The Butcher's Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl #5)[October 9, 2025]

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is a Buddy Read for The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman starting on October 9, 2025.


Happy Reading!

[Nirkatze]

Thank you!

1. Dungeon Crawler Carl (Jun 9) [link]
2. Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Jul 9) [link]
3. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Aug 9) [link]
4. The Gate of the Feral Gods (Sept 9) [link]
5. The Butcher's Masquerade (Oct 9)
6. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Nov 9) [link]
7. This Inevitable Ruin (Dec 9) [link]
8. A Parade of Horribles (Formerly Carl's Book of Boom) (expected May 2026)

[Tom]

I’m in.

[RachelG.]

There is something about the Arrow of Enthusiastic Double Gonorrhea that makes me smile every time it comes up in this story.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The Schadenfreude is strong in this one...

[Nirkatze]

It's the "enthusiastic" that gets me.

[Nirkatze]

Oh, I also just posted in #3's thread, but DCC is my next book up for the book club class I teach--so I'll have a LitRPG-themed Kahoot and presentation next Weds. If folks're interested, I'll link them in the threads when I'm finished.

I am also opening the invitation to any regular FBR folks I buddy read with--anyone available 4:30pm Pacific on Weds 22nd and want to join the zoom and see me do an intro for DCC is welcome to join. Message me and I'll send you a zoom link. :)

[Nirkatze]

If folks are interested, here's the Kahoot and PPT for my presentation tomorrow...

Kahoot: (https://create.kahoot.it/details/f5d6...)
PPT: (https://docs.google.com/presentation/...)

[Nirkatze]

Starting this! Through Chapter 6 and so excited (view spoiler)[that Carl & Donut finally meet Miriam and Prepotente! (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Finished Part 1 and a couple chapters in to Part 2: Vengeance of the Daughter--Chapter 19 and I'm really enjoying the external politics on this reread--(view spoiler)[Quasar is such a character. We know very little about the Null but what we do makes it even more interesting that we get to know one in detail. Why exactly are they so distrusted and reviled throughout the universe? I love the voice Hays does for him too, and how he uses a pen to make the vape-inhaling noise.

It's great to see Carl starting to really play the game on another level... especially knowing where some if it is going--and getting allies like Quasar on the outside...

And then there's the Bea confrontation scene. I read an interview yesterday where Dinniman talked about writing that--he was mentioning that as a pantser, he has a lot more freedom over future plotlines... so if he sees fan theories online, he'll purposefully make the story NOT do that. (Sanderson has talked about the topic as well though his conclusions were more "if I foreshadowed well enough for people to guess it then I'm doing well") But anyway--there had been a LOT of theories floating around about Bea--even ones like where her consciousness had been uploaded into the cleaner bot in their personal space--and Dinniman felt like he just needed to get that confrontation out of the way already.

In the scene, that sentiment--just getting this over with--is felt pretty hard. But not in a bad way. Like, Carl and especially Donut need to move on from the damage of that relationship. Like Carl says, there's too much going on in their lives right now to be hung up over something like this.

But it is rather satisfying to see her smacked with it.

And finally, there's SAMANTHA! After being on the bench for all of Part 1, we're finally going to get some bad-mouthing action from our favorite sex-doll head. Excited! (hide spoiler)]

[RachelG.]

re: The sections Nirkatze referenced: (view spoiler)[ It was sad to see Donut have that confrontation with Bea. You guys told me it was going to happen but I still felt bad for Donut.

Samantha is such a hoot! (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Through Chapter 30 now, and really getting to start seeing how much fun Samantha is... (view spoiler)[There's just something hilarious about a decapitated head making all the statements she does... But what I really love about Samantha is her pure confidence in herself. Maybe to the point of being delusional, and some of it's surely an act, but she never gives up. She's just a head and yet she wants to take on the world. It probably wouldn't be so cute if she was in her full power.

Meanwhile, all the hints about what's going on backstage are coming to a boil--the Borant system governmental upset, the Valtay stepping in, Zev not imprisoned or family tortured anymore, but clearly not healthy either... it kind of feels like the Borant revolutionaries were a small country with a fanatic leadership that invited the neighboring powerhouse to come help them overthrow their system... and now they can't get rid of the guests. And HOW exactly did Donut help Zev smuggle Valtay in? And what is still going on? I'm glad I forgot the details, I get to relive it again.

Also, the end quote here--"Try not to swear for this one Carl, they're children." and all I'm thinking about is "Glurp, glurp, motherf*****."

https://www.tiktok.com/@morri_can_try... (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

I just gobbled the rest of this up Friday. It was soo good, and I've forgotten so many details... (view spoiler)[Getting a bit more information on Lucia Mar... how twisted, that it's actually multiple children all stuck inside her, being controlled by the dog--which might be her "youth advisor"... how does that get around the legal stuff? Is the real Lucia Mar in there somewhere--is she the messed up one, or is it all someone piloting from outside?

I love how that tidbit worked into the brothers getting free though. The whole thing makes me think of how Dinniman has mentioned in interviews that fans praise his foreshadowing--even though he's a self-confessed pantser and doesn't actually foreshadow. But he DOES say he has a ton of ideas, and has spreadsheets and spreadsheets (big enough that they've crashed his computer on more than one occasion) to keep track of everything that HAS happened. So it's kind of like... he's really good at fitting existing puzzle pieces into a cool conclusion?

Which puts a whole spin on theorizing and questioning too... Like wondering what's up with Lucia Mar, or the Apothecary and the Plenty working together, or what exactly Donut & Zev have been planning and what happened with Borant, or how the legal stuff works with Quasar, or what's up with the gods and how Apito can have a crystal and not be dead... does theorizing have value when even the author doesn't know yet? And is likely to explicitly make things NOT this way if the theory gets popular?

Lots of good heart-jerker moments here... Miriam Dom's sacrifice... Sigrid coming to consciousness as an NPC, and choosing to sacrifice herself to give Carl & co a chance... Even little things, like discovering that all of Zev's family was slaughtered, but she doesn't have a choice but to keep going, and the same with a lot of the Hunters. There not because they enjoy it, but because they are trying to get a deal for their people to survive. The whole system is just f'd up, and it seems like most of the regular joes are on Carl's side... And then all the deaths at the end too--Gwen especially hits hard... Followed by the epilogue, showing just how badly Katia is not dealing...

I love the ending, with Prepotente temporarily teaming up with Carl and Donut, the back-and-forth between the message boards planning and all the spinning plates in the air... (hide spoiler)]