Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Several People Are Typing

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

41 reviews

curious_oyster's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

darlaslays's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I listened to this as an audiobook, which was very strange to follow at first. I thought I didn’t like the format, but I got oriented quickly when I was able to mentally visualize the text channels. It captivated me, and I had a fun time listening to it, with some feelings of existential dread here and there.

I only briefly used Slack (less than 2 weeks), so while I sort of knew how the channels worked, I had no context of what the “dusty-stick” emoji even looked like when I heard it over and over.

Speaking of emojis, dialogue including emojis were more challenging to visualize on an auditory level because I had to take an extra step mentally in distinguishing the specific implied meanings of each emoji while the speakers were communicating rapidly. I had to pause and rewind a few times in lieu of being able to take my time reading.

For instance: 👀 (eyes) could mean I see, what is this?, HUH?, you’ve piqued my interest, you and I know something that nobody else does.
👍 (thumbs-up) could mean good, go ahead, like, yes, I approve. Those are all similar meanings but in a string of dialogue, it would sound like this: “I thumbs up how thumbs up of a time we had. Eyes. Is this place thumbs up? Thumbs up. I thumbs up it. Me too thumbs up. What are we doing after? Eyes.” I don’t remember the exact dialogue, but that’s sort of what would happen.

I wonder how different an experience of seeing the physical text would be, because it’s apparent that’s how the book was originally intended to be consumed.

However, the cast did a great job illustrating everything in their performances. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book.

It does leave you with questions at the end, like:

What happened to Lydia?

Why couldn’t Tripp and Beverly speak normally at the end?

How exactly did Gerald get out of and then back into his body?

It’s a lot to think about because you don’t get clear answers, and I think that’s what’s fun about these kinds of stories.

Content Warnings

pey333's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

librarymouse's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a fun read! Gerald's slow acceptance of his time and experiences in Slack and his befriending of Slack Bot pushed this into the realm of plausibility for being an actual nightmare someone with a corporate job would have. The surrealist horror of it all, especially Leah and the howling and Slack Bot's burgeoning sentience made this book very hard to put down.

Content Warnings