Review by hannahharry - Dungeon Crawler Carl

hannahharry 's review for:

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

4.25

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I went into Dungeon Crawler Carl with incredibly high expectations. Not just because of its reception, but because – despite its crazy plot - it genuinely seemed up my street. I love video games and my sense of humour seemed well aligned with Dinniman's. I’m happy to say that Dungeon Crawler Carl lived up to them.

I thought the RPG-as-novel idea was so creative, and I enjoyed the way the achievements Carl and Donut received were communicated, as well as the use of video game mechanics throughout the novel.

Like so many others, I laughed out loud on multiple occasions. The quality of prose is far from what I’ve read recently (though by no means bad), but the sheer creativity and craziness of the twists (that never became so ludicrous as to disengage me, and that I felt were always consistent with the logic of the DCC universe) ensured the novel did not become boring. I think that if you go into the DCC series managing expectations in this way: you lean into the childish jokes, and you accept that the prose is not going to be full of life-altering literary devices, you will enjoy it just as I have so far!

Looking forward to getting my hands on book 2! I'm even considering getting the audio version to go with my hardback!

Content Warnings