The Glass Arrow

This one is already showing up on best of lists for 2015, so I gave it ago. I was worried because I'm pretty sure I DNF'd Article 5, but either Simmons's storytelling has greatly improved or the change in subject matter did the trick. Most of the stars I've awarded are for world building. It is excellent here. The rest of the stars are for a heroine who is not a special snowflake or involved in any kind of a love triangle. Thank goodness. Aya's only redeeming quality is sheer determination. Nothing gets this girl down.
I had some problems with the story flow. It stalls out pretty bad about a quarter of the way through. I had to enact my determination to keep pressing on.Once they got to the mountain, it picked up. I was not charmed by Kiran in any way (still am not), but that is not important to anyone but me. I wonder if I'd have liked him better if he'd been a girl. I wish the family characters would have been fleshed out more. Daphne is also lacking in character. If a wee bit more attention would have gone into making them more complex and a wee bit more attention would have gone in to explaining Aya's religion, I would have appreciated the story even more. I'm also confused about the geography and how there could be outlying settlements with women in them. How are they protected?

There are also too many junior villains. The Governess is a mix of Miss Hannigan and Effie Trinket, but she is not evil enough. Greer is not fleshed out enough to really understand how evil he is, and the mayor is kind of a powdered donut. If this is to be a series, it will need a big bad.

I think this one might be an interesting pick for a Teen Book Club. There is a lot to discuss here, especially the history of the Red Years. Could that really happen? And Pips and Watchers? What about human rights? Interesting.