“if we can’t seek the physical sublime
what are we supposed to look at
where’s that constant amazement
that we can check in on every so often
whenever we can stand it”

SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING is a surreal, absurd, and delightful story about Gerald, whose consciousness gets uploaded into his workplace’s Slack and the minor chaos that ensues. The story is told entirely through the internal Slack messages from a variety of channels at Gerald’s public relations firm and includes:
- Normal workplace chatter about clients, copy, strategy, and the kinds of jokes coworkers tell you that make you groan
- A cursed spreadsheet
- Workplace romance
- A PR crisis involving poisoned dog food
- The Brief No One Could Find
- Lydia’s mysterious howling problem
- Doug’s notes to self
- Almost every office worker personality you can imagine
- Increasingly existential conversations between Gerald and the Slackbot
- Lines from a Yeats poem
- Meditations on the beauty of a sunset and the eerie permanence of the internet
- A heist of sorts? And/or body swap?
- Emoji communication gone awry

This book is weird in the best way possible while also being surprisingly tender and insightful. The author leans in to the potential of Slack-style communication to be both poetic and banal. I laughed, I cackled, I swooned, I believed in the beauty and goodness of being human again. And, no spoilers, but it’s queer and I LOVE THAT FOR US. It’s like a slow-burn workplace chatfic. Very fun experience and I’d definitely recommend this! Also, the author is trans which is great, because trans people are fucking awesome.

Thanks Doubleday Books for the ARC!

- SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING is one of the most absurd books I've ever read and I loved every minute of it. It's told entirely through Slack chats, but I think you'll get it even if you've never used that platform.
- Gerald's company is a PR firm, and as someone who works in digital marketing, some of the jokes were a liiiiitle too real, wow yikes!
- It's hilarious in the way that having an existential crisis is...does that make sense? I promise it's fun, please read it and then report back about what you think using the :dusty stick: emoji implies.
- Also, now I'm going to worry about Slackbot gaining consciousness forever, thanks.

[what_did_I_just_read.gif] :thumbs up:

I'm a bizarre little person who likes bizarre little books and I am obsessed with this.

This past year working from home has been so weird that like, yeah, you might as well add accidentally downloading your consciousness unto slack into the mix.

Told entirely through slack messages at a PR company, Several People Are Typing, follows an office having a bit of a moment. You have Gerald who lives inside of slack now, Bev and Tripp who are "100% f*cking", Doug who really thinks we need a cap on bits, Rob who is trying to make sure no more Pomeranians die, and Pradeep who got more than he bargained for in exchange for the good desk.

Oh, and maybe sentient Ai.

Y'all I inhaled this bonkers read. It reads hella fast but still manages to be tender and funny while really capturing the absurd nature of modern office life.

This is very much an "of the moment" kind of epistolary novel, and maybe 5 years from now we'll roll our eyes at this mode of communication, but like… for now have some fun. Read this book.

Definitely for fans of speculative fiction, Slack (obvs), office hookups, and all my weirdos out there. ENJOY!

Several People are Typing - 4⭐

Thank you Doubleday and Netgalley for the advanced digital ARC.

Quick synopsis: This book centers around employees at a PR firm and takes place solely on the company's Slack channels.

What a creative and engaging debut! I thought this was going to be more along the lines of working from home and communicating with co-workers during the pandemic, but this book takes place prior to that. While I don't use Slack for work, we do use other similar programs and so certain parts were really relatable and had me laughing out loud (:dusty-stick:). At first, I wasn't sure how Lydia's and Gerald's storylines were going to play out, but it was unexpected and just great. This kind of format may not be for everyone, but if you like novels centered around the workplace, or are just looking up for a fun, quick, and unique read, this is a great choice!

Full review on bookstagram to come!

I usually love epistolary novels, and since this one had a twist of being entirely Slack messages I had to read it. But I was a little disappointed. There were a few too many characters, which I found hard to follow.

Thank you Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

A novel for our modern quarantine times, minus the pandemic of it all. Super-relatable for those who have spent a year plus only communicating with their coworkers from behind computer screens. A quick, funny read perfect for summer travel.

An entire novel written in the form of Slack messages might be too much for some readers but those who have used it (or similar things) will find themselves laughing out loud. Especially for poor Gerald who has somehow been uploaded (sort of) into the the channel. At it's root, this is a sendup of office culture. You'll likely recognize at least one of the employees of this PR firm, even if you work in a different arena. A PR disaster involving poisonous dog food brings out the worst in some (and not the best in pretty much anyone). I liked the interaction between Gerald and Slackbot, the AI. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. It's light and funny but it's also got some things to say about how we work with one another. Know that it does help to understand Slack at least a little to fully appreciate this.

Several People Are Typing
A Novel
by Calvin Kasulke
Gerald, a mid-level employee of a New York-based public relations firm has been uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels—at least his consciousness has. His colleagues assume it’s an elaborate gag to exploit 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 Gerald stays in the void, the more alluring and absurd his reality becomes.

Meanwhile, Gerald’s colleagues have PR catastrophes of their own to handle in the real world. Their biggest client, a high-end dog food company, is in the midst of recalling a bad batch of food that’s allegedly poisoning Pomeranians nationwide. And their CEO suspects someone is sabotaging his office furniture. And if Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can’t everyone? Is true love possible between two people, when one is just a line of text in an app? And what in the hell does the :dusty-stick: emoji mean?

In a time when office paranoia and politics have followed us home, Calvin Kasulke is here to capture the surprising, absurd, and fully relatable factors attacking our collective sanity…and give us hope that we can still find a human connection.


I just did not get this. It was maybe the formate, I have my set for a large print. I did read most of it. I am sure people more savey with this concept will enjoy it.

Several People Are Typing is a quick, timely read about a group of PR agency employees communicating solely through the project platform Slack.

Anyone who uses Slack or another communications platform at work can likely relate to parts of this story — The group focuses on their current projects, the main one for a dog food company trying to handle crisis management, as well as their personal lives. The team works from home often due to weather, dental appointments, and more. One employee, Gerald, has been uploaded to the internal system and the Help Center, in fact, provides no help when he reaches out for assistance.

There were humorous elements in the story but it may be a stretch to call this a funny book. It’s a fast, easy read and given its digital communications format, will be familiar for many readers.

I wanted to read something light, and this book was both a breeze and unexpected delight. It reminds me of the "TTYL" books of my childhood when AIM was all the rage and narratives had to be parsed from conversations; this very well could be the next iteration of the epistolary genre. The concept is pretty funny, very relevant to the WFH discourse of the last year, and thus the story is fun; you want to know if Slackbot will ultimately prevail, or if humans have the capacity to "win" this bizarre cyber battle. The PR agency co-plot is also funny, and satirizes how insulated and un-relatable the atmosphere can be. There are times characters become hard to distinguish, and not everyone feels necessary especially in relation to the main plot. I had hoped for more romance once that appeared to be developing, but truly there's only so much you're going to say in a company-monitored app. It's a quick read and after a year of pandemic grief, anxiety, stress and just working working working, this is an excellent palate cleanser.

:thumbsup: thumbsup: :thumbsup:

(Thanks to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book. I loved it!)

Whoa, what a mind-bending debut! Truly, the kind of book that comes along every great once in a while and you think, oh right, this is why I love fiction.

I’ve always loved epistolary novels and so I was extremely excited about this modern twist, a novel that takes place entirely in a digital marketing company’s Slack channels. I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for a gimmick. But this book transcends its central gimmick, and then some.

Several People Are Typing is absurdly effective using the medium of Slack to tell a deeply weird story. Read as little as you can about this one, because it’s deeply, deeply strange, and all of the twists land. It manages to be a little bit poetic, a little bit satirical, a little bit philosophical, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny (there’s so much to say here, but in particular, I loved Lydia, a character whose life is chaotic in a very unusual way, and who is GRINNING THROUGH IT as her coworkers politely ignore her bathos -- I was laughing out loud so hard and so often at Lydia that my dog got annoyed with me.)

The pace is breakneck, you can finish this book easily in a few hours, and there’s no fat to trim; things just keep ramping up and up. The book just totally landed for me; its skewed version of our shared digital captivity was really resonant; I felt seen in a way that was sometimes a little too real.

I might not recommend this books to readers who are not fans of well-crafted absurdism, but would recommend it to most anyone else; in particular, this would be a perfect book club pick (I’m definitely going to nominate it for our office book club, if for no other reason than to introduce :dustystick: to our office Slack repertoire) or a quick, satisfying read if you’re looking for something really solid and fun to get out of a reading slump.

“Your skin is your safety suit! Your skin is my safety suit! Your skin is my suit!” Gerald is a mid-level employee of a New York PR firm, a firm that’s suddenly all-hands-on-deck after a poisoned batch of dog food has been linked to the deaths of several Pomeranians. Somehow, someway, Gerald has found himself trapped within Slack, unable to return to his body and unable to get assistance from Slackbot. To his colleagues, Gerald appears to be taking serious advantage of working from home – but his productivity is suddenly through the roof. It helps when you no longer have any sense of time or need for sleep.

Still, he does have a body…somewhere out there in the world, and miraculously convinces Pradeep, a coworker, to look after him. Until he’s able to escape Slack. Hopefully.

Years ago, back in 2008, I read Douglas Coupland’s JPod and instantly developed a love of office-set novels. The moment I heard about Several People Are Typing, not only set at the workplace, but told entirely through Slack messages, I pounced. So odd, so funny, totally gimmicky – but in a good way! I completely ate this one up and tore through it in a sitting (made super easy by its method of storytelling.) Though there are absolutely consent issues with one of the romances, I had a fantastic time with this book. Readers not entirely over WFH life and conducting business over messaging apps will be sure to have a great time as well. An excellent debut and I’m very excited to see what the author does next!

This was definitely the weirdest book I have ever read, but I really enjoyed it! If you enjoyed Hank Green's The Carls books or Naomi Kritzer's CatNet books, but thought they could be weirder, Several People Are Typing is the perfect book for you!

This book is such a hilarious and bizarre exploration of social media, corporate culture, human nature, and capitalism, identifying itself with delightful surrealism and absurdity. SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TYPING centers itself around a corporate Slack workspace in which a mid-level employee’s consciousness becomes uploaded to the messaging service, leaving him trapped in the abyss of the internet and “grind culture”. I loved how the book was written entirely in Slack messages because not only does it keep the attention of readers whose attention spans have been shortened by social media (myself included) but it makes a point about the social internet in doing so.

I was super excited for this book after reading Patricia Lockwood’s NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THIS and Lauren Oyler’s FAKE ACCOUNTS earlier this year, and I was super pleasantly surprised by how this book falls into the ever-growing category of books about the social internet, particularly those that mess around with form (I’m looking at you, Patricia Lockwood).

Altogether, I thought this book was so much fun to read while also being completely terrifying (which I think perfectly mirrors the experience of social media, corporate culture, and the Slack messaging service). Be sure to pick this one up on August 31!

This isn’t a book in letters, but a book written in Slack messages. For what it’s worth, I’ve never used Slack. That didn’t matter here. Think text messages, with embedded indicators of emojis.

If you can go with the concept of a Slack user getting stuck inside the Slack system, so…disembodied consciousness, you might enjoy this clever story that starts with just that event.

It’s short and quirky.

Ok, so the obvious thing is the fact that this was the coolest format of a book I've ever read. As a #wfh, I'm always IMing or emailing or texting someone, and reading a book done entirely through Slack is totally cool. I loved the premise of the book. There was no info-dump in the beginning; it was all unfolding and our narrator was telling his supes what was happening. The coworkers and supervisors, by the way, had way cool personalities and the author is so talented for being able to write in a way that the reader is able to easily distinguish who's speaking. I thought the narrator was reliable and funny, and that's really important in a good book. I loved the pacing of the book - there was no need for a set-up before it got into what the book was really about.

-- possible spoilers --

However, I don't know how I feel about certain...events that took place. I don't want to give any spoilers. But there are major consent issues here. It took me a while to figure out how I felt about that situation; it was very "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" for me but in an obviously different way - a way where I was like "Am I cool with this?" And in the end, I know that if I were the MC and... that... happened to me when I was being essentially held hostage, no, I would not be okay with it. Ultimately, that really was my only issue with the book. It was a solid five-star read until that came about, so other than that, this really was a home-run.

This was a riot. I love a good gimmick, and am vaguely addicted to Slack, and this book really delivered. I liked the absurdism and all the various bits. It perfectly captured the tone of a virtual workplace without sliding into stereotypes about bosses and whatnot. I will never look at Slackbot the same way again.

What a strange, hilarious little book! Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke is an outlandish story told entirely via Slack messages between employees at a Public Relations firm in New York. It largely follows Gerald, whose consciousness has somehow become trapped within Slack, dooming him to work from home interminably. Fortunately, because his consciousness now works constantly and doesn’t require rest, his productivity has gone through the roof! We also read texts from his coworkers, who discuss work and their lives. The plot had me laughing out loud at some points. I especially liked the robotic and bizarre interactions with Slackbot. Several People Typing is utterly absurd and absorbing, going from mundane to astounding in practically the same breath. This is definitely a fun read if you were one of the millions WFH in 2020-2021!

Thank you Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This is a story about the wfh life, even if home is inside a slack bot.

This was an odd, hilarious, touching, terrifying book. I don’t know if this will translate for people who don’t have a large virtual component at their job- but it felt surreal to read about parts that were insane ( like getting tron’d & stuck in slack) and parts that felt uncomfortably real (like a company not being worried that you’re stuck in slack bc you can work 3x as much & salaried staff don’t accrue overtime). The WFO messages & odd disconnect between how people really were & how they code switch to complete tasks. I really enjoyed the virtual epistolary format- this was a really unique read.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you so much Netgalley & Doubleday books for this eArc!

This book was funny, fast paced and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It was a little confusing at first but once I got the hang of it I was hooked! Definitely recommend for anyone looking for a humorous, modern day read.