The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

Source: NetGalley – Many, many thanks to the publisher!
TL;DR: A fascinating concept but the characters truly let this one down for me

Plot: I really enjoyed the idea behind this one, trapped in a library due to murderous owls, but I’m not sure I’m sold on execution
Characters: Fairly flimsy? I never completely connected, either due to the PoV characterization or the style
Setting: For a story of being trapped there was not as much tension as I would have expected. It’s in fact very relaxed?
Horror: The moments of scare/horror were brief, but well done. It was entirely dependent on the few owl attacks we got on page. Otherwise there wasn’t any tension of being trapped

Thoughts:

The Parliament has a lot of potential with a fantastic premise but for me the character PoV really crippled it. This follows a group of people trapped inside a library as a swarm of flesh eating owls hovers outside, about 3000 based on the count by the characters themselves. Threaded throughout is also a YA story, almost fable in tone about a Queen who doesn’t have a voice saving her kingdom.

There were moments in this of fantastic gore, that lead to and helped the initial tension. Nothing like seeing a woman ripped to shreds by a swarm of tiny owls to setup the stakes in the beginning of a book. However the book tapered off after that for me. And I have no doubt it’ll do so even more so for casual readers. Truly the only thing that kept me going besides the the YA story within was my concern for the kids trapped with the adults, and that’s because of my overly empathetic concern for children. Not everyone is going to feel that way. After perhaps the 40% mark there is very little tension or attempt to build up the stakes and it’s very obvious.

Additionally our primary PoV character, Mad, is so awkward and stilted that it killed the story we had left. Thought trapped in this library I honestly remember more the constant obsession and flashbacks to a (granted very traumatic) event in her past that shapes her present with another character trapped with her. Just, it was a bit too much. Perhaps with a stronger writer it would have worked better but here it was frankly frustrating and deeply off-putting. It goes without saying the romance that was tied to this was completely unbelievable and bland.

I feel like there were a lot of nuggets of gold here: the YA story within the story, the moments of gore, and a few of the dialogue lines between the teens. Unfortunately so much of it fell flat as board besides that. I can’t say I super recommend it? Unless you just super feel drawn to it, it might be a pass for me.

3 out of 5 Flesh-Eating Owls