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!