Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Volo's Guide To Monsters is now, without a doubt, my new favorite 5E book. Part 1 contains a LOT of in-depth information about some of D&D's most notable adversaries: Beholders, Giants, Mind Flayers, and others. The second part contains new racial options for players; IIRC, some of these were presented in other books, but it is nice to have them collected in one place. The rest of the book has a bestiary of new creatures, great and small, as well as some "plug and play" NPCs. For the DM, this book is a treasure trove; I tend to buy 5E books for inspiration, and don't really play pre-generated campaigns, and VGtM is helping me take the campaign I'm running in some exciting new directions (at least, for me). Also, I'm all about giving players more options, so the new player races are also extremely interesting to me. I don't know how much I'll use the pre-gen NPCs, but they're handy to have, just in case. One of my favorite things about the book is the chief conceit of its design. Peppered throughout the book are comments of Volothamp Geddarm (the "Volo" of the title) and the archmage Elminster Aumar. These little side notes add a lot to the flavor of the book, and help the reader immerse him/herself in the world. EDIT: Another thing I like about this book that I just discovered is that the index of the book has monsters sorted by challenge rating and sorted by location. So, if you're hunting for creatures in, say, the Underdark, it's extremely easy to find them in the book. Nice addition!