Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The premise was good, but I didn't really like the 'Silent Queen' part of the book. The jumping around between the stories made it harder for me to get engaged with the characters and to be invested into the storyline.

I was unable to finish this book, I thought it had a strong start, but I never quite became engaged in the proceedings.

The Parliament follows Mad, a chemist who makes sunscreen and agrees to teach a middle school program at the library as a favor to a friend. No good deed goes unpunished and she finds herself stranded in the library by a mass of owls (which I now know is called a parliament) hell-bent on murder! And the town is very very very inept at doing anything useful so the poor library gang are on their own. I liked how everything in the library part of the story played out. There’s not a super satisfying explanation of the owls but that’s fine.

What ultimately dragged the book down for me was the story within the story. To help keep the kids calm, Mad reads them her favorite book The Silent Queen. We switch back and forth between the fairy tale and the narrative every other chapter. And while I liked The Silent Queen story, it became distracting. There wasn’t enough of a connection between the two to tether them together so I felt like I was reading two different books at the same time. As a result, both stories felt less impactful. I can see what she was going for with this but it didn’t quite work for me.

Pokwatka draws together a funny, accessible, frightening (because, gosh, owls can be scary) and inventive story involving Mad, who finds herself trapped in a town library, when a parliament of owls (and who knew that was the collective noun by the way) descends and traps them there. Interspersed with the Princess Bride-esque story of Alala and Desperta, complete with romance and action and adventure, this story deals with trauma and the miseries that people go through on a daily basis, while putting them through a potential bird apocalypse.

I really enjoyed so much with this book — the writing, the characters, the themes, the plot. If you like your horror claustrophobic and ornithological, you'll absolutely enjoy The Parliament.

Thank you Netgalley for this truly unexpected ARC!

I love a creature feature and a "group of people have to band together to protect each other during a disaster or certain doom" story, so this was right up my alley, and murder owls, count me in!

Synopsis: Madeleine returns to her hometown after a childhood trauma as an experienced chemist who has been roped by friend Farrah, a children's librarian, to provide an intro to the chemistry of self-care course. However, during the class, the library is surrounded and attacked by a mysterious parliament of owls who are bent killing and consuming everyone inside. The visitors of the library must find a way to survive! This storyline is interspersed with a story that Mad reads to the children she is caring for called "The Silent Queen," which took me a minute to get into, but once the book's themes began to connect with the action of the survivors in the library, I was interested.

The way that the author rendered Mad, her stilted awkwardness and her interactions with the kids in her class, which goes from begrudging to a strong sense of trust throughout the book, felt very real to me, being a teacher myself. I also really loved how this book oscillated between the horrific violence and gore of the murder owls who attack anyone trying to escape the library and the tenderness with how the adults and children come together to protect and care for one another. The way that Mad navigates the triggers of her trauma from witnessing her childhood friend die in a school shooting and her feeling of helplessness as she tries her best to care for these children was one of my favorite parts of the book. While there, she has to confront her complicated feelings for Nash, the local town pediatrician and her former love interest who is also the brother of the friend she lost.

The romance that is rekindled between Mad and Nash while in the library sometimes felt a bit forced, but the emotional arch had me connected in the end. Mad's reluctance to be connected to the town also seemed forced in the beginning, but damn if this book didn't have me fully crying by the end. As someone who works with kids, the way that the adults in the book do whatever is necessary to protect the children and grapple with the preemptive grief of knowing that we can't always protect the most vulnerable, and the ones we love was incredibly moving.

This book was a big surprise for me, as I stumbled upon it accidentally, but I am so glad I read it!

2.5 stars rounded up

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I think this was primarily a case of reader/book mismatch, because I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t quite this. This is marketed as The Birds meets The Princess Bride, and while there were things I liked, I mostly felt like I just… didn’t get it? The horror elements were neat and I think the claustrophobic atmosphere was well done, and the overall plot was interesting (trapped in a library with murder owls swarming them) but I struggled with Mad as a point of view character. She was definitely written with care, she’s just not the kind of protagonist I gravitate towards, though I did think the overall cast of characters was interesting and made for neat scenes. Also, a lot of the exploration of themes like grief and loss were… lost upon me. There were some dad jokes that felt off, all things considered.

Again, I loved the horror elements. There were sections that felt insightful and a handful of interesting plot developments. But I also found the ending to be pretty absurd, and my biggest question (what on earth caused the murder owls to appear???) was left unexplained. It was conceptually interesting, and I think it’d make a compelling limited television series, but I just don’t think it worked for me as a novel. I’m rounding up because I’m almost entirely certain this is a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.”

Ahoy there me mateys!  Murder owls trap everyone in the library.  Of course I had to read this.  The main protagonist of the story is Mad who returns back to her hometown begrudgingly to teach a chemistry class for kids.  When the owls start attacking, Mad finds herself confronting her own traumatic past to try to keep the kids safe.

While there is a lot of good in this novel, I feel like it would have been better off as a novella.  One of the reasons it is so long is because Mad reads a book called "The Silent Queen" to the kids to distract them.  I actually liked this fairy tale interspersed within the story though it took some getting used too.  I also enjoyed the relationships unfolding in the library.  I loved Jolene the crayfish.

The problem for me was that the owls really don't do much.  The focus of the story becomes Mad's PTSD and how the people in the library pass time.  The majority of the action in the novel stems from bad choices made from people both inside and out of the library.  If ye know the birds kill, then why would multiple people run out only to be eaten?  Also the reason why it is so dire in the library is just because the town government is inept.  They don't bring supplies and actively seem to be trying to kill the patrons stuck in the library.  I really couldn't suspend me disbelief.  I could think of dozens of ways problems could have been solved.

Plus the science behind the murder owls was light and some items were never explained (power going out?).  I also didn't really care for the romance subplot.  Additionally people panicked pretty quickly in the beginning.  I feel like it should have taken much longer for people to lose their minds.

A lot of the problems I had were personal preference based (I think).  If it was a novella, maybe a lot of the waiting around and angst wouldn't have gotten slightly tedious.  That said, it was a quick read and the crew seems to like this one a lot.  Arrrr!

This was an interesting read. It was easy for me to get into at the beginning but I felt a little lost when the chapter narratives switched between stories. It kind of took me out of the story altogether. It was pretty good though, characters were fun to imagine and interpret.

When I read that this was being described as “The Birds meet The Princess Bride,” I was immediately hooked. I LOVE the Princess Bride!

This was an incredibly interesting read that had a lot of layers. A ton of murdery owls attack a library and you get to meet a very interesting cast of characters, including Mad, and there are elements of fantasy and a tiny bit of horror. I am not a big horror fan so to me, it was the perfect amount.
I also really enjoyed that while Mad is trying to keep some of the children in the library distracted, she reads them a book called the Silent Queen. I am always a huge fan of a book within a book and the Silent Queen is very original.
Stories that have deeper meaning are always my favorite and the library setting was just icing on the cake.

This one is out 1/16

4.25 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @torbooks for the early copy

I think that this book has a really cool premise. I like most other reviewers wished that there was more of the YA fantasy tale that was threaded through this book. I enjoyed the writing and the book overall.

If “The Silent Queen” was written into its own book I think I’d be interested, but as it stands, this book was not my thing. I wasn’t expecting the students to be annoying middle schoolers or most of the adults to be grown-up awkward kids that never actually grew out of that stage, and I definitely wasn’t expecting such sparse depictions of the more horrifying things the owls did in a horror/thriller. The first time we see how dangerous the birds were was hardly descriptive at all and I think that’s a consistent problem.

I take that back—everything that should be super descriptive isn’t, but things that don’t need to be are. For example, instead of showing that it’s chaos with the students and saying that everyone was talking over each other, we see every piece of each back-and-forth happen. That first incident, though? Barely anything. We have to read out all of Nash’s bad jokes, though.

3.8 rounds it up.
Murder owls, are you kidding me?! I had to read this one. I loved the concept. There was so many ways this story could have went and I was not expecting a whole other story inside the book. I like the way that grief and trauma were used in this book. I also liked how she as an adult was able to then help younger kids in a tramatic situation and relate. It helped her deal with her past issues. I really liked the friendship/romance that developed. (and that says a lot since I am not a big lover of romance troupes.) The only parts I was not as fond of were following two stories...i would have liked it better following the stories of the people in the library and the crazy horror of the owls. I loved the many books that they dived into though. I laughed at the part where the kids wanted to do a senance. I had mixed feelings at times at how the story was being told but I did enjoy watching it unfold.
I could not find the book on goodreads and I dont think amazon lets free books have reviews? I will post it closer to time on goodreads, my blog and possibly my instagram.

An imaginative, absurd premise is used to explore grief, trauma, healing, and how we can help each other find a new beginning. At times dark, at times loving and warm, this novel is wholly unique and displays Pokwatka's immense storytelling prowess. While I didn't love the fairy tale that was interspersed between the main story, I appreciated how it mirrored the "real world" narrative, and offered a way to connect more deeply with the young characters in the story. Another powerful novel from Pokwatka—I shall continue to be a fan!

The Parliament follows a woman who returns to her hometown to teach a class at the library. She left as an adult because she has a traumatic past. While at the library, a pack of killer owls haunts the library and everyone is trapped inside. While they are trapped, they also read Mad’s favorite book from childhood so we get chapters from that as well.

This book had a very interesting premise and is not like anything I have read before. I feel like the owl part was similar to survival stories like bird box. However, the other chapters thrown in were totally unique. I didn’t quite like the other story thrown in. I wish it was just the owl story. I liked the characters and the high stakes. I don’t think the other story needed to be there at all, it just took away from the story for me.

I know others love that part of the story so it might just be me. Thanks so much to netgalley and tor for the arc of this in exchange for an honest review!

If you are a lover of very dark fantasy, dark academia and have a love of owls, this book is for you. This may be a top read of the year! I absolutely love this book!

Aimee Pokwatka has a flair for introducing a plentitude of characters into her story and making everyone of them unique and fully-fleshed. The main character, Mads, went through a traumatic experience when she was younger that colors how she interacts with their other members of the library in realistic and believable ways (that make your heart ache for her and the help she never got). The shining point of this book, though, was the fantasy book Mads uses to distract the kids in the library during multi-day siege by the owls - it does feel like Pokwatka had a fantastic idea for a fantasy book but wasn't given the green light to write it. If "The Silent Queen" ever comes out as a standalone novel, I'll for sure buy it.

A complete review of this book will appear in Locus Magazine. The short version is that I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though there was a crew of adolescent magpies knocking on doors and windows while I was reading it (which in the context of the book was even more disturbing than normal).

A little bit spooky, a little bit weird, and quite heartfelt!
Yes, I am a little bit more frightened of birds now, but watching a group of people come together to overcome a problem!
I also loved that there was a book within the book. I enjoyed the story of The Silent Queen as much as the actual novel.

Just as I adored Self-Portrait with Nothing, so I adored The Parliament - Aimee Pokwatka is becoming an instant-read author for me. I think The Portrait will stick with me longer than Pokwatka's debut, however - whilst both books are immensely moving, the atmosphere of The Parliament is so pervasive, and I was still thinking about it each time I had to put the book down. The depiction of grief, trauma, and the slow, non-linear, process of healing was beautiful and, at times, heartwrenching. If I had to nitpick (and I don't want to, because subjectively I just loved this) there are some characters who aren't as fully formed as others - but all together they combine to make a great cast, who I found myself getting really attached to and rooting for. As a big fan of The Princess Bride, I enjoyed the story within a story - I wasn't always glad to be pulled away from the main action, but these sections always felt relevant and emphasised what the characters in the library were going through.
Applying my standard extra-half-star-if-I-cry rule (in my workplace's kitchen no less!), this is a five-star read.

This is Ms. Pokwatka's follow up to Self Portrait With Nothing, so I was of course intrigued to see where she was going to go next. Where that is is the childhood dream of being trapped in the library, but turned nightmarish because you're trapped by owls. There's also sideways reckoning with school shootings, and a story in a story, which I'm always a sucker for. The tension is exquisite, as is the way that Pokwatka couches these teens and the trauma they deal with, and how the adults in this small town stuck with them deal with things. (Props for killing the hunting bros quickly, also.) Pick this eerie little book up when it comes out in January!