I really really liked this book! Amelia Allore on the colors was such a welcome surprise; she has such a distinctive eye for palettes and it really made this book shine. I appreciated how grounded the conflicts felt:

that one lone wolf player who strikes up PVP at the most inopportune times

is a type of person every D&D player is going to have to interact with eventually. 

It made me reflect a lot on my relationship with D&D: I don’t tend to put a lot of myself into my characters, I hold my emotions close to my chest. Whenever I try to DM, I feel like I have to micromanage everything, like I don’t know how to respond to a single question thrown at me, and like I’m fighting against every other person at the table. Maybe I just need to have an open mind and heart like these kids, and stop playing overly quirky pastry shop one-shots that don’t have anxious beginners and tables of near-strangers in mind. 

Also Jess’s dad is a style icon and I love him.