The collection’s freshness stems from its remarkable playfulness. Woods frequently employs magical realism, and the collection includes micro stories, faux quizzes, and how-to guides alongside lengthier works of psychological realism. Because these stories are often humorous, Woods broaches weighty subjects like gender and bullying with impressive levity.

– Necessary Fiction

In this collection, Woods deeply explores loss and what it means in the moment and its immediate aftermath, the personally-specific ways we imbue meaning to the everyday as we search for answers, and how grief shapes the future.

– Electric Lit

An imaginative collection about the joy and sorrow of growing up. Woods’ tender and resonant debut features 28 pieces of short and micro fiction. Imbued with magic and the absurd, these stories explore the ways that childhood wonder informs our lives.

These are haunted fictions, full of strange and delightful things, and I lost myself in them deliciously for hours, for days.

The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe is a revelation—a meticulously crafted, showstopping collection that will inspire and move you in equal measure. Read this book with a few essentials: a bag of tissues for the tears it will evoke, a notebook to capture the thoughts it will spark, and a bookmark to save your place as you pause to marvel at Woods’s exceptional prose.

Beautifully strange and incredibly satisfying . . . manages to surprise at every turn.