The Eye Of The Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman, Carl and princess doughnut once again by the skin of their teeth make it to the next floor this time the crawlers are being sent back to earth the day before everything changed but it’s not quite the world they knew nor is it the place they lived. it always amazes me the imagination of the author of these books and I always think he’s absolutely outdone himself but in book 6 it was as if he was rejuvenated and riding a whole new vibe because OMG despite this book being long it is absolutely my favorite one besides the first one.. when I say this is a series that just gets better I am not exaggerating these books are one of the most imaginative original exciting funny awesome series in any genre. If you love our PG type books then this is the series to read I would start with book one but trust me once you read the first one you will continue to read the rest it is an awesome series that I absolutely recommend I love them so much. they’re not just exciting as I said but so lol funny! #NetGalley, #BerkeleyPublishing, #TheBlindReviewer, #MattDinniman,#DungeonCrawlerCarl,n #TheEyeOfTheBedlamBride,

The fact that this series just keeps getting better! I cannot get enough of it! Matt does an amazing job at building out this story, having fun along the way, and keeping readers entertained at all times!

Need so many more of these books ASAP!

The sixth "Dungeon Crawler Carl" book continues the LitRPG series' strengths of inventive plots, strong characters, and resonant themes of survival beyond the individual level. "The Eye of the Bedlam Bride" has the most emotionally impactful scenes to date, as Carl faces his family's past. Where the series delights is the relationship between Carl and Princess Donut, and the way the plans all go to hell but our protagonists come up with a clever solution that is often subversive of the game mechanics.

I feel this volume spent just a little too much time building up the game mechanics; probably more appealing to LitRPG fans than readers. However, the enjoyable conclusion brings it all home.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“‘They say the sincerest form of flattery is when someone copies you.’ Donut scoffed.
‘No, Carl. That’s just something thieves say to make themselves feel better about stealing other people’s stuff. The sincerest form of flattery is when people cry when they meet you.’”

@mattdinniman’s sixth entry into the #DungeonCrawlerCarl series #TheEyeOfTheBedlamBride is out now, and I was thrilled to get a galley of it thanks to @netgalley.

Finding themselves on the 8th floor after a total floor collapse, Carl and Donut find themselves in a memory of Cuba. Getting to the stairwell on this floor involves capturing and turning enemies into TCG-like cards used to fight ala a certain Japanese fighting monsters game. As Carl and Donut work to fill their deck, they meet up with Sister Ines, dead set on ending this game for everyone once and for all. Carl begins to get a peek behind a revolution coming from the outside, but with god-like spider named Shi Marie in his party, he has bigger things to worry about as demons begin to take over the floor.

If that sounded like a fever dream, it’s because it was. While this book definitely punched up the humor, this is the first book that sort of felt like it was filler, building up to the events of the next book. That isn’t to say it wasn’t fun; on the contrary, the change up in dungeon mechanics was a breath of fresh air and added a new element making the action scenes that much more fun. Oddly enough, one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the series takes place in this entry, and it was so wonderfully written. Dinniman, while writing crude humor most of the time, has a real knack for creating a moment when needed.

Excited for the last entry in the series, and can’t wait to see how Carl and Donut get out (??) of this dungeon!

Rating: 3/5

Thank you @MattDinniman, #Berkley, and @AceBooksPub for the free book! #BerkleyPartner #BerkleyBookstagram

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 6) by Matt Dinniman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 694 / Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy
Audiobook Narrator: Jeff Hays, Travis Baldree, and Patrick Warburton
Duration: 26 hours 46 minutes
Hardback Release Date: May 13, 2025

Now on the eighth floor of the dungeon, Carl and his team of crawlers are really taking control of this game. Even though they’ve been scattered far and wide, they’ve figured out how to rally together and help each other survive.

I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since I found out that Patrick Warburton (David Puddy from Seinfeld) contributed to the audiobook. So, even though @AceBooksPub gifted me this gorgeous hardback and I got the @NetGalley ebook, I splurged for the Audible audiobook and was a little disappointed with how little of a role he played. He voiced Carl’s dad in only two short segments. Still, though, the best way to read this series is through the audiobooks as Jeff Hays does such a phenomenal job voicing all the characters by himself. Also, these books are humongous!

Needless to say, I can’t wait for the next one. Now get out there and kill, kill, kill!

It is bedlam on the eighth floor.
As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered. It’s a map based on Earth’s final days before the collapse, where ethereal, intangible ghosts of humanity go about their lives, oblivious of the impending doom. Living amongst these ghosts are monsters based in Earth lore. “Legendary” creatures tied to the geographical location they inhabit.

Each team of crawlers is given a task: find and capture six of these beasts. The captured monsters will be turned into cards. Cards that can be summoned into battle again and again. The stronger, the deadlier, the better.

At the end of the floor, the bad guys will also have decks, and they will have some of the most powerful cards available. So it’s crucial to assemble the toughest squad possible.

Not the best book in the series but not the worst either. The story is going in an interesting direction, I wad addicted ther whole way through. Cannot wait for the next installment and to see how this series will wind up:)

After the end of book five I was so excited to read this book. And while I really enjoyed it, it wasn’t quite as intense as I was hoping. And not *quite* as fun either. It felt like more of a setup for the next book. But it was still great, still entertaining, still full of sticky situations and antics, still definitely five stars, and I’m definitely still obsessed with the series. And the ending had some pretty interesting things happen that made me even more excited to read the next book 🤩

One thing I really didn’t like though was Uzi Jesus. Not a fan. The whole bit wasn’t terribly offensive, but anything even slightly blasphemous grates on me. If it had been worse I definitely would’ve taken a star off my rating though…

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman, the next installment to the Dungeon Crawler Carl Saga is nothing short of amazing. I was a late comer on this train, only coming on board late last year, and boy is it worth the ride.

The characters are amazing, the world building is epic and this could be one of the best space operas that I have read. And being able to blend LitRPG with the Space Opera genre only speaks to Matt Dinniman's genius. I cannot wait for the next installment.

Thank Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating 5 Stars
Pub Date: May 13 2025

#BerkleyPublishingGroup
#Ace
#TheEyeoftheBedlamBride
#MattDinniman
#LitRPG
#ScienceFiction
#SpaceOpera
#yarisbooknook
#netgalley

I genuinely can't believe how quickly I read these GIANT books. Each one better than the next, I'm truthfully scared for this story to end! I love the heart and humanity given to Carl (and Princess Donut) through this, and it has quickly become one of my favourite series of all time.

Book 6 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Non stop insane action, a new achievement,  and epic dialog!

A romp as usual - I will say this did feel a little more emotionally laden than the other books, which I think it's about time for! but some readers may feel the middle is a tad draggy as a result. I felt Carl's backstory was long overdue and that this was a stronger book for it.

Thank you Berkley for the review copy and allowing me to keep up with the joyful chaos of Dinniman's world building. And importantly, thank you for the review copy that gives me a talking point with my brother, who turned me on to this series with his enthusiastic praise for the audiobooks. It's nice to have a shared book chat with my brother of all people (trust me, this is fairly amazing to my parents and perhaps to me as well).

Wins for The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: a bit of a chonker in length, this book still flies by because of the fun pacing and a style
Thank you, author, for once again delivering pure, unfiltered FUN.

Thank you Berkley for the review copy and allowing me to keep up with the joyful chaos of Dinniman's world building. And importantly, thank you for the review copy that gives me a talking point with my brother, who turned me on to this series with his enthusiastic praise for the audiobooks. It's nice to have a shared book chat with my brother of all people (trust me, this is fairly amazing to my parents and perhaps to me as well).

Wins for The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: a bit of a chonker in length, this book still flies by because of the fun pacing and a style

Thank you, author, for once again delivering pure, unfiltered FUN.

Every book in this series somehow gets crazier and more cohesive at the same time. The worldbuilding is still unhinged, wild and weird and weirdly compelling.

This one continues the tradition of mixing absurdity with substance, the character development builds in strong ways, decisions/outcomes become bigger. Carl and Donut persist, yay! And more than that, they grow. Every attempt by the dungeon to break the characters seems to make the story more emotionally resonant and the characters more endearing to me. I’m am here for the emotional undercurrent as I am at heart a character driven plot lover.

Also, THAT EPILOGUE HOOK. I hate it. I love it. I want the next book now.

At this point, you know what you’re in for. have fun.

The stakes? WILD AND FUN.
The drama? BONKERS in a good way.
The humor? EXCELLENT.
You found another installment in a surprise win of a book series... The book itself.

Donut and Carl are on the tenth level. They can collect cards sort of like Pokémon. And then they can use the creature of the card when they need it most. We have some beloved characters back in the dungeon and new flair to the game. All the dark humor and snarkiness and wordplay.

The best thing about this book is chapter 45, we see some insight into Carl’s family, his father and who he became of a man. And Carl and Donut come to my home state of Iowa!

Just when you think everything has been done there is something more obscure and absurd in this game. The body doubt isn’t as high but there is just as much utter chaos.

I think by now we can all agree we don’t completely understand what’s happening but we Are enjoying this wild ride. Come on board to see donut fly, and the iconic line “don’t gaslight me, Jesus.”

I will begrudgingly agree that these books are too long and Matt Dinniman needs an editor. But oh, aren’t they glorious?

Can’t wait for book 7.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ace Publishing for the ARC. Book to be released May 13, 2025.

We have reached level 8 of the Crawl, and boy, is Carl and a lot of the other crawlers in for an emotional rollercoaster on top of everything else the Dungeon is going to throw at them.
On top of the normal action-packed scenes and emotional moments, plenty of moments had me laughing out loud. With each book, the world expands, we get more characters and deeper relationships. This is a super fun series that once started, I can't put down. I can't wait to continue this series

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Eye of the Bedlam Bride. If you haven't read the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, I would highly recommend doing so. This is the 6th book in the series and covers a lot of things from Carl's past. I have nothing but praise for this entire series and am anxiously awaiting Carl's Book of Boom later this year. Princess Posse for life!

I have to admit, Matt Dinniman has come up with some really cool titles for each of the Dungeon Crawler Carl installments and I always get a bit excited when I see how the title will inevitably appear in the story. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride begins with our Crawlers entering the eighth floor of the dungeon after a game-breaking exploit was used on the seventh floor. The eighth floor dumps the Crawlers on a facsimile of Earth, in a location they chose and Carl and Donut have landed in Cuba. Why Cuba you ask? Well, Donut isn’t exactly a geography expert with her being a cat and all, so she did get pretty close to their intended destination of the Bahamas.
I was initially a little skeptical about how well the premise of the eighth floor mechanics would work, especially as a book and you know, not an actual game. The floor is a hot mess mish-mash of card games and mythology, where Crawlers must use flags to capture an enemy they have nearly defeated in battle, which turns them into a totem card. The totems are used to battle other enemies and have varying levels of rarity, stats, and abilities, so the Crawlers definitely want to build a good team in order to stay competitive because they will soon have to battle one another for dungeon stairway keys. What I was initially skeptical of turned out to be quite fun and extremely ridiculous - I mean, Carl and Donut end up with a card called Uzi-Jesus and it’s literally Jesus with an uzi and a huge amount of blasphemous snark. I did not expect it to be that engaging!
While the card game aspect is the main focus, there are approximately 12 (totally made that up) other plot lines that are central to the progression of the story. The impending faction wars, drama between former Crawlers, Katia’s multiple crises, an assassination, Carl’s increasing number of questionable tattoos, and more that I can’t even think of ways to briefly summarize. These books are chock full of plot, so even if you aren’t crazy about one aspect, there’s probably something else you’ll enjoy. Unless of course, you hate overly complicated stories like this where dozens of things are going on all at once and sometimes very conveniently intersect in interesting ways.
Carl and Donut, along with their guild companions, are definitely having to make difficult choices now that sometimes result in terrible tragedies. Donut especially is beginning to realize that something could happen to Carl and she would be alone, forced to continue on through the dungeon on her skills alone and it terrifies her. They have some brief, yet touching conversations about this and Donut’s way of changing the subject to something trite and meaningless to get her mind off such serious, sad subject matter is relatable.
The end of The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was an absolute whirlwind and though I was feeling somewhat fatigued by the end of this 832 page chunk of a book I was also left excited for the next installment, where the Faction Wars will begin. The epilogue really dropped some tidbits of info that will really make that floor a bloodbath and though I’m planning to take a break from the series for at least a month just for a mental refresh, I’m excited for This Inevitable Ruin.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and were not affected by the free copy.

Welcome to the eight floor! After Pony broke the seventh floor, management is desperately trying to put together the eight floors with as few glitches as possible. The crawlers have been scattered across the globe in a Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh style world, attempting to catch six monsters they will summon into battle. But like always, there's a catch, because why not.

This book is about the time that the author really starts ripping my soul to pieces. There are portions that are just absolutely, completely devastaing. I legitimately cried at least once. But we haven't completely lost the fun; the AI has gone completely off the rails, which means the Achievements just keep getting better (and weirder).

The pacing felt better this book, I felt like I moved through this book quicker than the previous couple. However, things are getting a little more confusing as we go; we are being introduced to a lot more of the universe and attempting to wrap my mind around some of the politics is becoming more critical. I would rather operate on Carl's wavelength; no one can survive.

I love everything about this series. I actually purchased most of the audiobooks already, they are perfection, and I will be buying all of the hardcovers eventually. I cannot recommend this series more.

It feels odd to review the sixth book in a series. I'm already, at this point, more than 2000 pages into the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. I'm invested, I own the first five in hardcover, I'm an easy sell. And boy does Dinniman make it easy to be an easy sell.

I first heard about Carl on a book podcast a few months ago, bought the first book, and sped through the rest in record time (about 1 every two weeks until I finish the Eye of the Bedlam Bride). The premise--that there is an intergalactic syndicate whose primary cultural product is a reality competition show in which the inhabitants of strip-mined planets fight for their lives in an 18-floor dungeon and that a Coast Guard guy and his ex-girlfriend's cat would somehow be that show's most compelling characters--was immediately attractive to me, a Dungeon & Dragons Dungeon Master. Dinniman's world of the Crawl is vibrant, his characters have incredible voice and range--I LOVE Donut, Carl's talking cat companion--and the stakes are both life and death and fun, like if half the cast of Survivor was actively trying to kill Jeff Probst.

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was perhaps my least favorite of the six entries so far, mostly because of a playing card game system that I just didn't find to work all that well but appreciated for its unique form and the big swing of it from a storytelling perspective, but that still netted it a five out of five on my rating scale. This series is the first in years that I am racing through, demanding people in my life read so I can talk about it, and wishing for more of. I cannot recommend it enough.

Wow. This sixth installment of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series really blew it out of the park! I was completely taken with how well Matt Dinniman has expanded on the universe and enhanced the stakes set for our main characters. Princess Donut is still, by far, my absolute favorite character from this series. She just gets more sassy and hilarious the further the story goes. Carl's character has definitely progressed since we last saw him too. He's becoming more decisive and courageous with pursuing his goals. I can't say too much else without gearing towards spoilers, but just know that this book, plot and world-building wise, has escalated beyond my expectations. I highly recommend this lit. RPG series for anyone looking to read a quick and fun sci-fi story!

I’ve been a reader my whole life, but I have rarely come across a series where each installment just gets better and better. This is that series. With each book, there is more depth, world building, character development, and even inside jokes. This book was fantastic. Although I personally do still think the previous book was my favorite, this one had me laughing out loud, tearing up, audibly gasping, and having to bite my lip from spoiling the book to my husband and friend who have now started the series.

I don’t want to mention any specific details in order to not spoil anything, but I am continuously impressed with how Matt Dinniman writes both major characters, and even the minor ones. Each character is written so vividly that you can’t help but hold onto them.

I can not recommend this series enough for fantasy, sci-fi, and adventure readers. I also think this book is perfect for gamers who also enjoy reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!