📚 Imagine waking up one day and find yourself stuck in Slack. No, not that the app is glitching, or that your screen froze, but rather you — or your conscience — are literally stuck inside your company’s Slack server, with no way out. That’s what Gerald — the main character in Calvin Kasulke’s Several People Are Typing — has to deal with on one unfortunate, random morning.

Published in 2021, the sci-fi horror comedy is a satirical exploration of modern corporate life. Brooklyn-based author Kasulke’s novel attempts something that has never quite been done before: an entire work of fiction written solely in Slack messages — no first or third person narrators, no purple prose, and no background context — just a 256 page-long Slack messages transcript. And it works.

Is Slack Bot really helpful? Gerald would say no. The novel starts with a confused and frightened Gerald realizing he has become one with his company’s Slack. His first move is to ask the Slack bot to “uninstall self,” a request immediately met with confusion by the bot, seeing as it pretty much only knows how to let you know that you’ve attached a drive link when you attach a drive link. It’s then that Gerald begins panicking, soon realizing there’s no way out. But to his coworkers? Gerald’s just doing a bit to get some more remote work days.

The corporate grind never really stops, even if your physical body is catatonic. In the midst of this unfathomable situation, Gerald finds himself worrying about the spreadsheet he was supposed to upload before he got stuck, and the company PR emergency that could cost them their biggest client. At times, Gerald’s life-threatening situation takes a backseat in favor of company priorities — and needless to say, there’s a metaphor there.

A Slack thread that’s actually fun to read. We know you’ve likely spent more hours than you’d like on Slack this week, but we promise you this book won’t feel like work. Several People Are Typing is a humorous and frustratingly accurate account of what it means to be an employee in the 21st century.

WHERE TO FIND IT — You can place a special order for Several People Are Typing from TheBookspot or grab a digital copy from Amazon.

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