I really enjoyed the first two books in Simmon's Article 5 series. I haven't read the third one yet, but I'll get around to it eventually. This new book of hers, The Glass Arrow, sounded like it could potentially be pretty thrilling. I already knew this author was capable of writing some pretty good actions scenes, so that made it all the more interesting. There's something about the color combination on the cover that makes it gorgeous, as well. 
 The Glass Arrow starts off with a bang - the heroine, Aya, is running through the forest, away from some bad people who end up taking her captive. The book was very easy to get into right away. I've never read The Handmaiden's Tale, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I loved how high the stakes felt in this - it added quite nicely to the suspense. Basically, if you're caught out in the wild you're taken back to a sickening prison camp where you're polished and prettied by sadistic beauty teams who want to sell you to the highest bidding man. I, of course, would pretty much like to avoid any and all dystopian worlds because of their unparalleled terribleness. But being a woman in a world like this would probably be among the top five worst places you could end up, and I felt incredibly sorry for Aya's situation. The writing is still as good as I remember from Simmon's previous work. 
 Although it has an excellent beginning, I can't deny that it sort of fizzled out over time. A majority of the book is Aya simply planning her escape and explaining her back story and the horrors of her world. She sits in solitary confinement doing next to nothing for a very long time. For that reason, I was a little slow about finishing it. Maybe it would have been easier to deal with if I cared about any of the secondary characters - because honestly, I didn't. Daphne and all the other girls were so very annoying. Of course I felt bad for them too, but the way they were all so eager to please men and their nastiness to Aya in general was hard to swallow. Daphne is meant to get more likeable over time, I think, but she never really grew on me. I really liked the wolf Brax, though. He was awesome. (view spoiler)[And, of course, he died. I think I would have preferred a person to die - Lorcan? Daphne? Even Kiran would have been better. BRAX! *sobs* (hide spoiler)] 
 Aya was a pretty awesome protagonist. You need to have some fight in you to exist in this world, and she had plenty of it. She's constantly scheming and planning, refusing to give up, and I loved that about her. Although, to be honest, it seemed a little strange that she seemed to be the only girl who wanted rights - every single other woman was content with their lot in life. The Garden - the prison she was kept it - was awful. Girls are kept locked up like animals and of course there's a "purity" rule. I wanted to leap into the book and punch the Governess square in the face for her role in prettying up the girls and contributing majorly to Aya's misery. So The Glass Arrow was definitely successful in making me hate its villains - there's also a little boy named Amir, who's basically a monster. 
 At some point the story, the love interest is introduced, and it's a mute man named Kiran (or, at least, that's what Aya decides to call him). I liked the way they slowly built a relationship by sitting together and learning to trust, it was sweet. It felt incredibly awkward during that part when Aya was trying to get Kiran to break the purity rule with her, and also sad. Sad for her that she had to go to such measures, and sad for him, because I'm sure he would prefer to have sex with a girl who actually wanted to be with him. Though I liked them together and I'm thankful there was no love triangle present in the book, I didn't have a lot of strong feelings about their relationship. It was cute, but not particularly memorable. Honestly I think it would have been better if he had never spoken - it's not like there's a lot of mute YA boys. 
 I thought the book ended slightly before it should have - I believe it's standalone, so an epilogue might have been nice. I loved how noble Aya was about her family in the climax of the story (view spoiler)[Although I'm still a bit sensitive to themes of self-sacrifice after Allegiant (hide spoiler)], and how it kind of fit in with the title of the book. Overall, I'm a little disappointed that The Glass Arrow wasn't everything I felt like it could be, I still enjoyed it and would check it out if you're interested. 
 3.5 stars