3.5.
I have really enjoyed P Djeli Clark’s other books and I think this had a super unique premise. The writing was good and I liked the main character a lot. My issue was that because it as a novella it wasn’t fleshed out enough for my liking personally. I would’ve liked it if it another 100 pages longer I think. The world building could’ve been a bit fuller and we could’ve got better pacing.
I do recommend this if you are a fan of the authors other works or like novellas.

P. Djèlí Clark brings stunning world building and fantasy that has you craving more. A fast-paced novella sending you on a whirlwind adventure. There is so much personality in every aspect of the story, beginning to end.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the arc. I could not put this down. I loved reading TDCTA. The concept immediately intrigued me, the world building is phenomenal, and the characters so compelling. I want to read more stories set in this world. Though this novella is short, the world, the magic, the plot, and the characters will stay with me for a long time. I loved the plot, it was really fun. I also really want to visit this world, especially during the Festival. I want to explore the whole place. The stories, the legends, the magic system, the guilds, the gods and goddesses, every thing was made to intrigue me. I did not plan on staying up to read this, I just wanted to read a few pages before bed, but that was my mistake, because now I want to read everything P Djeli Clark rights. Normally I don't like novellas because they always feel lacking, but this was perfect. It was short, fast, and so intriguing and captivating. Love Eveen so much, and Sky, and Fennis, and Baseema. The prose was also so pretty and perfect. I really hope there are more stories set in this world. This is probably the best world building I have ever come across in my life. I need more stories here.

3.5 stars

The world building in this novella was so lush, I truly felt transported to Tal Abisi. There was so much lore and history packed into such a short amount of pages. I also really enjoyed Eveen and Sky as characters. I think they were well developed and entertaining to read about. The overall idea was also super unique and I really enjoyed the whole dead assassin thing. I did struggle a lot with the pacing. The first half of the book was essentially Eveen being chased around, then that would stop, then they’d be chased around again. It got a little repetitive. The second half of the book was a lot slower paced and it took me quite awhile to get through 224 pages. Pacing aside, I did really enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins instantly caught me with its’ intriguing premise, mysterious edge and surprising humor. This is a captivating and page-turning novella and I enjoyed every page. There are such small, wonderful moments tucked into the assassination action of this story that made it so well rounded and enjoyable.

I hope that the author builds on this world, and there’s definitely room for it! I finished this desperately wanting more of Eveen, Sky, Baseema and Fennis. Most of all, I really want to know how Eveen became a Dead Cat Tail!

I really enjoyed this fantasy story. It kind of reminded me of The Dollhouse series on television, except these characters are dead. They both get their memories wiped away. Sometimes, the characters in The Dollhouse series also were hired assassins. I thought the author did a really good job. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

I received this book as an eARC for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

The Dead Cat Tail Assasins are not cats, but they are dead, and they are assassins. I found this story fascinating! It is truly impressive that a uniwue world and story was able to be told in just over 200 pages.

Eveen is a hired assassin, who is dead, and must complete whatever contract that is given to her. The story starts with Eveen getting a contract and as she goes to do her job, the face of the girl stops her. Sky, the girl who Eveen just cannot kill, has some mystery of her own. The book follows as Eveen and Sky work together to figure out what has occurred to get them to this moment and if there is a way for both of them to make it out of the mess they have gotten themselves in. The magic in this story was unique and the resolution was breathtaking! It took me a while to get to the point where I understood the magic and felt like I knew what was going on, but once I got it, I GOT IT. And then everything I thought I knew was turned upside down!

It's a quick read but definitely a wild ride!

I usually love P. Djeli Clark’s works but this one was unfortunately not my favorite. Loved the premise, the characters had so much potential but what really didn’t connect for me was the world. I couldn’t quite get my finger on it so it fell a bit flat.

Undead Assassins. Alternate timelines. Death Goddesses. If any of those things sound appealing to you, then The Dead Cat Tail Assasins by P. Djeli Clark is the book. It focuses on our main character Eveen, who is an undead assassin. When she sent a contract, she discovered there was more to this mark than she imagined. It is a fast-paced novel infused with magic, loyalty, and high stakes. p. Djeli Clark is an author whose worldbuilding is stellar. And highly recommend their works to anyone who is into fantasy and mixes steampunk.

Would you agree to be resurrected years later after death in exchange for being a contracted assassin? I often find myself asking this question. Jk but I did receive this ARC which is set to release August 6. This was such a short, fun, quick read. Assassins and gods? Count me in. It almost gave me zombieland vibes with some humor and the rules on how to make it through life as an assassin reminded me of the rules on how to make it through a zombie apocalypse. The cast is diverse, the setting was interesting and I would say probably my favorite part was the descriptions of food. It probably made me snack more than I should’ve. This is categorized on GR as adult but I would say it read more along the lines of YA. The plot seems to move on rather quickly which I prefer. However, I can’t quite explain it but it wasn’t hitting the ‘great’ mark for me. Maybe it would’ve hit a little better if it was longer? I’m not sure.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for providing this ARC for review

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

I am always amazed at how much P. Djèlí Clark can manage to pack into a short amount of pages, and this novella is no exception. Filled with lots of action, humor, and intense worldbuilding, I think this novella will be plenty entertaining for many readers. I found the concept behind the assassins themselves to be interesting, and the characters to be fun. Overall, this would be a great world to return to!

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark is death-defyingly fun. It was thrilling and hilarious and earned more than a few chuckles from me. It’s a standalone fantasy with a deadly mystery that truly makes the most of its short page count. I encourage you to sign here to enter Clark’s enticing world and shadow Eveen the Eviscerator for the night.

Eveen is one of Tal Abisi’s deadliest assassins, and it’s not because she’s dead. Resurrected and sworn to the Matron of Assassins, Eveen carries out her contracts with masterful precision. There are consequences for not killing or “shipping” the target, and Eveen doesn’t want to get on the Matron’s bad side. But when Eveen’s past gets involved with her next ship, her blade falters, and a chaotic adventure ensues.

If the title of this book is throwing you off, don’t worry, it’s supposed to. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins opens with confused banter about the guild’s strange name, and it immediately sets a fun, irreverent tone for the rest of the story. Eveen is the conduit for most of this, approaching work and absurd situations with deadpan (heh) humor and nonchalant honesty. Her line of work is grim, but Eveen doesn’t take it too seriously and easily finds a way to make light of everything. She made me laugh out loud several times and treated everything like it was an inconvenient game, even though the world is actually going to shit around her.

Assassins is a neat and tidy fantasy standalone. I’m in awe of how easily Clark can build a world and establish characters quickly and skillfully. This book has one of the strongest openings I’ve read in a while, simply for how efficiently it sets up the story. Eveen’s story begins alongside her foil and colleague, Fennis, which gives us a satisfying and intriguing download of the assassin. This served the story well because not one second is wasted and the adventure begins with a clear idea of who our protagonist is. Everything flowed so easily from character introductions to worldbuilding to the plot progressing through a fabulous mystery. It was effortless and entertaining from start to finish.

The tone of Assassins is fun and engaging, but it does present more somber ideas if you want to look past Eveen’s lively personality. She is as dazzling as the two blades she carries, but her second chance at life is lackluster. Everything is muted—food, sex, pain—and she has no idea who she was before signing her contract. Can you really know who you are now if you lack context of who you were? There are no memories, relationships, feelings, or experiences from her life before to give any sort of clue as to who she is or was. Eveen was brought back to life as a fully-formed person without knowing any of the things that shaped her. While I felt the weight of that gaping hole in her life, it was also beautiful to see who she became despite not knowing. Eveen is not some undead imitation of life, but a real person with her own desires, and we see this through the will she displays. The emptiness that courts Eveen gives the story weight and makes the moments of levity shine. The plot of Assassins could have easily been all fun and games, but Clark strategically adds a reflective moment or brutally honest dialogue to humanize the situation and give depth to the characters.

I am confident that you will have a great time with The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. It has a little bit of magic, mystery, and science, all swirling in a race against death. Who said a book had to have over 900 pages to be worthwhile? This one will spark enjoyment and make you laugh in no time at all.

Rating: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins - 9.0/10
-Brandee

P. Djèlí Clark has quickly made his name known in the fantasy genre and I adored his steampunk Cairo world. In the Dead Cat Assassins, we follow Eveen, a literally dead assassin with no recollection of her previous life, serving out a contract as an assassin. After an assigned job, certain memories begin returning to her and it’s a race against time to figure out why. While the Dead Cat Assassins was entertaining and the quirks of the many assassins we come across fun to read, I found the worldbuilding quick flat compared to Cairo. The time-travel aspect at the very beginning definitely threw me for a loop, but by the end I was kind of rolling with it. Probably the strongest aspect of this novella was the action and fight scenes. Clark has a deft hand with painting action and describing a scene in a way that’s fun and easy to follow as a reader. Overall I rate this book a 4/5.

Review will go live on my blog on 5 July 2024

A funny, engaging story full of endearing characters, quick wit, and some vividly gruesome undead assassins.
I loved so much of this! It was a quick read and held my attention the whole time. P. Djèlí Clark knows how to write a well-paced story that is packed full of humor and memorable characters. This is a great one to pick up if you are looking for a fast-paced, well-plotted fantasy standalone!

"The Dead Cat Tail Assassins" is a thrilling ride through a magical world filled with intrigue and adventure. P. Djèlí Clark weaves a captivating tale that keeps you hooked from start to finish. With vibrant characters and a unique setting, this book is a must-read for fantasy lovers everywhere!

While this wasn’t my favorite P. Djèli Clark, it’s fun and incredibly rich and vibrant for how short it is. The characters were delightful. The last third of this book just didn’t nail the landing for me.

This was so much fun! I wish this had been longer, purely because I was enjoying it so much and just wanted more. This is the perfect mix of fantasy, gods, assassins and multiverse aspects.

I'm truly in awe of how much Clark can fit in to so few pages. Clark is truly a master of characters, combined with an amazing world and social commentary this book does not miss.

If you love fantasy books with witty characters and amazing humour this is the perfect book for you.

An absolutely fantastic read in every way! Clark has this way of drawing the reader in right from the start, which shines especially well in his shorter format books. The characters are fascinating and start off with an immediate sense of comfort and familiarity. You can't help caring about their story. The worldbuilding is phenomenal! I loved every bit - from the gods to the guilds to the criminal underbelly to the corrupt politicians. I would gladly read a dozen more books exploring this world of undead assassins and the shady deals they execute.

My only complaint involves how some of the dialogue is presented in the text. There is a lengthy scene where a character's speech is spelled out phonetically to convey to the reader the type of accent and inflection that character has. While I recognize this is a really engaging and fun way to make the story more immersive, it's a huge challenge from an accessibility standpoint. As a dyslexic reader, I struggled to sound out the words in a way that made sense. It's embarrassing to admit, but I ended up abandoning entire sentences of dialogue because I just *could not* figure it out. I recognize that this is a me problem, but know there are others out there who would be impacted the same way and I wish there were a resource included that could help out with this. Hopefully anyone reading this review who has similar concerns will choose the audiobook or buddy read with someone who can help them out some. I truly loved this read and am just kind of bummed that I had to stumble my way through the ending rather than getting to enjoy it at its fullest.

Overall an outstanding read. Would jump at the chance to return to this world and I eagerly await whatever Clark decides to write next.

Special thanks to Tor for an ARC in exchange for review.

3.5 stars

An action-packed story with lots of twists and turns. Eveen was a fascinating protagonist and I love the concept of undead assassins. However, this didn't draw me in as much as some of P Djeli Clark's other books — but overall, it was definitely still a solid read.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a short book that packs quite a punch in terms of plot and characters but will not be everyone’s cup of tea due to the cavalier approach to violence and the quirky narratorial voice. This was exactly my cup of tea though. The book follows Eveen the Eviscerater, who is one of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins, an undead woman who is sworn to a century of assassination services to Ayeril, the Matron of Assassins. There are three vows to her order: the contract must be just, the assassin can only kill who the hit is contracted for, and the assassin must kill the target. When those who have given their lives to Ayeril are resurrected, they have forgotten everything about their pasts and are resurrected far enough away from their death-date that anyone who might’ve known them is probably dead. Eveen is very good at her job and enjoys it well enough, but everything is thrown off-course when she discovers that she recognizes her target for the night is someone she remembers from the Before. This sets of a series of events through the night about what Eveen might remember, who this girl is she is contracted to kill, and why.

The book immediately takes an irreverent tone that jolted me in the best way possible. I did not enjoy A Master of Djinnor Ring Shout, so I wasn’t sure if Clark was going to continue to be an author I followed, but I was drawn in by the tagline for the book: Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats. Nor do they have tails. But they are most assuredly dead. From this, I thought the book was going to be gritty, dark, and intense. The book opens with this line, but the reader quickly finds out this line is on a business card. This is a brilliant and hilarious twist to reader expectations and from there we are on a raucous ride that makes some of the most ridiculous jokes, including a very clever breaking of the fourth wall.
That said, because there is a streak of black (this is a book about an undead assassin after all) and sardonic humor throughout this book, it is not going to be for everyone. This is not written in first-person nor is it a “dear reader” kind of narratorial style, but there is a strong and unique narratorial voice that deftly and definitely shapes the way the reader understands the story. This was something I greatly enjoyed, but I understand why people might not.

This is a novella, so the world-building goes fast, and there is a lot of it. Almost none of it is given through exposition; the reader has to figure out everything from the dialog and descriptions. For instance, this story takes place on one night, which happens on the night of a major festival. In the background of pretty much every scene are people celebrating in various ways through the streets. From these comments, the reader can (should) pick up on why this festival is happening, and eventually the story of the festival ties into the plot.

This is a balanced character- and plot-driven book. Eveen grounds the book and her relationship with Fennis and Sky gives her balance and propels her forward through the plot, which is opaque to reader and characters for much of the book. They are trying to unravel the mystery of why Eveen has been given this contract and also how this contract is even possible given the confines of things like time, space, physics, reality, and the will of the gods. This is not a mystery, though, the reader is given many of the clues to figure out what happened and how the characters are going to solve it, but we skip over the final confrontation planning montage and right to said final confrontation. This didn’t bother me as, for the most part, their plan goes off without a hitch and gives the reader a satisfying (if bloodthirsty) ending—so seeing them plan it would’ve just spoiled the ending. A planning montage always means the plan is going to fail. And I didn’t want to see Eveen fail. I was really rooting for her by the end of the book—even if her solution to 90% of her problems is violence.

I would recommend this book to people who like Murderbot—a somewhat reluctant main character who really would prefer to just enjoy simple pleasures and be left alone but unfortunately is very good at their job and unwillingly cares about other people in their life and even more unfortunately discovers a massive conspiracy they somehow are in the middle of without even realizing it.