Look to be clear this is a light novel. Maybe it doesn't look like but the title of this should be. 
How I ended up in the dungeon with nothing but my cat, underwear, and dynamite. 
Taking this book as what it is. It's tremendous fun. The action goes fast enough to almost make you forget how horribly bleak the setting is. It's a decent take on the genre and compared to something like solo leveling, omvient readers viewpoint, or even any power scaling dungeon, crawling book it comes off less serious and more lovable. 
Now to be clear this book comes with a pretty big list of trigger warnings. If none of those bother you and you want something fun. It's a pretty good read.

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. 

This is a very non-serious book that reads as a dramatic Hitchhiker’s Guide meets RPG mechanics and gamer humor. The beginning is super weak, and many of the piss jokes are not as funny as the author seems to think. However, some jokes did make me laugh. 

There were occasional hints of depth like

Carl’s childhood, the boss pleading for her life in Spanish, Mordecai, etc

Yet it was instantly brushed over and was more set-dressing to make the story slightly more unique. I got the impression they are there for a reason but it is not touched upon as much as it could be. The number of people alive going down feels so divorced emotionally. Mysteries are set up and they were fairly engaging. The galactic corporation is more interesting than I thought it would be, mostly because all the higher-ups seem to conceal information a lot, and the hints of political intrigue. 

This is a very fast read. It does require gaming knowledge, and I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who wasn’t familiar with those references. The first half is very boring, but the later half did make me understand why people like it. I started to enjoy it in a sort of trashy fun way by the end. I definitely wouldn’t rank it 5 stars but it is what it is.

Grimdark but add a touch of humor and a talking cat with the sass and you might as well call Matt Dinniman a fisherman because my attention? HOOKED.

I've heard so many good and bad things about this book so I was quite apprehensive about being disappointed once I started. You can imagine my surprise when it went above and beyond my initial expectations! Instead of just being within the realm of campy, the serious and often real stakes that Carl and the talking cat, Princess Donut, endured help cement the legitimacy of the story.

The story revolves around our protagonist, Carl, who was literally caught with his pants down as all semblance of society and life as we know it disappears in the blink of an eye. He enters a dungeon together with his cat, Princess Donut, to compete in a literal life-and-death fight against Elden Ring-esque monsters employing RPG game mechanisms.

If you're the type of person who enjoys playing RPG games and probably uses Twitch, then this would be right up your alley. If you haven't played any games recently, then the explanations to get the ball rolling might get a little too info-dumpy and might affect your enjoyment of the series.

I suggest giving this first book a try because there's so much to love! 

To start with, I loved the characters! Carl is a no-nonsense practical guy who's just here to survive despite the dungeon AI's foot fetish obsession and the ethical situations he constantly finds himself plagued with. I like how straight and moral he is, qualities that are hard to remember and hold on to once the rules reward murder and destruction. And there is a lot of murder and destruction that goes on in this book. Like <I>please-look-at-trigger-warnings-before-you-cast-judgement</i> a lot.

His foil is Princess Donut, a cat blessed with sentience and charisma. She is haughty and proud tempered with her love for Carl and her passion for the camera. She'd make a good streamer - one that can potentially make it big on both Youtube AND Twitch. Her antics and choices are ostentatious, which makes Carl's unintentional catchphrase of "Goddamnit, Donut" all the more humorous.

I'm a huge sucker for interconnected alien or monster species that thrive within a particular environment. If you like the anime Dungeon Meshi, I think you'd enjoy this. We are met with a variety of creatures that Carl and Donut fight for experience. They're not just mindless creatures; they are involved in politics and instinct within their race and the dungeon's rules. Although they're NPCs, you catch bits and pieces of their lore through the AI's description which hints towards a bigger story than what we see in this book.

One of the highlights of this story is the streaming concept. It reminds me of the manhwa "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" so if you enjoyed that, you might enjoy this as well. I like that the characters are challenged by a third aspect - to make their survival as spectacular and as captivating to the average viewer. Carl and Donut's murder spree - because killing sentient and self-aware NPCs to survive is STILL murder - is televised and weighed by billions of lives and in turn, they continue to survive and thrive due to an ambivalent viewer's interest.

There's a lot to unpack there but on the surface, I've found myself enjoying it to even let out more than a chuckle or two. It is a funny book if your sense of humor is wry and dry, which only Andy Weir has wielded masterfully so far.

I highly recommend this book! It's a good book to read if you're looking to be entertained and you want to root for characters that continue to persist against all foreseeable odds. If you don't find the

mass murder, genocide, infanticide, senicide, cannibalism, implied rape, filicide, drug abuse

palatable concepts for the sake of entertainment and to show the bleak, depressing world they live in or you're not a big fan of complex game descriptions, then this might not be the best book for you. And that's okay! 

Overall, I'm off to purchase the second book to figure out what the hell happens next. 

Oh ok, now I understand what a LitRPG book is really about.
I was hesitant to start this type of book as I thought it wouldn't really be for me.
But after reading The Cradle series I want to start another series or standalone before deciding if I want to continue these types of books.  Man, I am so glad I chose to listen to BookTubers and Discord and started reading Dungeon Crawler Carl.  I couldn't put this book down.  I wanted to know what the next room, monster, boss, and other crawlers had in store for Carl and of course Princess Donut.
What did I like about this book?  The characters, the concepts, the world building, and Princess Donut and her interactions with Carl.  The characters are diverse with our main characters seeing a good amount of development and advancement during this first book.  The concept...well I can't really get into it without spoiling the beginning of the book.  Trust me it is interesting. The world building - well first it is not such as building but again spoilers, but interesting enough to continue with the series.  
What didn't I like about the book?  Really, there was not much to dislike about this book. But personally, I couldn't recommend this book to younger readers.  This is due to some adult jokes and language.  So, reader or parent beware.