The Side Quest Book Club Podcast

One of us read all eight books. The other read one and isn't on the hype train yeWe break down what to know before you read DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman — spoiler-free, with a marked spoiler gate for books two through eight. Slava gives book one an honest first-timer's grade, and Jonathan makes the case for the full series. We explain LitRPG for beginners, how the series started as a free web serial on Royal Road, and the cat-show job that inspired Princess Donut. We trace the death game genre from Stephen King's The Running Man and The Long Walk through The Hunger Games and Squid Game, and get into how Dinniman uses Patreon reader feedback to keep eight books moving. Stopped after book one? Tell us why in the comments. Kept going? Drop a line Slava won't understand yet. (00:00) - Intro: Is Dungeon Crawler Carl Worth It? (00:31) - Book One Review: A First-Timer's Take (03:56) - The Cat That Inspired Princess Donut (05:35) - What Is LitRPG? Explained for Beginners (06:54) - Royal Road Roots and the Game Show Layer (08:42) - Death Game Books: King to Hunger Games (13:22) - Spoilers: Why It Picks Up at Book Three (15:02) - Comedy With Real Darkness Underneath (16:15) - Why a Silly Premise Pulls You In (18:52) - How Dinniman Kept It Fresh for 8 Books (21:11) - Should You Keep Reading After Book One? — 📺 SUBSCRIBE Episodes Every Week🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: Wellerson Clemer — https://www.behance.net/wellersonclemer123 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #DungeonCrawlerCarl #LitRPG

72 agent queries, 64 rejections, and a Christian horror writer who isn't slowing down. Indie horror author Audra Kate joins us to talk Tomato Juice, her querying manuscript Festering Shadows, and writing horror as a person of faith. Audra Kate has 10 books out across self-publishing and indie presses, and she's querying her first adult novel, a zombie horror romance. She walks us through the query package, Query Tracker, comp titles, manuscript wish lists, and why agents now ask for your Instagram numbers. Then we get to the hard question: how a Christian writes possession horror, and why she sees horror as the genre best built to show light beating darkness. She also covers writing Tomato Juice through her family's grief, bridging the gap between R.L. Stine and Stephen King, and how to review a book you didn't like without gutting its author. Audra Kate Instagram: @lets.get.lit.literature TikTok: @lets.get.lit.literature (00:00) - Intro: A Christian Who Writes Horror (03:28) - From Poli-Sci Major to 10 Books (09:44) - Festering Shadows, a Zombie Romance (12:26) - 72 Queries, 64 Rejections (16:00) - Indie vs. Trad: Who Gets Respect? (17:47) - Build Your Platform Before You Query (21:19) - Publishing Is a Business (24:19) - Manuscript Wish Lists and Comp Titles (26:55) - Why Duologies Took Off (28:52) - Seven Years, No Finished Draft (32:04) - What Goes in a Query Package (34:07) - Query Tracker and Indie Press Calls (37:17) - How to Get an Agent's Attention (40:27) - The One-Star "Elder Abuse" Review (45:41) - How a Christian Writes Possession Horror (52:40) - Why Christian Fiction Feels Preachy (57:55) - Tomato Juice: Writing Through Grief (01:05:54) - When Her Grandpa Read Tomato Juice (01:07:55) - Folklore and Mythology in Her Horror (01:10:49) - Side Quest: Slava's Space Horror Pick (01:14:11) - Working-Class Monsters (01:16:43) - Side Quest: Struggle Meals (01:21:08) - Building a Bookstagram Without Burnout (01:24:53) - How to Write a Kind Book Review (01:28:25) - Bookstagram Needs to Touch Grass (01:34:11) - Where to Find Audra Kate — 📺 SUBSCRIBE New episodes every week. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: Wellerson Clemer — https://www.behance.net/wellersonclemer123 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #AudraKate #HorrorBooks

Our guest had to put this book down for two weeks. Chapter 35 named the date. We close out PET SEMATARY by Stephen King with John, the listener who talked us into reading it — full spoiler discussion, final episode of four. John is the reason this book was on our list, and he's read it twice: once at 20, once as a father. We start with why it's the rare book you have to walk away from, then get into what actually makes horror work — the slow boil, and whether a story lands when it stops being about a burial ground and starts being about a man with no framework for death. Then forbidden knowledge and control, Judd as the Mephistopheles of Ludlow, whether the ground was discovered or built, who the real hero is, and what happens after the last page. Tell us the book someone talked you into reading in the comments. (00:00) - Intro: The Guest Who Picked This Book (03:11) - The Date That Stopped Him Cold (05:26) - Reading This With a Toddler Nearby (07:03) - Books That Actually Break You (12:29) - King Almost Didn't Publish It (13:36) - Side Quest: Movies That Made Us Cry (20:34) - Why This Became John's Favorite (21:55) - The POV Switch Nobody Notices (24:54) - What Makes a Good Horror Story? (27:24) - Horror and the Human Condition (31:39) - It's Not About the Burial Ground (33:25) - The First Crack in His Worldview (34:30) - The King Multiverse Connections (36:20) - Why Forbidden Knowledge Pulls Us In (38:33) - Knowledge Without the Suffering (42:46) - Made for Another World (45:24) - The Quick Fix That Ruined Everything (47:03) - All He Had to Give Up Was the Cat (48:21) - Judd as Mephistopheles (50:25) - Advice That Quietly Ruins You (53:06) - COVID and the Illusion of Control (54:55) - Three Lies We Live By (58:07) - What Is the Burial Ground, Really? (59:36) - Discovered, Not Created (01:03:06) - Steve Is the Real Hero (01:04:46) - What Happens After the Last Page (01:05:57) - Books King Planned vs Winged (01:07:57) - The Best Sentence in the Book (01:10:07) - King Got Hit by a Van (01:11:27) - Side Quest: Do You Smell Your Books? (01:13:46) - Final Thoughts The Side Quest Book Club Podcast is a weekly deep-dive book review for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans who love getting lost in worlds. Hosts Jonathan and Slava break down Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere (including the Stormlight Archive), the works of Stephen King, and the best and most overlooked fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction.🎙️ New episodes every Tuesday: full spoiler discussions, world-building, character analysis, and book club arguments that make you want to re-read the book to prove Jonathan wrong. We take a break during summer but have a full catalog for you to listen to. What we cover: 📚 Brandon Sanderson — Cosmere deep dives, Stormlight Archive chapter-by-chapter 👑 Stephen King podcast — from IT to The Mist, and everything in between 🐉 Fantasy literature analysis — hidden gems, classics, and what makes great world-building 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. (00:00) - Intro: The Guest Who Picked This Book (03:11) - The Date That Stopped Him Cold (05:26) - Reading This With a Toddler Nearby (07:03) - Books That Actually Break You (12:29) - King Almost Didn't Publish It (13:36) - Side Quest: Movies That Made Us Cry (20:34) - Why This Became John's Favorite (21:55) - The POV Switch Nobody Notices (24:54) - What Makes a Good Horror Story? (27:24) - Horror and the Human Condition (31:39) - It's Not About the Burial Ground (33:25) - The First Crack in His Worldview (34:30) - The King Multiverse Connections (36:20) - Why Forbidden Knowledge Pulls Us In (38:33) - Knowledge Without the Suffering (42:46) - Made for Another World (45:24) - The Quick Fix That Ruined Everything (47:03) - All He Had to Give Up Was the Cat (48:21) - Judd as Mephistopheles (50:25) - Advice That Quietly Ruins You (53:06) - COVID and the Illusion of Control (54:55) - Three Lies We Live By (58:07) - What Is the Burial Ground, Really? (59:36) - Discovered, Not Created (01:03:06) - Steve Is the Real Hero (01:04:46) - What Happens After the Last Page (01:05:57) - Books King Planned vs Winged (01:07:57) - The Best Sentence in the Book (01:10:07) - King Got Hit by a Van (01:11:27) - Side Quest: Do You Smell Your Books? (01:13:46) - Final Thoughts — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub

Grief driven by madness, or madness driven by grief? We never settled it. We break down part three of PET SEMATARY by Stephen King — full spoiler discussion of the final act. Gage is back, and nothing after that goes well. We argue about how much the Wendigo actually knows and whether a word it says is true, whether a toddler can kill in cold blood, and why King arms a doctor with a scalpel and a bottle of morphine. Then the craft: why the tension in Pet Sematary never stops climbing when most authors peak and release, what separates horror that works from horror that doesn't, and why he almost left this manuscript in a drawer. Plus the connections hiding across his catalog. Tell us what makes good horror work for you in the comments. (00:00) - Intro: Gage Comes Back Wrong (01:04) - Creepy Kids and Why King Works (05:20) - Can We Trust the Wendigo? (08:45) - Side Quest: DARE Was an MLM (12:01) - Gage, the Wendigo, and Cold Blood (14:12) - Side Quest: Use Your Hands (16:03) - Gage Is Only a Shell (19:48) - Scalpels, Morphine, and Doctors (21:44) - The Wendigo Delays Rachel (24:03) - Tension That Never Stops Rising (27:02) - Horror Authors Who Do It Right (29:33) - What Makes Horror Actually Work (32:35) - Horror Needs Contrast (34:56) - Why King's Endings Get Ragged On (39:15) - Louis's Descent Into Madness (40:40) - The Book King Almost Didn't Publish (43:01) - Grief, Madness, or Both? (44:51) - What Happens to Ellie? (46:41) - Who's Actually Responsible? (49:18) - Ludlow vs Derry (51:46) - Ambiguity vs Spoon-Feeding (54:50) - Side Quest: Apologizing to Miéville (56:30) - Why Spec Fic Frustrates Us (58:05) - Final Thoughts The Side Quest Book Club Podcast is a weekly deep-dive book review for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans who love getting lost in worlds. Hosts Jonathan and Slava break down Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere (including the Stormlight Archive), the works of Stephen King, and the best and most overlooked fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction.🎙️ New episodes every Tuesday: full spoiler discussions, world-building, character analysis, and book club arguments that make you want to re-read the book to prove Jonathan wrong. We take a break during summer but have a full catalog for you to listen to. What we cover: 📚 Brandon Sanderson — Cosmere deep dives, Stormlight Archive chapter-by-chapter 👑 Stephen King podcast — from IT to The Mist, and everything in between 🐉 Fantasy literature analysis — hidden gems, classics, and what makes great world-building 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub

One of us argues the Wendigo doesn't need to be real for part two to work. Part 2 of 4 on PET SEMATARY by Stephen King. Spoilers through part two only. Jonathan calls this the scariest King book he's read, and not because of jump scares — it's dread, and it got worse reading it through fog on four hours of sleep. Slava counters that only one book has ever truly creeped him out, and it wasn't this one. We dig into the myth itself: the Algonquin folklore, documented cases of Wendigo psychosis, and Winona LaDuke's Wendigo economics. Plus the Timmy Baterman warning Louis ignores, whether Victor Pascow is a competing force, and why the exhumation is the tensest sequence in the book. Part three is next. (00:00) - Intro: The Scariest King Book Yet (04:42) - Books That Actually Creeped Us Out (07:56) - What Makes a Book Scary? (11:53) - Nitpick: Why Is Louis So Tired? (16:37) - The Fight With His Father-in-Law (19:56) - Digging Up the Grave (22:21) - When Did the Wendigo Get Louis? (25:05) - How Each Character Handles Death (28:58) - Hyper-Rationality Breaks Him (32:49) - Side Quest: Villains We Understand (34:11) - The Timmy Baterman Warning (37:08) - Louis Ignores Every Warning (38:23) - Wendigo Folklore Deep Dive (44:07) - The Wendigo Folktale, Read Aloud (46:45) - Power the Human Mind Can't Hold (47:52) - Victor Pascow, the Ghost Guide (52:14) - Monkey's Paw and Frankenstein (54:06) - Rachel's Race Home (56:25) - Why Did It Choose Louis? (01:00:20) - Do We Need the Exposition? (01:02:14) - Final Thoughts — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: Wellerson Clemer https://www.behance.net/wellersonclemer123 Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #PetSematary #StephenKing