SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 21, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is the latest book (and first in a new series) from fantasy author Django Wexler.  Much of Wexler's prior work that I've read features witty sardonic characters, but this book (as you might imagine from its title) is almost a pure on comedy: the novel takes a groundhog's day-esque setup with its protagonist always resurrecting after dying trying to stop a dark lord from arising in a portal fantasy world....and flips it on its head by having the heroine then decide she's going to become the Dark Lord instead of trying any further and caps it all off by having the book narrated by its witty, sardonic, and genre-savvy/nerdy heroine.  It's also delightfully profane at times.  

The result is a novel that is in general pretty damn amusing and fun to read, even when some of its humor and concepts can occasionally get grating (especially with the book's use of footnotes).  Wexler does a great job with his cast of main characters in making them interesting and fun to follow, and that's definitely the case here with Dark Lord-to-be Davi, and the cast of orcs/wilders/etc.  The book is definitely not for younger readers, as Davi is VERY sex-obsessed at times (which might bother some readers but worked for me) although Wexler tends to cut away before describing full on any sex scenes for better or worse.  All in all, a very good start to a new series for anyone looking for a pretty damn fun novel.  

Trigger Warning: Self-Harm, discussion of Sexual Assault (none actually occurs on page).  

Note: This book is very sex focused and profane and the review below will use some words reflecting that, so be warned.  



Plot Summary:  

237 lives ago, Davi woke up in a strange fantasy world pond and was greeted by an ancient wizard who claimed she was the prophesied savior who would save the human Kingdom from a Dark Lord who would rally the monstrous wilders/orcs/other-creatures into an unstoppable invading force.  Davi tried to fulfill that prophecy....but failed and died, only to resurrect again in that pond, with time reset to the beginning so she could try again and learn from her mistakes.  And so she tried and tried for 237 times to be that heroine....and died and died and died every time, often in excruciating ways (Torture's a bitch).  

Now Davi has had enough.  If she can't stop the Dark Lord, well, Davi is going to use the skills she's learned over 237 lifetimes to do the opposite: to join the wilders and become the Dark Lord.  Of course, she's never really gone into Wilder territory before, and with time having reset, she's kind of a scrawny human with barely a few extra skills she can actually use.  It's going to take every bit of her foreknowledge, her abuse of her being stuck in the time loop, her tactical brain, her charisma, and her insane daring to convince the ones she once fought against to put her in charge instead...but hey, if some other asshole could become the Dark Lord all those 237 times, why not Davi?  

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is a comedy that will not work for everyone - the story is told from Davi's first person narrative, with her seemingly dictating the story to the reader (as if she's writing in a journal we never see), and features frequent footnotes in which Davi will go on some side tangents or notes to the reader.  Davi's main narration is also incredibly self-aware, witty, genre-savvy, and sardonic, which worked for me and is often highly amusing....but the footnotes go to another level especially with the geek references, and honestly after a little bit I found the footnotes to be kind of grating rather than funny (and sometimes contradictory, with Davi talking about how she can barely remember pop culture geek references from our world after 237 fantasy lives in an early footnote for example and then peppering the rest of the book with such references despite that).  Davi is also kind of sex crazed at times and is very open about this with the reader - she takes a break from dying repeatedly early on to go have sex with a peasant she knows will be a willing fuck, frequently narrates that she is going to masturbate when she has no one to fuck at times, and makes at least one bad decision based upon a need to have sex with someone.  That last part definitely won't be for everyone, so if that's a problem for you, you're gonna want to skip this book, even if the book does not describe any sex scenes and just fades out before they occur.  

But if this book is for you, as it was for me, it can be a highly entertaining and amusing romp.  Davi is a great character who is as charismatic on the page as she is to the characters she has to rally, persuade, and beg to her side (or to not being against her side).  Her wit and narrative is often really funny and there's so so many quotes I could've posted from this book to amuse on social media if I so wanted, and even besides the wit there's some depth there: here's a woman who is sick and tired of being the hoped-for one for a human group who features some pretty awful people in it (the book notes that homophobia isn't a thing here and Davi is openly bisexual, but that the human world has its own replacement awfulness to take its place) and just wants for once to come out on top.  Too often groundhog day-esque comedies feature characters just taking a few loops off and having fun, and there's some of that here, but here Davi is just as you might imagine TIRED of things going wrong and repeating and that kind of really works to explain her sardonic attitude and her desire to go nuts trying to go the other way: to be the evil lord, even if she struggles actually being evil.  And her genre-savviness makes this both highly amusing and makes it work plot-wise, and even Davi's sex-obsession, and her eventual pining for one other character, honestly feels natural and like it fits.  

The general plot and side characters also mostly work to help entertain.  There's a bit of repetitiveness to parts of the plot: Step 1: Davi and her horde enters a new area run by a powerful group of Wildings who are too powerful to beat but who are in her way; Step 2: Davi and her horde get into a conflict with that group and have to do something innovative to try and avoid their deaths; Step 3: Davi prevails and generally grows her horde from parts of if not all of that group as they join her.  This happens a few times, but Wexler infuses each bit of pattern with enough originality to keep it fresh even as it does drag maybe just a little.  And the main cast grows accordingly with each group, and while the cast isn't really full of depth, they're very amusing and Davi's pining for her main assistant, orc-girl Tsav, is really well done (resulting in an expected romance that's very enjoyable).  And the world itself is really well developed in a game-like world with how magic works, even if it also contains hints that there is something else (if not someONE else) behind the scenes and behind Davi's time-looping.  

This all leads to a cliffhanger ending that works, as the main front of this plot is resolved so the book is actually satisfying even as things are clearly not done and a major cliffhanger now confronts Davi and her wants to be both the Dark Lord and maybe not super evil.  It's a cliffhanger you'll expect honestly when you realize the book is nearly over, but it's executed well and leaves plenty for a next book.  I'll probably be back for it when that comes out.

So yeah, if you're okay with the sex crazed heroine and the genre-savvy and geek-referencing narrative, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is the right book for sure for you.  Recommended.