I don’t fully know how I feel about this book which makes me glad I don’t rate nonfiction right now.

Are You Mad at Me? explores the concept of “fawning”, a survival mechanism commonly thought of as people pleasing.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I read the title, I immediately went “I say that all the time. Maybe I should read this book”. And it hit home in some parts. There’s quotes that felt like something I knew but hadn’t actually learned and that verbalized things I’ve always needed to be told. It’s this feeling of a book validating everything you know about yourself to be true.

But having just finished this book, I’m left with this sense that, despite the impactful quotes, I walked away not having learned anything. I don’t think anything in this book was new to me, but some of it was material that I needed to be reminded about.

So all in all, I don’t know how I would rate this if I did rate my nonfiction reads. I just feel kind of mixed on my thoughts about this book. It might take me some more time to actually solidify those thoughts beyond what I’ve discussed here.

I’ve read multiple other Django Wexler books in the past, but this one lost me a bit and I think I know why.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying follows Davi who is stuck in a time loop where she has been trying to rally the troops to defeat the dark lord. Except when she wakes up to begin her new round of the time loop, she decides it’s time for a change: she’s going to become the dark lord this time instead of the hero.

And it’s a really interesting premise. Unfortunately, the writing style really lost me. I knew what I was getting myself into with multiple blurbs on the back mentioning how the book is raunchy and irreverent, but the sense of humor in this book came across to me more like “let’s constantly talk about sex” and less actual humor. I’m sure there’s a demographic that aligns with that sense of humor, but unfortunately it doesn’t align with my sense of humor. And when one of the selling points of the book is how funny it is, it loses you pretty quickly when you don’t find it funny…

I typically read adult fantasy books all the time so this was a change of pace for me. I had just finished reading an 800 page book so I was really looking for a change. And I enjoyed this.

This book follows Emily and Navin who move to their mother’s family home after their father dies in a tragic accident. The house turns out to be hiding a dangerous side though and the children and their mother wind up going through a door in the basement to a whole different world.

I read this as an ebook, which did slightly take away from my enjoyment, and, even while technology was a little less than ideal, I really enjoyed the art style and found it really helped make the story more immersive. Which works well considering it’s a graphic novel series.

I really liked this book and I’m looking forward to picking up the second book in the series (hopefully as a physical copy) next time I need a bit of a breather from chunky fantasy reads