Tw for suicide and sexual assault on a minor in two stories in this book I talk about in my review!

First I want to say thank you to Koehler Books and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This story collection contained wonderful stories about grief among other subjects. My favorite story was the titular story, I found it amazing and horrifyingly realistic. I believe it should’ve been the first story. I also particularly enjoyed feeding Lucifer, which was nerve wrackingly otherworldly, dog sitting, which I found cute and hopeful, how to make spinach artichoke lasagna 3 weeks after your best friends funeral, which I thought was a great exploration of grief and how it works, dirt, which I found really sad but good, and the man who lives in my shower, which I thought was an amazing examination of grief but that it needed a trigger warning for suicide. While some of the stories in this collection were kind of meh for me, the only one I truly didn’t like was goosepimples, I found it nasty and as a childhood sexual assault survivor I would’ve very much appreciated a trigger warning and I didn’t like how the author excused the behavior. Overall, anyone who likes short stories will find a piece for them in this collection. I rate it 3/5 stars.

This was a very enjoyable collection of short stories; I haven't had a lot of experience with short stories outside of the unsettling Ray Bradbury ones I had to read in 9th grade English class, so I was excited to check these out and get into them a little bit more.

I thought that these stories were all good, although some of them were a little short and some of them were a bit unmemorable. Although I struggled to find a cohesive theme throughout (although I'm not really sure that a collection of short stories needs one), the writing style was consistent, and each story grabbed me in almost immediately. It always felt like my favorite ones ended too quickly, although if anything, that says that Woodburn is able to keep a well-crafted story tight and concise, which is very talented.

I'm glad I picked this up as a foray into the short story format, and I can't wait to see what Woodburn comes up with next.

(3.5 stars rounded up)

A glorious and bittersweet short story collection, covering many poignant and thought-provoking subjects, leaving readers wanting more and also with something to ponder. very emotional and beautifully thought through characters. I will revisit many of these stories.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The short stories in the collection were emotional and thought provoking and overall tended to be bittersweet. I enjoyed several and continued to think about them after finishing reading, however I found that others were less memorable and I did not feel that the message came across as well as it could have.

The length of some of the stories was sometimes frustrating - I found that my favourite stories tended to be shorter than I would have liked, while other felt a little too long.

The story that stood out the most to me was The Man Who Lives in My Shower. While my least favourite was the first story, Story to Tell Around a Campfire, which initially made me concerned that I would dislike the rest of the stories, however I’m glad I continued reading.

"Death means love grips tighter, suffocates, becomes spiderwebbed with regret. And regret is messy. It clings to you.

'How to Make Paper When the World is Ending' is a diverse collection of short stories brimming with the loss and grief of everyday life. Dallas Woodburn has compiled some great short stories. They are poignant and compelling. There are melancholic stories. There are eerie stories. There are woeful stories. Some of the stories, however, were mundane. They lacked the good element in them and were awfully long while the good ones were short. My favorites in the collection: Story to Tell Around a Campfire, How to Make Paper When the World is Ending, Frozen Windmills, and The Man Who Lives in My Shower.

This collection of fiction shorts was a lovely palette cleanser. Sometimes quirky, environmentally conscious, melancholic, at times a little creepy. The author’s stories ranged on a variety of topics and genres, all beautifully written in delicious, chewy language, yet not showy or obtuse. Some of the endings make you go, “Hmmm…,” or “Huh…???”, but this is also done in a way so the reader doesn’t feel inferior to the author. (You know…THOSE authors!) My inky real complaibgg tv is the editor wasn’t formatted appropriately, so it was at times hard to read and tell when she eskers had changed.

I have a love hate relationship with short stories as I find that the ones I like the most are the shortest.
Dallas writes beautifully, creating stories which draw you in over such a short period of time.

I thoroughly enjoyed and would love to read more of Dallas’ work in the future.

I really struggled to get in to this book The writing style make it very difficult to care about the characters and to follow the story line.

A decent read. In all honesty, I didn't find it memorable, but I enjoyed reading it. It seemed more like a random collection of stories than a collection of stories gathered around the same topic. Some stories I wanted to see more of, some I thought should be shorter, but overall, it was a pleasant and easy read.

3.5 Stars. This was an enjoyable collection of short stories! They were mundane, eerie, melancholic, hopeful, all at the same time. Some I found to be more interesting than others- for example, my least favorite was actually the very first one, Story to Tell Around a Campfire, so at first I was a little uncertain of the book. However, the next story (How to Make Paper When The World is Ending) quickly caught my attention, and I enjoyed just about every other story after that. Overall, this was a great and quick evening read that I would recommend for short story lovers.

Favorites: Feeding Lucifer, The Man Who Lives in My Shower, Frozen Windmills

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!

What a phenomenal collection of stories! I requested this on a whim, mostly due to the cover, having no prior experience with this author and unsure what I was getting into. I’m now a fan! These stories are melancholy in the best way, exploring the human condition (especially grief, and feeling haunted both physically and emotionally) in a real and authentic way.

To pick a favorite story here is hard, I love them all. Really. There isn’t a dud here. They all hit. Perhaps my favorite moment is the ending of the first story—what a gut-punch. If you’re looking for a short collection of stories that explore humanity and the way in which we interact with one another, as well as all the ways we try escaping our pasts, this is worth checking out. Especially in these confusing and scary times. How do you make paper when the world feels like it’s ending? Read this book to find out.

How to Make Paper When the World is Ending is an incredibly simplistic short story collection. Something I appreciate about the content of this story collection is the simplicity-reading about what feels like normal people. But, I do think it falls short with descriptive details.
The stories almost have an eerie feel/tone to them and that’s something I find interesting. It’s not something I would normally go for and I personally don’t enjoy the style of writing. But, the title is extremely eye catching and I did enjoy the short story ‘How to Make Paper When the World is Ending’ because of the title of the book overall.

Well-written but ultimately an unsatisfying and, at times, unsubtle collection. There are plenty of compelling ideas, emotions and characters in here, but I found the execution frustrating. Specifically, I tended to find the length of the stories frustrating: the ones I found the most interesting were usually the shortest, and were weaker for being so, while the longer ones I thought could have ended as Woodburn had made her point a page or two ago. In general, the endings felt a little lacking and I sometimes finished a story wondering what the point was, even if the journey itself had been nice enough.

That said, it was a good and quick evening read and there's certainly some moments of strength here, especially when Woodburn starts to venture into some unusual character voices, and for that reason I wish the stories had been a little more diverse. But at its core these are grounded, quiet and emotive stories that showcase a lot of potential.

Stand Outs: Feeding Lucifer, Frozen Windmills & The Man Who Lives In My Shower.

A unique collection of short stories that managed to keep me invested to the very end. Emotional stories about people's everyday struggles, about their grief, loss and hopes.
My personal favorites were Story to tell around a campfire, Receiptless, The man who lives in my shower and the title story. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Unsure how to describe the stories of this book without giving spoilers on what they are all about, but I really really enjoyed reading this. I spent 3 hours reading this book cover to cover (whatever the ebook version of that expression is) and really enjoyed myself.

Each story is so different from the one that follows it. The unpredictability of each story kept me interested and wanting to read more. I really enjoyed the changes in writing style with each story and found the characters to be both relatable and mysterious.

For the purpose of this review, I tried to narrow down my top 2 favourites...but I couldn't. Six stories, in particular, were so interesting to me, either I related to them or they just overwhelmingly entertained me. Feeding Lucifer, How my parents fell in love, Receiptless, Frozen Windmills, Tarzan and Sustenance were just outstanding.

A book of short stories that somehow are both mundane glimpses in to ordinary people's lives, but also magical at the same time. Every story so different from the last it was a stark reminder that everyone is their own main character in their own lives.
Loved.

I am very picky about short stories, and so when I say that I really enjoyed this collection I don’t mean it lightly! (“How to Make Spinach-Artichoke Lasagna Three Weeks After Your Best Friend’s Funeral” is truly one of the best stories I’ve read in a very long time.) A lot of this collection deals with multiple forms of grief in an honest, unconventional way, which makes me love it even more. Plus, the cover is fabulous and the title is perfect. Really, really liked this one.

4 stars
This is a great book of short stories. Each one stands on its own quite well. The writing is easy to follow. The characters are relatable. And the stories themselves leave you with something to think about.

The 15 short stories in the collection were unusual and whimsical. Although many of them tended to be bittersweet, I very much enjoyed reading them all.

The characters were well-written, likable, and relatable. Each storyline gave you something to think about. The title story started dark and sad, but it ended with hope, as did several others. Each storyline gave you something to think about. Any detail would just result in spoilers, so I will simply say that I look forward to reading this author again.