This was such a fantastic read! The synopsis was really gripping to me, and when I got approved for it, yeah, I just picked it up and binged it. And while Adobe Digital Editions and the NetGalley Shelf (I read the book in the later, and the footnotes in the former) said this book was about 350ish pages, while Goodreads says over 500, yeah, this book flew by, it was so engaging!

Davi has lived so many lives, trying to stop the Dark Lord, and all these times, she's failed. So after one particular end of life, she decides she's had enough-she's going to switch sides and go become the Dark Lord, since the Dark Lord always wins. But first, the journey to be declared the Dark Lord, and boy is it a journey!

This world of the Kingdom and the Wilders, the different ways that they use the magic, the different Wilders, and the different places that they come from, it's all so interesting to read about! We see a fair amount of the world while Davi is on this quest, the different political structures and cultures and I loved seeing it all!

Davi was such an incredible narrator. Between all the time loops, she's lived over 1000 years, and she's learned a lot, but also, experienced a lot, and she's really jaded, and maybe she was always like this, but all those lives increased the sarcasm to 11. Watching her on this journey, the machinations, the battle planning and executions, the gathering of minions for her Horde, it was all so great! Plus there's the mystery of why she was in this time loop in the first place. I loved it all!

I loved this book so much, and I can't wait for more!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75/5

This is the most anime English book I've ever read and it is intentionally so, the premise should make that apparent enough.

It's also very meta, so much so that it often acknowledges how meta it is, enough for me to be needing to particularly acknowledge the metaness in a sort of metaception that is enough for me to go on a nonsensical tangent like Davi often does in the book... Anyway, you get the point.

The metaness is possibly the most important part of the comedic style of this book, but it also features pop culture references and a fair bit of crude humour. Since this book is a comedy, how you receive the humour will play a big role in your enjoyment of the book. For me personally, while I did a have a few eye rolling and blank staring moments, I found myself laughing more often than not throughout the book. Overall, I think the book is quite funny,

The book is not just that however. It actually focuses a lot on army building and logistics, for the fans of military fantasy out there. I also found the rather engaging. It does follow a lot of plot clichés of its inspirations, but it still manages to pack a decent number of plot twists.

The characters are also surprisingly loveable. I, like Davi herself, was not taking the characters very seriously initially because of the premise, but they snuck up on me. Most of them had depth, I particularly liked Tsav and how incredibly sweet she was, but also Mari and Droff. Davi, for the most part, was a rather entertaining protagonist as well.

Not everything about this book worked for me, but those are more specific choices that are hard to get into without going into spoilers.

As a whole though, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is really funny popcorn read. If you are a fan of anime, video games, and nerd culture in general, I think you will find a lot to like in this book. If you are looking for something light to read, this is a great option.

I have to rate this here on NetGalley, so I will do so, but I will take off the rating on Goodreads once it’s posted there.

I’m so disappointed. The description of this book made it seem like this would be a funny, lighthearted story that turns the typical princess trope on its head. All good, right? So I immediately requested this ARC.

I am not the target audience here. The synopsis of the book should absolutely make it clear that this has sexual themes, violence and profanity—to the EXTREME. The content warning at the beginning of the book refers to talk of self-harm, suicide and sexual assault. That warning is not good enough and came too late for an unsuspecting me. The story takes crudeness and vulgarity to new heights (or lows, however you want to look at it).

If this kind of book is your jam, go for it! Wexler is a talented author. I just wish I’d had an inkling of the content before requesting it. And therefore…this is my warning to others with similar tastes in fiction! It’s a DNF for me.

Really, though, Orbit—please change that plot summary. I can already tell I’m not the only to feel this way. It’s not a good feeling and could have been easily avoided with a more accurate description.

I received an eARC from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for my honest review.

This book is not for me. I’ve dnfed halfway through chapter two, and I’m surprised I kept with it that far. Based on the description and cover I expected the book to be a funny and lighthearted take on villainhood - sort of an in-between of Assistant to the Villain (Hannah Nicole Maehrer) and Hench (Natalie Zina Walschots) if you’re familiar with those books. You could argue that it is those things, but it’s also vulgar in a way I wasn’t prepared for and did not enjoy. This book could be amazing for the right audience, but unfortunately I am not that audience. I wish the description and cover captured more of the essence of the writing style in the book.

This might be the quickest I've had to dnf a book. The violence I was kind of expecting but just in the first 2 chapters the amount of sex/sexual acts and just gross things was way too much. This book might be for someone but I could never recommend it.
I've read some other things by this author and I can not believe this is the same author.
Absolutely not.