I recently inhaled both seasons of Severance while recovering from the devil's heatwave and I can't stop rotating it in my brain like a snowglobe so here's some books I think you could love if you felt the same way
Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Gerald unwittingly gets himself trapped in his office's Slack messenger system and chaos ensues. Disbelieving co-workers, poisoned pomeranians, office drama, paranoid management, and an unceasing howling, all told through Slack messages. I had an unreasonably fun time with this one. (248 pages)
There is No Anti-Memetics Division by qntm
If Eva Stratt and Harmony Cobel had a lovechild who grew up to run an SCP facility, this is what you'd get. I don't think I can explain it better than that. (209 pages)
The Employees by Olga Ravn
This is a strange little translated sci-fi novella following the mixed human and synthetic crew of a slowship after they collect some strange objects from an alien planet and slowly become obsessed with them. Told entirely in witness statements from unnamed crewmates as they each start to ruminate on the objects, life, death, or what it means to be a person, and synthetic and organic lines start to crack and blur. So strange but so good. (136 pages)
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
OK so this one is a little bit more of a stretch but I think it still works. Linda works as a content moderator on a video sharing platform and she has a secret. When her coworker Karina invites her to brunch with the girls to do vision boards, Linda takes her first step towards manifesting her ultimate dream - finally "marrying" one of her aeroplane lovers by dying inside of it via fiery plane crash. Surprisingly tender weird girl litfic, I genuinely cared about Linda and her goals so much by the end. One of my favourites of last year. (352 pages)
Finna by Nino Cipri
An OAP accidentally slips into another dimension while browsing in IKEA and it's down to two minimum wage retail workers to go save her, which would be considerably less tricky if said workers hadn't broken up a week ago. Short, sweet, and pretty silly dimension hopping while attempting to navigate friendship after love. (144 pages)
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Two unlikely allies, each with their own selfish reasons, find themselves hunting across a capitalistic hellscape of a near-future Europe being torn apart by environmental collapse to find the most intelligent fish in the world before it can go extinct. Unless it already has. A dark satirical comedy that hits a little too close to home for comfort. Halyard may be the worst, but I was a little bit in love with him by the end. I just really love an exasperated guy I guess. (337 pages)
