Several People Are Typing

A very fun one-sitting read, though I had some problems with the....consent issues of a later plot point? I found it a little jarring in an otherwise pulpy-fun horror satire.

Anyway, it will probably be super dated in a year or so, but it was entertaining and got me out of my reading slump! 3.5 :dusty-stick:s out of 5.

Reading the bio of this book, I had little expectations for what I was about to read. With today’s dependencies on corporate chat platforms, it can almost feel like one lives inside of them - and Kasulke’s way of showing this in a literal form was strange but innovative. The way the conversations between characters unfolded reminds me much of the rise of AI actors online emulating real people, blurring the lines between real and generated.

It also made me oddly aware of how much people can and DO share online. Like this book review. While not our full consciousnesses (yet) are online, our thoughts, words, actions and experiences can be collected into a single digital folder for anyone to ingest. And this folder will last far longer than any, physically.

Great, quick read.

“but these scraps of ourselves we fling into the ether will outlive most of us, like the sun”

This was a fast and fun read. It wasn’t hilarious, but the non-work related chats workers engaged in were amusing in that they are pretty realistic and true to office culture. Aside from their personal chats and inside jokes, is the PR firm’s biggest and most pressing project: putting out fires for Bjärk, their dog food client. Those of you who have the misfortune of talking up a shitty client, stretching report data (or making it up) to their favor, or exaggerating and manipulating interviews, quotes, social media posts, etc. to keep the client happy and paying up, will nod in agreement and understanding with a lot of the back and forth chat going on in the Slack channel.

The story does get weird (in a good way). Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the twist is creative and fresh, yet I would have liked a bit more action and detail to the ending’s resolution. Just like in the the beginning of the story, the wrap-up could’ve seemed a bit more exciting had it stayed true to office culture by having the characters gossip and dissect the crap out of the ending (have an office meeting, one-on-one meetings, and after work gossip sessions about what just happened!). Each character could have provided a piece to the puzzle as to how and why things took a turn. Overall, makes for a very fast and enjoyable read when you’re in between books or want to get out of a reading slump. Lydia??

Sci-fi novel with elements of comedy and horror, it follows an office worker as his conscience is uploaded into the Slack app and how he tries to get help from his colleagues. 
I loved this weird little story specifically it's original format as it was written entirely through Slack messages. This made for a quick read, although some app/office related slang did confuse me as a European who never really used Slack.  The plot was straightforward but I did love the main mystery and the other subplots. I did feel everything resolved a bit too quick, and the ending felt a bit abrupt. I didn't laugh out loud as mentioned in one of the review on the cover but I was certainly amused and chuckled during some moments.  I have to mention the bisexual and gay representation too, as always the cherry on top. 
Overall this was a truly fun and enjoyable read. 

That was such a fun format but while reading it I found myself wanting to :dustystick: react while I don't even use Slack.

This was so messed up, in the best way, and I laughed out loud several times. And I finished in under 24 hours, which is saying something these days. (I mean, it's written entirely in Slack conversations, so it's a quick read too, but it was just really ENJOYABLE. I wanted to keep sitting and keep reading.)

Focused on the constant Slack conversations of a small office and its staff, who are dealing with a client that's going through a PR crisis, when one of the employees get slurped into the Slack app. And his body is just like, THERE, atrophying until someone is like, maybe we should check on this guy who claims he's stuck in Slack? Like many offices, it's highly dysfunctional, with a cast of characters who are altogether much too up-in-each-others' business. I suppose it could also be considered a little bit horror-lite, but more in an absurdist suspense way than actual scary stuff-that-could-happen-to-you kind of way.

It was a lot of fun. Recommend!!

I had one of the best times reading this book. It was weird, funny, creepy, existential, and reflective. I was confused most of the time, but in the best way possible. It also satisfied a voyeuristic desire to see people's DMs and get a 360 view of all the office gossip. :dusty-stick: for me. This was a very quick read that felt corporate-core, but in a satirical way. It gave me a similar vibe to Horrorstör in terms of interweaving the social commentary into the mysterious narrative. I did not expect to like it this much.

“We love to say the digital is fleeting like a concept but these scraps of ourselves we fling into the ether will outlive most of us, like the sun”

OHHH MY GOD i can't lie i was skeptical but this was so funny and i was not expecting it to be gay

This was... not good. I hate leaving 1-star reviews but this was hard to get through. The only reason I finished it is because there are often 16 lines of text on a page, even then time dragged.

I get what the author was going for, and I am accustomed to reading different writing styles but this book seemed a mess. Not much direction, not many laughs. Where was the humour we were promised? I laughed 5 times. 5 short abrupt laughs that didn't linger. I counted.

The story would tease you with storylines that went nowhere.

I'm actually quite pissed off I stuck with this book. I got it. I just didn't like it.

very weird but funny and bonus points for being gay

4.5 ⭐️

i blew through this in one sitting at a coffee shop. this is a highly compelling and very weird story of a man whose consciousness gets pulled into slack. yes, the computer app. my sister read it the week after me and we had some extensive discussions about the characters and the plot; there's a lot that's up to interpretation. this is definitely a book which warrants a reread, which is something i like in smaller books because it feels like you get more mileage out of them that way. there is so much you won't pick up on that will become more glaringly obvious as you leaf back through. i was initially worried this wouldn't work for me but am so glad it did.

This is one of those gimmicky books that will almost immediately become dated (it's an epistolary novel composed entirely of slack messages) but I really enjoyed it. The main characters work for a PR company serving luminaries such as a dog food company involved in a poisoning incident and an ambassador who had a “childcare emergency” at the zoo. Some of the stuff about the internet and witnessing all these little parts of people's lives really hit home too. Most of the surreal elements worked really well.

This book was excellent. Such a quick read and so enjoyable. Like welcome to night vale and every office I've ever worked in had a baby.

Not only is it funny, but it's also sweet. Very touching and reflective in some of the more existential moments. Truly a delight.

Awful book. Three lines were funny out of the whole thing. The rest was a slog, impossible to read enjoyably when text of emojis are constantly-mid sentence, and just awful. The fact that someone in the publishing world thought this thing was worthy of their time is a blight on society. If you read this book, that is 2-hours of your life you will never get back. Ever.

About halfway through I was very impressed - sure it's gimmicky, but the characters were fun, the chat was extremely relatable, and the idea was being executed in an engaging way - but as it reached the end it felt like the limitations of the conceit started strangling the potential of the story.

Worth checking out for a fun light read.

The book is a very quick read where the number of pages don't really give you a signal of the time it would take to read this. This is written only in Slack conversational style and that brings different expressions in the storytelling. There are no more descriptions of the setting and we slowly gather who's who in the story through conversations. And this storytelling style enables all the jokes we see in a communication medium like Slack with people talking over each other, multiple conversations in the same channel, and then the types of channels we have at work.

The story itself is less fun. The AI/bot interaction becomes less and less aligned with the premise of the story as it continues. As more interactions come in, reading the conversation becomes an onerous task. In the end, the story ends with the same lack of explanation it began with (which is fine).

The redeeming part of the book is that it's short. I couldn't have stuck with this book if it were longer. Being able to complete it over an evening is what made me complete it.

Slack Tron Inception!
I am surprised this worked as an audiobook.
Very entertaining 3-hour long listen for slack-nerds.

incorrect use of the :eyes: emoji drove me up the wall. I've also read fanfiction that does this concept (both the “stuck in a computer” and the “story told entirely thru internet chat”) better, so there's that.

I've never used slack and I am def not the target audience but this was a quick and easy read. I never bought into the notion that the main character was trapped inside a virtual environment but there was some lampooning of office culture and the uselessness of bots that amused me. Ultimately, I think the book is hindered by the choice of format.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Weird, funny, thought-provoking and surprisingly sweet novel written entirely in Slack conversations. While Gerald, whose consciousness has somehow been uploaded into the system, tries to figure out how to get back to his body, his colleagues are dealing with inter-office romance, P.R. nightmares, unusual new coworkers, and mysterious howling. Very quick but utterly memorable read.