/lit/ - Literature

>>19550909
Several People Are Typing - Calvin Kasulke (2021)
This is a ~28k word novella told entirely in Slack messages. No, it wasn't self-published. I've never used Slack but I've been on Discord so I understood the concept. I would say that the Slack server, or even the reader, is the viewpoint character, but it doesn't go that meta. The book is really more of an ensemble. A few characters have a lot more going on than the others though.

Gerald's soul has been inconveniently and mysteriously uploaded into their Slack server. His body is alive though inert. No one is willing to believe him though. You may think that would be the thrust of the plot, but you'd be wrong. The majority was antics of his colleagues at their PR firm. They have problems of their own. There's quite a mixture of mundane office talk and the surreal.

The book says it's The Office, but really it's more like Black Mirror (SF)+Corporate (Satire)+Twilight Zone (Surrealism). Existential horror features in a very prominent role, but it's all played for laughs. About 40% of the way through I wondered both why and what I was reading, but since it's such a quick read due to its word count and formatting, I thought I may as well finish.

This sort of novelty is fine for a one-off short read, but I don't know if I'd read something else like it again. I may be somewhat outside of the intended audience though. Overall I'm neutral on it leaning towards dislike if only because surely much more could've been done with the idea. This may have gone over better as an indie game rather than as a chat log, for me at least.
Rating: 2.5/5