Thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
This book is wild fun from the get-go. It just dives straight into the action. It is short and wastes no time on world-building, but you get to pick up so many elements from throughout the narrative that are absolutely engaging and diverting. (I can’t wait to dive back into this world in the future) The book is fast-paced, but it does give the appropriate time to certain moments that need more space. The religious and assassin and science/magic aspects are so fun! I adore complex magical systems, even when there isn’t too much time spent on them and I was intrigued by the setup Clark has for magic and the study of it in this book, it felt kind of Discworld-esque, though without an orangutan.
Eveen, the main character, is so charming. She may be an assassin, but with the book from her perspective, we get to peek behind her curtain. She is funny, a voracious reader, and skilled. Honestly, I loved the characters in this book, even the villains and creeps (though those because they were written well, not because of any nobleness of spirit). There are so many little things that are very funny and kind of meta, without overpowering the story at the heart of the book. The themes of identity, love, and community are present and powerful without taking away from the violence I expected from an assassin story. There are fight scenes and spell-wielding that are fun and scientific and wicked cool. I loved this book for many reasons and had so much fun with it, I read it in one day because I couldn’t bear to drag it out.

This was a unique little story. I had no clue what it was about when I picked it up and had a lot of fun with it. Impressive amount of character development and world-building done in so few pages.

The Dead Cat Tail Assasins is a fun and breezy read. The world they inhabit is new and interesting and I'm curious to find out more about it. I hope more books are in store.

It's always a pleasure to read P. Djèli Clark's book and I'm very happy I got an early access to this one !

It's a shift from your regular hired-assassin tropes, no one falls in love in that one, but the mystery is a thick one to crack.

I really liked Eveen as a main character and I enjoyed the world building and magic system.

It's a short read and I wish we could have had something bigger as to explore the world more, but it was extrememy entertaining.

It was however a bit hard to understand the goddesses at the end.

This was such a fun, short, zombie assassin story that really should be a movie!

In this story, when you die you can choose which gods you serve, and our main character, Eveen chooses the Matrion of Assassins, which means she becomes the undead and can assassinate people - though there are strict rules about how and when they can do so. Eveen takes a job, but recognizes the person she is sent to assassinate, and refuses to go through with it, which is a big no-no.

I thought Eveen was going to be on the run, but she actually goes back to her boss and is like, so this isn’t supposed to happen, how do we fix it. I really appreciated that! She is not afraid to team up with people to fix the problem.

The world building is great. The conversations feel natural, and it doesn’t feel like they are aware of the reader. They are just talking about things they would naturally talk about, but also telling the reader information about the world. And some of the things that seem like fun, quirky facts about the world become plot relevant by the end. The set up, foreshadowing, and sprinkling in of details is great!

I also loved the vivid descriptions in this story. I am someone who doesn't picture things in my head as I read, and that sometimes means I get lost when reading battle scenes. I never felt lost in this book. I might not have been picturing things, but I had a strong sense of what was going on.

I feel like it is the type of story that would work well as a movie. It has action, witty lines, and it is short! Why aren’t novellas turned into movies more often? We generally accept that there needs to be things cut out of novels that become movies, but they shouldn’t have to cut as much story from a novella. It’d be perfect!

It is a zombie assassin story, and it doesn’t shy away from violence, but it also has witty banter going on the whole time, which lightens the tone of the story so it felt more like a fun adventure story.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t love the whole way through the story. In the final scene we have a being from the spirit realm who talks to our main characters, and the dialogue is written in a dialect or accent. So the words aren’t written the way they are in standard English, but rather how they are pronounced. The accent was thick enough that I didn’t understand everything that was said. Our main characters seemed to know what was being said, and I used them for context clues. I understand that it can be more immersive to have a character’s dialogue written this way, but in this book I found it actually taking me out of the story. I had to really slow down and reread a lot to try and figure out what was going on. This is unfortunate because these celestial beings played a major role in the climax of the story, and that’s when I was pulled out of the story. I might try to listen to the audiobook, because that might solve the problem I had with this portion of the book.

I also found it odd that a celestial being, who seems to not pay much attention to humans, uses modern human slang. As much as I felt the world building was thought out, this felt off to me and was never explained.

Our two main characters and their relationship really stole the show. I loved when we had down time with them and they were discussing their lives and trying to get to know each other. Their ending was satisfying and gave me all the feels.

When I heard Djèlí Clark was coming out with a new stand-alone book (novella?) I was immediately on board. Although Dead Cat Tail wasn't quite what I hoped for, it didn't disappoint, either.*

Assassins have become popular anti-heroes in modern fantasy literature, and Eveen's sect is even odder and colder than the norm--the assassins are members of the formerly alive who have been resurrected through magic and their relationship to their goddess.. It is perhaps one of the most interesting use of zombies-excuse me, the undead; zombies is a pejorative--I have yet seen. As with all religions, there's all sorts of constraints around the practicing of the work, and Eveen finds herself in a conundrum when the person she is contracted to kill seems eerily familiar.

The narration is third person, primarily Eveen's perspective. Eveen herself has a decidedly modern youth feel, putting me very much in mind of Gideon the Ninth. Plotting, while slightly less bananas, does get a little dizzying by the end. I would say that Djèlí Clark does a fair job of gradually setting the reader up with the world-building and the constraints that proves so difficult to manage.

There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Interesting, if somewhat florid, world-building that is well-used in context of the story. Intriguing character arcs and characters wrestling with mission and duty. A straight-forward plot that keeps the pace moving. Solid atmosphere that lends itself to the plot. The majority of characters have shades of brown skin, and it is always nice to see representation in fantasy. On that note, I will mention that Djèlí Clark is one of the few male authors that writes women like people. It's a wonder to behold.

I found it a story that was interesting and very hard to put down. That said, three issues prevent me from an easy 5 star rating. Wording could be tightened up, and quite possibly will be by final edition. I felt like for a matter-of-fact character voice, some of the adjectives seemed excessive, and some of the phrasing needed trimming. Second, a dialect is brought into the story near the end, and ended up being jarring enough that it threw me out of the story. Looking back, I think it would be about the same if someone had reached under a bed and pulled out an AK-47. It was weirdly specific to particular culture we hadn't been exposed to when nothing else in the story was contextually appropriate. Lastly, and most significantly, is the epilogue. While the ending worked (much like Briar Rabbit, you knew some fancy trick was coming), I have ethical problems with the wrap-up. It was an unsettling and harsh end to what was essentially a fairly harmless (but high stakes) story. Summation then: while certainly better than the last book, doesn't reach my favorites.




*while there are assassins, there are no cat tails or cats, dead or otherwise.




Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an electronic advanced reader copy. Unsurprisingly, opinions are my own.

Clark is a fantastic author. I have read most of his works and have only a couple left. This short novel was fun and propulsive, not to mention chock full of strong female characters. I enjoyed the reading tremendously. As always, the world building is well done. You can see and feel the world of the assassin’s guild and the characters within. However, I did wish that I got more internal dialogue and thought from the characters. It wasn’t quite as strong as some of his other work.

Clark is fantastic at creating wonderfully diverse and creative worlds, and this book is no different. Set in a sprawling, ancient city, the story follows an undead assassin, revived to serve a goddess, as she finds herself thrown a curveball with her most recent contract. The plot was fast paced and easy to follow, but i found the setting and world building to be more interesting. The characters were interesting, but didn't have a lot of room to grow in such a quick moving story, and while there were a few twists, nothing truly surprising happened. I would like to see more novellas in this setting, as the world is just fascinating.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a wild ride, and you will not want it to end! Honestly, this could be a whole series. That's my only complaint--that this story is too short!
This book has everything: mystery, adventure, action, magic, assassins, action, mythology, necromancers, action . . .
Eveen the Eviscerator has a calling card and she's only mildly embarrassed to use it. She's dead. Having made a deal with the goddess of knives in life, she now carries out assassinations as an undead amnesic hitwoman. She's great at what she does until a job takes her face-to-face with the past she's not supposed to remember.
If you're a fan of Clark's Dead Djinn universe and Muir's Locked Tomb series, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a must-read!

This was so much fun! I enjoyed the premise, the characters, and the dialogue. The worldbuilding was also very cool and unique, although there were a handful of anachronistic references that pulled me out of the story (zombies and Edgelords??).

For such a short read, it was certainly action-packed. It could have felt repetitive after a while, but Clark really spiced up all the other assassins in a way that made each feel unique. I thought I saw the ending coming, but I got it just wrong enough to feel both surprised and satisfied.

I was provided an ARC of this book via the publisher and Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was originally supposed to release in April, however the publication date has moved to August. Not sure if that will impact the contents of the book, but I loved it! This novella is roughly 200 pages of action packed sci-fi/fantasy. Each one if Clark's books mixes a bit of steampunk, science fiction, and fantasy into a unique story that you don't want to put down. The world building is excellent, and even in a short time you come to love the characters!

Eveen is a member of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins', they are a guild of undead assassins governed by contracts and godling laws. When presented with what appears to be a proper contract, Eveen finds herself unable to fulfil the contract which could bring down the wrath of Aeril, the goddess her kind serves on not only herself bur her entire guild.

Eveen and her mark, set out on a mission to figure out how to undo the contract through time and space without destroying the entire city before the sun comes up. Eveen and Sky offset each other like night and day, while using everything at hand to figure out how to circumvent the contract and set things to rights. This had everything I would want from a great story, good humor, engaging plot, interesting characters, and it was a lot of fun!

Tor and P. Djèlí Clark, I fall at your feet once more. P. Djèlí Clark's been a must-read author for some years now, ever since A Dead Djinn in Cairo popped up on NetGalley, so it truly is an honor to be once more accepted to read one of his books. A master of storytelling, his worlds always feel deeply lived in, deeply familiar, deeply glorious, deeply hilarious, deeply emotional, and deeply human.
Though there were some formatting errors (blank pages) it felt more like cliffhangers, and therefore made the read even better!

If this world is ever expanded in to, I'll be coming to the line as early as I can to read!

I have long wanted to try out a P. Djeli Clark book, so when this novella popped up and it had assassins, I couldn’t resist. Eveen is an undead assassin, her continued existence granted by the Matron of Existence. Her past life is wiped and her undead life goes on in exchange for her pledge to complete every contract that she is given. But when the mark looks familiar (hard to do when you have no memories), she gets caught up plot that goes deeper through her city than she ever imagined.

This story was wonderfully paced, the action continually propelling me forward through the whole novella. While I did guess the twist almost immediately, I did not see all the ways he used it in the finale. Overall an enjoyable short read.

Clark once again delivers a fast, readable novella with great action and his trademark worldbuilding skill. "The Dead Cat Tail Assassins" reads (with mild spoilers) like a fantasy version of the movie "Looper," following an assassin with a patchy past as she tries to understand why her latest job has gone so terribly wrong. As in his "Dead Djinn" works, Clark returns to the well of steampunk technology mixed with necromancy, this time in an original setting rather than the alt-history Egypt he previously used. Separating the novella's world from ours gives him more room for twists and turns, but also leaves the worldbuilding details feeling more detached (or perhaps that's just my growing interest in history coming through). Still, it was an entertaining read that sets up and executes (ha! pun intended) its premise, and doesn't pointlessly trail off in service of a sequel. These days a true standalone is hard to find, and that alone would be enough to earn it a solid four stars. Luckily, the book isn't coasting on narrative structure alone and the prose holds up, though not quite enough to earn a fifth.

I read this in a day and loved it. A quick read that is funny, a beautiful representation of black fantasy, and with a few twists and turns that kept me guessing, I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a short romp of a novel that’ll break them out of a reading slump! 4⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This was one of the best ones I've read so far . The characters are well fleshed out. The wiring fantastic obviously written by one of the amazing authors.
I just love it.
Definitely going to buy this when it comes out.

I hate giving negative reviews of ARCs but I really, really did not like this one. It's not quite a one-star for me, but it's close-- I would give it 1.5, and that's only because I was intrigued at the start and saw glimpses of good writing. Granted I understand this is a novella, but the worldbuilding felt very poorly done considering how important it was to the plot. Eveen just drove me nuts with her one-dimensional "I'm a badass, look how tough I am" persona. When all of the assassins started coming after them, it almost reminded me of Scooby Doo or something-- "oh no, not HIM! How am I gonna get out of this???" *gets out of it easily* "oh no this person is EVEN WORSE! How am I gonna get out of this?" *gets out of it easily*-- and this was just on loop. This book takes place over the course of about a day but the pacing dragged so much, it just felt endless. Also, I think catchphrases are really only appropriate in bad TV shows, never books. The phrase "Aeril's fiery tits!" occurs SIXTEEN TIMES in this 200-page novela. That's ridiculous, it was so obnoxious. Also, the use of "Edgelords" as a group was SO cringe, even if that was the intention, I couldn't stand it. There were other similar moments where the author was trying to be funny or clever and I just couldn't stand it, especially as the book went on and it became more frequent. Another example is when the borderline-incomprehensible deities use the word "mansplain". I'm so disappointed because I've heard great things about this author but this has put me off their work and I don't think I will be revisiting it. Very curious to see what others think, especially because other early reviews seem to be very positive.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I needed this novella to be a novel. I thought the world had so much potential, and after loving Clark's full length novel previously, I do think his worldbuilding is better when he has room to expand. I was very intrigued by the carnival and the society that he created, however, I do feel like there was too much time spent of mundane details that retracted from the actual plot. Again, if this were full length, the world expansion would have been much more appreciated.

The characters were also just middle of the road. The main character, Eveen, is an undead assassin. Super cool, very unique, and I was immediately interested when I read that. However, she was also supposed to be middle aged, or at least that's how she was described, but she seemed so childish. The way she talked made her younger self feel much mature. I had a hard time caring about these characters because we didn't spend enough time seeing who they are outside of just being undead. I do realize that them being undead wipes their memory, but all of the characters felt very similar because of it.

The plot itself was very well done. I flew through this as it was both short and fast-paced. I just wish that it was a novel. I've rad his novella before with Ring Shout, and that didn't seem to suffer from the same issues I found in this one. I loved the writing style, I just needed more of it.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for allowing me to read this early!

I was instantly drawn to this book by the title and the cover and the synopsis sealed the deal, I HAD to read this book! I have only ready one other book from Clark’s backlog and am happy to say this doesn’t disappoint! My only real complaint is that it wasn’t longer! The world that Clark builds is so unique and the story that comes of it takes you on an unexpected adventure. The characters, world building and plot are extremely well thought out and keeps the readers interest and attention. I highly recommend this!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ebook ARC. Y‘all this fantasy novella was such a fun read and made me an instant fan of P. Djèlí Clark. This author‘s been on my (ridiculously long) TBR for ages and I’m so happy I finally got my hands on one of his books. P. Djèlí Clark did not disappoint!

Eveen is an assassin, a member of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins guild in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. No they’re not cats, but they are dead, resurrected with no memories of their past and the sole purpose to swear allegiance to the goddess Aeril and carry out her deadly contracts. Eveen’s a snarky BAMF and she’s so good at her job that she’s known as the Eviscerator. But her latest contract will send her on a collision course with her past, which she’s not supposed to remember at all.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers but for the first 85% of this book I was completely hooked. This novella has it all, witty banter, BAMF female assassins, a diverse cast, magic, gods, action and thrilling escapes. I loved Eveen and almost all of the side characters as well. The backdrop of the Festival of the Clockwork King brought in more steampunk elements and made the book even more fantastic. The setting and the magic system def made me want to come back to this world and had me hoping that there‘s going to be a sequel or that P. Djèlí Clark already has another novella set in this world. It was a fast read and exactly what I wanted.

I had a couple small issues with the ending. Without giving anything away, this is a novella, so its understandable we didn’t have all the answers. Still, I wish we’d gotten the answer to one of my burning questions (I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel). There is also a scene where I had difficulty understanding one of the character’s dialogue. I found the dialect distracting and it was a pretty intense scene, so it really slowed down the pacing. Other than that, the book was brilliant and I would highly recommend it!!