The World Doesn’t Require You feels like a collection about people to whom God said no … Scott makes his stories feel singular. He bends expectations throughout the book, frequently demonstrating this idea… ‘Everything horrible is just a little bit ridiculous, and vice versa’. And despite how clear Scott is about this modus operandi, he constantly surprises, pushing things just a little further in either direction. Just as readers have a chance to get their footing, a bird screeches at such a thunderous volume that eardrums are shattered, and then things get worse from there … This high level of energy and humor, which Scott maintains throughout, makes the novella a standout … Scott presents Chambers and his project as absurd, while also making the project itself compelling to read. This is exemplary of the balancing act the author pulls off through much of the collection, as his troubled characters try their best to make do with the weight of hard histories strapped to their backs. Though God may have forsaken them, Scott does not. The World Doesn’t Require You is full of horrible, ridiculous people, but it’s full of grace, too.
