Amazon Cover
Comments I wrote during a buddy read of THE BUTCHER’S MASQUERADE
Page 3 – Remaining Crawlers 85, 223 … Down from 8 billion. Only 0.001% of humanity left.
(Am I going to count the percentage on the hunters too? Dang straight I am.)
Remaining Hunters: 360
Page 8 – “I want a lawyer,” I said. “I’m not touching those things until I talk to one.”
In the last book, didn’t Mordecai warn about lawyers and getting them involved?
Page 11 – Carl is high at 47, and all the hunters are starting at 50. But….. with no experience. I don’t think that is going to go well for them.
Page 57 – Boom today. Carl is on the floor. There will be a boom today and a boom tomorrow.
There is always a boom tomorrow.
Here a boom, there a boom, everywhere a boom-boom.
Page 65 – 35 dead hunters. Not quite 10%, but it is a start.
Page 89 – Remaining hunters 1,013 … Are these guys mental?
Humanity 83,995 – loss of 1,228. About a 15% loss. Adding about the equivalent in hunters.
Are you sure you want to do that boyos?
Page 128 – I think the whisper in the back of Carl’s head is the Valtay brain upgrades that aren’t *quite* capable with the Dungeon Crawler human wetware. You KNOW they haven’t done backward capability testing at all. And I bet all the patching they’ve done hasn’t gone through sandbox testing.
Page 141 – All those questions Carl is asking, basically is making a recap episode. I wonder if they asked for it, or if it is just a naturally occurring activity. Recap episodes are always good when you start a new season/floor. What happened is it that happened last time … Carl is making it look natural.
Page 179 – Carl is having to do a lot of non-grinding. First the Daughter storyline, and now the visit to Odette. It’s good he started off with the Big Boom. It’s the only think keeping him up with the other crawlers.
Page 179 – “I thought since I loved you, that meant you loved me.”
Odette muttered something under her breath.
Oh dear…did you love Mordecai or did he love you, but you cared though you didn’t love him back until it was too late. As crawlers, as mentor & crawler, it was always going to be too late, wasn’t it?
Page 181 – “free* of charge”
What is the asterisk for?
Page 210 – “When one values coin above life, you should target the coin, for it hurts them more. “
Okay, that is going to become a bookquote. (If you see some you like here or in other books, ping me. For the non-Charlotte people who join this thread – Hi! I’m @erinpennbooks over on TikTok and @erinpenn7745 on YouTube and I make little shorts of Bookquotes with the cover and music.)
Page 225 – Oh BOY is this a big book!!! 707 pages.
Page 225 – I am working on downloading quotes from Goodreads right now and ran across this one:
“We will all have to work together to make sure you’re incompetence doesn’t continue.”
This is like the teacher saying – well, everyone flunked the test. … If it is the entire class, is it the classes fault or the teacher’s fault?
Page 225 – I can’t seem to find anything with the count of hunters who entered the game – just the 1,013 after over 50 of them are dead.
Page 227 – No, no. Please. You can’t do this. I’m a real person. Not a crawler or an NPC. A real person.
Oh, I would see red on that one too, Carl.
Page 264 – “actual Valtay landing vessel” …”at the bottom of the ocean”… “Not far from headquarters“
Oh, that information is going to be useful some day.
“most interviews will occur here from now on”
Even better.
Page 278 – Have they named that poor cleaning bot yet? Does it get to level up? It should be able to level up all the work it does.
Page 292 – “I just judged…”
This is the Shatner Saturday Night Live “Evil Kirk” sketch where he asks if a fan has ever kissed a girl all over again. So uncomfortable. So true.
Page 293 – “before you sent them to die in MY dungeon”
The “I am not trapped here with all of you, you are trapped in here with me” trope. One of the politest versions is Captain America asking people if they want to get off the elevator. Carl is never going to be that polite.
Page 296 – Hunter count
Trophy for Carl is up to 39, but he isn’t the only collector (last count for him was 34).
Remaining hunters is 914.
Okay, I can’t find anywhere with the count of original hunters. 1,013 with over 50 dead hunters already, so let’s say 1,063 for the total hunter count signing up. Last over all count was 1,013 (highest number) now is 914 – so 89 dead from the last count. 139 dead overall. Somewhere between 8.7% and 13% dead. It is a start for the hunters.
Page 317 – “that river in my head would roar”
Still not sure what that river is. Carl is insane, maybe. and I’m not sure what flavor, but they have broken him.
That’s okay. He will still break them all.
Page 317 – “I missed so much”
Interviews with Odette and others, a private storyline to follow, and now a con??? He’ll need to blow up half the floor to keep up with those that can grind.
Page 324 – “I did receive something quite useful from a Platinum Did-You-Really-Just-Cast-Fireball-in-a-Room-This-Small Box.”
Oh, I am not going to sleep until I find out just how small that room was. What time is it? One am … dangit.
Page 325 – Random XP … Carl, you know that XP has always been tweaked by DMs (or AI) to help the “narrative”.
Page 338 – Fireball is an outdoor spell, Donut.
Thank goodness, I get to sleep soon. Now to just finish the scene/chapter/next page.
Page 435 – Trophies by Carl: 52
Hunters: 673 (from 1,063 would be 63% left)
Page 472 – The AI is railroading this level hard.
Page 479 – Of course there are Carl-nut ships fics. (which are WRONG, just like the initial Winchester ships for Supernatural.)
Page 513 – Trophies by Carl: 66
Hunters left 290 (27% left)
Page 521 – …hair was on fire. Again.
At least Samantha is having fun. She is completely bug-crazy bonkers, but she is having fun.
Page 539 – The Cookbook has been an interesting addition. It’s another layer of competing interests to the story, another layer of history, another group of people (long dead, but we readers are still bleeding for them).
PS. Love Crawler Drakea who carefully cross-referenced all the entries and marked the last one for each crawler that went before them.
Page 541 – Hunters with one hour left is at 264 (25%)
Remaining crawlers at 59,259 down from 85,223 (69.5% of the total translated to this floor. Or 0.00007% of humanity at the start of the crawl.)
Page 542 – “I do hope, sir, that your brought shoes for the event. And pants.”
“Nope,” I said.
If I was one to laugh a lot, I would be wheezing on this exchange.
Page 558 – There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of Dungeon Crawler seasons, so there are at least hundreds of crazy AIs out there (if they really do set aside energy to house them indefinitely). I wonder if this will come up in a Carl plan; or just impact something, especially for the final book of the series. Do the AIs connect?
Page 586 – We are not considered citizens, so oxygen and land are not a right.
Keep the poor fighting each other for survival and make a profit while at it.
Page 587 – “It seems in a universe so large, one shouldn’t have to live somewhere inhospitable. It seems like it would be easy to find a place to live in peace.”
“It does seem like it should be that way, doesn’t it?”
Artificial scarcity is a trap that many get caught in.
Page 588 – Turning on your own party is inevitable in a game where there can be only one. The producers will string along Carl and Donut team as long as they can, so Katia would be the first to get hit. Maybe Samantha – after all a demon – but does she even count since she is not a crawler?
Page 608 – Samantha has entered the bathroom chat.
Page 626 – They died because I asked for help
Have you seen the death stats, Carl? No one leaves these crawls alive.
Page 636 – Samantha always promises to kill mothers. I hope she gets her chance here.
(Dang it, this sex doll head is growing on me.)
Page 651 – 75 hunters left … half of whom are homeless or refugees … UGH!!
This countdown is no longer fun.
Page 707 – That may have been the biggest final boss battle I have ever read. Only one I can think of coming close is The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Page 707 – Final Thought: The Butcher is the Goddess of “Peace” and her mask for the masquerade is her pretending to be peace when the reality is to create a butchery.
Series of Transcripts for Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 1-3 (12/16/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 (12/17/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 (12/19/2025)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (12/20/2025)
- Book Review (SERIES): Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 4-6 (2/17/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4 (2/18/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 (2/20/2026)
- BuddyRead Transcript: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6 (2/21/2026)