Jenna Holloway's personal reading and gaming log: reviews of science fiction and fantasy books and board games, plus the occasional personal essay.https://jennaholloway.com/en-UShttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-magical-athlete/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-magical-athlete/I've started using this one as a litmus test. Hand it to someone new and if they turn their nose up at roll-and-move, we're probably not going to agree on much else in this hobby.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTMagical AthleteJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-cthulhu-death-may-die/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-cthulhu-death-may-die/My first reaction to the pitch was 'wait, you shoot Cthulhu in the face?' My reaction after playing was ordering the expansion.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCthulhu: Death May DieJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-condition-report-i-wrote-for-my-own-shelf/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-condition-report-i-wrote-for-my-own-shelf/I caught myself writing an actual condition report, foxing notes and all, for a paperback I bought used for four dollars. My job has ruined me a little, and I'm not sorry.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-sentinels-of-the-multiverse/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-sentinels-of-the-multiverse/No Marvel license, all original heroes, and I still ended every game feeling like I'd just watched a comic book movie play out on my table.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTSentinels of the MultiverseJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-night-i-taught-cyclades-wrong/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-night-i-taught-cyclades-wrong/I ran a full auction phase without the priest tile in play. Two of the five people at my table are engineers. Nobody caught it until round four.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-dispossessed/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-dispossessed/A physicist bounces between an anarchist moon and a capitalist planet and neither one gets to be the good guys. Exactly the kind of ambiguous I want from my science fiction.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe DispossessedJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-fire-upon-the-deep/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-fire-upon-the-deep/Six hundred pages split between a librarian outrunning a galaxy-eating evil and a medieval war fought by dogs who think in packs. I liked the dogs more, and I don't feel bad about it.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTA Fire Upon the DeepJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-castles-of-burgundy-special-edition/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-castles-of-burgundy-special-edition/I owned the plain old edition for years and mostly avoided it because of the art. The acrylic tiles and the Vineyards expansion turned it into one of my favorite games, period.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Castles of Burgundy: Special EditionJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-wizard-of-earthsea/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-wizard-of-earthsea/A young wizard's own arrogance chases him across an archipelago in the shape of a shadow he made himself. Comfort food fantasy with real teeth in it.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTA Wizard of EarthseaJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-handmaids-tale/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-handmaids-tale/Offred never gets her real name back and the book never gives you the tidy ending you're braced for. Both of those choices are why it's stuck with me for years.Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Handmaid's TaleJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-gloomhaven-opinion-i-had-to-eat/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-gloomhaven-opinion-i-had-to-eat/I told a coworker the entire Gloomhaven line was overhyped box-clutter for people who like homework. I now own three of them.Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-board-game-insert-i-refuse-to-buy/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-board-game-insert-i-refuse-to-buy/Marisol has a laser cut insert for every box she owns. I keep my components in the baggies they shipped in, on principle, and I'm aware how that sounds coming from me specifically.Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-reading-log-nobody-asked-to-see/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-reading-log-nobody-asked-to-see/Six years of a paper notebook, one line per book, edition and printing included. I started it for work reasons that no longer apply and never found a reason to stop.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-game-of-thrones/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-a-game-of-thrones/Eight hundred pages and I still wanted the beheading scene told from the person actually being beheaded, not cut away from at the last second. That's how invested this book got me.Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTA Game of ThronesJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-why-i-wont-read-an-ebook-even-on-a-plane/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-why-i-wont-read-an-ebook-even-on-a-plane/Everyone has a reason an ereader would fix their life. Mine is a bag that's too heavy and a stubbornness I can't fully justify.Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-outline/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-outline/The narrator doesn't get her own name until the very last pages, almost offhandedly. That's the whole trick of this book, and it works on me every time I think about it.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTOutlineJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-sparrow/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-the-sparrow/You know from page one that this doesn't end well. I still spent four hundred pages hoping the book was lying to me.Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe SparrowJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-cyclades/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-cyclades/A blind auction to bribe the gods of Olympus into helping you conquer the Aegean, and it ends the moment somebody builds their second metropolis, no warning, no mercy.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTCycladesJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-light/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-light/Three timelines, a serial killer, and a spaceship pilot chasing a physics anomaly nobody can explain. I understood maybe seventy percent of it and loved it anyway.Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTLightJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-terraforming-mars/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-terraforming-mars/I don't even love long heavy euros as a rule and I still think about this one when I'm not playing it. The player mats are a genuine mess though.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTTerraforming MarsJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-river-of-gods/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-river-of-gods/Ten point-of-view characters in a fractured near-future India and I needed a sticky note to keep them straight. Worth every minute of the confusion.Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTRiver of GodsJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-frosthaven/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-frosthaven/The outpost phase between missions adds real time to every session and I resent it slightly and would not remove it. That tells you everything about how I feel about this game.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTFrosthavenJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-blindsight/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/book-blindsight/Hard sci-fi with a resurrected vampire as ship captain and a genuine argument that consciousness might be a waste of energy. Not fun exactly. Couldn't put it down anyway.Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTBlindsightJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-7-wonders/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-7-wonders/Seven players, thirty minutes, no downtime, and I still think it's basically a solo game you happen to be doing at the same table as six other people.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT7 WondersJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-earthborne-rangers/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-earthborne-rangers/My first mission was about biscuits and I was completely lost. Stuck with it anyway, and by day four I understood why people won't shut up about this game.Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTEarthborne RangersJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-what-an-ithaca-january-does-to-a-reading-chair/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-what-an-ithaca-january-does-to-a-reading-chair/The gorges freeze, the light disappears by four thirty, and my reading chair migrates six feet across the room to chase the one radiator that actually works.Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-odettes-book-club-rule-i-still-break/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-odettes-book-club-rule-i-still-break/Her rule is simple: no looking anything up until everyone's finished. I've broken it in the group chat four times this year alone.Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-vault-is-fifty-eight-degrees/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-the-vault-is-fifty-eight-degrees/Nobody warns you that the most interesting room at your job is also the coldest one, and that you'll come to genuinely miss it on your days off.Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-gloomhaven-buttons-and-bugs/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/game-gloomhaven-buttons-and-bugs/Someone called this 'Honey, I Shrunk the Gloomhaven' and that's the single most accurate description of a board game I've ever read.Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTGloomhaven: Buttons & BugsJenna Hollowayhttps://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-what-a-torn-spine-taught-me-about-patience/https://jennaholloway.com/articles/essay-what-a-torn-spine-taught-me-about-patience/I spent four hours on a single detached signature at work and came home irritated that a card sleeve wouldn't go on straight. The math on that doesn't add up and I know it.Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayJenna Holloway