A timely collection in this time of grief and ghosts - spiritual ghosts, emotional ghosts, ghosts of the past, ghosts of what could have been - and how they can haunt us. The stories are short and sweet, some I wish were longer so I could stay in that world and absorb every moment. There is so much sadness here yet the stories are hopeful and affirming. My picks of the bunch:

"Story To Tell Around A Campfire" - a sliding door story where a cabin trip could be romantic, or turn into horror
"How To Make Paper When The World Is Ending" - a tale of love and loss with the background of an ecological disaster
"Frozen Windmills" - a woman struggles to deal in the aftermath of a friend's death
"Dirt" - a man reminisces about his life as he finds himself stuck in an unfortunate situation

"In How to Make Paper When the World is Ending," readers get an anthology of wonderful and varying short stories. The overarching theme of the collection revolves around the passage of time which is something that resonates with everyone, no matter their stage of life.

This collection is a testament to the myriad facets of the human experience, and each story holds the potential to be a reader's cherished favorite. It was truly a lovely, enjoyable journey for me.

I'd give "How to Make Paper When the World is Ending" a solid 3 stars! This collection of short stories had a unique blend of emotions - from the mundane to the eerie, and from melancholic to hopeful. While some stories captivated me more than others, like "Feeding Lucifer," "The Man Who Lives in My Shower," and "Frozen Windmills," the very first story, "Story to Tell Around a Campfire," didn't quite resonate with me, and that made me a bit hesitant at the start.

However, as I delved deeper into the book, "How to Make Paper When The World is Ending" hooked me right in, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying most of the other stories. Although the collection didn't leave a lasting impact, it provided a pleasant and quick evening read for those who appreciate short stories. While I wished for a more cohesive theme to tie the stories together, it was still an enjoyable and easy-going read, and I'd recommend it to fellow short story enthusiasts.

Story to tell around a campfire
A vague horror story of unnamed people, I liked the writing style and the images it threw up, but it was not a complete story (Intentionally, I would assume) – 3 Stars

How to make paper when the world is ending
A dystopian possible future, where the worst events have come to pass, and people are eking out a semi-normal existence. A fair with booths is used to showcase the world. It felt both sad and true. – 3 stars

Feeding lucifer
A girl makes a new friend but finds out that she is not as good a person as she thinks herself to be. It is an interesting retrospective angle. – 3 stars

Goosepimples
A sleazy man who does not see himself as such. I did not see the point of the whole story, some people may get more out of it then I did. – 2 stars

How my parents fell in love
Speculations of the different ways a couple meet, fall for each other and live forever together. It was a slightly different tone than the ones before, slightly more hopeful. – 3 stars

ReceiptLess
A futuristic concept where hearts are recorded as transactions like many other things. Also a positive ending to a system that was well introduced in a short time. – 3 stars

Dog Sitting
A man starts off the story making it seem he is helping for selfish reasons, but we see more sides of him by the time the story wraps up. – 3 stars

Frozen Windmills
a woman burdened with guilt about a past incident has a new mistake she has not yet confessed to either. 3 stars

How to make spinach-artichoke lasagna
A coping mechanism for loss. Assisted by instructions for food. 3 stars

Real Love
A Beatles cover band with a sad man as part of it. It was well written, but not something I like reading.- 2 stars

The man who lives in my shower
An unexpected view into someone’s thoughts. The title is a very literal representation of the core event in the plot. – 4 star

Tarzan
The coping of trauma. The stories go back and forth in time to give us the full picture and how different people might use the absence of something. – 3 stars

Pieces
Running out of time before the end, a little too similar to some of the earlier ones, with the same sad feeling at the very end. – 2 stars

Sustenance
Simple depiction of a relationship between mother and daughter through food. – 3 stars

Dirt
Age and retrospection, also well written, made me uncomfortable but was a little too sad- 2 stars

The author has an interesting writing style, I think it is the nature of short stories to be a little abrupt and to hide some punches within. Most of these stories were very real and dealt with the more depressing truths of lives, and if I was the sort of person who revelled in such introspection, I would rate this higher than I did. I definitely recommend it to people who might find this review intriguing.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I enjoyed this collection of stories. Some of them were very unusual. The settings and characters interested me. I particularly liked the title story and the Story to tell around a campfire.
I've recently started reading a lot of short stories and these were so relatable to everyday life and yet different. Looking forward to reading more.

How to Make Paper When the World is Ending is a collection of short stories that will draw you right in. These quirky stories are phenomenal. The writing allows the reader to fall in love with characters, and become emotional even though the story is short. Highly recommend.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Dallas Woodburn for the ARC!

Original Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫/5.

There's something so magical and enthralling about Dallas's storytelling. It almost felt like an hypnotising experience. A couple of stories gave me goosebumps whereas others made me smile. But every single one of them left a sense of longing in my heart. It's not like the plots were out of the world, it's the atmosphere she created. Absolutely loved all of them but the most favourite one is 'How to Make Paper When the World is Ending'.

How to make paper when the world is Ending

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dallas Woodburn for the ARC of this book in exchange for a genuine review.
I was browsing through NetGalley catalogue of books, and this title caught my attention. I was immediately intrigued and requested it. This book is a collection of short stories, I have not read the authors previous work, so I dived in it blindly. Well, I am glad that I did pick this book, the stories in this book were very light-hearted, poignant, reflective, hopeful and surrounded by a whirlwind of emotions. I thoroughly enjoyed several stories in this book, majority of the stories in this book were relating to loss whether it was due to death or separation.

My favourite stories from the collection were:

How to Make Paper When the World is Ending, relating to climate change and how to stay hopeful in difficult times.

Recieptless, a very poignant and touching story of a man who goes to a store to return his girlfriend’s heart not expecting to need a receipt to return the heart he purchased but waits eagerly to get this own heart back.

How to Make Spinach-Artichoke Lasangna, another heart-breaking story of a woman remembering her best friend after she dies from a fatal car accident. How she reminisces on the time spent with her friend and now there is a bid void now left to fill. It was interesting how Dallas embedded a recipe in between the story making the story so resonating.

Real Love a story, relating to separation, I was lost on the beetle referencing, but it was bittersweet story about love and loss.

The Man Who Lives in My Shower, a woman moves into a new condo and there is a man in the shower this was a very intriguing and mysterious story. We learn that the man is a ghost of her dead lover.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. The stories were easy to read, some were shorter than others especially the ones that I was so hooked on and didn’t want to end. I really like Dallas Woodburn writing style and look forward to reading any of his upcoming work.

Dallas Woodburn's collection of short stories, which kicks off with 'How to Make Paper When the World is Ending', is a thought provoking and often chillingly relevant series of short tales. I read this about a month ago now and each story has stayed with me. They tackle grief, love and loss in such unique ways. The man living in the tenant's shower affected me maybe the most... but all of the story strike right at your heart. Woodburn managed to take concepts which could just be depressing and weaves them into something poignant and beautiful.

Verrrrry different to my last foray into this author's work (with the awesome 'Thanks Carissa for ruining my life'), but the whim to request to read this book paid off with every page. I will be buying this one for friends most definitely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow I really enjoyed this collection of quirky, thought-provoking stories about the human condition. What a gorgeous book!

This was an enjoyable collection of stories with themes of grief, loss, and finding yourself after that loss. The writing style suits the subject matter of the stories, making you feel nostalgic for something in the past.

A lot of the stories ask the question of 'what if?' and I found that these were the stories I liked best. My favourites were The Man Who Lives in My Shower, Windmills, Pieces. They evoked such strong melancholy, but the author doesn't leave us with the feelings of sadness instead gives a ray of hope like the titular story in which the protagonist is recycling paper despite facing the end of the world. It's the kind of realistic optimistic that makes this a fascinating read.

I think this is a situation of, "it's not you, it's me." I have come to the conclusion that unfortunately I'm just not a fan of short story collections. I am a completist, and don't like the stop and start nature of multiple stories within a book. My feelings have absolutely nothing to do with this particular book as I thought the stories were well written.

I haven’t read a short story collection since I was in my teens (quite a while ago, ahem). Why have I waiting so long?!? I really enjoyed this collection of quirky, thought-provoking stories about the human condition. While some of the stories resonated with me more than others, they were all interesting.

This is my first book to read by this author but I cannot wait to read more by them! This is such a uniquely written story that you will find yourself thinking about long after you finish it. Highly recommend!!

This collection of short stories was very different from what I usualy read. With that being said, I didn't like the book. It was a quick and nice read.

What a whipsmart collection of short stories!
They’re nostalgic, melancholic and laden with grief, loss, whimsy and hope.
A wonderfully written, engaging collection which explores all facets of humanity.
Nothing else to add except it’s brilliant!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

Although the writing was great and the unique premise of the short story collection, I didn't end up liking many of the stories. Each was pretty different, and some centered around people who died, while some centered the people left behind. Only some actually had different and unique styles of writing, and those were the ones I liked most.

Just as it is with a lot of short stories compilation i have read, this one comes with some stories that were ok. While others kind of fell flat. Most of the stories bordered on the bittersweet. Stories that played around with the emotions of the MCs. About love, friendship, family. It was good enough but maybe not too memorable.

Simply an excellent set of stories. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I guess I should not have been surprised since this author is rather prolific, and has lots of highly rated books. Short stories are art unto themselves, and she's master them here. Recommended.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

An overall good collection of stories. Some are really good—like Receiptless, about returning someone else's heart without a receipt, and The Man Who Lives in My Shower, about grief and finding the strength to move on—while others are forgettable—like the title story.