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.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3031026319

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.

This was an intriguing, but disturbing at times to read anthology. This is an intense read that is not for the faint of heart.

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.

I normally do not like short story collections, but I had a sneaky suspicion that I would enjoy this because I love dinosaurs! I found most of the stories to be interesting and some to not interest me at all but that’s with almost every short story collection I have read, Overall, I think this was a solid read and would recommend it to others!

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!

I am an anthology junkie. 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!!!

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

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.

The opening stories are Mythos stories and they are the best. Much more mature than the last collection of stories I read by Kiernan and a pretty good read. The science fiction and horror stories are my least favorite, and there is a lot in-between. Apparently this is the fifteenth collection by this author. I think as best-of collection would be a better approach than an all-of.

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.

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!