BookBunnies

Caramel reviews The Dungeon Anarchist’s Handbook by Matt Dinniman

Caramel has already read and reviewed Dungeon Crawler Carl and Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, the first two books of Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Today he is talking about the third book in the series: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Handbook, originally self-published by the author in 2021 and then more traditionally published by a standard publisher in 2024. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I think that today we have another Dungeon Crawler Carl book to discuss.

Caramel: Yup. This is titled The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and is the third book in the series.

S: Hmm, that is an interesting title. Tell me more.

C: It is not actually about an anarchist, but Carl actually gets a book called The Anarchist’s Cookbook, and this third book is about that, and what he does with it.

S: Okay, so let us go over the storyline a bit. I remember the main premise: Carl is living on Earth, which has been taken over by some aliens who have destroyed most life on the planet, and some remaining humans are forced to participate in a multi-level dungeon crawling game to entertain alien spectators.

C: Right. And in the first two books Carl and his companion Princess Donut have successfully finished the first three levels. This book is about their adventures in the fourth level.

S: Okay, so let us get back to the cookbook. It must be important somehow.

C: Yep, it is important. And it is not really a cookbook. Or rather it is a cookbook but Carl can detect that it is also kind of like a notebook from hundreds of previous crawlers who have obtained different variations of this book. It contains notes from those people, so it is basically a culmination of exploits and other rules the previous crawlers have found loopholes in.

S: Oh, that is neat! So he and Donut will have an easier way through the mazes of Level Four.

C: Yes. But of course it is never that easy. All sorts of other things happen and there are lots of troubles and lots of dangers and enemies… But I won’t go into too much more detail. It is more fun for people to read the book on their own.

S: Okay Caramel. You are right. Maybe this is enough of a teaser to give our readers, so maybe we can talk about other things about the book.

C: Sure.

Caramel is reading The Dungeon Anarchist's Handbook by Matt Dinniman. — Caramel is reading *The Dungeon Anarchist’s Handbook* by Matt Dinniman.

S: For example, this is a really big book!

C: Yeah, it’s 530-ish pages or something like that.

S: That is a lot. The first two books were not small, either, but this is getting really thick. How long did it take you to read it?

C: Not sure. I read it at home and at school during reading time. Maybe a few days?

S: And I don’t think the other books will be much shorter.

C: I guess. But the books are not really hard to read for me. The story is interesting enough so I want to read ahead. Also the story is told through Carl’s voice and Carl is a really neat character. He is funny!

S: I understand. I mean I don’t think you would want to read such a big book for fun if the book were not engaging.

C: Yup. That’s exactly right.

S: Sounds good. On another note, a friend of the blog told us that this volume is where things get a bit more sensitive, or in some ways emotionally difficult. They thought that this volume especially might be rough on a young reader. Was that your experience too?

C: Not really. Maybe I am a little desensitized from watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy so many times. And the world of the books is quite cruel to start with, so I kind of expect terrible things to keep happening. But yeah, some more deaths happen in this book and may involve characters we might have started liking. So in that sense this third book is a bit harder on the reader’s emotions.

S: I see. But you had already told me when we were talking about the first book that you did not think this series was very appropriate for very young bunnies. I suppose that kind of covers this too.

C: Yep. But if a bunny enjoys reading about Dungeons and Dragons or other types of role-playing game worlds, and they have already read some books where bad things keep happening and the main characters have to go through really tough things to survive, then I think they would enjoy this book, and not with much discomfort.

S: Thanks Caramel, that makes sense to me. So maybe we should wrap up this book. Are you ready to dive into Book Four?

C: Yes, I need to read it soon!

S: Alright, we will make it so. What do you want to tell our readers as we wrap things up?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading The Dungeon Anarchist's Handbook by Matt Dinniman and is ready for Book Four! — Caramel enjoyed reading *The Dungeon Anarchist’s Handbook* by Matt Dinniman and is ready for Book Four!

Sprinkles reviews The Gashlycrumb Tinies or, After the Outing by Edward Gorey

Today, to celebrate the spirit of Halloween, which was just yesterday, Sprinkles reviews The Gashlycrumb Tinies, or After the Outing by Edward Gorey, first published in 1963.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies is written in the guise of an alphabet book, a book that has a page for each letter of the English alphabet with one word per letter described by words and / or depicted by some images explaining the word. But this is not a very good book to be handed out to young bunnies to read on their own.

The book does indeed have a page dedicated to each letter and there is a simple rhyme that holds up through the whole text, but the content is a lot more disturbing than one might expect. As this review is meant for Halloween, readers might expect something spooky. And indeed, the book is basically a list of twenty six children’s names, one child per letter, and lists the varied morbid ways each has died.

So if that is not too weird for you, here is a snippet to give you a taste:

I is for IDA, who drowned in a lake
J is for JAMES who took lye by mistake
K is for KATE who was struck with an axe
L is for LEO who swallowed some tacks

You get the point, I presume.

Sprinkles is reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies or, After the Outing by Edward Gorey. — Sprinkles is reading *The Gashlycrumb Tinies or, After the Outing* by Edward Gorey.

The book is the brainchild of the illustrious artist Edward Gorey, who was also the illustrator of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, which I read and reviewed a while ago. His art is textured, mostly dark, and very vivid. The children are always alone and so very small in the expansive space they are set in. One wants to pick them up and save them but of course that is impossible.

Gorey apparently said that the book was inspired by “those 19th-century cautionary tales, I guess, though my book is punishment without misbehavior”. Indeed all the illustrations accompanying the sentences about the untimely deaths of these poor young children are black-and-white, and have a somewhat eerie, old-fashioned feel to them. The image accompanying the “IDA” line I quoted above shows a dark but calm lake, a boat on the lake, and a little girl who is leaning over from the edge of the boat looking into the lake. The girl seems a bit unbalanced, and you might think that she might trip over, but you actually do not expect that will happen, because the image looks kind of serene. But then again you know, in this book, nothing goes right.

The book is probably not appropriate for the very young bunch, but it might be fun to read together with a young bunny with a morbid sense of humor. Otherwise it is best kept for a treasure for the parents or parents-to-be, who might be worrying non-stop about all the fanciful dangers little ones might face in this world. To awaken in them the reality that living itself is dangerous, the ways these little ones die are almost all kind of simple (except perhaps for poor Xerxes, who was “devoured by mice” and Neville who “died of ennui”). As such, the book is not even good as a cautionary tale for little ones; it simply is what it is: a morbid little book poking fun at our shock that at least some of us survive till adulthood. Why not take a look at it this Halloween to explore the absurdity of our fears and the unlikelihood of the survival of our species?

Sprinkles appreciated reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies or, After the Outing by Edward Gorey, and encourages all Halloween-spirited bunnies to take a look at it. — Sprinkles appreciated reading *The Gashlycrumb Tinies or, After the Outing* by Edward Gorey, and encourages all Halloween-spirited bunnies to take a look at it.

Caramel reviews Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe

Today to honor this last week of October and therefore the week of Halloween, Caramel chose to review a book about a ghost and a girl who tried hard to get rid of him: Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe, published originally in 2025. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, today we are talking about a book with ghosts because it is almost Halloween.

Caramel: Correction: One ghost! I mean at some point there are others, but the book is really about one ghost.

S: True. Okay, let us begin at the beginning. Tell us a bit about the book.

C: So this book is about a girl named Aggie, believe it or not.

S: Oh, I believe it. So then there should also be a ghost.

C: Yes. So Aggie somehow just gets herself a new home where she is living alone. But no, she is actually not alone. There is a ghost in the house.

S: Hmm, so Aggie is a little kid but is living alone. That’s kind of strange, right?

C: Yeah, I mean, I know there are kids in the world who do not have anyone, but they also do not usually have their own homes. Anyways, this is fiction, so we don’t ask too many such questions.

S: Right. So let us not ask those questions.

C: Anyways, so Aggie’s house is haunted. And Aggie gets annoyed that the ghost is stealing her socks and eating all the cheese, so she tries to make rules, but the ghost always breaks the rules.

S: So he is kind of a bad roommate.

C: Yeah, and Aggie did not even want a roommate! So, one day she gets fed up with him and goes out and the ghost follows her, and so she challenges the ghost to a tic-tac-toe game. And if he loses he has to leave the house, and if he wins and she loses, she has to leave the house.

S: That is one stressful game! And you know tic-tac-toe really well, right, Caramel? You even did a project on it!

C: Yeah, I know that it is really hard to win. If both of you know how to play right, and neither side messes up, you can’t win.

S: True. So anyways who wins the game?

C: Maybe I should not spoil the whole book.

S: But does it end happily? Like do they get to be friends?

C: Not quite. It does end happily, but I won’t say more.

Caramel is reading Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe. — Caramel is reading *Aggie and the Ghost* by Matthew Forsythe.

S: Alright. Then maybe tell me this. You have read and reviewed another book by Matthew Forsythe before: Pokko and the Drum. Do you remember that book? Is this one similar to that other book at all?

C: Not really, but the pictures remind me of one another. So if you did not tell me that these two books were illustrated by the same person, I might still have guessed.

S: Yeah, there are some intangible similarities in style somehow…

C: Also both books have the weird not-making-sense factor, like a friendly ghost who steals socks and eats all the cheese, or a fox that won’t immediately eat a rabbit that is right next to it.

S: So this particular author creates really fun and interesting and impossible worlds, right? The other book was about a frog who played a drum, really loudly, and that on its own also did not make too much sense. But it was a lot of fun to read. Did you think this book was fun to read?

C: Yeah, it would especially be a good book for younger bunnies, and especially around this time, you know, with Halloween coming up! This is always a fun time to think about ghosts and this particular ghost is not scary at all. He is a bit annoying though. But he is kind of funny. He likes to wear Aggie’s socks and eats up all her cheese, and cannot follow any house rules Aggie sets up.

S: Yeah, I can see reading this book as a humorous way to celebrate Halloween!

C: Yeah, totally.

S: Okay, maybe this is a good time to wrap up this review.

C: Sure!

S: What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! And happy Halloween!

Caramel enjoyed reading Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe and wishes all the little bunnies a happy Halloween! — Caramel enjoyed reading *Aggie and the Ghost* by Matthew Forsythe and wishes all the little bunnies a happy Halloween!

Marshmallow reviews No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon

Today Marshmallow reviews a little book with a big message: No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon, published first in 2022.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books that make you realize how horrible the world is while simultaneously teaching you how to stay hopeful, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Julian Aguon is an Indigenous human rights lawyer and defender from Guam. He founded Blue Ocean Law to serve at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, which will tell you what the main focus of this book is.

Through poems, speeches, and articles, Aguon shows the continual impacts of colonialism in Guam, the Marshall Islands, and so many other territories and sovereign states in similar situations. Specifically, he starts by showing how the U.S. government completely ignored protestors in Guam who were advocating to protect acres of beautiful limestone forest. In order to build yet another military base, the U.S. army bulldozed away the land home to the dying eight-spot butterfly. This is where the titular phrase “no country for eight-spot butterflies” comes from.

Citing the works of other great authors (he admits to particularly revering Arundhati Roy in a fashion similar to how one would adore a celebrity crush), Aguon presents the modern dilemma before the people facing the worst and most immediate impacts of climate change. Small island nations are not the ones contributing to the climate crisis, yet they are the ones already feeling its wrath.

Through this book, Aguon captures how truly horrific human nature can be and how violence and pain are running rampant everywhere around the world. He argues that one must learn to overcome speechlessness: the phenomenon of being left silent by atrocities because verbalizing them is simply too terrifying or graphic or painful.

No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is Aguon’s way of verbalizing the pain of his people and all those who are in a similarly hopeless situation. Global superpowers, he points out, do not care about the little guys who wield no weapons and have no power to stop them. He still has hope though and argues that the most dangerous thing in the world would be a generation of young people who have lost hope. In line with his ideals, I would suggest reading this book to each and every person who is ready to understand the scale of global suffering and is ready to accept our shared responsibility of alleviating it.

Marshmallow is reading No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon. — Marshmallow is reading *No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies* by Julian Aguon.

Marshmallow’s Review: I want to preface this by saying that No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is not a good book for young children. I was not expecting it to be as graphic and somewhat disturbing as it got to be at certain points. Because he has tasked himself with telling the story of our global circumstances accurately, Aguon must also show our worst demons. I cannot describe how purely evil some of these events reveal humans to be. Whether clothed in suits, surrounded by smooth, slimy words or brutishly, maliciously armed with machetes, human evil has never been as visible to me as it was in this book. I must admit I was not prepared, and I am infinitely grateful to be a bunny who has had no comparable experiences.

The fact that the author still has hope though should tell you something. As someone who has seen so much evidence that could convince even the most optimistic that hope is rather useless, the author somehow still believes that there are things worth fighting for and that hope has to survive.

This testimony of experiences shows another side of humanity that many have likely never heard of before. Reading No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies reveals just how deeply humans are and have been suffering. But at the same time, despite it all, Aguon begs us to believe in goodness. I believe that if he still has faith in humanity, we all must too.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 111%.