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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
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:
Yes
A quick romp. The sense of humor and some of the use of modern phrases didn’t land for me as much as some of this other work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Torture
Moderate: Child death
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Trigger warnings: none of the following are discussed in graphic detail, but they do happen.
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins would make a wonderful movie or mini series. It's high action, full of interesting characters, set in a fantastical setting, and has a solid plot. Unfortunately, two of those elements don't work as well on the page. Or, at least, they didn't work for me.
This is a book about an assassin guild and we see several big fights go down. All of these fights were well thought out and would have been visually interesting, but this a book so there are no visuals. That meant that I struggled to maintain interest during several of the fights. They weren't impossible to follow, I just wasn't all that interested in trying to picture them because they weren't vitally important boss battles, so to speak. They were just random challenges that Eveen - our leading lady - had to face. A similar issue happened with the various interesting settings and character designs. They all sounded wonderful, but I'm not the kind of person who can easily translate words to a picture, so a lot of the heavily visual elements were lost on me.
Those are the main reason this book went from five stars to four for me. The reason it lost it's final star and ended up at three stars is something to do with the ending that I'll get to in a bit. For now, let's focus on the main story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and - while there are a good number of fight scenes - it's not all fight scenes! There more story-focused scenes were great. Clark did a fantastic job setting up the world, the lore, and other minor elements so that every twist and reveal felt natural. There was never a moment where I went, "oh come on, really?" It all played out beautifully.
I want to say more because there's a lot to praise here, but even talking about the early chapters feels like I'm giving away spoilers because this is a book that never stops moving and revealing things. It is the literary equivalent to an action movie. If the premise sounds interesting to you, you don't mind some heavily visual elements, and you enjoy stories that don't take themselves too seriously, then this could be a great fit for you!
I'll end with two minor notes. One about the audiobook and the other a spoiler for the ending that did lessen my enjoyment of the book. It's why I rated this three stars instead of four. I heavily debated that move, but the more I thought about this one little choice the more it saddened me.
Audiobook note: an important, but minor character appears to speak in some sort of English-based pidgin or heavily-accented version of English. I'm not sure which because I genuinely could not understand most of the words this character was saying. I'm usually pretty good with accents so I'm guessing that this was a pidgin, but I can't be sure without looking at the text and I don't have access to that. Because of how important this character is, I'd recommend the book over the audiobook or in addition to the audiobook because I think a lot of listeners will have trouble with that scene which is kind of a big deal since Context clues let you know what's happening, but it still threw me out of the story as I went from totally engrossed to replaying parts of the scene over and over as I desperately tried to understand what this character was saying.
Ending spoiler:
Spoiler
Off-screen brutal murder of children, brutal murders of several adults both on and off screen, grievous bodily harm, temporary loss of body parts, surgeryThe Dead Cat Tail Assassins would make a wonderful movie or mini series. It's high action, full of interesting characters, set in a fantastical setting, and has a solid plot. Unfortunately, two of those elements don't work as well on the page. Or, at least, they didn't work for me.
This is a book about an assassin guild and we see several big fights go down. All of these fights were well thought out and would have been visually interesting, but this a book so there are no visuals. That meant that I struggled to maintain interest during several of the fights. They weren't impossible to follow, I just wasn't all that interested in trying to picture them because they weren't vitally important boss battles, so to speak. They were just random challenges that Eveen - our leading lady - had to face. A similar issue happened with the various interesting settings and character designs. They all sounded wonderful, but I'm not the kind of person who can easily translate words to a picture, so a lot of the heavily visual elements were lost on me.
Those are the main reason this book went from five stars to four for me. The reason it lost it's final star and ended up at three stars is something to do with the ending that I'll get to in a bit. For now, let's focus on the main story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and - while there are a good number of fight scenes - it's not all fight scenes! There more story-focused scenes were great. Clark did a fantastic job setting up the world, the lore, and other minor elements so that every twist and reveal felt natural. There was never a moment where I went, "oh come on, really?" It all played out beautifully.
I want to say more because there's a lot to praise here, but even talking about the early chapters feels like I'm giving away spoilers because this is a book that never stops moving and revealing things. It is the literary equivalent to an action movie. If the premise sounds interesting to you, you don't mind some heavily visual elements, and you enjoy stories that don't take themselves too seriously, then this could be a great fit for you!
I'll end with two minor notes. One about the audiobook and the other a spoiler for the ending that did lessen my enjoyment of the book. It's why I rated this three stars instead of four. I heavily debated that move, but the more I thought about this one little choice the more it saddened me.
Audiobook note: an important, but minor character appears to speak in some sort of English-based pidgin or heavily-accented version of English. I'm not sure which because I genuinely could not understand most of the words this character was saying. I'm usually pretty good with accents so I'm guessing that this was a pidgin, but I can't be sure without looking at the text and I don't have access to that. Because of how important this character is, I'd recommend the book over the audiobook or in addition to the audiobook because I think a lot of listeners will have trouble with that scene which is kind of a big deal since
Spoiler
it's the book's final scene.Ending spoiler:
Spoiler
I have very mixed feelings around a minor element of the ending. The story ends with the bad guy being killed which I totally approved of. My problem was the killing method. While we don't see it play out, we know that he's slowly tortured to death by two of the "good" guys and that made me sad. Not for him, but for the good guys, especially the one who is training to be a doctor. I don't think that this was right call for her character. Her approving of the death didn't bother me, but her being okay with it being so brutal and even participating felt like her sinking down to his level. I wanted him killed quickly and cleanly to show that the characters were the better people. Instead I'm felt with a sour feeling about an otherwise solid ending.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
I had a BLAST listening to this. It was funny and fast-paced. The concept of being hired to kill your past self completely hooked me. Even though early on I asked myself, "how does a bridge move in 60 years?" I still didn't put together that Sky was from a completely different reality and greatly enjoyed that final reveal.
Eveenhaving to fight the other assassins was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing their different styles and exploring what it means for the undead to fight and become injured. I didn't want this one to end.
Eveen
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to like this. I really did. But between the repeated phrases and jokes, and what felt like a walking simulator... It lagged sooo hard.
The ending having the goddess(es) speak in authentic Jamacian Patois was nice, but god was it rough to figure out what they were saying as someone who has no experience hearing it or speaking it.
The ending having the goddess(es) speak in authentic Jamacian Patois was nice, but god was it rough to figure out what they were saying as someone who has no experience hearing it or speaking it.
dark
mysterious
tense
P. Djèlí Clark writes genre fiction magnificently, masterfully appropriating tropes and imbuing them with vibrancy and heart. This novella happens to not be my favorite genre — at its core, I’d call it a gritty thriller — but the richly imagined, elaborately detailed, fantastical setting and the snarky, undead assassins make it much more fun.