#The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

[torpublishinggroup]

Tor Publishing Group is BACK (again) with a guide of books to gift the people in your life…and yourself!

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

Cozy books to curl up with in the winter...

Legends & Lattes / Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

Dazzling new worlds to explore...

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim; translated by Anton Hur

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

High stakes, high thrills...

Extinction by Douglas Preston

The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning

Exordia by Seth Dickinson

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

Story collections that pack a punch...

Januaries by Olivie Blake

The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker

Not enough books? Don’t worry, we have another GET BOOKT: THE BOOKENING guide to help you out!

[aroaessidhe]

faves of 2024: novellas

Walking Practice

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

The Salt Grows Heavy

Dehiscent

As Born to Rule The Storm

The Butcher of the Forest

Graveyard Shift

Pluralities

Rose/House

The Brides of High Hill

Small Gods of Calamity

The Labyrinth Beckons

Party of Fools

The Fireborne Blade

The River Has Roots

[freckles-and-books]

Just started, and it’s really fun so far!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2025: THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS by P. Djèlí Clark.

Tore through this today! It was very fun--I've really enjoyed all of Clark's novella-length work that I've read so far, and this was no exception. Gorgeous descriptions, neat worldbuilding in a little package, and I liked our MC (Eveen) and all of her reckless decisions (which I suppose is allowed if you're a badass undead assassin under contract and on a time crunch).

The jacket/Goodreads blurb captures the ~assassins~ part of this story really well, but I don't think it does justice to the Inherent Weirdness--there's more loadbearing magic going on that is, unfortunately, spoilery, but super cool and mind-bendy and verging on timey-wimey (is that proper usage?? sorry I don't go here).

Overall: fucked up funny weird little story! This definitely startled laughter out of me in spots, and I love that. I had a really fun time, which, per his acknowledgements, is what he set out to write. Mission accomplished, sir!

[b-plot-butch]

started the dead cat tail assassins yesterday and i LOVE it

[carvingclown]

What can I even say about this one? It's short, it's cool, it's P. Djèlí Clark (honestly that last point should be enough). A tale of crossed timelines, conflicting vows, and the healing power of street food.

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

New releases of March!

which are you guys most excited for?

[authorkarajorgensen]

10 Books to Add to Your TBR 2024 Edition Part 2

Most years I put out a list of books I greatly enjoyed from the first half of the year some time in June. This year, I decided to do it early because, besides needing a blog for this week, I have read a lot of good books lately, so I’m thinking of making this something I do more than twice a year (and often forget to do in December). The books listed below are not in any order of favoritism, but…

[do-not-go-gently-42]

already being a fan of p djeli clark’s work, I had a lot of expectations for The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. “they sent my younger self to the future and hired me to kill her” was not on my bingo card though

[rhetoricandlogic]

THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS by P. Djèlí Clark

RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 2024

n undead assassin seeks to get out of an impossible contract.

If a writer introduces three unbreakable laws (or in this case, vows), it’s because they intend a character to break at least one of them. Eveen is a member of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins; when still alive, she promised her afterlife existence to the goddess Aeril, Matron of Assassins. Resurrected without any memory, she has vowed only to accept just contracts, never kill anyone she’s not contracted for, and always carry out the hit. But on the night of Tal Abisi’s Festival, Eveen runs into a conflict with vow number three: The target appears to be her younger self, Sky, pulled out of time. If she goes through with the contract, Eveen might blink out of existence; if she doesn’t, Aeril will certainly punish her (and anyone connected to her) with a fate worse than death. Someone has clearly targeted Eveen for a nasty piece of revenge, and she’s only got until dawn to find the mastermind and figure out a contract loophole, all while keeping Sky safe and dodging the assassins from her own guild, who intend to carry out the contract and stave off Aeril’s wrath. Like the creations of the Clockwork King, whose defeat is celebrated during the festival, the plot’s gears click along in a somewhat predictable and yet marvelous fashion; even if the reader can figure out where the story is likely to go, the payoff is fun and the journey is full of action and amusing dialogue. Eveen is a delightful character, trying to seize what joy and remnants of her moral compass she can. She’s obviously bothered by not knowing what happened in her mortal life that led her to strike a bargain with Aeril; that concern comes to the fore when she encounters the innocent Sky, who can’t comprehend how she would ever become someone like Eveen. Clark wisely doesn’t answer all our questions on that front. The idea that the relationship between mortals and the divine could be founded on a legal contract rather than faith seems to be a favored concept of more than one fantasy author (most prominently, Max Gladstone), but there’s still juice in that trope.

Well crafted, exciting, darkly comic, and just gory enough.

[torpublishinggroup]

This advertisement is for The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, a new novella from Nebula and Alex Award–winning author P. Djèlí Clark, featuring HIGH body count with LOW page count. 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT

Undead hired killers, soul-binding contracts, sharp knives, hidden identities, and sweet, sweet vengeance. This is just a snippet of what’s in store for readers in this action-packed fantasy novella. 

Eveen the Eviscerator is a skilled, powerful assassin who is sarcastic, flippant, full of quips, and with a penchant for dark humor. What’s not to love? She’s also nice with a blade, and one of the best at what she’s contracted to do. 

Ready for magic, monsters, and fantastic beasts? Then The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is your jam. 

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

fast-paced fantasy novella about an undead assassin - with no memory of her life or why she signed up to be resurrected after death

when she’s given a new contract - that she is bound to carry out - she finds an unexpected mark who she doesn’t want to kill

facing connections to a past she’s not supposed to remember, they have to find a way around the contract in one night, facing other assassins, necromancers, gods, and wealthy patriarchs

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Fantasy (audiobook): "The Dead Cat Tail Assassins" by P. Djèlí Clark (2024-08-06)

Masterfully sarcastic and fast-paced! Clark takes the intense possibility of an assassin tale, makes it silly, and then makes it INTENSE. The finale is MWAH, perfection! I was CACKLING.

The setting here is fascinating. A world, but more specifically a city, full of gods...who actually DO STUFF. Like, in recent memory, undeniably, and with VIGOR. I hope Clark returns to Tal Abisi, because he has created something with a lot of potential. Like, numerous guilds, pantheons, political structures, all ready to mix and meld in really unique ways. And whenever he wants to create something, he can just throw it in, because we know this is a nexus of trade and society, so anything goes!

I'd actually hope that further books in Tal Abisi don't feature our narrator, Eveen the Eviscerator, but not because of any problems. She's great. She's a jerk. I like that. It's just I want to see this city from every angle! Maybe have some of the characters from this book pop up in the background, but I trust Clark to make someone new to steal a second show.

Narrator Lynnette R. Freeman is so good at Eveen's snark, but the real stunner is when she gets to break out accents. There's one character's voice who is just thick and dangerous and wonderful. And she's got great range, so I don't think there was any repeat voices. It's all very easy to follow, audio-wise.

This is so getting one of my Hugo noms in 2025.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[libertyreads]

March Wrap Up 2024--

What a month that was. Did I read more than what I was supposed to? Yes. Am I mad about it? No. My goal for the year is to stay between 52 and 104 books read which means I need to read roughly 8 books per month (technically 8.6 or something like that) at the maximum. All this basically means is that I have to stick to reading 8 books next month. I blame the fact that my library hold came in 2 weeks early and I really didn't want to get back in line for it since it took so long to come in. Let's get to what I read and what I rated what I read.

Comics/Graphic Novels-- 1. Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo--3.75 stars (original rating).

Novellas-- 1. Must Love Hockey by Sarina Bowen (Kindle)--3.75 stars.

2. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark (NetGalley)--4 stars.

Novels-- 1. No Coincidence by Rafat Kosik--1.75 stars.

2. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu--3 stars.

3. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah--3.75 stars.

4. Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (Library)--4 stars.

5. Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (NetGalley)--3.25 stars.

6. The Foxglove King by Hannah F. Whitten--4.25 stars (original rating).

The average star rating for the month ended up being 3.5 stars which was such a surprise given that this is the month with my worst rated book of the year so far. Not too shabby though.

[b-plot-butch]

PLEASE let baseema and eveen fuck PLEASE let baseema and eveen fuck

[mthollowell-writes]

“The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats

Nor do they have tails

But they are most assuredly dead.

- P. Djeli Clark, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins