The Parliament

I would give this more stars if I could! I laughed, I gasped, I clutched my chest. This book put me through all the emotions! The comps to The Birds is accurate! The Princess Bride comp is a little less accurate, but there is a unique group of people who don't understand the full range of their skills that come together to fight for something.
I ended up falling in love with several characters and that surprised me. When I began reading the book, I wanted to know how they were going to get out of the situation. I didn't expect to care so much about the characters. Some of them really annoyed me. Some of them felt like good friends. There were a range of characters ad would be expected.
There was a touch of gore. It was just enough to make me fear the owls and fear for the characters.
The outside people were very inept and even heartless. So the people in the library were really all on their own. That definitely increased the tension because I did not know if everyone would get out safe or not.
Mad's tragic backstory was scary and unexpected. It was used to effectively throughout the book to influence her behavior and decisions.
I was impressed with the way the characters got information and ideas about how to save themselves. They used the library effectively. Then the way they implemented those ideas! That was impressive. And then ultimately the solution! So good.