A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman

A Parade of Horribles

Matt Dinniman

Penguin Publishing Group · Hardcover · May 12, 2026

It’s off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series—featuring bonus material exclusive to this print edition.

Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
Races, escalating tracks, and ominous glitches make routine feel like a suspiciously temporary condition.
Themes
Agency and control, Escalating stakes, Chaos and mass panic
Pacing
Fast

Nearest books

Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: LitRPG.

  1. The Gate of the Feral GodsMatt Dinniman78% match
  2. This Inevitable RuinMatt Dinniman80% match
  3. Dungeon Crawler CarlMatt Dinniman77% matchAlso shares Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic and Funny Sci-Fi
  4. The Library at Mount CharScott Hawkins53% match

For younger readers: Plants Vs. Zombies Volume 5: Petal to the Metal, The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade, Plants Vs. Zombies Volume 4: Grown Sweet Home

Start with three books, and this one can be the first.

Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.

Start with this book

About this book

It’s off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series—featuring bonus material exclusive to this print edition. As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon. Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last.

Continue reading

After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple. Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.” Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine. Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do. So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. Includes part eight of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.”

Normal, Dungeon-Style

Races, escalating tracks, and ominous glitches make routine feel like a suspiciously temporary condition.

Come here for

  • Vehicle upgrades and increasingly challenging races
  • The uneasy gap between business as usual and impending chaos

Expect

  • Dungeon rules that constrain Carl’s agency
  • A dangerous plan with stakes beyond Carl and Donut

Where it sits

LitRPG65%
Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic46%
Funny Sci-Fi40%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Fantasy Adventure
  • Sci-Fi Adventure
  • LitRPG
Authors
Matt Dinniman
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Published
May 12, 2026
Format
Hardcover
Theme
Agency and control · Escalating stakes · Chaos and mass panic
Reading lane
Fantasy Adventure