Synopsis
Groundhog Day meets Deadpool in Django Wexler’s raunchy, hilarious, blood-splattered 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.
Review
I’d meant to read How to Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying (HTBTDLADT from here on out) for quite a while and eventually had a chance right at the end of 2024. Ironically, I’d just read a time-loop indie book right before I picked it up, so I was quite relieved to not only enjoy it, but it instantly became one of my 2024 Top Ten along the way. For HTBTDLADT, the time loop isn’t used as a crutch, but rather a plot device that Wexler uses when needed.
I absolutely LOVE a good time loop story. Some of my favorite episodes of television are from Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek: The Next Generation where our heroes are stuck in a loop until they can figure out a way to escape. There is a flavor of that to the book, but also notes of video games as well. I’ve been watching my son play games on his Xbox and what Davi goes through is much like the playable character going back to the respawn point once she dies in each life.
At the start of HTBTDLADT, we’re thrust in the middle of one of Davi’s regenerations and through the magic of backstory and sarcasm we find out that she’s been in her time loop for potentially thousands of lives. We quickly discover that prior to Chapter 1, she’d been trying to be “good” in an attempt to be the hero. The frustration had reached a boiling point and we meet Davi as she does a heel turn towards evil.
But perhaps being an evil dark lord is different from what we — and even Davi — expect. Deadpool is mentioned in the official blurb and with good reason. Davi has been transplanted in this fantasy land from a 21st century North American culture so there are more than a few anachronisms sprinkled throughout HTBTDLADT.
I had a blast with HTBTDLADT. It hit the right notes when it came to the structure of the time loop and I liked how Django Wexler balanced Davi’s fatalism and altruism as she works her atypical plan to become a Dark Lord in this fantasy world. I found this book to be one of my favorite books from 2024.
Django Wexler’s sequel to HTBTDLADT comes out May 27, 2025, entitled Everybody Wants To Rule The World Except Me.
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