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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you so much to Tor for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are a guild of undead assassins that pledged themselves to the goddess of assassins in life, were brought back to life without their memories, and now kill their targets under a strict set of rules. Eveen is one such assassin, and when she's assigned a mark that has ties to a past she doesn't even remember, a dangerous plot is revealed.
This is my third P. Djeli Clark - I've read Ring Shout and Master of Djinn, gave both 4ish stars, and so I requested this ARC. Despite being the premise I was most interested in, this may be my least favorite of his, although by a small margin.
This is such an interesting premise for a story. We've got someone who's dedicated their (after)life to something they can't even remember why they dedicated in their first place. There's some cool magic and politics that we're introduced to, and an intriguing start to a mystery. However, to me, this book felt like Clark had reached word count limit 100 pages ago and had to axe half the book. He kept a lot of the cool things, but because we didn't have time to sit with anything or explore any more than was absolutely uncuttable, I felt like I didn't get the full experience. I didn't fully grasp our world, so any developments felt like deus ex machina. The bare bones made it way easier to guess what could've been a great plot twist. And I just didn't get invested into our characters because I didn't have time to. There was so much stuff that I could point to and say, that's cool, but nothing really stunned me in their execution. I had fun with what was going on, but I wanted way more.
Overall, this has a wildly cool premise, but the tiny page count was a disservice to the story.
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are a guild of undead assassins that pledged themselves to the goddess of assassins in life, were brought back to life without their memories, and now kill their targets under a strict set of rules. Eveen is one such assassin, and when she's assigned a mark that has ties to a past she doesn't even remember, a dangerous plot is revealed.
This is my third P. Djeli Clark - I've read Ring Shout and Master of Djinn, gave both 4ish stars, and so I requested this ARC. Despite being the premise I was most interested in, this may be my least favorite of his, although by a small margin.
This is such an interesting premise for a story. We've got someone who's dedicated their (after)life to something they can't even remember why they dedicated in their first place. There's some cool magic and politics that we're introduced to, and an intriguing start to a mystery. However, to me, this book felt like Clark had reached word count limit 100 pages ago and had to axe half the book. He kept a lot of the cool things, but because we didn't have time to sit with anything or explore any more than was absolutely uncuttable, I felt like I didn't get the full experience. I didn't fully grasp our world, so any developments felt like deus ex machina. The bare bones made it way easier to guess what could've been a great plot twist. And I just didn't get invested into our characters because I didn't have time to. There was so much stuff that I could point to and say, that's cool, but nothing really stunned me in their execution. I had fun with what was going on, but I wanted way more.
Overall, this has a wildly cool premise, but the tiny page count was a disservice to the story.