How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler – Review

Published: May 21, 2024

Publisher: Orbit

Series: Dark Lord Davi #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 432 (Paperback)

My Rating: 4 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
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.

Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time.

This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.

---

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is an irreverent, campy fantasy tale that by turns defies all the tropes and leans into them so hard it becomes a joke. This was a tremendously fun story that was tough to put down thanks to its entertainment value. I couldn’t stop laughing aloud, especially at the beginning of the book when I didn’t know what to expect.

This is Groundhog Day in a fantasy setting and it follows Davi, who is sick to death (literally) of ending her life in various horrible, usually tortuous ways. Davi awakened one day in a mystical pool with a wizard telling her that she was destined to defeat the Dark Lord, but after thousands of years on repeat and hundreds of failures she’s going to try something new. This time, Davi is going to fight for the other team and let me tell you, I gasped in shock and delight when she unceremoniously crunches in the head of the wizard who finds her each time and runs off to find some orcs… and then promptly gets murdered.

What follows is a harrowing journey through unmapped (by humans) territory full of menacing monsters, rivals, and dangerous weather and landscaping. Davi is literally winging it, though fortunately she’s learned some things about strategy, combat, and manipulating people over the years. The ultimate goal is to build up a respectable horde and make toward the site where the Dark Lord is chosen and then somehow beat the other candidates. No one, not even the orcs or the cute little fox people seem to know what this entails.

At the beginning, this definitely has some LitRPG vibes and video game references but even if that isn’t your jam, those don’t last forever. Davi can’t keep just killing herself off to start over for the optimal outcome. What doesn’t go away are her continuous and confusing references from Earth that NO ONE understands – you’d think she’d have ditched those after thousands of years lived in a different world. Her varied companions just look at her like she’s a bit nuts each time, shrug and move on. Did I mention there’s a plethora of footnotes?? I love them, especially when the writer of the footnotes has a bit of cheeky commentary! 

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was a fun read, though I don’t think it’s going to work for everyone, mostly because humor is subjective! Not everyone finds the same things funny and Davi definitely comes off as a woman written by a man, so your mileage may vary and I was definitely left with some eye-roll moments. If you’ve read Django Wexler’s other series and enjoyed them and his female characters, this might work for you. This isn’t cozy, it isn’t cute, and it’s full of crude humor, strong language, and violence so adjust your expectations accordingly.