Review: The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

Posted January 27, 2015 by Lisa Mandina in / 12 Comments

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Tor Teen for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  This is my first book by this author, even though I do really want to read the Article 5 series, I just haven’t gotten a chance to pick them up yet. But now that I’ve read and really enjoyed this one, I’ll have to make sure I get around to them sooner.  The cover and title of this make it sound more like a fantasy novel than a dystopian novel.  But reading the description of it, I knew I had to give it a try.  And it was very good.

The main character is Aya, or as she is called at “The Garden,” Clover.  In this future world, women have become the slaves/property of the men.  This happened after women began to take over the world.  Now women live in towns, and at a certain time in their lives they are brought to be used to procreate.  And there is a problem, because of the way that most people now live off of food supplement pills instead of actual food.  Except for those women able to escape and live in the wild.  Or the very rich, they get to have real food.  The problem is that the pills have made it so many of the women are unable to have children.  And so the men want to go steal all the women from the outer lying cities or even those in the wilderness.  They go to The Garden where they will be fixed up with special treatments and then taught how to please a man.  This might sound great, but once they produce a child, they are then sent back a lot and auctioned off again.  Especially if they only produce females.  Aya was kidnapped in the wild, where her mother had taken her and her aunt and cousins to keep them safe.  The whole time Aya is in the Garden, she does her best to not go to auction.  Getting in fights, trying to escape, etc.  She makes a friend of a Driver, a group/race of people who cannot talk.  He tries to help her escape, but to no avail.  She is finally sent to an auction, where again she does her best to not be purchased.  What happens next only throws another wrench into her plan/desire to get away, back to the wilds and save her cousins.

There were 4 main parts to this book.  And it was definitely well split up into each section. This is a standalone, there will be no series.  And it does end well enough for that.  While not everything is all tied up in a pretty little bow, it is tied up quite perfectly.  I highly recommend this book. And it was nice to have a standalone book for a change.  I read this on the day of the National Readathon, read it all in one day.

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12 responses to “Review: The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

  1. Article 5 is a GREAT read. I really loved her dystopian world, a lot more descriptive, detailed and a lot darker than a lot of dystopias that are in YA.

    I was flipping through this one the other day, and it looks like it's a really easy read (which I'm excited about).

    Can't wait to get to this one! Maybe next week 🙂

  2. I'm so glad you loved THE GLASS ARROW! I haven't read it, my eARC is waiting for me, GAH. But Lisa, you HAVE to read the ARTICLE 5 series! It's one of my favorite dystopian stories because it's all a bit close to reality. So excited to read TGA!

  3. Wow, this sure sounds unique! There's a lot of dystopians that has women running the world so I am excited that this one actually have the women in the lower hand. It will be interesting to see how the women will work out their situations because in the end, women always run the world. xD
    Azee @ UnderCover Critique

    • It's interesting that you say about the women running the world, because before this world happened, supposedly women had kind of taken over and it was that which made the men fight back and put them back "in their place". It was a good book, a standalone. You should give it a try! Thanks for visiting!

    • That will be very interesting to read. It brought the gender equality issues to a whole lot new level. I will give this a try! Welcome. 🙂

  4. I just finished this book today and can say that I absolutely loved it and can't wait to buy myself a physical copy. The beginning was a bit slow, but I loved Kiran as a character. Her next book is called Metaltown, but I don't know if that is a sequel or just another book.

  5. Rhi

    Wow. This sounds like a really great book. I'll have to give it a try. Dystopic futures always make for an interesting plot. It sounds like the author handled the rather fraught setting she has created pretty well.

  6. Kristen Simmons is an amazing writer. She is one of my auto buyers, and this one was no exception! I am so happy to see your review, and know that you loved it!

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