C.L. Methvin (Editor of Small World)

C.L. Methvin rated a book it was amazing Wake Up! (Seasons Book 3) by Ryszard I. Merey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I find myself struggling to begin this review, primarily because I have so many thoughts I don’t know where it might make sense to begin. This mirrors the book, I suppose: Wake Up! is a nonchronological narrative following our protagonist Tian, who f ...more
Jan 11, 2026 01:05PM · 2 likes · like · see review
C.L. Methvin rated a book it was ok The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
When I first saw novel described as Lovecraftian, I was eager to give this a read. Unfortunately, I found it tedious and completed the book only in the hopes it would improve. It didn't. The prose was beautiful, but that's really the only positive I ...more
Jan 11, 2026 10:46AM · like · see review
C.L. Methvin liked Bryan Cebulski's review of The King in Yellow: "Calling it finished even though I didn't read the last two stories because I'm convinced no one on planet earth has managed to make it through the second half of this collection. Why the switch from horror/dream stories to meandering narratives about" Read more of this review »
Jan 11, 2026 10:45AM · see review
C.L. Methvin wants to read The Wax Child by Olga Ravn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 24, 2025 09:15AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Wax Child by Olga Ravn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Wax Child by Olga Ravn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
C.L. Methvin rated a book it was amazing The Employees by Olga Ravn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Hard to overstate how delightful this book was. Written in the form of multiple transcribed audio-recordings, The Employees recounts the events aboard an interstellar spaceship as the human and humanoid crewmembers begin to react differently to their ...more
Nov 25, 2025 01:00PM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Employees by Olga Ravn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Employees by Olga Ravn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
C.L. Methvin rated a book it was ok Strange Houses by Uketsu	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Fluctuating between a two and a three rating on this one. It started out with promise, as the concept of the book intrigued me, and I was definitely engrossed by the way the mystery of the houses was presented. Unfortunately, in the final third of th ...more
Nov 04, 2025 08:37PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Strange Houses by Uketsu. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Strange Houses by Uketsu <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
C.L. Methvin and 3 other people liked Rachel's review of EUSECT: "These stories are so good, horrifying, disturbing, and stressful to read. I did not exactly enjoy them but I was very much engaged while I read them. I would recommend this collection to anyone who likes horror."
Oct 21, 2025 09:57PM · see review
C.L. Methvin rated a book liked it Song for the Unraveling of the World: Stories by Brian Evenson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
At the beginning of this book, I was ready to give it a five-star review. Evenson does a great job creating unsettling atmospheres, worlds where everything is ever-so-slightly off, and I think the first 70% of the collection is consistently enjoyable ...more
Aug 25, 2025 01:19PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
C.L. Methvin entered a giveaway Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 18, 2025 01:58PM · like · see giveaway · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
C.L. Methvin rated a book really liked it Amygdalatropolis by B.R. Yeager (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I was born into the early internet era and have a vague enough familiarity with online spaces such as 4chan and /b/ that Amygdalatropolis felt both quite sinister, and quite real. If the author told me conversations in this book were plucked straight ...more
Jun 12, 2025 08:26AM · 2 likes · like · see review

C.L. Methvin rated a book it was amazing

Wake Up! (Seasons Book 3)
by Ryszard I. Merey (Goodreads Author)

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I find myself struggling to begin this review, primarily because I have so many thoughts I don’t know where it might make sense to begin. This mirrors the book, I suppose: Wake Up! is a nonchronological narrative following our protagonist Tian, who f I find myself struggling to begin this review, primarily because I have so many thoughts I don’t know where it might make sense to begin. This mirrors the book, I suppose: Wake Up! is a nonchronological narrative following our protagonist Tian, who finds herself in the muddy middle ground of relationships with roommates, ex-girlfriends, coworkers, and seedy men in seedier basements. The chapters often forgo continuity, following senses of appropriate atmosphere, confusion, terror, and retribution rather than a Point-A-to-B timeline. Much as memories, or dreams.

Tian and her ex break up, fueled by a change in Tian’s gender identity and a persistence of her ex’s egotism. This separation leads to increased self-criticism and bills—and these bills pave the way for Tian to welcome (used loosely) a strange man named Al into her home. Al possesses a curious photograph, a strange power, and a penchant for gambling; gambling, which allows Tian for the first time in a while to live without worry.

However, worry soon returns, as Al’s dealings come to light quite ungracefully for Tian.
I pause on providing too many details, as the specifics and reveal order of said specifics is crucial to the reader’s experience.

Whether the multiple relationships within this novel end “well” or not, that’s really up to the reader. Spoiler: they do end, but some in ways you will not predict, some in ways you might smile, others in ways that you (or at least I did) might cheer. Wake Up! explores love, melancholia, and identity with an accuracy and earnestness that both hurts and makes one feel seen. It is rare a book so successfully puts the emptiness of queer grief to print, allows the reader to wallow in it—so much so I fail to think of a recent comparison. Perhaps Winterson’s Written on the Body would be the best; earlier than that, the works of Sappho. But Merey takes these sensations and feelings, explores them in a contemporary setting, and presents their characters in ways where you don’t always feel that you can like or dislike them, but you can certainly understand them.

In short terms: Merey’s work is important.
In longer words: excepting niche extreme horror, in a world of contemporary queer writing that seeks to sanitize relationships or present every story as an “It gets better!” commiseration unto a reader, Wake Up! has no trouble showing that relationships are hard. Relationships fail. Queer, trans relationships specifically face these hardships even moreso, battling not just the traditional hurdles of cishet relationships, but also internalized trans- or homophobia, societal backlash, the subsequent economic repercussions in losing support structures, and more.

Much like these characters, many people often want to just be seen in such a way.
Wake Up! is gripping from start to finish—drenched in emotion, dysfunctional in the right ways, written in language equal parts mesmerizing and relatable, with an ending that invites recontextualization. As we (especially the queer “we”) grow, improve, and review our relationships and sense of self as fluid, non-sequential progression, we too are like memories or dreams: able to be recontextualized and reimagined. ...more

C.L. Methvin rated a book it was ok

The King in Yellow
by Robert W. Chambers

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When I first saw novel described as Lovecraftian, I was eager to give this a read. Unfortunately, I found it tedious and completed the book only in the hopes it would improve. It didn't. The prose was beautiful, but that's really the only positive I ...more

C.L. Methvin liked Bryan Cebulski's review of The King in Yellow:

"Calling it finished even though I didn't read the last two stories because I'm convinced no one on planet earth has managed to make it through the second half of this collection. Why the switch from horror/dream stories to meandering narratives about" Read more of this review »

C.L. Methvin wants to read

The Wax Child
by Olga Ravn

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C.L. Methvin rated a book it was amazing

The Employees
by Olga Ravn

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Hard to overstate how delightful this book was.
Written in the form of multiple transcribed audio-recordings, The Employees recounts the events aboard an interstellar spaceship as the human and humanoid crewmembers begin to react differently to their Hard to overstate how delightful this book was.
Written in the form of multiple transcribed audio-recordings, The Employees recounts the events aboard an interstellar spaceship as the human and humanoid crewmembers begin to react differently to their goal, each other, and the mysterious "Objects" that have been retrieved from the planet they are orbiting. Said objects are never entirely defined, described more often as vague shapes or even sensations, or attributed names purely by the feelings they evoke. The collection of objects is a catalyst, but is less important than the events that unfold in response to their mere presence.

It was not a hard read: everything was relatively straightforward, even for being occasionally non-chronological, and it was not a challenge to piece the events together even among the logs that aimed to be intentionally vague or avoid incriminating themselves. Some logs are simple; others invite the question: "Is a human or humanoid recounting this transcription?"; which then invites even larger questions...how would that reframe your opinions of the account? Do the emotions, or actions, or reasons become more or less justified? There are more questions than this, but I fear expounding upon them more would ruin a reader's fun of stumbling upon such questions on their own.

My largest criticism would be there are occasional instances of flowery metaphors that just seem out of place; in a world as technical as the spaceship, addressing the events in the form of interviews (while the metaphors or anecdotes were pretty), the frequency with which they occurred felt less organic than other accounts.
Despite this: perhaps that was the goal, despite the coldness of space and the isolation of working those that are manufactured, does such craving or memory indicate a warmth or humanity? What's it mean when a non-human expresses the same?
These questions extend into larger dialogues about production, capitalism, and the shedding/ robbing of humanity for the sake (or under the guise) of progress.

(view spoiler)

Recommend. ...more

C.L. Methvin rated a book it was ok

Strange Houses
by Uketsu

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Fluctuating between a two and a three rating on this one.

It started out with promise, as the concept of the book intrigued me, and I was definitely engrossed by the way the mystery of the houses was presented. Unfortunately, in the final third of th ...more

C.L. Methvin and 3 other people liked Rachel's review of EUSECT:

"These stories are so good, horrifying, disturbing, and stressful to read. I did not exactly enjoy them but I was very much engaged while I read them. I would recommend this collection to anyone who likes horror."

C.L. Methvin rated a book liked it

Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson

Song for the Unraveling of the World: Stories
by Brian Evenson

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At the beginning of this book, I was ready to give it a five-star review. Evenson does a great job creating unsettling atmospheres, worlds where everything is ever-so-slightly off, and I think the first 70% of the collection is consistently enjoyable ...more

C.L. Methvin entered a giveaway

Arkhangelsk
by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel (Goodreads Author)

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C.L. Methvin rated a book really liked it

Amygdalatropolis
by B.R. Yeager (Goodreads Author)

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I was born into the early internet era and have a vague enough familiarity with online spaces such as 4chan and /b/ that Amygdalatropolis felt both quite sinister, and quite real. If the author told me conversations in this book were plucked straight I was born into the early internet era and have a vague enough familiarity with online spaces such as 4chan and /b/ that Amygdalatropolis felt both quite sinister, and quite real. If the author told me conversations in this book were plucked straight from those forums and dropped into the novel, I would not bat an eye.

Amygdalatropolis is less of a narrative and more of a window into random moments of a boy's life, in which the nameless, amalgamated/shared-name protagonist /1404er/ spends his days and nights scouring the darker corners of the internet for material to satisfy him. Such material includes CW: (view spoiler) and more. He struggles to find sexual gratification in any of this, and only when he (view spoiler) does he find any satisfaction.

Little happens in this book. The main character is there, he dabbles online, his parents die, he continues dabbling online. But underneath the shocking content and gross descriptions is a cautionary tale about negligence, abuse, loneliness, and the ease with which one can be assimilated into women-hating, incel circles—a father absent, a mother who tries to gentle parent enough that she and her son mutually ostracize each other, and the way he finds family in the deplorables of the internet who offer him a semblance of direction or sensation.

The introduction does a good job framing the novel as a philosophical, psychological exercise, which I think serves well, and without it I may have had different opinions of the thought processes we see /1404er/ undergo (though I do think the intro accomplished its goal about 60% through and got a bit excessive).

In any case, where Yeager especially succeeds is his versatility. From omniscient narrator, to bizarre dreamscapes, to sudden straightforward-though-varied message board posts, he navigates multiple different writing styles, topics, and even formats in an engaging way. For all its variety, the story felt quite cohesive, even when someone begins rambling about Ebola or discussing the validity of tarot in the middle of other, darker dialogues.

Amygdala = emotional processing center
Polis = city
—and so we get Amygdalatropolis, a digital landscape of emotion; emotions which /1404er/ wades through and often fails to experience. It's all nihilism, loneliness, and misanthropy guised as digital community. The real horror is less what happens in the pages, but how easy it would be to jump online at this very moment and find people having the exact same conversations. ...more

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	Small World (The Kanti Cycle Book 2) by Gre7g Luterman (Goodreads Author), Rick Griffin (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator), C.L. Methvin (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.61 avg rating — 66 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	EUSECT 4.48 avg rating — 54 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reaper's Lottery (The Tori Mysteries Book 1) by Gre7g Luterman (Goodreads Author), H.Kyoht Luterman, C.L. Methvin (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.55 avg rating — 44 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Biting Silence 4.33 avg rating — 12 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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