Matt Dinniman’s fifth entry in the Dungeon Crawler Carl saga is the series at its boldest. The arena this time is the sixth floor, known as the Hunting Grounds, a lush kill-zone of jungle heat and Jurassic teeth. Outsiders are finally allowed in as paying tourists who get to hunt the remaining crawlers for sport. Among them is Vrah, a celebrity predator who wants a trophy that screams legend. The promise of a mysterious end-of-floor gala, the Butcher’s Masquerade, hangs over everything like a silk curtain hiding a guillotine.
What makes this installment hit so hard
Dinniman keeps the trademark mix of gore, gallows humor, and game mechanics, yet the heart beats louder than ever. Early on, the book lands a line that doubles as mission statement: trauma can blind you, and it can make you see. The story honors both truths. Carl and Donut are still hilarious and wildly capable, but the emotional wear shows in quiet moments that feel earned. You feel the bruises from five books of survival, and you feel the love that keeps them moving.
The floor design is pure playground for a LitRPG imagination. Think specialty choices, performance checks, and inventive boss moments folded into cinematic set pieces with raptors crashing through fern and bone. If you are a dino person, you will grin. If you are not, the constant tactical creativity will win you over anyway.
Carl, Donut, and the joy of complicated companionship
Carl remains the point-of-view you want in a world that monetizes murder. He is sardonic and stubborn, only more so now that spectators have turned his pain into premium content. Donut continues to be the most delightful contradiction in contemporary fantasy: pampered, ferocious, loyal, and accidentally profound. Their banter is character development in disguise, and their loyalty never feels cheap. By the time the masquerade approaches, their bond is the only thing that feels safe, which is exactly why you fear for it.
Secondary characters shine brighter than ever. Dinniman has a gift for turning bit players into people, then making you miss them when the jungle does what jungles do. Prepotente earns the kind of fist-pump that only a series with deep bench strength can deliver. Even the world’s oddities stick the landing. Samantha, the decapitated sex-doll head, steals scenes with audacity and timing. A lecherous AI turns a single foot-fetish gag into a moment so unhinged you laugh, then check your door locks.
Satire with teeth
The series has always skewered spectacle and power, but the Hunting Grounds sharpen that edge. Letting rich tourists kill contestants for entertainment is not subtle, and it is not meant to be. The legal subplot that flows from the previous book, complete with Carl hiring counsel, widens the lens in smart ways. We meet ex-crawlers who now grease the machine, bureaucrats who weaponize procedure, and a culture that calls terror “content.” The commentary on systems that isolate the oppressed while making their struggle profitable lands with uncomfortable clarity.
Pacing, structure, and the Masquerade payoff
The book moves like a chase through underbrush, sprint, crouch, sprint again. Set pieces are readable and clean, the rules remain crunchy without ever smothering momentum, and the masquerade hook gives the narrative a drumbeat you can feel in your ribs. When the masks finally go on, the curtain drops with the mixture of horror and awe this series does best.
Content notes
Brutal violence, gore, mass death, slavery and colonization themes, explosions, fire, murder, grief, PTSD, addiction references, drugging, needles, animal death, past domestic and child abuse, and one very unsettling AI monologue. There is also plenty of on-page humor that lives next door to the darkness.
Verdict
This is Dungeon Crawler Carl at peak form, equal parts adrenaline and ache. It elevates the satire, deepens the relationships, and stacks inventive encounters that remind you why LitRPG took off in the first place. If the previous floor left you breathless, this one leaves you blinking back tears while you reload.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5, with a mask in one hand and a Molotov in the other
Ready to enter the Hunting Grounds yourself?
Buy The Butcher’s Masquerade on Amazon
