A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #8) by Matt Dinniman 
Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #8
Published by Ace on May 12, 2026
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 624
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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It’s off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.
Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.
Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”
Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.
Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do.
So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.
Love me some Carl and Donut.
Carl and Princess Donut, along with many of their friends have survived—and won!—the Faction Wars on the 9th Floor. Carl’s planning and leadership had allowed a record number of crawlers to survive to the 10th floor and many. many crawlers have accepted deals with the syndicate.
In A Parade of Horribles, Carl and Donut will be racing against a group of NPCs. Each team will pick either a mechanical or organic mode of transport, which is an important choice as not all tracks will be paved roads. Racers can win upgrades but the next to last winner will have their upgrades picked by vote, and of course, the losers of each race will…blow up. Yeah, no negotiation, no second chance. One moment you are racing, then next you are atoms. The mode of transportation is chosen at random and Carl and Donut are given–a food truck. (I have been relistening to the series and the chicken place is also mentioned in Book 1.)
The strategy of this story was to make sure that each race only lost so many racers as Carl and Donut (and everyone else) were racing against NPC’s and they realized that when more NPC teams were killed then crawlers would be added to the next heat. Eventually crawlers would be racing against each other until one of their friends could end up being the losing team that blew up. Carl is still trying his best to make sure everyone will survive as long as possible.
Author Matt Dinniman had a real challenge writing A Parade of Horribles after The Inevitable Ruin. There was such a lead up in most of the books to the Faction wars. Donut having to survive as the only royal line since she put on the Crown of the Sepsis Whore on the first floor. The strategizing, the planning The arrival of the former crawlers. The battles. The great loss yet the record number of crawler survivors due to Carl’s crazy ideas. The Inevitable Ruin was such an anticipated novel with so much action, destruction and loss, such highs and lows, I can understand why the author said he was nervous about this next story. How do you top your last novel?
Now don’t hurt me! Hear me out. Book 8 was like a warm up comedian coming out after the headliner finished. Sure there was a lot going on but the premise of this floor (a series of races) didn’t leave time for all the things we love best about these stories, which is working with the other crawlers, battling the bosses, “New Achievements.” We barely spent any time in the safe room which means very little time with Mordechi, even though he was in a weird new body. Very little fun/interesting boxes to open. There was no leveling up, much to donut’s frustration. We are also missing a few dear friends in this story and you felt the loss of them.
Yes, racing around trying to make sure you don’t come in last and blow up is exciting but of course, we knew Carl and Donut were not in danger of that (it is their story). And hopefully the others—warriors who have battled their own way down to the 10th floor—shouldn’t be lost to such a lame end as blowing up. Carl does “Carl things up” which is always fun.
Book 7 of this series was not an easy one to follow and while this one won’t make it to my favorites list, it was probably a good choice to make it sooo different from the usual format and give us a drastic change up. I love this series and can’t imagine what will be coming down the road for our favorite crawlers.
Favorite Scene:
You know I am a sucker for those sentimental Princess Donut/Carl scenes…*sniff*
I pulled Donut from my shoulder, and I held her in a tight hug. “Get to Elle and Imani,” I whispered. “Stay away. Do you understand?”
“I know the plan.” She looked up at me, shaking. “I’m scared, Carl.”
“I haven’t really said this out loud, and I hope you know this already. I love you, Princess Donut. If this doesn’t work–“
“Don’t say that. Don’t jinx it, Carl. People keep saying that they don’t trust how you might react if something happens to me, but they never ask how I might react if something were to happen to you. I don’t want to find out. Not today, not ever. I love you, too.”
I gently reached down and kissed her forehead. I took in her scent, wishing things had turned out differently, wishing I didn’t have to wear this heavy, heavy mask.
Donut bounded away and landed atop the back of Mongo.
Rend looked up at me from the ground. “Go with Mongo and Donut,” I called, pointing. “They’re all meeting up at the RV.”
“No, no, no,” the meatball said, but after a sharp call from Donut, he turned and waddled away. I stomped on the roof, and Tipid popped his head out the window.
“Sorry, boss,” Tipid said. “I’m not leaving. You need a more reliable driver for this.”
“Your story isn’t done, Tipid,” I called down. I didn’t want or need a good driver for this last part. I needed the worst possible drivers ever. “Get to the RV.”
“Yeah, get out of that chair,” Bigs called. “We’re driving.”
Tipid reluctantly pulled himself out of the cab while the group of blood-soaked sluggalos piled into the truck. Dr. Metcalf started loudly complaining, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. There was a clank as the side server window opened, followed by the hiss of the deep fryer turning on.
“The Sluggalo Chick-Chick Express is open for business,” A slug called. This was followed by the angry squeal of a pig.
This was not part of the plan.
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