A Parade of Horribles – Matt Dinniman
Eight books into "Dungeon Crawler Carl," I've arrived at a working theory: Matt Dinniman is exceptional at writing the beginning and end of his novels, and everything between 15% and 85% is a convoluted, frequently entertaining mess.
As a literary fiction reader, I'm an unusual audience for these books, and much of my criticism stems from the fact that I'm always going to gravitate toward character over plot. While I appreciate that Dinniman has built an astonishingly intricate world, he's at his best when he remembers the dungeon is interesting because of the people trapped inside it, not the rules governing it.
Which is what makes "A Parade of Horribles" such a relief after "This Inevitable Ruin." If book seven felt like Dinniman had lost himself in the machinery of his own making, this one feels like he found his footing again. The scope is still enormous, the cast still unwieldy, but there's a looseness and confidence here that was largely missing from the Faction Wars. It's as if he needed to write that book to get it out of his system.
The opening is near perfection. Donut's meeting with Chandra — Carl's wife by legal maneuver, who married him solely to funnel their earnings her way after death — is dispatched with exactly the kind of ice-cold efficiency that makes Donut the best character in the series. Her lingering trauma from the War Crimes spell resurfaces throughout the novel and is handled with more care than you'd expect from a book that also features a sassy GPS named Dr. Metcalf and a pet chair named Dorota who despise each other.
The middle stretch, as always, tests my patience. The apartment level felt a little too similar to the hydra sequence in "The Eye of the Bedlam Bride," and I occasionally lost track of the races, additional characters and ever-expanding dungeon rules. The AI's capabilities continue to feel slippery, though that may be more a consequence of my inability to keep thousands of pages of lore straight than a flaw in Dinniman's world-building. There may well be an explanation buried somewhere in the series about how/when it is all-knowing and powerful and when it isn’t, but if so, I either missed it or simply can't remember it.
What saves the middle — and what I'll remember most about this book — is Chapter 57. Carl and Donut dueting to A-ha's "Take on Me" to gain entry into the Stage Performance Guild is one of the most purely joyful sequences in the entire series. It isn't trying to advance the mythology or explain another layer of dungeon politics. It's simply Dinniman trusting the absurdity and his characters and reminding us how much fun these books can be.
On audiobook, it's completely immersive. Jeff Hays, a narrator I've had complicated feelings about throughout the series, earns genuine commendation here. With pandemonium raining around them, he somehow keeps the performance coherent while delivering a surprisingly terrific rendition of the song until Donut gets hit at the last second, fails the quest and Carl enters the guild alone. Funny enough, the song came on while I was driving yesterday and I couldn't help but imagine Donut chiming in with all her Auto-Tuned glory.
The revelation behind the Pineapple Cabaret — introduced through the bonus "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret" stories included in the Ace paperback editions — pays off one of the series' strangest, lingering mysteries. If you've only experienced these books on audio, it's worth tracking those stories down. They provide context that isn't included in the audiobooks and make this reveal significantly more satisfying.
I also appreciated how much more time Dinniman spends with Imani. I still miss Katia, but Imani's backstory and personal sacrifices finally allow her to step into a larger role. After so many books as an important but underdeveloped member of the Princess Posse, she has quietly become one of the emotional anchors of the group.
[spoilers ahead]
Once the titular Parade begins and the number of crawlers dwindles to just 23, the novel develops an urgency and melancholy that steadily builds toward another terrific ending. The Book of Boom and A Banquet of Fire sequences contain some of the book's most moving material, particularly when Mees Koning explains why he chose to give Donut his spell. After a lifetime of being ostracized for his appearance, a single minute of kindness from Donut during the Faction Wars became something he carried with him. Moments like that remind me why I keep reading.
Several more crawlers are teleported to safety, the Emberus storyline reaches a satisfying conclusion and we finally meet Scolopendra, whose appearance recontextualizes the nine-tier attack that's been looming since the early books. More importantly, the epilogue gives shape to how things may play out – a dungeon, Earth and space battle for the ages. For the first time in a while, I can clearly see where this series is headed.
[spoilers ended]
I still don't think "Dungeon Crawler Carl" has converted me into a LitRPG reader — unless another series comes along with a talking cat as entertaining as Princess Donut — but "A Parade of Horribles" reminded me why I've stuck with Carl and company this long.
Beneath all the stats, spells and increasingly convoluted dungeon mechanics is a surprisingly humane story about resistance, resilience, friendship and small acts of kindness. With only two books remaining and the endgame finally coming into focus, I'm genuinely excited to see how Dinniman sticks the landing.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (personal library)
Dates read: July 2 – July 12, 2026
Multi-tasking: Not recommended. The middle requires attention to track, and you'll want to be fully present for Chapter 57.
