Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

What did I just read.
No seriously… what was this?

I went into this one totally intrigued. The whole book is written in Slack messages, which sounded like a fun, experimental format that could lend itself to clever humor, fast pacing, and some kind of fresh storytelling angle. I was fully ready for weird, in fact, I was excited for weird. What I wasn’t prepared for was an absolute mess that felt both aimless and exhausting.

The premise (if you can even call it that) is that a guy gets uploaded into Slack (yes, like his consciousness is now inside his workplace’s Slack workspace) and from there, things just… happen? Maybe? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. The story meanders in circles that feel like inside jokes with no punchlines. The characters are mostly indistinguishable except for the occasional bizarre outburst or moment of forced absurdity. There are werewolves (?), workplace romances (?), and someone taking care of a comatose body (??), but none of it builds toward anything meaningful. Or funny. Or even interesting.

The only reason I finished this was because the format made it a quick read, and by the time I realized how much I disliked it, I was already halfway through and too stubborn to DNF. (I know. I should’ve bailed. This is on me.) I kept waiting for something to land…a satisfying arc, a moment of emotional clarity, a joke that actually made me laugh…but it just never happened. It was like watching a long improv bit that someone forgot to end.

And look, I don’t mind weird. I like when books try something new, even if it doesn’t always work for me. But this one felt like it was trying to be quirky instead of being clever. And the result was a lot of noise and no real story.

I’ll admit there were a few charming lines sprinkled in – moments where I thought, “Okay, maybe this is about to get good?” But every time I gave it the benefit of the doubt, it immediately swung back into nonsense or boring corporate commentary that read more like a Twitter thread than a book. I thought maybe one or two characters might redeem things, but they either vanished completely or devolved into the same tiresome caricatures as everyone else.

Who should read this?
Honestly, I don’t know. If you really love experimental formats and are fine with vibes over plot, you might vibe with this more than I did. But otherwise? I’d skip it. There are sharper, funnier workplace satires and better uses of unusual structure out there.

I hate leaving a review like this. I really wanted to like it! But this was a swing and a miss for me. Maybe even a swing, a miss, and then the bat flying out of my hands and hitting me in the face.