Book Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

 

Goodreads Summary: The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Goodreads Rating: 4.46 stars with over 390,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor, Dystopia, Adventure, LITRPG

Goodreads/Storygraph challenge: 9/48

2026 Reading Challenge: #6 Read a book that was either given to you or recommended by someone who means a lot to you (find the full challenge here)

Book Review:

Hello, Readers. I hope everyone is doing well! Let's get into Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This one has been on my radar for a while, but I hadn't really gotten around to reading it. I finally caved when two very good friends and two co-workers all harassed me in the same week to read it. This is a good one for prompt #6. 

I'll start by saying that I really did enjoy the book, but I think that it got over-hyped, at least to me. I expected to enjoy it a lot more than I did because of it. I liked Carl, and I felt bad for what he'd been through before the dungeon. I liked that he tries to be a good person even in the dungeon. I liked the mechanics. The lootboxes have me cracking up throughout the entire book. I liked Mordecai a lot. I'd actually love to read more about his story if possible. 

I think what kept me from enjoying the story as much was the reality TV aspect. I would be super into a scene and then lose interest because they had to go do an interview or there was a bunch of nonsense about the TV network. Also, and I realize this is going to be a controversial take, I don't love Donut. I tolerate her. She has her moments where I like her, but for the most part, I feel like she's trying too hard and just comes across as fake. I realize she's supposed to be a show cat, but her personality feels so forced. 

Overall, I enjoyed it. It's a fast-paced story with interesting game mechanics. I do think that I set my expectations too high to really, truly love it. That being said, I did buy the rest of the series to read. It's a quick read, and I am curious to see what happens next.