A review by sarah2438
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

1.5

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.

**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!**