This Inevitable Ruin Review

Written: 20-04-2026

I was worried that I was starting to get bored of the formula of Dungeon Crawler Carl after reading The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, because I didn't enjoy that book nearly as much as the others, but This Inevitable Ruin proved me wrong. This book hooked me with that just one more chapter feeling that got me into the series to begin with.

The stakes were really upped in this one with the aliens from outside the dungeon being able to die and many of them being key leaders in the universal society. We get a couple of chapters of introduction to the concept and the ninth floor and then it is practically all action for the rest of the book. No characters are safe and it feels like there will be many consequences coming from the events of this book.

Many of the previous books set up this floor really well and plot points like the crown Donut picks up on the first floor finally get resolved. There's even a bunch of new characters that get introduced in a very natural way that add a lot of flavour. I do still worry though that so much was building towards this floor and book in particular that in may be hard to follow. I have faith though because this books feels even though it resolved a lot of plot points, it also created many. I would say this book feels like the beginning of a finale.

We also get the biggest team ups and fights of the series with it being an all out war. The crawlers are mostly all teamed up against various factions from outside the dungeon. This allows for some of the side characters to really shine. Something, that I think I may have failed to mention in my previous reviews, that I love is how vividly Matt has created the images of each character so that people that were described many books ago I can still imagine what they look like.

The characters have not just great imagery, but also good character development. Carl's burnout is still resonating with me, perhaps a little too much, but seeing Louis really start to prove himself and Donut repressing the horrors of war is really powerful writing. I think that's the thing with Dungeon Crawler Carl, it mixes so many things so well. It has this quirky, funny side, but also serious moments, elements that make you think and go ahhh when you piece it together before something happens and then just some solid action. All these things are done to a high quality consistently and it just makes a great series.

So all in all an incredible seventh entry to an incredible series. I hope they continue to be this strong. I've finished just in time for the eighth book to be released next month.