Monday 15 January 2024

The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka


“Murder owls are extreme,” Jude said. “What’s more extreme than murder owls?”

Madigan Purdy is stuck in her home town library.

When tens of thousands of owls descend on the building, rending and tearing at anyone foolish enough to step outside, Mad is tasked with keeping her students safe, and distracted, while they seek a solution to their dilemma.

Perhaps they’ll find the inspiration they seek in her favorite childhood book, The Silent Queen….

With food and fresh water in low supply, the denizens of the library will have to find a way out, and soon, but the owls don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave…

The Parliament is a story of grief and missed opportunities, but also of courage and hope.

And of extremely sharp beaks.


Everyone knows The Birds, at least a little bit. If nothing else, we've all seen that picture of Tippi, right? This isn't exactly a remake, but it's certainly along the same lines. Our group of mismatched people is trapped inside a building, and as the story progresses they lose more and more spaces to the invading birds.

I didn't quite understand the psychological aspect of it - the owls somehow had the ability to draw up someone's worst memory and trap them in it - but without it, extracting the trapped people wouldn't have been too difficult, so I understand that they needed to be there as a barrier. I also thought it was a bit of a reach that even a library would have old papers that detailed other bird attacks in other places and no one happened to notice until the author needed to get the kids angry, but again, story necessity.

It was well written, is the thing! The story was clever, and tense at the right times, and the ending was great. The characters were great individuals and well suited to the story. It made those little things stand out all the more.

This is a great, tense read and I really enjoyed it.



The Parliament publishes on the 16th January, 2024. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

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