Sep. 2nd, 2022

skygiants: shiny metal Ultraman with a Colonel Sanders beard and crown (yes minister)
I think the best way I have to describe Calvin Kasulke's Several People Are Typing is that it's basically a Wayside School story for grownups (Wayside Office story?) as filtered through the medium of a book-length post on The Toast. This comparison is praise rather than censure, I very much dug both Wayside School weirdness and The Toast during their heydays and I zipped through Several People Are Typing at incredible speed.

The premise: it's a surrealist satire on office culture, a book told via slack channel messages at a PR firm with the twist that poor Gerald, previous owner of the nicest desk by the windows, has now gotten his consciousness trapped in the Slack and cannot figure out how to return to his human body. Unfortunately his coworkers all think that he's pulling an elaborate bit to justify his aggressive embrace of the company's new WFH policy so he is not receiving much assistance from anyone, with the exception of work pal Pradeep who is reluctantly tasked with helping Gerald sort out problems like What Has Become Of My Body and Could You Possibly Perhaps Forge My Rent Check. Also they are busy with problems of their own, like illicit office romance, nightmare clients, the howling! outside the window!! that seems to be constantly coming closer?!?!, and the fact that nobody can find the original brief for the dog food account fielding a rumor about regrettably poisoned Pomeranians. But at least he's really bonding with Slackbot!

I enjoyed the whole thing very much although there was one major plot element that threw me out Expandspoilers, largely for the main romance )

All that said, this was some of the most fun I've had with a book in ages, strong recommend for a zippy good time if you ever enjoyed a "texts from x" post on The Toast.

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