The Glass Arrow

by Kristen Simmons

Stolen from her home, and being groomed for auction, Aya is desperate to escape her fate and return to her family, but her only allies are a loyal wolf she's raised from a pup and a strange mute boy who may be her best hope for freedom ... if she can truly trust him.

• ISBN10: 0765336618
• ISBN13: 9780765336613
• Publish Date: 10 February 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 October 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

The Glass Arrow is a standalone novel that focuses on a world where females are hunted, sold, and owned. They are property and the only value society gives them is from what they are able to give to a man. When I saw this on the shelf I didn’t have a second thought to grabbing it. It seemed like a book that would spark an immediate reaction in me, and would provide the basis for a lot of conversations. However by the end of it I simply felt underwhelmed.

The writing is good, but I don’t think I ever quite got a clear image of what this world looked like. It’s clear they had technology, some of it better than ours, but my mind couldn’t get away from imagining the city as some rundown hovel of a town. My mental image would fit in with an hold 1700’s type city, with muddy streets and the vague smell of refuse. The problem is that I rarely saw evidence to the contrary. I also didn’t quite get a sense of identity as to who the Drivers were. Why were they cast outs of society? Why did they stick to rules so heavily? The pacing is rather slow in the beginning but despite that I felt the book as a whole moves rather quickly and I read most of it in a single afternoon.

However there is one thing that Simmons does very well and that’s characters. I really liked Aya and her almost iron will to be free and untethered to the society that only wishes to use her. They call her wild but I would call her strong and independent. One thing that stuck out was Simmons attention to the other players in the book, especially those with different opinions like Daphne. It’s hard to understand why someone would want to be sold, but Daphne and the other girls sort of give you a view of that. As does Salma.

In the end I enjoyed The Glass Arrow but it didn’t wow me like I was hoping it would. For someone else though this might truly be the discussion piece I had hopes of it being, and I know that Aya’s strong will will be a hit for some.

[bookishzelda]

Wow the world created in The Glass Arrow is both riveting and terrifying.

I found the girls at the Garden all interesting because they were all at different levels. Aya is someone who has had freedom and therefore knows what she is missing. The other girls who were born into it hanging over their heads have different levels of acceptance. Each reacting differently to being bought and sold. I was glad that Kristen showed this dynamic. I felt like it was important.

The Drivers remind me of Gypsys. They have their own secret society that is looked down upon by everyone else in society. Seriously people who sell girls look down on them. I don’t consider that much of an insult.

Aya is a very strong character but she come from the wilds where she has lived free. She doesn’t understand the concept of living any other way. She considers it a death sentence. She is hot tempered and sometimes that can be irritating. Although there were points where I wanted to scream at her it actually seemed to work out that she did the right thing. She’s so driven by passion. A very fierce way to live.

Oh Kiran, I loved him. He is such a kind hearted soul plus I don’t know I guess a bit daring. I really loved his interactions and Aya and his way of settling her down. When she gets fired up he is there to stifle some of the flames to help her make smart decisions.

I really mean that the plot is both terrifying and riveting. I was fascinated by how Aya could possibly get out of her situation. She has failed attempts. Lots of failed attempts but she never gives up. The book is divided into sections chronically from when Aya is captured.

The thing about the book is that it is solely about Aya and her struggle to be free. It’s not about fixing a broken society or taking it upon herself to save the world. I liked the approach. Definitely different.

I really liked the book and felt like it’s unique dystopia. If you are looking for something a little different, I think you will find yourself captivated by Aya’s story as well.

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

-----------------------------

Ahhhh, these are the worst kinds of reviews to write. The ones where you know the book you just read was objectively not bad, and that a lot of people will like it, but it just wasn't a "you" book. That's my problem with The Glass Arrow. It really wasn't a "me" book. It had a lot of interesting elements, and a lot of potential, and a couple of good characters, but... unfortunately, it just really wasn't my thing.

First off, the synopsis is actually a bit misleading. The problem isn't that women are just scarce, causing them to be hunted. The problem is really twofold: the society's outlook in the first place -- that women are things to be owned -- plus the fact that women in more populated cities are less likely to be able to have kids; the women who live outside the cities, in the wild, don't have this problem, and yes, those women are hunted. Because in the cities, all the rich men want to have a son to be their heir. And all of this has apparently resulted in places like the "Garden", a facility where girls are basically imprisoned (willingly or otherwise - some girls are apparently okay with this situation). They're given treatments to make them better able to have children, and then dressed up to be paraded out to the market every month, and bought by whoever can afford them.

This situation is upsetting, to say the least ("abhorrent" and "nausea-inducing" are probably better descriptors). But that's not why I didn't enjoy this book. This sort of situation is one that had a lot of potential for a great plot, great characters, and great messages about equality and respect regardless of station or gender. This horrific society was a faceless (or many-faced, depending on how you look at it) enemy that immediately gets your blood boiling, so you want to really root for the main character to kick the entire society's butt.

Well... the messages were there, and I did like the characters, but this book also had a lot of downfalls for me.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the plot all that great. As the synopsis says, the book starts out with Aya being captured. She's taken to the Garden, and from there, it's basically just escape attempt after escape attempt, and then a quick attempt at a rescue mission, and then the story's over. The plot was focused on Aya and her desire to get back to her family, and it didn't touch on the big-picture problems that this world's society is dealing with, which was super disappointing to me. To an extent, I guess this is understandable: The Glass Arrow is a standalone, and I don't think a full societal revolution could've happened in one book. Unfortunately, this type of intensely personal focus, with no regard to the bigger picture, isn't the type of story I enjoy.

I also really struggled with The Glass Arrow's believability. I never bought that this society could've resulted after some sort of terrible disaster. They're able to perform complex surgeries. They've got high-tech gadgets, electric cars, and food pills instead of actual meals (because real food is expensive, even though... there seems to be plenty of it outside the city...?). And yet there's a lot about the city that is seriously low-tech, because tons of stuff was "abandoned in an attempt to return to the simple life" (eARC, 65%). For example, having horses instead of cars is apparently a mark of the upper-class. There was just... a lot about the world that didn't make sense to me.

Additionally, one thing that bothers me in any book, but especially ones that are supposed to be dystopian/post-apocalyptic, is silliness. I don't know what other word to use for it, really. But in The Glass Arrow, places like the Garden are horrifying, and yet it had a very Hunger Games Capitol vibe - all the girls are renamed after flowers, and every market day there's a theme, and the girls are dressed up to match. Also, the girls' caretakers are people whom Aya calls "Pips", who are basically the servants at the Garden and for anyone in the upper-class. They're all horrible to the girls there, and the reason Aya calls them Pips is because they make these pip! pip! sounds when they're annoyed. . . . ?! This strikes me as a little bit.... I don't even know the word. Ludicrous. And, obviously, horrifying because this is how much this society values people, not only women -- it doesn't. But the with the whole pip! pip! bit... I really couldn't take it seriously? The combination of "silly" and seriously upsetting is just not my thing at all.

However, there were elements of this book that were very good.

One thing I liked -- or, not a thing, a character -- was Kiran. Kiran is a boy whom Aya meets... in circumstances I'm not going to describe because they might be slight spoilers. ;) Kiran is a Driver (one of the men who works with horses in the city but lives in a small village some distance away, in the wild), and Drivers never speak. This was a situation I hadn't seen portrayed, ever -- a relationship between two people who couldn't communicate just by talking -- and it was really cool. I loved watching them figure out how to make themselves understood, Aya's slow acceptance of his silent presence, and the way their relationship was based on something deeper than words.

He leans back against the wall again, not understanding a word I'm saying. So I talk. Because no one has listened for a long, long time.
- eARC, 26%

Additionally, Simmons portrayed an incredibly important message in contrasting this society with Aya's own convictions -- the fact that your worth is not determined by anyone else's opinions about you, or desire for you. It's something that Aya knows with her whole heart from the very beginning, and she never wavers in her knowledge that she is worth something, no matter what others tell her, and that she deserves respect. And I really admired her character for that.

They've forgotten, or maybe they never learned, that their worth is not determined by how much a man wants them.
- eARC, 51%

In conclusion...

I truly wish I had liked this book more. It had so much potential, and I still think it's got a lot going for it and it had some really good aspects, but it was made up mostly of things that aren't "me" things -- they weren't things that I personally enjoy or can easily look past.

Figuring out a rating for this was hard. It's probably closer to a 2.75, somewhere on the higher end of the "not for me" (2-stars) and "it was okay, but..." (3-stars) spectrum, so I'm rounding up to a 3. I think if you want a post-apocalyptic story that's got a very specific and personal focus; you don't mind reading about a society that is truly abhorrent and nausea-inducing (you're supposed to feel that way); and you don't care too much about those worldbuilding issues I mentioned, you'll probably like this one.

--

There were books involved...