Very impressed with these bookshelves! They look amazing and are quite sturdy. The material is particle board but I think the laminate that is used is thicker than what is typical making the pieces very dense. Assembly was mostly easy except, as some other reviewers mentioned, the drawers were a bit tricky because the images in the instruction book are too small and unclear. As a result, I ended up drilling holes into one of the drawers thinking it was incorrectly manufactured when in fact, the drawers had to be turned upside down to install the drawer runners. I'm sure no one will read this and remember when they build though! :)