I struggled so badly with this book. Wanted mightily to enjoy it, but it wouldn’t let me.

***UPDATE*** got to talk about it with someone who had read it and liked it, and upped my review from 2 to 3 stars! Mostly because the novella at the end is so much stronger than the short stories of the first half!

This book was...wild. I finished a few days ago, and I can’t decide on my rating. There was so much I didn’t like, but the stories left me absolutely reeling with the need to discuss them with someone. I settled for with finding some interviews with Scott online, and those gave me even MORE to think about.

The book is comprised of 11 short stories and a novella, all set in the fictional black community of Cross River, Maryland, the site of the only successful slave revolt in America. The stories are from different perspectives and time periods across the town’s existence. The narrators voices differ from each other’s, but all of the stories are dark, ranging from darkly humorous satire, to downright chilling horror.

Before I jump into the stories, I’ll start with the warnings. Some of the stories get pretty sexually descriptive (and misogynistic), with the novella becoming downright explicit. The content in the short stories was within the realm of what I can stomach, but during the novella (I was listening to the audiobook), I 100% had to skip forward until the descriptions were done. In fact, while many reviewers laid the novella as being the culmination of the collection, I simply didn’t like it. I found the narrator (Simeon Reece) deluded, arrogant, and cruel. I found the other main character (Reginald Chambers) pathetic, gross, and impotent. Honestly, I’d recommend NOT reading the novella.

The stories leading up to it are full of so much to talk about, I almost don’t know where to start. There’s a LOT going on in Cross River. From what I was able to piece together, there is a cult imploding, woods full of monsters that require sacrifice, a robot uprising, motivational speaker circuits, a university with itinerant teachers, even its own history of poetry, music forms, and martial arts. It was a disorienting, bizarre, read with a fast-paced beginning. As I’ve read more about this book and the author, I learned that Cross River was first introduced in Scott’s 2016 collection, ‘Insurrections.’ I don’t think ‘World’ is necessarily a sequel to the first, but I do wonder if those stories would flesh out the context of Cross River a bit more; diving into the first story felt like jumping onto a moving train. Was this cult already introduced in ‘insurrections?’ Perhaps so, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if it hadn’t; many of the stories bring the reader straight into the action with each new narrator. One has to catch up quickly, and sometimes you still don’t quite know what’s going on when something crazy happens. Magical Realism is a heck of a ride. It's quite an effect, though. The cult storyline is continues in 'Temple of Practical Arts' and 'Slim in Hell' and all of it is amazing world building.

Things that will stay with me:

~The unreliable narrators. This characters in this book, and the author himself, play with fact and fiction so much that at times the narration feels like a dream. I love Magical Realism, and this book leans into it throughout, but it can also be surprising, due to the blend of genres going on.

~The brief story about the screechers. SO SCARY. So Lovecraft. So Shirley Jackson. Loved it, but was also terrified.

~The Electric Joy of Service. So interesting that the author included a sci-fi story (two, actually -- with 'Mercury in Retrograde' being a continuation). In this dystopian world, this robot 'Jim' is programmed to love serving his master. Things get more complicated when a female android is created, and wants to escape. Jim was the most sympathetic character in the book. Most of the main characters are men, and they range from polite woman-exploiters (A Rare and Powerful Employee) to violent misogynists. Robot Jim was one of the only ones who wasn't a total disappointment in that regard...because he's a ROBOT with zero understanding of sex drive.

The Knockers story about a game increasing in intensity until they are in over their heads.

Honestly, I could discuss this for hours....I don't think I can write it all down.