Aimee Pokwatka

The owls are not what they seem…

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

“The Silent Queen”, the story-within-a-story fairy tale was beautifully written and I loved Alala and everyone else. It was dark, tragic, emotional, colourful. Why couldn’t this story have been published separately, developed even more? (Inconceivable! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) I would read it with pleasure!

As for the main story, “we are trapped in this library with thousands of homicidal owls outside, help” – I couldn’t connect with it. I’ve read and watched too many similar things before (minus the owls). The writing and the characters would have had to be exceptional to be seen in this crowd of cultural memories. So, I was bored, exasperated and scared all at once. The writing was bland and the characters were made in the same mould as those in countless other books on bestseller lists. I rolled my eyes and didn’t care about any of the trapped people, except for the kids. The kids were nice.

To me, it looks like the book is trying to violently hammer together two pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit. Why must we once again use this plot device where the characters in a book are reading a book that the reader also gets to read? I kept turning those pages, though – because murder owls *are* scary.

Nash’s bad jokes were just about the only thing that I really liked in the owls part. “When do you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty!” “Want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, It’s too cheesy.” Me: hoot, hoot, hoot. I am easily amused ;)

I was pleased with the ending (or rather, both endings). And I’ve just realised that I managed to have myself a Halloween read, which is unusual for me. You always get something out of books :)

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-book!… (altro)