Title: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
Author: P. Djèlí Clark
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Protagonist Gender: Female
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins was exactly what I expected, precisely what I was hoping for, and most certainly everything I could have asked. P. Djèlí Clark's novella is somehow fantastic fun and incredibly dark at the same time, the first driven by the characters, and the latter by the story.
For a woman who has no memory of anything before she was resurrected as an assassin, Eveen is a surprisingly deep character. She's an assassin with principles, a woman who's not afraid to break the three unbreakable vows if it means doing the right thing - a fact that has already gotten her in trouble once before. She is lonely, with only a work-friend to count on, but she has her penny dreadfuls, stories of heroic daring and monstrous enemies that she hoards and quotes from on a regular basis.
I can't say much about Sky without spoiling some key aspects of the plot, but she's one of those characters who grow on you, a plot device who reveals a personality that makes her a match for Eveen. Their weird, awkward, impossible friendship is what exposes the heart of Eveen, inviting us to understand who and how she is.
The world-building here is fabulous, with a wealth of cultural elements, some interesting bits of geography, and a depth of magic and mythology that's more real and more immediate than many readers may be used to. We see that especially in the events leading up to the climax, but I'll say no more for fear of spoilers.
Okay, so I'll say one thing more. There's a character involved in that climax who speaks in a phonetic dialect that I really struggled to read, so much so that I found myself skipping half conversations and trusting the other half to provide context. It's the only thing keeping this from being a full 5-star read, but irritating and distracting enough to pull it down to 4.5 stars.
As I was reading The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, I had two theories in mind as to what was happening and how it would all be resolved. As it turns out, I guessed right on the what, but could never have anticipated how crazy the how would end up being. Definitely worth a read!
Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀ 1/2
My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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