Status Updates From The World Doesn't Require You

Read “Slim in Hell,” a dark, intense continuation of an earlier story; and the next story, the incredibly long title of which I can’t fit into this status update. It’s wacky, often hilarious, and twisted, and with, as everything else in this collection, profound ideas about the intersection of the past on the present when it comes to racial inequities.

Read “Mercury in Retrograde,” a companion piece to an earlier story, which brutally and hilariously satirizes how we can escape our programming; and the brief, haunting “On the Occasion of the Death of Freddie Lee.”

Read “A Rare and Powerful Employee,” a brief, disturbing examination of hypocrisy; “Numbers,” a fascinating mashup of early-20th Century mafia antics and a tale of Siren-like Water Women; and the brief horror tale “A Loudness of Screechers.”

Read “The Electric Joy of Service,” about an inventor’s diabolical approach to creating service robots; and “The Temple of Practical Arts,” a kind of companion piece to the first story in the collection. The author’s audacious, fearless approach continues to impress. In the second story, the sharp turns from humor to darkness are especially bold.

Read “The N***** Knockers,” which is as provocative and intense a story as its title suggests. This author makes big, bold choices that explore tragic themes and situations with tremendous freshness.

Read “David Sherman, the Last Son of God,” which is inventive, strange, and very evocative.