Book Review: “The Glass Arrow”, by Kristen Simmons

Recommended beverage while reading: Just some plain black iced tea — no sweetener.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars.

The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder.

In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning. (Goodreads)

So a while back, in one of my Watch Out! Wednesdays, I mentioned this as a book I was looking forward to reading. I’ve had my issues with dystopian after basically reading nothing else for months a couple years ago, but I felt it was time to take a tentative step toward getting back into the genre.

Honestly, this book could very easily have been cliche and terrible. Don’t get me wrong, it was cliche at points. But all the right points. Okay, so there’s a group of people who are subjugated by another group — been there, read that. It only gets old when it’s done poorly, though. This felt a little more complex than your stereotypical dystopian YA. There were multiple groups, and little was discussed about any of them, really. And, since this was a stand-alone, I kind of liked that. Aya’s purpose wasn’t to change the world. Her purpose was to change her fate, which is difficult but not improbable. I liked the realistic nature of her goals. We didn’t get a whole lot of detail into the world because, let’s face it, that wasn’t exactly important to Aya and her family. Sometimes, books can’t be too heavy on the world-building, otherwise they get bogged down and dull.

This one may have been less detailed as far as the world goes, but it was heavily character-driven, and because Aya was a strong lead, that wasn’t a problem. I didn’t find her annoying, and that’s remarkable. She never gave up hope, but was at the same time a realist. She had her core beliefs and never sacrificed them, but she also knew that sometimes the world is so far gone that you can only hope to influence it to a certain extent.

I only had one problem with the book, and it’s one I have with a lot of books, actually. In novels that strive to demonstrate the strength and value of women, it’s often only a single woman who is illustrating these tenets. I wish I could read a (YA, especially) book where it isn’t just one woman but a large group, if not the entire gender, who decide that the world needs to change. I feel like if an author wants to empower women, they should write powerful female characters, not just a single lead. Does that make sense?

But overall, I’m super happy with this book! Could hardly put it down and was bleary-eyed from the reading by the end. Always a good sign!