I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke is memorable for its unique setup as written entirely in Slack messages and an amusing read. It is possible to read into this book grand statements of human-machine interaction and about self-discovery when one steps out of oneself. It is also possible to read this book as an amusing view on today's communication styles and the connections and disconnections those styles create.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/several-people-are-typing.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

This was an easy read. I have not used slack so I think somethings were over my head but it did make me laugh.

Going into the pandemic and more deeply into work from home culture, this novel felt like one of the most prescient jewels of 2021. It is funny, ingenious -- and just a pure blast from start to finish.

Thanks so much for the e-galley.

This is a very unique story and very interesting. I couldn’t stop reading.
Many thanks to Doubleday Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A hilariously existential romp told through a corporate PR firm's Slack channels. Work/life balance can be hard to manage, especially if you're sucked in to the incorporeal liminal space of your company's intranet.

A perfect blend of spooky and the absurd, for fans of Welcome to Nightvale and Grady Hendrix's Horrorstor.

This book was pretty funny, but sometimes hard to follow. Overall, I liked it just fine but I would've gotten more out of it if my library used Slack as a communication tool.

This is an extremely fun book that you can read in a sitting or two -- really, whether you want to or not, this is the type of book that has you compulsively turning pages without being able to stop until there are none left.

Written entirely within the workspace app Slack, the novel focuses on Greg, an office worker who has somehow gotten stuck inside the software. While his marketing team handles a client crisis, Greg is left to figure out what's going on and how he can somehow get back into his body.

If you are a Slack regular (I can't really even imagine reading this book if you aren't familiar with Slack) you will find this book extremely funny, not to mention it will be difficult to go back to using Slack with any sort of seriousness in your regular life. I loved that the book wasn't at all what I was imagining when I heard about it -- it is much stranger and weirder than even the premise suggests, and I appreciated that. The author does a wonderful job of establishing strange patterns and then building on them, right up until the climax, which doesn't let you down.

A fun and satisfying read.

This is a quick book told entirely through Slack messages. It started out quite good, then got strange (which I didn't mind), and then got even stranger (which I did mind.) Still worth reading as the time invested in it is minimal.

Several People Are Typing
by Calvin Kasulke
Genre: Humor | Literary Fiction
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2021
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞: In a dystopian twist on our modern forms of techno-commmuincation, Gerald has been uploaded into his employer’s internal Slack channels—at least his consciousness has. His colleagues assume it’s a joke, an excuse, and/or an elaborate exploit to get out of face time in the office and take advantage of the new work-from-home policy…but now that Gerald’s productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from . . . wherever he says he is.

Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists his co-worker Pradeep to help him escape, and to find out what happened to his body. But the longer he stays in the void, the more alluring and absurd his reality becomes and the more everyone gets to wondering: If Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can’t we all?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝: A totally unique use of literary structure, this tale is told entirely through a voyeuristic series of Slack messages. As a fly on the wall to Gerald’s company messaging system, it truly becomes an immersive experience for the reader. And a short, funny, relatable read!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝: It might make you feel a bit like you’re at work in your free time if your company uses Slack or some form of chat style internal message :-P

Read if you:
🏡WFH
🏡Want a quick giggle
🏡Have zoom / slack fatigue
🏡Need some creative excuses to get out of work

Thank you to @NetGalley and @doubledaybooks - an imprint of @penguinrandomhouse - for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#SeveralPeopleAreTyping #NetGalley #books #bookstagram #bookclubreads #bookclub #booklover #reading #ilovebooks #currentlyreading #bookreview #book #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations #wfh #workfromhome #slack #inbookstoresnow
#bookblog
#shortreads

A bizarre, sarcastic satire, written in slack channel messages, aimed at contemporary corporate culture. A public relations firm that is dealing with a dog food brand crisis and other workplace issues is revealed by their employees who are communicating through the project platform slack. In a surreal turn of events. One of the employee’s (Gerald) consciousness has been uploaded into the app and he finds himself unable to escape. Although at times the workplace ironies were humorous, overall the story was just too strange for this admitted non-slack using reader. A real miss for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital review copy. I thought that this book would be hilarious but unfortunately for me the funny office satire left me wanting more.

If you're looking for a short, quirky book centered around work chat and drama - I highly recommend this one. It has a mystery, it has drama, it has workplace romance.

If you don't use Slack you may be a bit confused on the set up of the chats. I use Microsoft Teams for work and I was still a little confused on the chat set up. I also found some of the chats gimmicky and some of the messages unnecessary. I feel like the chats between Tripp and Beverly could've been shorter as I found myself getting so annoyed with Tripp.

I enjoyed trying to figure out who Lydia was and what she did as well as what happened to Gerald. I just think it could've been cleaned up a little bit more.

However, I do wish my coworkers would send some fun messages like some of these. Fun playlists? Sign me up.

This book, wow. I really enjoyed this. There are so many things I want to say about it, and so many of those things I don't want to say, because I don't want to spoil any of the weirdness. This isn't going to be a book for everyone; the entire thing unfolds as texts within a PR company's Slack app rooms, which makes things a bit confusing if you (like me) don't go into this knowing anything about Slack, in particular it's emojis. I kinda picked it up on my own, but gave up and googled it finally, and if you're unfamiliar with it, Slack is a chat room app geared toward businesses with IRC features, which is pretty easy to figure out from context in the story. I'd recommend googling "dusty stick" and Slack emojis before reading the book just so you don't end up having to stop and google them after you start; it'll make things flow better. But I digress...
The story starts out as workplace comedy, which would be fairly normal if it weren't for Gerald having somehow been uploaded into the Slack app. He has no idea how this happened or how to fix it, and the slackbot isn't very much help. When he tells his coworkers about his predicament, they think he's pulling a joke on them, and is just WFH (working from home). His boss doesn't care where Gerald is working from, home or otherwise, as long as his output continues to improve. While this is going on, the usual workplace shenanigans are happening- two of the team members start a fling, one thinks the janitorial staff is plotting revenge against him for not emptying a drink cup before throwing it away, an important file disappears. Unusual shenanigans are happening as well- one team member is hearing howling, at first, just near her home, but it grows progressively worse until it's following her everywhere she goes, and Gerald talks a coworker into going to his apartment to see if his body is there or not. I laughed out loud several times while reading this, was surprised a few times, and got hit in the feels at the end by a sort of Tuvix moment. This ride did not go the way I was expecting, and I'm glad it didn't. What I got was better than what I thought I'd get. I know this review is kind of a rambly mess, but I'm still recovering, sorry 'bout that.

#SeveralPeopleAreTyping #NetGalley

This is such a uniquely formatted and trendy novel that I have to admit that while I found it funny and relatable several times, I'm not sure I could recommend this to someone at random. The idea of a story being told entirely through Slack messages is both innovative and risky because technology moves so quickly, Slack itself could become obsolete in years and this book will remain an homage to what once was. Nonetheless it was fun and light. I enjoyed reading it.

Well, this was a blazing fast, laugh out loud read! Gerald, an employee at what seems to be some sort of public relations firm has somehow has his consciousness uploaded into Slack. Hilarity ensues. In 256 pages of Slack messages (seriously, it’s just different Slack group chats and DMs), which flies by, you get biting commentary on corporate office culture, workplace flings, crisis management, and a budding queer romance.

Like many other folks with an office job, my office moved to an online platform like Slack to communicate when we closed our offices in 2020. While I don’t work in a corporate setting, so much of this resonated with me, made me laugh out loud, and made you think: are we really our work? Is work who we are? This book has something to say about how easy it would be for us to just…cease to be an actual person in our body and still be able to be a part of a corporate system, while never letting up on the gas. The style and story just hurtle forward.

So, find a couple of hours. Read this one. Laugh. And worry that maybe you are your job. Or not. Who knows?

An absolutely wild ride! What a strange and marvelous book. It kept getting weirder and weirder, and better and better. Strange and absurd and hilarious, but underneath that, such a tender and optimistic queer love story. One of my favorite reads of the year.

I absolutely loved this book. I gobbled it up in one day. It's so weird and funny. It's a very new idea but if I had to liken it to anything I'd say it's semi-similar to Jenny Offill who I also love.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

🌟Book Review🌟 Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke ~published 2021

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5. Smart, satirical, and very “of the moment.” Give this one a try!

This book is so unique! Written entirely in the form of Slack channel messages, this workplace satire is absurd, surreal, and most importantly, a fast and funny read. I read it in one sitting and didn’t want to put it down! When one employee accidentally uploads his consciousness into the Slack Help Center and becomes trapped inside, his coworkers all think it is a gag he’s pulling to be able to continue working from home. But this is no prank…

What a cute and wacky idea for a book! I’m going to have to find a way to work “dusty stick” into a future review. I loved the side plots and the realistic workplace gossip. When Lydia starts hearing a “howling” that gets progressively louder and the other employees are too absorbed in their PR crisis to notice or care, I was laughing out loud! The plot did lose a little bit of steam in the middle, and I couldn’t follow the conversations when characters used too many emojis in a row (picture emojis would have helped). I would also caution the potential reader that this book would be impossible to listen to as an audio book — the Slack messages need to be read visually for the jokes to land. This is not a book I would take with me to a deserted island, but for people who read a lot of heavier material and want something different and fresh, this is the perfect choice!

This review will be published on Instagram by the end of September — @sanfranliterarygal — and on Goodreads immediately.