Davi’s got attitude. But so would you if you’d done this over 230 times before and it ended with you being skewered or dissected or [insert your favourite manner of death here]. Every. Single. Time.
This time Davi’s trying something different. If you can’t beat them, become them?
“Hello, my friends! I am the next Dark Lord! Will you join me?”
I’m a big fan of time loops so I loved watching Davi try and fail over and over until she didn’t.
What I’m not a big fan of are books where the characters walk for a very long time, arrive at a destination, stay there for a bit for some action/drama, then walk some more. This meant there were entire chapters where, no matter who I met or what happened, my brain was on an ‘are we there yet?’ loop. My brain came back online once everyone stopped walking.
When I first read the blurb and decided that this was the book for me, I didn’t realise it was the first in a duology. This means you’re not getting all of the answers at the end of this book, or really any of the big ones. I enjoyed the end enough to want to keep reading, though.
I’m usually all for footnotes in novels and I was here too for a while. I continued to read them but they didn’t scream Bonus Content as much as I’d hoped.
What this book did scream was that the female main character was written by a man. I’m all for characters embracing their sexuality but Davi’s hypersexuality ended up making her feel more like a caricature than someone I could relate to.
Although the world literally revolves around Davi, I didn’t love her. Who I did love was Droff, a stone-eater who enjoys nothing more than counting.
I’m pretty sure I’ll end up being there for the second book. I’m hoping for more answers, less walking and more conversations with Droff.
Content warnings include death by suicide, self harm and mention of sexual assault.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
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.
Schizanthus Nerd 