Eight books in, "A Parade of Horribles" is the course correction "Dungeon Crawler Carl" needed after the bloat of book seven. Chapter 57 — Carl and Donut dueting to A-ha's "Take on Me" — is the most purely joyful sequence in the series.
All tagged comedy
This Inevitable Ruin – Matt Dinniman
Six books of buildup, and the Faction Wars arrive with a whimper. "This Inevitable Ruin" is overstuffed, repetitive and 300-pages too long — a GoT "Long Night" moment for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The emotional beats that define the series are still here, just buried under dungeon mechanics and escalating conflict from gods.
The Butcher’s Masquerade – Matt Dinniman
Five books in, "The Butcher's Masquerade" is the entry that finally earns the series' promise. As a literary fiction reader who came in skeptical and stayed cautious through four uneven installments finally found the payoff — cohesive, thrilling, genuinely funny and more emotionally sophisticated than the ridiculousness would suggest.
Run for the Hills – Kevin Wilson
Kevin Wilson books usually follow a pattern: high-concept premise, strong start, then a slow unraveling into sentiment or chaos. “Run for the Hills” still asks you to suspend disbelief (a lot of it), but for once, the absurdity holds.
The Wedding People – Alison Espach
There’s only so many ways a “person hellbent on dying finds a reason to live again” plot can feel fresh. For the first quarter of the novel it felt very familiar (I couldn’t help but think of Matt Haig’s “The Midnight Library”), but Espach quickly drew me into the lives of Lila and Phoebe, two women navigating a week of unexpected soul-searching.
Starter Villain – John Scalzi
Expectation: A straight-forward espionage thriller about a man inheriting his uncle’s dirty deeds.
Reality: An outlandish, action-packed sci-fi comedy that won me over with talking animals and some solid social commentary.
Good Material – Dolly Alderton
Expectation: A lighthearted break-up story with the usual rom-com tropes.
Reality: A surprisingly affecting exploration of self-discovery and navigating heartbreak from the perspective of a dumped male.
Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld
Expectation: A smart, timely commentary on celebrity culture and self-esteem.
Reality: All of that plus laugh out loud funny. I was compulsively entertained from start-to-finish.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise – Colleen Oakley
Expectation: A quasi-retelling of the classic film but with a May-December friendship and some lower (i.e. not deadly) stakes.
Reality: Absolutely garbage.
Hello, Molly! – Molly Shannon with Sean Wilsey
There’s no celebrity gossip or score settling, but we do get an interesting behind-the-scenes view of her time on “Saturday Night Live,” and how she created iconic characters like Mary Catherine Gallagher, Sally O’Malley, Circe Nightshade and Miss Colleen. It was a great nostalgia trip.
Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
Expectation: A balanced examination of second chances delivered with Backman’s signature style of homespun philosophy.
Reality: A somewhat slap-sticky and, at times, annoying character study that tries to do a bit too much but finds its footing in the end.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix
An over-done nostalgia trip with weak character development and more internal than vampiric strife.