that, but everything else you can see coming the entirety of the book.

-Character depth: While I found the characters to be unique from each other, their deeper stories were absent. Enough is given to make the story make sense and move, but the emotional aspect of the book is a bit weak. There is some romantic tensions, but the psychological deeper parts of characters doesn’t go very deep. Because the main character has lived so long and has had so many lives, they are a bit callous, so it does fit with the story and their shell does start to crack as the story continues… but it still felt not fully fleshed out somehow.

While the story didn’t hit me emotionally, it did capture my imagination and take me somewhere else. If you want a light entertaining read, that doesn’t wear you out emotionally, then this is for you!

What a silly fun time. If you liked The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Medieval England, then I think this will definitely be your speed.

Davi is supposedly supposed to save the world from the next Dark Lord. Cool right? Except she has tried (and failed) over two hundred times. Many, many painful deaths later, Davi has decided, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. She is going to become the Dark Lord, prophecy be damned. Hijinks ensue.

I had a really fun time reading this book. There is something so refreshing and upbeat about the entire thing. I was laughing and rooting for Davi the entire way through. I love how unbothered Davi is ( and in her place, you would be too). She’s dry and satirical, but also flawed and human. I’m so glad I picked this up

The end was both exactly what I expected but also not at the same time. I really really wish I had book two in my hands (first world problems when I’m literally holding book one before its release date 😂)

I think this book does what Assistant to the Villain was trying to do, except it succeeds. The magic makes sense. The worldbuilding makes sense. I understand why everything is happening the way that it is happening. There isn’t weird anachronisms. It flows. It’s fun. You should probably read it.

4.5/5 stars, rounded up
An absolutely huge thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. It is wildly appreciated but does not impact my opinion or the contents of my review.

Davi is stuck in a time loop in which she is killed over and over only to return back to the same point in time each time she dies. On her 237th or so death, she decides she's had enough. She's done trying to take down the Dark Lord; instead she will become the Dark Lord, no matter how many lives it takes. I did not finish this and will not rate it anywhere else. There was nothing really wrong with it, but I could not get excited about reading it. I may give it a try again.

This is my first book by this author. I enjoyed reading this. It had me laughing out loud so much people thought I was crazy. This book is filled with pop culture references and I liked that about it. The is some torture in this book. There's little to no spice with fade to black scenes. We get double crosses, plans-as-we-go, some training montages and a lot of 4th wall breaks (like Deadpool). There are different types of species including humans, but they are not well liked in this world. There's magic also which is always great to have.
Our fmc, Davi, is on a quest she is done trying to beat the bad guy so she decided to take things into her own hands. She'll become the Dark Lord, no matter what it takes. We quickly notice that every time she dies she respawns and that autosave did not apply to her previous life. This helps her out a lot and it lets me know that she's been dying a whole awful lot. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. 3.5 stars

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the arc.

This was such a fun read, and definitely one of the most unique fantasy books I’ve ever read. I loved the humor and fourth wall breaks that Davi had! Cannot wait to see where this series goes.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying follows Dani, a woman who is summoned from our modern world to a fantasy realm in order to defend the kingdoms of men from the Dark Lord and their endless horde of beast people and monsters. With no training, little help from the wizard who greets her as she wakes up, and not even any clothes on her back, our hero will need every advantage she can get to prevail. Luckily, she is stuck in a kind of time-loop that triggers when she dies, so she has plenty of time to learn about the world and succeed in her noble quest. The book starts after 1,000 years of trying to succeed in her noble quest, with Dani ignobly beating the useless wizard who wakes her up to death and deciding to take a mulligan on this run. She's tired of losing, being tortured to death, and having to redo everything. So, this time around she's going to follow the old adage, "if you can't beat them, join them." She's going to try and become the Dark Lord, and probably die quite a few times in the attempt.

If you are someone who enjoys protagonists who have no filter, use meta humor, and fling pop-culture references around with gleeful abandon to the absolute incomprehension of the people around them (and also enjoy a healthy dash of military fantasy and going on campaign) well... here it is! This is the book for you! I came around to this book early on, forgiving what at first glance appeared to be a somewhat random main character when I considered what someone who had been isekai'd for 1,000 years and tortured to death, seen all they had accomplished brought to ruin, and failed the entire world multiple times would act like, and decided that they would probably act very much like Dani does in the book. She is a very sympathetic main character who is written surprisingly well with all the meta humor and nonsense she tends to get up to in pursuit of her new goal.

I turned around on this book early on and had a blast. Completely solid military tactics, coalition building, and competent character work set this apart from other books in this genre that I have read. While this isn't something I would recommend to everyone, the people who do like it are most likely going to love it.

The concept of this story is really interesting. If I had found myself in the same situation as the main character, I think I would have reacted exactly like her. But I was more interested in her minions who I would have liked to know more about rather than long descriptions about her quest and the logistics that came with it. I had a few moments of laughing out loud, but again from the minions. I was expecting some sarcastic comments from the main character with this absurd situation, but it was too much. Clearly I was not the target audience. Overall, it was an ok read for me.

Thanks NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing this eARC

I didn't know what to expect going into this book and had only requested an ARC based on the title and cover (I know I know don't judge a book by the cover). First, it really dives into it right away - pay attention to the content warnings and take them seriously. I have an ARC so it's possible there are changes in the final published version, but "Davi speaks casually of self-harm and suicide" is not nearly enough of a warning for the first chapter of the book.
I liked the character's voice. I'm a big fan of first-person POV and getting the thoughts from the main characters themselves, which was a lot of fun in this book. The book was fast-paced, entertaining, and a little wacky. I wavered back and forth between 3 and 4 stars on my rating but wound up going with the lower end because I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the free advance copy

I tried to push through because I really wanted to like this book. Ultimately I DNF’d at 47%.

* First and foremost, the synopsis doesn’t fully match the content and it needs to be rewritten for accuracy.
* Second, there’s such a big difference between women written by women vs women written by men. I’ll just leave that statement as it is before I go on a small rampage.
* Third and final, the chapters are too long and the footnotes are too many.

There’s so much more I could say about this book, but as to not be overly negative I’ll just leave it at this. Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC.

I didn’t realize that this was a duology, so after getting over the unpleasant shock of To be continued on the last page, I have settled on 5-stars “yeah, I loved this.” (And I’m kicking myself for unintentionally adding more time to my “waiting for the next book” wait!)

I am primarily a high fantasy reader, so I can confidently say that you can read and enjoy this without knowing much or anything of the isekai/litRPG/progression fantasy sub-genres. I can’t comment on whether it’s a good addition to those sub-genres, but for the fantasy genre as a whole I think this is an excellent new world and cast of characters.

I also have not read anything by Wexler before, but I’m hoping his backlist is similar because I found this book to be hilarious, sarcastic, quippy, and irreverent in all the best ways and want to read more like it.

What I loved:
- The footnotes!!! So many, many sarcastic footnotes!
- Davi, our main character, is so thirsty and it’s hilarious.
- All of the politics–between the humans and wilders, between the wilders themselves, within the cities they visit, within the Horde and amongst the officers. It was all handled in the same sarcastic tone with under-currents of seriousness, but Wexler did a particularly great job of keeping everyone’s motivations consistent and grounded.
- The battle scenes were very well-crafted, well-written, and thematically meaningful.
- The episodic chapter structure.

What I didn’t love:
- The final fight’s pacing was messy, unfortunately, and that left a sour final taste after an otherwise breakneck-paced and addicting story.
- There’s a moment of “well, duh” with Davi right at the end that kills me for her obliviousness.
- It’s just a little too long–I think it could have been cleaned up in a few places, kept the story and pacing a little tighter, and more consistent with the voice.
- The long list of named side characters. Some are important, some are not so much, but it’s hard to tell which are which at their introduction.

Recommended for:
Anyone that finds the back cover summary intriguing, honestly!

I suspect the biggest factor for enjoyment will be the narrative voice, so if you don’t vibe with the first chapter, this book is probably not for you. Here are some representative (in my opinion) and early-book/no-spoiler examples the humor:

- Tserigern is a wizard, a very old and famous one. Everyone says he’s the most powerful wizard in the Kingdom, but frankly I’ve never seen him do magic for shit. Light the way in caves and get cryptic messages, that’s about it. You could replace him with a flashlight and a walkie-talkie.
- For the last thousand years, I’ve been trapped in a time loop, like in that movie or that other movie.
- …sword to the back of the head, instant death, 5/5 stars…
- One against one, a knife each. This is a big step forward for me! Instead of fighting a whole camp full of orcs with no weapon at all, I get to fight one orc with a knife. Progress!
- Smash cut to tomorrow morning.
- The problem with mountains–follow close here, this is complicated–is that they’re very tall.

I have not read a lot of progression fantasy or litRPG, but if you’re a fan of Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (for the sarcastic villainy) or Forever Fantasy Online by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach (for the isekai and character leveling elements), I think you’ll like this. Someone on Reddit also compared this to All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (for the groundhogs day and leveling-up elements) and I think that’s very apt as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Something different from Django Wexler but something I greatly enjoyed. I like the twist he puts in early on and I couldn't stop laughing throughout the book. Great characters and world building and storyline. I highly recommend!!!!

I’m sorry but this book needs to come with better warnings. It was very sexually graphic from the first chapter. I was so excited to read this book because I was expecting a funny take on classic tropes but it took a hard turn to over the top behavior.

Thank you NetGally and Orbit books for giving me a chance to review this book.

Prepare for a rollercoaster ride through the realms of hilarity and dark magic with 'How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying'! From the very first page to the last, this book had me cackling with laughing out loud 🤣😅. I was literally laughing so hard at some of her lines my husband kept looking over at me.

Davi, our protagonist, isn't your typical hero—she's got sass for days and a knack for sarcasm that'll leave you in stitches. I just love how she is written into this book. Probably because I am a sarcastic person and get all her jokes and sarcasm.

But it's not just Davi's wit that steals the show; it's the wild journey she embarks on, surrounded by her motley crew of misfits. From epic battles to grappling with unpredictable weather (seriously, who knew weather could be so menacing?). Davi's quest to become the Dark Lord is anything but boring.

What about that ending? 😲 I don't think Davi was expecting that outcome. What is she going to do? need to know what's next for Davi? Will she swoop in to save the day for us mere mortals, or will chaos reign supreme? The anticipation is killing me! As long as Davi continues to be her sassy self, count me in for the next installment.

In short, diving into this book was like stumbling upon a hidden treasure trove of laughter and excitement. I'm already itching for the next chapter in Davi's wickedly wonderful saga!

**I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review **

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This book is full of snark and satire, and is great fun to read (see the book synopsis). But we warned: this is the first half of a two-book series, thus it doesn't give you the answers as to why and how this woman has been reincarnated into a time loop hundreds of times. What it does do is give you dozens and dozens of laugh-out-loud moments and the desire to read that as yet unpublished second book RIGHT NOW!

This is the most fun I've had while reading a book in a very long time. I laughed so many times reading this. I liked it good enough that I will be purchasing the real book, and I will continue to buy the series as they come out. If curse words, crude comments, and sarcasm are not your thing, you may want to avoid this. But if you are like me and have a dark sense of humor and you speak sarcasm, you will probably laugh like I did and enjoy the book. This is definitely not a book for teens.
I did get this as an ARC from Netgalley, but these opinions are my own!

Ok so you have to be down with weird humor to enjoy this but if you are you’ll laugh and snort your way through most of this.

Davi keeps waking up over and over life after life in some fantastical world where she’s tried to defend the kingdom from the dark lord for about a thousand years. At this point she’s had it and decides eff this, I’M going to be the dark lord.

It takes a few tries to get the beginning right but she slowly and surely builds her horde of minions and she works her way toward the convocation where the next dark lord will be decided.

The weird humor, dry wit, and oddly misplaced pop culture references make this so much fun.

I have to admit though I could absolutely tell this was written by a male author in the way that her sexuality was portrayed. Not that she’s sex positive but more in that she is pretty well turned on by anything and everything in all situations. A drawback for me anyway.

Leaves off on a pretty big cliffhanger so at least a duology.