Author: Django Wexler
Published: 2024
Audience: Adults 18+
Davi has done all this before. Summoned from Earth to a fantastical land of magic and mayhem, Davi is the prophesied hero that will defeat the Dark Lord and save humanity. But no matter her training, comrades, or armies, it always ends the same: dying and waking up right back at the start.
Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it’s slow and cruel. But she’s been defeated every time, stuck in an endless time loop.
Davi has had enough. After hundreds of attempts, she’s done being the hero. If the Dark Lord always wins, then that’s who she needs to become. It’s time to play on the winning side, and rise victorious as Dark Lord Davi.
Review:
Combining the aesthetics of high fantasy, the chaotic romp of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and the snarky, self-aware narration of a gender-flipped Deadpool, ‘How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying’ is an attention-grabbing novel from American author Django Wexler. The book’s isekai time loop premise has so much great potential, and from the title alone I was excited to see how Davi would defy destiny and claw her way to become the Dark Lord of the wilders. There is an inherent appeal and intriguing ambiguity to stories where characters cross the line between hero and villain, and ‘How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying’ rises to meet this demand alongside contemporaries such as ‘Starter Villain’ by John Scalzi, ‘Dreadful’ by Caitlin Rozakis, and ‘Long Live Evil’ by Sarah Rees Brennan.
The novel’s magic system is also standout and original. Thaumite is magic crystallised into a rock-like form which humans use to cast different spells, while wilders (and Davi) consume it and reform thaumite as part of their bodies to become more powerful. This magic system fosters a novelty-rich setting, explains the inherent differences and conflicts between humans and wilders, and charts a pathway for Davi to become stronger with each conquest. Between the dynamic premise and innovative world-building, ‘How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying’ has all the ingredients for a fun, comedic, and entertaining read.
If only it actually was.
Instead, readers are subjected to an utterly obnoxious and annoying protagonist. This book is one of the worst cases of ‘female character written by a man for the male gaze’ that I’ve read in years. Davi spends the first 40 pages running around mostly naked (she has a cape, guys!), something the audience is repeatedly reminded about, and describes herself as “in my early twenties, dark hair, light brown skin, freckles like someone flicked a paintbrush at my nose, body you’d probably swipe right on but maybe not brag to your friends about afterwards.” At no point does Davi ever come across as a believable person or woman, despite the she/her pronouns and lines about “my gory tits”, “No offence to my flat-chested sisters!”, “magical clit piercing” and “that’s the best part about sleeping with a woman, there’s no unreliable misbehaving bits.”
Furthermore, Davi is hypersexual in her thoughts and actions in a manner that is degrading to all other characters. Each time a new character is introduced, Davi mentally rates how fuckable she finds them and exactly what she would like to do with them. This is written in a way that is meant to be comedic but is ultimately comes across as predatory and off-putting. Such comments are exhaustingly non-stop throughout the book, fail to reveal anything new about Davi after the first few instances, and reinforce a negative caricature of bisexual women as sex-obsessed and promiscuous. These factors present Davi as a character who was written solely for men to fantasise about violent, sassy, horny bisexual women - which honestly could make for a lively and hilarious character, except for how insufferable, condescending, and vainglorious she is. Had Davi been a male character, his actions and narration may likely have been deemed too creepy, sleazy, and loathsome to be published.
Davi also claims that because she has lived hundreds of looped years in the fantasy world, she barely remembers anything about her life on Earth, yet her thoughts and dialogue are rife with pop culture references and American analogies. These include the 1997 movie ‘Air Bud’, the theme song of 1983-1987 tv series ‘The A-Team’, 1993-1995 Nickelodeon game show ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’, and “Leeroy Jenkins” from the 2005 viral video. One could try to argue that since her references span the 1980s to early 2000s, this contextualises her as a twenty-something year old millennial who lived in the USA around 2009 before she was transported to ‘the Kingdom’. However, the inclusion of more recent references such as HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’, Netflix, and the 2022-present game show ‘Is It Cake?’ undercuts any chance for consistency or consideration to her character creation. Incessant pop culture references are a poor substitute for a personality, and render Davi shallow, thoughtless, and uninteresting in lieu of anything else. It is difficult to feel empathy for someone who does not feel like a real or likeable person.
Despite being mentally hundreds of years old, Davi is extremely juvenile and lacks depth and motivation. She has no reason for wanting to become the Dark Lord other than temporary entertainment. Such uninspired characterisation fails to evoke the myriad of fascinating possibilities of time loop stories, which include exploring mental strain, existential horror, the power fantasy of having advance knowledge of events and people, comedic shenanigans, the opportunity to right wrongs, and more. There is great groundwork to explore Davi’s capacity for apathy and nihilism, with the view that if everything is going to be reset anyway, all that matters is absurd hedonism. Her callousness, recklessness, and view of people as disposable is presented as a consequence of the psychological strain and intangibility of endless time loops. However, any nuance is drowned out by the deluge of lewd commentary and attempts at referential humour, and ultimately feels unbelievable in light of how infantile and unimpressive Davi - particularly for someone who has supposedly lead armies, fought countless battles, and spent centuries learning about the Kingdom and its workings. Her childishness and simplistic skills, knowledge, and capabilities would be more believable if Davi was on her 10th attempt, not on over 237 attempts.
The book vastly improves in the final third once Davi and crew reach ‘the Convocation’. There, she enters into competition against foes both new and familiar to see who will emerge victorious as the Dark Lord. As a plot device, the Convocation strengthens the narrative structure of the book as it gives Davi an immediate goal to focus on, competitors, stakes, and a set timeframe. Most importantly, however, the contest instigates events that shake Davi’s worldview and emotionally affect her. Davi is forced to consider the consequences of her actions, undergoes introspection, and emerges with a new perspective on her situation, as well as a greater depth and complexity to her relationships with other characters. There is also a welcomed reduction (but unfortunately not complete removal) of Davi’s lecherous, demeaning description of her comrades.
These developments ensure the final third is engaging, driving, and made me curious to read the next novel in this duology, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Except Me)’. Unfortunately, to actually get to the better written parts, you have to subject yourself to the first two thirds of this book, and I genuinely wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
Excerpt:
“Minions!” I shout, and it gets a solid cheer[…] I feel euphoria bubbling in my veins as I stalk back and forth.
“Someday, you’ll all be able to look back on this and say, ‘I was there!’ You’ll be sitting with your children, and their children, and you’ll tell them about how you were with the Dark Lord from the very beginning. Each one of you will be able to say it! Unless you die, I guess. Or you get your tongue ripped out, although you could still write it, or use sign language. Do you guys have sign language? As long as you remain alive and reasonably unmangled, you’ll be fine, and I think there’s at least a better-than-even chance of-”
“Glory to the Dark Lord!” Tsav shouts, probably wisely.
“Glory to the Dark Lord!” They chorus. Fuck yeah, I want to stick a hand down my pants on the spot.
