I HATED THIS BOOK!

I question if the author hates women? The misogyny was real. The references were absurd and offensive. Also I hate video games and I double hate books written like a video game (new hate unlocked) I definitely was not the target audience, the target audience would be the men incels who talk about hating women while simultaneously wondering why they can’t find a woman. This book was torture.

I only finished this because of book club, I like going to book club. Also the reason why I rated this a 2 star book was because the audiobook production was fantastic. I will not be continuing this series. 

I seriously love this book! This is a great read for video game and D&D lovers. 

 I was very worried this book would be like Sword Art Online, Solo Leveling, or y'know any piece of media that utilizes video game HUD's and mechanics that has fallen flat for me in the past. But I'm happy to report its so much better. So much more entertaining.

However! This book is incredibly violent and gorey. If you think the premise is bleak, the plot is equally bleak and extremely dark at times. Carl and Princess Donut are seriously going through it this whole book.

Dinniman thankfully has way with comedic timing in writing that jives with me so despite the gore and very heavy themes, I found myself just having a grand ol' time reading about Carl's constant suffering. Princess Donut is a delight though, its no wonder her charisma stat is so high.

At a different point in my life I wonder if I wouldn't have enjoyed this given how gorey and dark it is but it just hit in all the right ways. The sprinkling of small commentary on Carl and Princess Donut's life before entering the dungeon is equally as intriguing as finding out more about the corporation that is behind the entire dungeon crawl. I worry that the series will get too dark for me to want to continue at some point, so I'm really gunning for Dinniman's humor to keep me holding on! 

I have found the hope I needed within this book. A definite must read. 

I went into this expecting more humor than I got, I think, and that's not anyone's fault but mine. I went into this pretty blind and having never read any LitRPG before.

I hadn't anticipated how much the reader is reminded of just how shitty the circumstances are in this wild scenario. Our dungeon crawler Carl and therefore us as the reader are constantly reminded of how many lives have been lost as a direct result of this dungeon creation and people being forced to fight in the dungeon.

Between running into fellow dungeon crawlers and the publicly broadcasted show about the dungeon, Carl is faced with not only the horrors of the dungeon himself but how it's impacting others in the dungeon. Carl is arguably faced with some of the best and worst of humanity. I'm already dreading the day we hear about the loss of another dungeon crawler that's been featured prominently in the show but Carl has never met.

That doesn't even begin to unravel the additional layers of dystopia in this fucked up world, from the political power plays of the alien overlords running the dungeons to meeting and learning the mobs Carl is fighting in the dungeon have families and hopes and dreams. It's all pretty fucked up and while Carl gets time to rest, there isn't really time to process trauma - only survive.

There ARE humor bits threaded in that help to keep the story a bit more on the lighter side than it would be otherwise. Princess Donut's entire character feels purposeful in keeping things tempered.

Where I have some residual concerns is how some of the dungeon humor is intended. It's not always clear to me if some of the things said by the dungeon announcer, mobs, some other characters, are intended to be funny to the reader or not. Some times it's made clear Carl doesn't find it funny. Sometimes it's very clear that the dungeon or people observing the dungeon from the outside are enjoying something that is, in fact, really fucked up and not funny at all, but other times it's not clear and that's where I'm squinting and giving hella side eye.