This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

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With memories of their previous life erased, the Dead Cat Tail Assassins are resurrected to work for the goddess Aeril. Eveen is an assassin who never questions a job and always fulfills her contract. Until the night she comes face to face with someone who could unlock her hidden past. And in her moment of hesitation, sets off a chain of events that will test the very fabric of her undead life.

Eveen is crude and sarcastic, the type of character who makes sure her opinions are heard. No matter the situation. She is a lethal assassin and has an attitude that can make readers snicker as she takes down her foes. While she must follow the rules of her trade, she will push the boundaries when the needs arise. Such as when her latest contract threatens her own undead life. She’ll do everything she can to thwart the powers to be and come out on top.

While the main character is a delight to read, the underlying mystery of the plot is just as intriguing. Readers will accompany Eveen as she uncovers back alley deals and impossible magical feats. Along the way, she will have to use her skills in combat and manipulation to fight off increasingly powerful and disturbing fellow assassins. Readers will be entertained right at the start as Eveen rises to each challenge, with weapons, and snark flying.

If you enjoy morally gray characters with a fiery personality, pick up a copy of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. This is a novella length story and a quick entertaining read. ( )

P. Djeli Clark has become a favorite for his world building, dry humor, and well developed characters, and The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is no exception. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins follows Eveen the Eviscerator, a member of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins Guild. We follow her as she starts on a new contract when things start to go a bit unusual. The characters are all fun and fleshed out, and you can see Eveen traveling through Tal Abisi through the story. I loved the Assassins, and would gladly read more of their tales should Clark decide to revisit the world of Tal Abisi. ( )

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a brilliant dark fantasy novella. Deep world-building. Plentiful trope twists. A shocker of an ending. It really has it all.

Eveen is an assassin dubbed the Eviscerator. She's also undead, having signed away her life to a goddess, and for reasons unknown to her. She remembers nothing of her life-before-resurrection. Then she's assigned a job commissioned by an anonymous patron, and realizes the victim has her own face, albeit younger. Eveen breaks the commitment to the job, saving her own younger self--and risking the wrath of her bosses, peers, and even worse, her overseeing goddess.

I loved the originality of the setting, the developing relationship between Eveen and her other self, and how, even though I predicted some plot developments, I was still gobsmacked by others. It was sheer fun, all the way through. ( )

This was fun, but had a few problems. The worldbuilding is great, but needed more than 200 pages to explore. There's also a ton of infodump, leading to some very unnatural dialog where characters explain things that they both know. I did really enjoy the ending, although one character speaks in a strong dialect that was annoying to read. This may have worked better as a longer novel with time to develop the characters and setting.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

This book is so much fun. I love P. Djèlí Clark's writing, it is fast paced and evocative and shot through with crackling humour. Eveen is an undead assassin, with no memory of who she was before her soul was given over to the goddess of knives, but she ends up face to face with... her own face? on what should have been a routine assignment. This triggers a hair raising time sensitive quest to find out the truth and see if it can be undone, with her fellow assassins on her tail and the city's magic running high.

There is blood, and death, and assassinations, and demon dogs who eat people, but the tone never becomes too grim. It is so well balanced with humor and burgeoning friendships and I highly recommend it. I need to go read the rest of the author's books right now. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review ( )