Dungeon Crawler Carl Review

LitRPG isn’t something I’ve ever really been into but this book completely surprised me.

A man. His ex-girlfriend’s cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Only a few dare venture inside. But once you’re in, you can’t get out. And what’s worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it’s game over. In this game, it’s not about your strength or your dexterity. It’s about your followers, your views. Your clout. It’s about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

I listened to the audiobook and I’m so glad I did. The narrator is hilarious, he reminded me of Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove. It totally elevated the experience. The banter between Carl and Princess Donut had me cackling way more than I expected. Their back and forth honestly made the whole book for me.

What I didn’t care as much for was the repetitiveness of the leveling up, stats, crawler “gifts”, all that stuff. That part kind of lost me and brought down the story a bit, but the characters and comedy more than made up for it. It’s not just funny either. There’s this one scene where they go out of their way to help some elderly residents, even though it puts them at risk, and that’s when I realised this book actually has a lot of heart too.

So even if LitRPG isn’t your thing, this book still might be. It’s wild, weird, unexpectedly touching, and genuinely funny. I gave the characters a solid five stars, emotional impact a four, and the rest sits around a three for me. But overall? Way better than I ever expected.

⭐️4/5 stars the audiobook for this was TOP TIER.. I highly recommend!!!