Davi is a fun character to follow although she has quite a potty mouth I must say, what is this Scarface? It’s a fun premise and I think to any reader who reads the dust jacket or back of a softcover book and is interested will like this book.

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 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 an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Much like Davi relives the same life over and over, so too did I find myself reliving the beginning of this book (reading a joke, re-reading a joke, re-re-reading aloud to my partner, lmao).

This is a fun romp taking the Groundhog Day concept in a more Edge of Tomorrow world where death is inevitable but sometimes useful. There are plenty of pop culture references, fourth wall breaks, RPG/video game mentions, and a general tone of irreverence that I initially found delightful. Unfortunately about halfway through I realized that Davi could be swapped out for a 15year old boy without functionally changing anything, so that dimmed the lewd humor a bit for me (hence 4 stars instead of 5).

But overall I had a really fun time and would recommend for someone who wants a book that doesn't take itself too seriously, but still has a plot and character growth/developing relationships throughout. I look forward to the reveals and further development in book two!

Free eARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher for reviewing purposes!

This book was a lot of fun. We follow Dani, who wakes back up every time she dies in a fantasy world, greeted by a wizard who tells her she is the prophecies day chosen one to defeat the dark lord. After thousands of tries, thousands of years, she decides now she’s going to become the dark lord herself. Hijinks ensue.
This book is pretty funny, and the premise is intriguing. I enjoyed the characters and Dani, our main character and first person narrator, has a strong personality (I liked her, but her narration may not be for everyone). Ultimately, I thought this was a good book despite it being very exposition-y (it’s very clear that this is the first book of a larger series) and the magic system not being totally fleshed out (we were still getting some magic explanation stuff at 95% into the book). I’ll be back for the next installment!

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for allowing me to try this book.

I am so disappointed. This book was not at all what I was hoping for based on the synopsis. I was so excited when I read the back of the book. It sounded like a fun and light read with an unexpected twist to your usual books. I mean the main description says “Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy in Django Wexler’s laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.” This was a lie. This is not Groundhog Day or Guardians of the Galaxy, nor was it “laugh out loud”.

It is described as being about Davi, who is stuck in this fantasy world where if she dies she has to start over. She has tried in the past to be the heroine and save the good guys, but she is tired of losing to the Dark Lords so this last time she dies she decides she is going to join the other side.

This sounds like an amazing premise since it is so different than your usual fantasy story. The book does give a warning in the beginning about self harm, suicide and discussion of sexual assault. This disclaimer was nowhere near sufficient. The book failed to warn or put the reader on notice that the book contains excessive, and I mean excessive, language. About every other sentence contains a swear work or a crude comment. Davi loves saying the “f” word and talking about her sexual desires or exploits with both genders. Davi also just has a terrible personality, she is cynical, flippant and crude.

I personally could not take anymore of this book. This is so disappointing because I loved the idea of it and the writing style flows well and is easy to read. But the language and constant sexual comments… I just could not read any more of it.

Please put a better warning on the book, I do not believe I am going to be the only one who is disappointed in the same way.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is, without hyperbole or exaggeration, going to easily be one of the best fantasy books of the year.

I’ve been a fan of Django Wexler for a while now, though I’ve never read his complete Shadow Campaigns. I clarify that because this feels so different and unique and fresh compared to anything else I’ve read by Wexler that it came as a huge surprise. But it’s a huge win that this book is so unique, because it. is. phenomenal.

The character voice is so well refined (I might be the only person to ever use the word “refined” in reference to Davi), the story so tight and compelling, and the world-building so natural, that this honestly feels like old of the most refreshing fantasy books I’ve read in years.

This book is a must-read; it single-handedly pulled me out of a month long reading slump. Just brilliant work from Django Wexler. I loved it.

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I was like "hey this sounds right up my alley. I love reading about a humorous villain, but unfortunately, this one fell short for me. I really wished I liked it more, but the writing style is not for me. On the first page, the MC says the F word every other word. I usually don't mind it, but it was distracting from the story. Same with the weird sex certain intergalactic characters had. I'm glad I finished it, though. The ending was the best part.

That being said I'll probably read the second book and 100% know there are people that will appreciate it whole heartedly.

tl;dr
Snappy and fast-paced meta-commentary, with a surprising amount of heart. There's also a heavy dose of Adult stuff.

Thoughts
"Irreverent" might be the word here. At least, it certainly starts that way. The blurb says Groundhog Day, but the whole time I read it I kept thinking Re:Zero (an assumption that is confirmed by the author's notes in the back). For those of you not into anime, think Live Die Repeat with Tom Cruise. The hero Davi dies violently and often, until the only thing she has left is cynicism and anger. Her foray into becoming the Dark Lord starts as a lark born from frustration and a desire for novelty, but it quickly turns into more as she gets closer to her goals, and further from her old lives. Most reviews will probably say this book is very funny, very crude, or both. (It's both.) But for something as snappy and flippant as this, it also has a surprising amount of heart, with Davi's hurt melting into care the further she gets on her journey. Is becoming the Dark Lord also a journey of healing? The characters she gathers for her horde are a motley crew with their own interests, and it's incredibly easy to care about them as well. The cliffhanger ending is telegraphed well, but still comes as a real punch to the gut, and I'm very curious to see what happens next. Content-wise, there's a good deal of swearing, front-loaded at the start of the book, but present throughout. People die, often horribly. Sex is had with great enthusiasm, although the descriptions tend to be brief. There's also a load of meta commentary including tons of pop culture references and D&D talk, which will probably resonate with genre-savvy readers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own!

I have seen other reviews stating that the description did not accurately describe the tone of this book, and I agree with this. The biggest thing that I was not prepared for and really threw me off was that there is an excessive, and I mean excessive, amount of cursing and vulgar writing in this book. I believe the purpose was to establish our lead character, Davi, as a quick wip, snarky, sarcastic character. Unfortunately, I found her dialogue and thoughts to create a lack of character and it turned her into more of a characture.

The world building was interesting but I was again was genuinely so thrown off and distracted by everything Davi thought and said and it pulled me out of it all.
I think this book would work for someone who enjoys crude humor and language and some fun not- so-serious fantasy, but for me, it just didn’t work. I unfortunately decided to not finish the entire book.

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit Books, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was so good! I had a great time reading this book. It was entertaining and it kept me captivated the entire time! I can't wait for the next book to come out! It was so good!!!
I just reviewed How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

There are definitely bits that are glaringly obvious that a man wrote this for a woman’s perspective that made me groan pretty heavily but other than those I found the book enjoyable and funny with good characterization and interesting world building. The Groundhog Day aspect was pretty well done and the plot twist near the end was good.

Whenever the sequel comes out I’ll definitely give it a read to see what happens next with our Dark Lord

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for providing me a digital review copy.

Humorous fantasy, especially meta humorous fantasy, is a tricky line to walk. Striking the right balance between laughing with the main character and laughing at the commentary being made is difficult even for the most experienced writers, but Django Wexler really hit the nail on the head with How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.

The story follows a typical portal fantasy protagonist Davi who, in a rather ingenious twist, is trapped in a time loop. Destined to defeat the Dark Lord and save the Kingdom, Davi has not only failed to do so, but has always ended up dead restarting her loop at the very beginning of her journey no matter how long it's been. After over two hundred loops and over a thousand years later, Davi decides to embrace the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and sets off to become the Dark Lord herself.

The time loop aspect is what drew me to this novel, and Wexler (mostly) uses the trope to its full advantage. The novel opens with Davi essentially "save-scumming" resetting the loop over and over to get a desired result. It's typical time loop shenanigans, but as the story wore on, Davi's ability becomes marginally less useful as she pushes into more and more unfamiliar territory.

If I had to critique anything in this book, it would be that I didn't feel like the knowledge Davi gained from so many loops paid off as well as it could have. By the time Davi creates her band, she's flying blind and I wish there had maybe been one or two more opportunities for her to run into a character she knew in a previous loop and use that knowledge she had of them to her advantage. The point of the novel is that Davi is breaking from her set path to do something new, I just wished we got to know more about Davi's previous loops other than her typically gruesome ends.

Speaking of the heroine, multiple loops, lifetimes, and failures has given Davi a world-weary immaturity that carries the book on its shoulders. She's vulgar, angry, and has centuries of knowledge that make her an intimidating, if not confusing enemy for the various bands, armies, and hoards she meets along the way. Davi's just so enthusiastic and driven and hyperaware she's got no idea what she's doing, you can't help but love her. Bonus points for a sex-positive protagonist who was into the guys and the gals.

The humor probably won't work for everyone, but I was smiling the whole way through the book. There's not as many pop culture references as you'd think in a humorous, meta fantasy, but the few that were there were pretty good. Although some references clashed with Davi's instance that because she's been away from Earth for so long, she barely remembers any of it. She doesn't remember what Florida is, but remembers Yellow Submarine? A bit of stretch, but I'm positive that joke will land for some.

As for the actual plot, most of it is centered around Davi becoming the Dark Lord and gathering her army. There's a fun tonal shift between Davi leading and army of orcs on a surprise raid vs. her having to be a boss and think of thigs like food and provisions that felt surprisingly realistic for a fantasy novel with this kind of light tone. The action is pretty well executed, but I'd argue Davi's emotional journey doesn't truly begin until 60% of the way through and that might turn some people off.

Not me though. I was too busy laughing at the sex jokes.

This book was fun, funny, queer and vulgar in all the best ways and I can't wait to read more.

Davi, possibly a young woman from somewhere in the U.S. has died for her 237th time, and quite frankly she's had it. As the supposed savior teleported to a land only known as The Kingdom her job, her supposed destiny is as far as she can tell to die over and over again at the hands of the Dark Lord she's supposed to be killing. This time though she vows will be different because she's going to be the Dark Lord the only drawback; she's gonna have to die to do it.

Alright so this is gonna start with a bit of fangirling, so ya know skip forward if want to just get to the review. I love Isekai, I watch every one I come across (yep even the not so popular ones) and so I've had a list of Western authors that I was hoping one day would write a Western version of an Isekai, not gonna lie while Wexler is one of my favorite authors his name wasn't on the list. That was my mistake because this was excellent. Beyond my wildest dreams of a Western Isekai excellent and I'm definitely calling it now as one of the best fantasy books of 2024.

This book wouldn't have been half as good as it was without our main character Davi, she is almost exactly what I'd expect for someone who has died 237 times and lived for a thousand years; she's jaded af, just a tiny bit crazy, and has a heart of freaking gold. Oh and she's freaking hilarious with an almost freakish level of nerd pop culture knowledge which made my nerdy little heart extremely happy. And as an Isekai fan I truly loved about how Wexler writes Davi is something that has become a thing only really recently in Isekai; He addresses how psychologically just fucked (normally I don't swear in my reviews but there's no other way to put it) someone would be Davi's shoes. I mean just the level of PTSD just from finding yourself in some weird fantasy world has to be immense, add in the fact that you remember every single way you died 237 times and there's just no way you wouldn't be in desperate need of a therapist, at the very least. And there's really only two ways Davi could have gone once Wexler establishes that, yup she's not okay, a person who copes with dark humor or absolutely psychotic like Keyaru from Redo of Healer. Personally, I'm glad that Davi is the former and not the latter because we really only need one Keyaru in the world thank you very much.

The world building in this was excellent as well and I'm really glad that he kept this world kind of small. There's really just two major "nations" The Kingdom and the Wilds, that's it. Keeping it simple like that allowed him more time to flesh out the numerous races that make up the Wilders. Because there are a lot of Wilder races, and while some of them were typical to the fantasy/MMO/Isekai genre some were not. He also kept the languages simple; there's two Common (what the humans speak) and Wilder (I think that ones self explanatory). Again this keep it simple mentality allowed us more time to focus on Davi's quest instead of wading through pages of explaining on multiple countries, the languages the speak, etc. The magic system isn't anything revolutionary, but it is again simple and basically the cause of all the strife between The Kingdom and the Wilders. Keeping it basic allows us to focus on the overall issue instead of spending pages explaining a magic system.

I do, however, have two very small complaints. The first one being that I didn't get a sense of the passage of time. Davi's has two months to build her Horde and head off to the Convocation that would crown her Dark Lord, at times it feels like her trek from where she starts to the Convocation is taking forever and there is absolutely no way her and her merry little horde is going to make it. It's actually almost surprising when we find out that they've somehow made it in the nick of time. The other is that Davi says several times she only has vague memories of her life on Earth, like at one point she comes across English writing and she struggles for a minute to even recall what it is. But the entire book is basically Navi using nerd pop culture to explain everything. And honestly I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that there is at least one Pop Culture reference every other page, with a footnote stating she really doesn't remember her time on earth. Neither of these things detract from the story itself and this is so incredibly nitpicky I almost feel like I should leave it out of the review but since I noticed these things I figure others will too.

Overall, like I said, simply an excellent book and as far as I'm concerned a bona fide Isekai. And possibly one of, if not his best book. Obviously if you like Isekai I wholeheartedly recommend this and for those simply looking for a fantastic fantasy adventure novel you can't go wrong with this.

And as always and in this case an extra special thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for the eArc!

Initially I thought that this book/series might not be for me...until the last 10% of the novel.

I'm not usually fond of books in the SFF genre that lean heavily into comedy or satirical themes. Nor am I overly fond of time travel. However, I've enjoyed some of Wexler's previous series, so I thought to give this book a chance.

We open with a young woman named Davi who is brutally killed in the opening pages...only to respawn on top of a small hill. This was one of hundreds of respawns that she's experienced, and she is fed up...leading her to decide to beat the system, aiming to become the villain (The Dark Lord) rather than the hero.

I really wasn't fond of the first person narration, especially mixed with Davi's wry and sensual thoughts. I've read about snarky protagonists, but I found it to be excessive and unserious. The vulgarity was grating too- yes, I've read about characters to think about sex/engage in sex, but again, this was too much for my liking. The romance didn't work for me either, as the central love interest often seemed indecisive. The pop culture references were interesting...I wasn't always fond of those, but it sets up a future possibility of Davi's past being further explored .

And yet, despite my strong criticism, I am still intrigued, and may continue this series. Because of the strong ending, including the final 10% or so of the story. It wraps up the arc of the book well, but immediately sets up the cliffhanger, setting up the premise of the following book. There will be no spoilers from me, but now all of a sudden the "Dark Lord" concept and the design of the time travel suddenly got more interesting...

(On a similar note, about book conclusions, in some of Wexler's other series such as "The Shadow Campaigns" and "Ashes of the Sun", he wrote magnificent cliffhangers. He continues to impress here too. Wexler also writes military maneuvering and logistics, again, something strong in his previous series).

This book had major aspects that I wasn't fond of (which perhaps other readers might enjoy a lot more), but it had an exciting ending, reviving my long-term interest in this series as a whole.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this eARC. This book sounded right up my alley. I love a good humorous villian story, but unfortunately I had to DNF it. The writing style is not for me. It includes a lot of swear words which I usually don’t mind but they were used way too many times for my liking. The main character also said and thought of way too much explicit sexual content where it ended up taking away from the story. I’m sure others will enjoy it though.

This book's brand of humor was not for me--a lot darker and more violent than I expected, and a bit too farcical for me to connect with the main character (we open with her joking about being tortured, followed by beating an old man to death). This reminds me a bit of the bloodier Monty Python skits.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

DNF because this book should have some more warning or disclosures of how much cussing and how sexual it is. Not interested in a naked lady running around cussing. The synopsis didn’t really paint the picture of what it is actually like

Voicey, violent, and kind of... gross? It's supposed to be though, so this is a recommended purchase for collections where offbeat, dark fantasy is popular.

In this captivating read, the author masterfully weaves a narrative that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Through a blend of richly developed characters and a meticulously crafted plot, the book offers a unique exploration of its central themes, inviting readers to immerse themselves in the story's depth and complexity. The narrative is paced perfectly, balancing moments of intense action with thoughtful reflection, ensuring that readers are hooked from the first page to the last. The author's ability to evoke emotion and create a vivid, immersive world is truly remarkable, making this book a must-read for anyone looking for an exceptional literary experience.

Beyond its compelling storyline, the book stands out for its insightful commentary on the human condition, weaving philosophical questions into the fabric of its narrative. The author's skillful use of language not only enriches the text but also elevates the reader's experience, offering new perspectives on familiar themes. Whether it's the intricate dynamics of relationships, the exploration of identity, or the confrontation with ethical dilemmas, this book tackles complex issues with sensitivity and intelligence. It's a testament to the power of storytelling to illuminate the nuances of life, making it a valuable addition to any book lover's collection. Regardless of genre, this is a work that resonates on multiple levels, affirming the enduring impact of well-crafted literature.

This was not what it was made out to be.

There is A LOT of crude humor and for that reason it will work for some and be disliked by others. For me, this book was just not what I expected and therefore honestly am struggling to rate it. I read it in one sitting because I just kept asking myself where is this going, and at the end, I just sat there for a while thinking about wtf I just read.

I don't really know what else to say and maybe other people can better sum this book up, but I was really feeling this would be more of "An Assistant to the Villain" or YA fantasy with some humor... but just not crude humor.

I don't really feel the description fits the book and I was just very thrown off.