The Dinosaur Tourist

by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Almost nothing is only what it seems to be at first glance. Appearances can be deceiving and first impressions often lead us disastrously astray. If we're not careful, assumption and expectation can betray us all the way to madness and death and damnation. In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan's fifteenth collection of short fiction, nineteen tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Weird Fiction, Fiction, Magical Realism

305 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2018

About the author

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, series of comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dinosaur Tourist is a collection of tales by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

I have to confess that I grabbed this ARC from Netgalley because I'm a dino-dork from way back. Fortunately for me, the impulse paid off. This was a really good short story collection from an author I've never read before.

Kiernan worked as a paleontologist and paleontology is worked into the periphery of most of the stories. Some of the stories have a Lovecraftian feel, only written in Kiernan's noir-ish style. I don't know that she's ever written a straight up noir tale before but if she did, I'd read the hell out of it. Her style has the doomed feel of the old noir masters.

The title story was my favorite one, partly because it involves a long ass drive across South Dakota, something I've done in the last few years, and it's damn authentic. I had a feeling how it would end but it was still pretty great. I'm a little disappointed they got ensnared by the Wall tourist trap.

It's tricky to review a book of short stories without spoiling too much or writing a review the lenght of a short story yourself. I'll say I was never disappointed and I'll be reading more Caitlin Kiernan in the future. Four out of five stars.

[Karl]

This limited edition hardcover is numbered 373 of 600 printed, is bound in leather and is signed by Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Contents:

009 - "The Beginning of the Year Without a Summer"
025 - "Far From Any Shore"
041 - "The Cats of River Street (1925)"
063 - "Elegy for a Suicide"
071 - "The Road of Needles"
089 - "Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still"
105 - "Ballad of an Echo Whisperer"
119 - "The Cripple and the Starfish"
133 - "Fake Plastic Trees"
151 - "Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)"
163 - "Animals Pull the Night Around Their Shoulders"
175 - "Untitled Psychiatrist No. 2"
187 - "Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille"
207 - "Ballad of a Catamite Revolver"
221 - "Untitled Psychiatrist No. 3"
235 - "Albatross (1994)"
249 - "Fairy Tale of Wood Street"
267 - "The Dinosaur Tourist (Murder Ballad No. 11)"
283 - "Objects in the Mirror"
303 - Publication History
305 - About the Author

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I'm of the opinion that (generally speaking) Caitlín R. Kiernan's short story collections are more aesthetically successful than her novels, I found her new collection, The Dinosaur Tourist, to be something of a mixed bag (though it does have very impressive cover art). Maybe it's burn-out on my part in a way... this is the 3rd collection of hers that I've read this year alone (though the first two were reprints of older collections), and in the past 3 years since I've begun reading her collections in general I estimate I've read close to 200 of her stories, so it's only natural that some of them have begun to blur in my mind (it's getting to the point now where some of her stories seem to be falling into types: there are the dinosaur/paleontology stories, serial killers on the road stories, Lovecraftian stories, werewolf/lycanthropy stories, haunted movie stories, post-apocalyptic stories, dark fairy tale stories, and stories that revolve around the sea in some manner). Which is not to say that this collection is devoid of merit. Although there's really only 1 (of the 19) stories that I would personally rank among her best (that would be "The Cats of River Street (1925)," an Innsmouth-based story revolving around felines that's actually pretty good: it's one of those stories where if you had to try to describe the premise to a friend it would sound ludicrous, and yet, in its execution, it succeeds admirably), there are still a few other gems. The atypically shorter (and incredibly bleak) "Elegy for a Suicide" was quite haunting, I enjoyed the "Samhain on Mars" story that was "Whilst the Night Rejoices, Profound and Still" (named after a Current 93 song, incidentally), the narrative form of "Excerpts from an Eschatology Quadrille" held my interest (though the late 60's 'slang' deployed in its opening section was pretty risible), and the final story, "Objects in the Mirror," was a somewhat disturbing tale revolving around the subject of doppelgängers. As someone who has a fascination with psychiatry and psychotherapy, and who appreciates stories that feature scenes of characters just talking with their therapists, I like how 3 of the stories in this book ("Objects in the Mirror" and the two "Untitled Psychiatrist" pieces) fall into such a category. On the other hand, I'm not crazy about the fact that there are also 3 stories that are essentially one paragraph that stretches for 11-15 pages; think that might have been a bit too excessive (the worst of that lot was "Ballad of a Catamite Revolver," which irritatingly was written in a kind of "hard-boiled" Miller's Crossing-speak... while on the subject, this was something that annoyed me about the film Brick as well... really wish that artists would just realize that what worked with the dialogue in Miller's Crossing doesn't translate well to other works). Also, there were an exceedingly large number of typos that proved to be something of a jarring distraction (but I find this can be an issue with Subterranean Press books in general).

I must say that I do enjoy how the older Kiernan gets, the crankier she gets as well. There are at least two instances in this collection where either she (or one of her characters) expresses annoyance at not being able to smoke in public places.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifteenth collection of Caitlín R. Kiernan's short fiction, according to the blurb, and about the fourth or fifth I've read cover to cover. But prolific as she is, the quality of these stories doesn't suffer from their quanity, and the Kiernan has established herself as a preeminent writer of the weird. These stories share more than a passing resemblance to the likes of Clive Barker and Peter Straub, and owe no small debt to H.P. Lovecraft. Yet Kiernan has a voice that's uniquely her own: her tales follow helpless protagonists through shadowed planes of death and lust, encountering dark wonders shrouded in ambiguity. These stories are modern neo-Lovecraftian takes on humans encountering things beyond our comprehension, full of mysteries better left unknown that scarred psyches, transform the body or mind, and are sure to leave an imprint on readers.

Kiernan is chillingly effective at psychological horror; her stories present scenes laced with dread, fragmented by memory, told from deep within the headspace of doomed and helpless characters. Take the pair of "Untitled Psychiatrist" tales where characters recall unsettling scenes from their past. Others, like "Year Without a Summer" and "Far From Any Shore," follow doomed protagonists whose minds may have already snapped from seeing the indescribable Lovecraftian horror in the other room---these tales are beautiful but mercurial, raising more questions than they answer.

In stories like these, Kiernan takes to heart the concept to keep horror mysterious and unknown, instead circling around and describing it through shrouded implication, and ending without any grand revelation or dénouement. This is great for creating and sustaining a sense of dread unknown, leaving your mind to imagine a myriad of horrible possibilities... but it will be frustrating if you need some sense of finality, of knowing what occurred. I also feel like I've read twenty of Kiernan's variations on this theme by now, but she handles it so exquisitely that this is like complaining Picasso did too much with cubism. And upon reflection this may be because I've read several of these stories before in their original anthologies/collections.

"The Cats of River Street (1925)" is like nothing I've seen Kiernan write before, yet in theme and execution it fits in well with this collection (and with the rest of her works). The setting is Lovecraft's old haunt of Innsmouth, where this story weaves between some of the town's normal inhabitants going about their everyday lives in 1925. I don't want to give away too much, and if you're familiar with Lovecraft's work---especially The Cats of Ulthar and The Shadow Over Innsmouth---then you probably know where this is going. It's a delightful homage to Lovecraft. If you're looking for a darker Lovecraft tale, Kiernan has you covered with "Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille." This one jumps across four narratives in different time periods, each one dealing with the same jade artifact that foreshadows madness and death. As each story has a different writing style and themes that loosely match their decade, it's a great example of Kiernan's range and ability to craft strong growing unease.

"Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still" is another standout in my eyes. The descendants of colonists abandoned on Mars revel in an annual celebration, retelling the tortured history when their desperate ancestors were forced to begin anew on the planet. On a world where every resource must be recycled or preserved, where waste and destruction have become anathema, its inhabitants have developed their own society and religious beliefs that bear less resemblance to their ancestors than to a seasonal Pagan ritual. The story reads like one of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles by way of Clark Ashton Smith, with excellent SF cultural world-building that's used for a realistic but deeply unsettling future society.

With her use of dark, horrific, and sexual themes, I can't say that YA is something I associate with Caitlín Kiernan. And yet this collection has a fine YA story in "Fake Plastic Trees." The setting resembles J. G. Ballard's bizarre apocalypses, where a scientific experiment with nanites gone awry unleashed a plastic plague that turned everything it touches into PVC. The protagonist has grown up in world where foliage, roads, structures, and living things were all turned into plastic statues akin to the plaster citizens of Pompeii. The science is detailed and realistic, and the story acts as an interesting metaphor for our irresponsible use of technology and throwaway consumerism. I'd love to see this expanded upon, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

Of the stories I'd read in other collections, "The Road of Needles" is one of my favorites, a loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set aboard a terraforming spaceship. Due to an accident the ship's compartments are now overgrown with verdant rainforest; The sole human crew member must trudge to the other end of the ship to restart the computer core. Along this path, she's pursued by both a lupine assailant and memories of her daughter and life back home. "The Road of Needles" shows nature at its wildest; with its imaginative setting and unnerving tension, I'm not surprised that it won a Locus award.

The Dinosaur Tourist collects 19 of Kiernan's short stories from recent years in one place. A few of these stories I found a bit vague or meandering, too slow or ambiguous for me to really sink my teeth into them. But this collection is overall quite strong; the low points are still quality stuff, and the high points are some of the best being published in the genre today. This is one of the most varied of Keirnan's collections in recent years, and it's also one of the most accessible (compared to, say, the more explicit content in Dear Sweet Filthy World). Readers of horror, gothic, and weird tales owe it to themselves to give Kiernan's writing a try, and this collection is an excellent starting point.

(Originally published on my blog.)

[Mir Bal · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are writers whose words, whose weave of emotions and moods is so strong, make such an impression that it is difficult to find the words to describe them. Either you have to write a dissertation three times longer than the book or you are condemned to silence.

Ever since I found Caitlin R. Kiernan's writing by chance (or was it the writing that found me?), I've known this is one of them. Reading this short prose is like getting lost in a world that has long since fallen apart. Which has probably never been anything but a constant ruin. To meet the people who have made this world their home, lost, often with murder in their eyes. A darkness that is so much more powerful than the unmentionable horror just out of sight.

They are not stories in the classic sense, but impressionistic portraits, of times and places that have been and will be. We meet abandoned ladies at the turn of the century, and gangsters who will not be born until we are all dead. The common denominator is the loneliness to which they are all exposed. Sometimes there is love, or even friendship, never strong enough to dull the sense that the characters are at the mercy of a world that cannot be understood and where monsters lurk in the shadows of broken lives.

Kiernan is at her best when indulging in her own voice, her own stories, Elegy for a Suicide or Untitled Psychiatrist No. 2 , are stories where the darkness does not have a name, where it is unclear what or if anything has happened. And the reader as well as the characters are left with questions rather than answers. Or the magnetic reinterpretation of Little Red Riding Hood in The Road of Needles. Not all stories last. When Kiernan borrows mythologies from others, as in his play with HP Lovecraft, I am left with the feeling that the author should inhabit his own stories instead of someone else's. Are they bad? These three stories, no. If I had read them anywhere else, I would have loved them. But they are something else.

Kiernan is something as unusual as a writer for adults. It is a language, a prose that is more influenced by the romantics and high modernists than classic genre writers. The same goes for the themes. There is sex, sudden death and monsters. But always to explore everything that language, literature can and cannot tell us about ourselves.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

•The Beginning of the Year Without a Summer ⭐⭐⭐
• Far From Any Shore ⭐⭐⭐
• The Cats of River Street (1925) ⭐⭐⭐
• Elegy for a Suicide ⭐⭐⭐
• The Road of Needles ⭐
• Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still ⭐⭐⭐
• Ballad of an Echo Whisperer ⭐⭐⭐
• The Cripple and the Starfish ⭐⭐⭐
• Fake Plastic Trees ⭐⭐⭐
• Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) ⭐⭐⭐
• Animals Pull the Night Around Their Shoulders ⭐⭐⭐
• Untitled Psychiatrist No. 2 ⭐⭐⭐
• Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille ⭐⭐⭐
• Ballad of a Catamite Revolver ⭐⭐
• Untitled Psychiatrist No. 3 ⭐⭐⭐
• Albatross (1994) ⭐⭐⭐
• Fairy Tale of Wood Street ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Dinosaur Tourist (Murder Ballad No. 11) ⭐⭐⭐
• Objects in the Mirror ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

237 of 600 signed and numbered editions from Subterranean. I enjoyed all of the stories to some degree or another. Not every one was a solid wow-er of a tale, but they were all at least "good enough". The collection had some somewhat thematically linked tales, which was nice, and some of her Lovecraftian stuff, which was also nice. I definitely enjoyed the author's notes following each story, always love an insight into what inspired a story, even if it's only a sentence or so. Definitely going to continue reading Caitlín Kiernan, though I think I prefer her somewhat longer form work to her short stories. Not going to say no to any of it, though. There's weirdness, broken people, haunted people, awful people, strange things, strange events...what's not to like?

[Dustin]

An impressive write-up from Publisher's Weekly can be found HERE:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781...

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Requested from Netgalley to review, but bought my own copy later.

I have not read a book by Caitlin R Kiernan before, so I did not know what I was getting into, although I regret nothing. I wish the short story had been somehow introduced before rather than afterwards, as sometimes I was lost as to who was telling the story, what gender or scene I was stepping into the headspace of, sometimes a summary would have been nice.

I really expected to read this faster than what I did, I delight in dinosaurs for as long as I can remember, maybe it began with The Land Before Time or Jurassic Park or Barney or something about shells and the sea, but something seemed to slow me down, maybe it's the "weight" or "taste" of these short stories in this book. That's probably a weird thing to claim, or blame on a book. It's a strange book though, the kind that asks questions by telling a story, rather than telling a story to tell you a answer to some discovery (although it does that too). I learned a lot from these stories. I will want to go back to them. Each was whole and yet somehow part of a path.

While reading these short stories I saw on Netflix Love, Death and Robots, the quick stories shown within the show remind me of The Dinosaur Tourist, perhaps especially the episode Fish Night, which is described elsewhere as "When their car breaks down in the desert, a couple of traveling salesmen spend the night in the middle of nowhere and end up in a kind of trans-dimensional rift, surrounded by the ghosts of the ancient sea creatures who roamed the ocean that covered the same space millions of years before." but none of the short stories of The Dinosaur Tourist have that kind of scene, but they do have that kind of presence, the mix of "weight" ( of desert, of sea, of aeons) and "taste" (oil, blood, dirt, sand), if that makes sense?

Perhaps it does not.

"The Beginning of the Year Without a Summer" - At least two stories told like flipping a coin, one watching a dancer amidst a party of what might be monsters or a murder of crows and one by a lake discussing with a girl evil, swans, and more.

"Far From Any Shore" - Something dug up from the ground that looks like The Venus of Willendorf (or Mother Hydra) changes the three diggers and possibly the world forever.

"The Cats of River Street (1925)" - What fights off the monsters from the sea? Cats!

"Elegy for a Suicide"- E finds a antique Austrian razor, or it finds her, and something between a god or a fungus invading her body like a ant zombie.

"The Road of Needles"- Nix Severn, adrift between two worlds, one trying to awaken Oma a AI on a ship overgrown by primeval trees and animals or wolves, leaving lover and daughter in Earth for love of hallucination on the Blackbird or none of it is real.

"Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still" - Mars colonized for generations has strange sacred days and traditions and the Phantom Eve is a peek at the tale told of ancient goddesses Seven and the Seven who hold the Four at bay and the different ways history is recalled.

"Ballad of an Echo Whisperer" - A train ride in New Orleans and the memory and conversation between two companions and what might be ghost dog.

"The Cripple and the Starfish" - Two vampires among her many progeny gather to the side of the Lady of the Silver Whispers and wait for her to speak the name of her next victim.

"Fake Plastic Trees"- In a world becoming plastic, dreaming of what was real and what's not is up to a survivor to write.

"Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)"-A couple drive away, or to, a red light of eyes in the dark and a noise like Morse code.

"Animals Pull the Night Around Their Shoulders"- A artist reveals or draws upon a dark history of animal attacks.

"Untitled Psychiatrist No. 2"- A recollection of a memory in dream, of a gruesome roadside accident stop and a deer that isn't one.

"Excerpts from An Eschatology Quadrille"- A jade figurine of Mother Hydra of travels through time (1969, 2007, 1956, 2151) perhaps waiting for her husband Dagon in R'lyeh or to welcome a greater god with a great flood.

"Ballad of a Catamite Revolver"- At deadly act of Echo and Narcissus witnessed by two who are there to swap more than stories and myths.

"Untitled Psychiatrist No. 3"-Picking a psychiatrist because of her werewolf paper and a childhood memory of what might be a werewolf haunting a family for a hunt gone wrong, or a family made film.

"Albatross (1994)"- At the shore what might be a sea monster or demon washes up, and a dream upturns new discoveries, or imagines old ones new again.

"Fairy Tale of Wood Street"- Someone lost in the woods, or city, finds a lover in their guide.

"The Dinosaur Tourist (Murder Ballad No. 11)"- A hitchhiker is picked up by a serial killer but the end both aren't just what they seemed.

"Objects in the Mirror"- A scene of meeting a psychiatrist and a discussion on doppelganger, and prehistoric wondering and wandering.

[Kamisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

What a wonderfully weird, creative, and sometimes spooky collection of short stories! I had read a few short stories by Kiernan before picking this up, but Dinosaur Tourist was my first experience with a full collection of her work and I’m so glad I picked it up! The first few stories took me a little while to get into, but before I realized it, I was flying through each story to the end. There’s a wonderful slow build element to all of these stories and each story puts you a little bit on edge, and a little bit unprepared for whatever surprising aspect dawns on you as you read. I love speculative fiction and this collection was a great break from the novels I’ve been reading lately.

All of the stories were at least 3 star reads for me, but some of my favorites included:

“The Cats of River Street”- I just loved the concept of this little story and the cats of this community coming together to defend their town from monstrous sea creatures! It was creepy and sweet all at the same time.

“Fake Plastic Trees”- Dystopian YA story about life in a world where plastic has taken over a majority of the lifeforms on the planet.

“Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)” - A girl underestimates how far her boyfriend will go during a robbery. (There are a couple of these Murder Ballad stories in this collection and they are each creepy and menacing!)

“The Dinosaur Tourist”- Basically a serial killer story, with all of the eerie vibes that entails.

I really enjoyed reading this collection of diverse speculative fiction and I’ll definitely be checking out more of Kiernan’s work!

[Suncerae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nineteen short stories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, are brought together in The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s fifteenth collection of short fiction. This is my first introduction to her works, and all have a Lovecraftian quality, slowly pulling back the edges of reality, testing the water of surrealism, until a new world is upon you and there’s no turning back. Beware dead swans, large black dogs, psychiatrists, road trips at night, and of course, dinosaurs.

Some of my favorites include:

-Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) – An addict with anger issues and his girlfriend break into a farm house and get into more trouble than they bargained for. On the road, pale red blinking lights in the night sky follow them ceaselessly.
-Albatross – Two strangers find a dead sea creature washed up on a beach. It doesn’t stink, neither can identify it, no one ever comes to clean it up, and the ocean won’t take it back.
-Fairy Tale of Wood Street – A woman see her lover’s tail for the first time and remembers an encounter she had with a forest creature in her youth.

Many of the stories in this collection boast great concepts, such as idea for The Cats of River Street (1925), in which a group of street cats guard humanity from the tentacled horrors of the deep. But often the execution doesn’t work for me. Many are too slow. Many are narrated by characters with weak voices. The punchline is often softened by not arriving sooner. But the ones that initially grabbed me have not let go.

Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!

readwellreviews.com

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dinosaur Tourist takes us to places both familiar and strange, dancing in and out in a way that often defines the strict boundaries of genre to become something more. Kiernan is unafraid to tackle the classics, from her cats that guard Lovecraft's Innsmouth, while also creating so much that is utterly new. Strange idols appear in the earth. Holes open up in bathroom floors.

Throughout many of the stories, the theme of fossil hunting or paleontology runs. Some characters are fossil hunters, while some are merely named for them. It's a uniting theme in any otherwise disparate collection, and one that I was more than happy to see. Short story collections don't have to fit together evenly, at least to me, and this is one that clearly exists to show off Kiernan's best work and then some.

If you're prepared to dive deep into wondrous worlds, I highly recommend The Dinosaur Tourist. Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for a free e-copy of The Dinosaur Tourist in exchange for an honest review.**

While scrolling through NetGalley, this title and cover art immediately grabbed my attention. Then I noticed the author's name. I recognized her name instantly, and was so excited when I was approved as this is the first time I've read her work. Caitlin R. Kiernan is a master of prose! In this short story collection, she weaves tales of science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. I especially loved how she would have a short explanation directly after each story on where the idea of that particular tale came about. Like I mentioned before, this was my first time reading Caitlin R. Kiernan, but certainly won't be my last.

[J. Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

CRK's newest short story collection is the exact representation of who the author is at this point and time. Gone are the days of punky, gothy, woe-is-me, and in its place we have paleontologists, mindful human beings, introspection, diary-like psychiatric sessions, ancient beasts and more. Whether you prefer CRK as the latter or former, she's still the same prose master, but just at a different caliber.

What makes CRK stand out for me is I always learn something from her stories as there are so many elements of factual information weave throughout her work. But that's always been. She's one of my heroes for as long as I can remember now, never ceasing to fascinate me.

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing mixture of horror, sci-fi, magic realism, and some psychological musing short stories. There was an underlying theme throughout all of them of a deep-set perpetual memory or mobius-like existence in the world ("Ballad of an Echo Whisper" encapsulates the theme prevalent throughout). Many of the stories have a strong autobiographical undertone to them as well.

Recommended for those who like Lovecraftian horror (many of the stories are based on that mythos) or unsettling horror and psychological reflection in general.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love good short stories, ones that stretch the boundaries of reality . Short story collections are my drug of choice and this collection is definitely worth a few reads. Get to know a bunch of authors. Explore our world and others in new and fun ways. Meet loads of fabulous out of the world characters and laugh, cry, and get angry right along side them. WONDEFUL!!!

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

All short story collections tend to have good and not as good moments; this one was thankfully more along the lines of the former.

[Anna Richey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. An incredible variety (with some recurring themes) - highly recommended for cryptophiles.

[Diletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Che non sono così intelligente come penso di essere si evince dal fatto che ancora non avevo letto una raccolta di Kiernan.

[Jaclyn Sutherland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6 stars actually (I wish there was a way to do that on here!) Review to follow on my blog.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic collection of Caitlin R. Kiernan's short fiction in another fantastic bit of packaging from Subterranean. Kiernan is that rare writer where I find myself looking up so many pieces of incorporated information, wondering if its another part of the fiction, or something factual that I hadn't read / heard of before (e.g. the Tsavo man-eaters; any number of unfamiliar disorders / scientific terms). I'd read a few of these stories in other collections before, but re-read everything all the same. Weird fiction of the highest order.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fucking spectacular collection.

[Daniella Tiller Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I don’t know if it was necessarily the stories that kept me reading this book or if it was that I was intrigued by the author’s mind and wondering where else the stories would go. I can say, if you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk you will probably really enjoy this book.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Netgalley for review:

I don't read much fiction, but I could not ignore this book after reading its description, and I am so glad because good lord is this book deeply creepy. Very Lovecraftian in tone, which I loved! I definitely recommend if you are a fan of short stories that are deep in the uncanny horror with hints of eldritch horror spread throughout.

[Trish Graboske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful writing. But the characters tend to be serial killers and traumatized people in psychiatrists' offices. Oh, and at least four Lovecraftian tales, which were what I really wanted, and Little Red Riding Hood -- in outer space! There's "Samhain on Mars" and vampires, nanotech destroying the world, and barghests! So overall, really good.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 19 short stories, mostly in the horror genre though frequently more mildly creepy than outright horrific. Despite the stories being disconnected, there are images and themes that appear repeatedly: paleontologists (though dinosaurs themselves appear only as fossils or, once, as a cheesy tourist attraction); lesbian couples; protagonists who grew up in the southern United States only to spend their adult lives up north; sitting in a psychiatrist's office describing bad dreams based on weird but not directly traumatic childhood experiences; vivid descriptions of locations in the US's north-east, mostly NYC, Boston, and Providence; the scent of the ocean and/or rivers; explicit Lovecraft references, most often to Mother Hydra, here repeatedly depicted as an evil Venus of Willendorf. As a whole, the stories are a mixed bag; some of them I loved, and some I found far too vague and ambiguous.

My favorites included:
"The Cats of River Street (1925)" – the pet and feral cats of Lovecraft's Innsmouth come together on the spring equinox to fight back a tide of sea monsters. A wonderful portrayal of a diversity of personalities in a specific time and place.
"Far From Any Shore" – three paleontologists dig up the Mother Hydra statue and succumb to mysterious illnesses while revelers celebrate the end of the world. Creepy and understated; very well-done.
"Fake Plastic Trees" – in a world somewhat like Vonnegut's Cat Cradle (though in this case nanobots have turned everything to plastic), a teenage girl makes a horrific discovery. Nice tension and worldbuilding here.
"Elegy for a Suicide" – a woman touches what looks like a fungi, only to find her body rotting and an ancient power consuming her inner self.

Unfortunately too many of the other stories are meandering and unclear, in that way of literary fiction in which nothing actually happens but it's all very weighty and meaningful. Frequently I was bored enough that I had to force myself to keep reading. The other books I've read by Kiernan didn't have this problem, so I was disappointed to encounter it here. But that said, the stories that worked, really really worked.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[BEAU BOOKS · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have a signed copy of this at work that I’ve ogled from time to time, not for the signature, but for the cover. I’d never opened it, never even read any Kiernan before I found this copy at the library. But, after pouring over “The Dinosaur Tourist” for weeks, woolgathering over every single story, some of them sitting uncomfortable in my belly like bricks, I’m rethinking that purchase again. Maybe I can trick myself into thinking she signed it for me and didn’t know it yet. I’d tell her I would have kept the jade idol, no matter how much it hurt, because all I am are my things, at the end of it all. I think she would call me hungry, sign my name, and reach for the next book in line.

These are deep, dredging stories. Mastering atmosphere, intentional confusion, misdirection, relativity and primal fear, Kiernan creates such winding imagery, often connected, and distinctly satisfying throughout the collection. I wouldn’t kick a single one out of bed.

5/5 Maybe I’ll keep a piece of her forever, like she’s kept something of me.

[Deeanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well...I guess I have to concede on this book. Not because of any fault of the author but because it's the first book from the library literally ever that I have apparently lost. And since my library continues to be closed, I don't have access to a other copy at the moment. So I will have to return to this in the future.

But I did make it about halfway though. This is a collection of short stories with a bleak and gothic feel. The stories had varying qualities but overall I enjoyed all of them. I wasn't totally in the mood for this type of story (what with the plague and all) but now that I'm prepped, I am ready to return to it in the right head space!

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are several elements in this story collection that shine, unfortunately the fail to come together with any consistency. Kiernan manages to nail certain characters and episodes but the stories always seem to miss something. The sudden endings of most of the stories aren’t particularly compelling or satisfying. The sudden revelations are particularly surprising; the twists aren’t that arresting. So the reader experiences several instances of “is that it?”. Yet, the brilliance she displays in capturing certain narrative styles gives hope that a full-fledged work by Kiernan might yet be worth picking up.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kiernan writes strange, disturbing stories. "What?" I hear you say, "you say that as if it's a bad thing." Well, no, not necessarily. She's a good enough stylist that even with the stories that don't work for me, I go along with her because of the language and the unsettling, often ambiguous nature of the tale.

Still, I wouldn't choose her for bedtime reading. I don't want the kinds of dreams that her (admittedly often autobiographical) characters seem to have.