The Eye of the Bedlam Bride Review

Written: 06-03-2026

I don't know if I am getting a little bored of the series, or if this book was weaker than some of the others, or if it was just because this is the longest book in the series, but it took me the longest to read so far. I think The Eye of the Bedlam Bride is still a good book but it certainly felt weaker than the rest of the series, and it even gets mentioned a couple of times that the eighth floor is filler. I know that's a joke about the people running the game but it does feel more disjointed than the rest of the series to me.

So I have liked that they mix up what happens in each floor by having a unique twist in the rules, however the card battling didn't work as well as the others. It's a fun idea but it means for a lot of the book the characters abilities that they have been building for the entire series get ignored. Then when they are used it is often to just straight up skip battles which made this floor feel very low stakes for the most part. At the end this changed a little with characters being forced to fight each other but it was certainly weaker in this aspect.

I like how they have continued to build up to floor nine which should be in the next book. It feels like the overarching plot is really building to that and has been for a while. I hope this gets a good payoff in the next book, but also that it doesn't mean the series sort of peters out after that. There have been a few things mentioned for later floor but nowhere near as much as the ninth floor has been mentioned throughout. I do think the shadow of the ninth floor made the eighth floor feel weaker than it actually was in places though. There is so much about to happen on the next floor and so many plots that will resolve there that it was probably hard to write this one.

I have also enjoyed seeing the AI slowly get more autonomy and seeing how the aliens outside the dungeon have been reacting to all this. I'm very interested to see where the overall plot goes. The actual floor content wasn't bad this time it just wasn't as good as previous floors. I still enjoyed it but I have preferred previous books.

The two floor sections that were really good were the final battle where once again all the major characters come together for a team up and it feels earned. The stakes at the end are perfect it just feels like a lot of back and forth beforehand. Then there's the encounters with people from before the collapse and the memory ghosts that worked really well for me. I won't go too much into these for the sale of spoilers.

Overall another good book in the series but one of the weakest in my opinion. I think it feels longer than it needs to be and maybe overstays its welcome in some areas. There are some great moments, the overarching story is still building well and it's a good book. It just doesn't quite have the highs of some of the previous books. It feels very much like a middle book in a series.