I really wanted to love this!!! I got 78% in and had to stop.
I love love love the premise of this story. I enjoy the characters. I feel like there is not a lot of action happening to move the story along. It keeps climbing to a climax that isn’t there. This is spanning a 22 year period at this point and there is no conflict. I don’t believe in 1 star reviewing. The idea is there, I just need *more*. Hopefully one day I can pick it back up and get to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Yours for the Taking.

I don't read a lot of science fiction, but when I do, it's because the premise hooked me.

That's how I felt about Yours for the Taking, great premise, interesting characters, and I wanted to know more.

But it was not to be, namely for a number of reasons:

This was chock full of gender politics, dialogue about gender politics and social inequality between the characters just droning on and on.

I felt the author had her own political agenda, using the book as her personal soapbox. And I don't like being preached to or at.

There isn't much of a story, just a group of women talking about how difficult life is for women of color and nonconforming sexual orientation.

I read for escape, for enjoyment and pleasure, not to be reminded of the social and political hellscape I'm living in.

The time jumps also made for a unfun reading experience; some things happen off-camera which I want to know more about, and the duller aspects of life are described in more detail. Why?

I couldn't understand why the author chose this format structure.

Also, I didn't like or care about any of the characters.

It seems, regardless of whether you live in a dystopian or utopian society, people remain the same; greedy, selfish, vain, striving for power at the expense of the powerless and marginalized.

DNFed it. I was looking forward to read this book but it just didn't feel interesting enough to continue. Its not bad or boring but its not my cup of team i guess.

Wow, this was one of the most engaging, thought-provoking, and relevant books I’ve read in a long time. If you like dystopian fiction novels, especially with queer representation, you need to read this one. Yours for the Taking follows the stories of three young queer women in the not-so-distant future when the global climate change crisis is so severe that around the world, selective, climate-resistant communities known as “The Inside” are created. The Inside that is built where Manhattan used to be is run by an elitist power-hungry billionaire feminist who has extreme ideas on how to select and curate the “perfect” community in the Inside - starting not accepting any men.

I found myself hooked in this story. It moved very fast, although I felt connected to all of the characters. This novel covers a very wide range of topics, including but not limited to toxic (and non-toxic) feminism, capitalism, transphobia, gender norms, eugenics, queer belonging and family, consent, and motherhood.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s press, and Gabrielle Korn for allowing me to read this ARC - do yourself a favor and read this one.

BIG thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Publishing Group for letting me get my hands on this book early!

Yours For The Taking is a story of feminism, gender structures, climate change, family, and queerness. It challenges readers to think about what equality truly is The characters hooked me and I fell in love with almost all of them (except you, Jacqueline…).

This is a book that will hook you FAST and force you to just keep reading one more chapter. My advice? Pre-order it. Read it. Get your hands on it. You won’t regret it!

Also, a big shoutout to the queer representation in this book. So well done.

Reading this book just as smoke was pouring in from Canadian wildfires blocking out the sun for days and causing air quality warnings couldn’t have been more timely. It gave an eerie sense of foreboding to the story while reading. The book is very thought provoking and I enjoyed the discussions on gender, sex and reproduction and who should be allowed to live on “The Inside”. I thought this was a really interesting take on dystopian lit from a feminist perspective and enjoyed reading this book a lot. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre and think it would be a great book for book groups as well. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

A dystopian novel set in NYC, the year is 2050, and global warming has trashed everything. People must now either be accepted to live in new enclosed and protected city-like structures (called Insides), become wanderers (mostly the poor, going north to escape the heat), or go to space (the rich). At the novel's center is a powerful business woman, Jacqueline Millender, who controls the NYC-based Inside.

The reader is lulled into thinking this is a lovely female-run, new-age world, where women can finally have power, equality, everything they've ever wanted. A nirvana. Author Gabrielle Korn does an artful job of imagining this world for us and easily placing the reader in what 2050 (and subsequent decades) might look like. I actually did the math to see how old my kids would be in 2050 and got a little nervous.

In "Inside" we see social issues debated, like worker class, motherhood/choice, basic freedom of choice, sexuality, sexual identify and more.

But of course, it is a tale as old as history: power corrupts. No matter the gender of those running the show. It is a compelling tale to see how the plot develops and to hope for the satisfying ending we wish for. Korn's narrative style is very simple, with short declarative sentences that almost feel a bit robotic at times. How much of that is stylistic for the dystopian reality, or her true style, I don't know.

4-stars for interesting plot and female-forward fiction. I would recommend this book for a book club discussion and even readers who are not big fans of the dystopian genre. Pub date 12/5/23. 336 pages.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley, for providing an eARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

#netgalley @netgalley

Brilliant, and thought-provoking piece of feminist speculative fiction. Definitely a story that will stick with me for years to come.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the early review copy. This is a book that I'm going to need all the special and signed editions for my shelves.

This is a book that I will be thinking about for a long time to come, the idea was so out of this world and yet so believable at the same time, I can see how every single character made the decision that they do and how they justified it to themselves and others. I thought the characters were really well written and fleshed out, I enjoyed this novel a lot and look forward to reading more by Gabrielle.

i went into this book excited based on the description, but it really fell flat for me. i was intrigued by the concept of a post-apocalyptic, near future, queer sci-fi that explores gender roles and identity politics taken to their extreme. but i was hoping that this would lead to a fulfilling gateway to some kind of post-catastrophe method of organizing, and it didn't really explore that at all except a brief mention at the end. not that endings need to fulfil my own desires, but the lead up to it never really engaged me either, so by the end it felt like i was just trying to get the book over with.

i think this book has a lot of good ideas in it, but the character development could have used a *lot* more work, and there were parts of the story that never felt believable. the plot jumped sporadically from POVs and timelines, moving pretty slow in some uninteresting parts and then too fast in others. the dialog also felt dull and rough, and not natural sounding at all. i never emotionally connected to any of the characters or felt like i could imagine what anything looked like, so it just felt kind of cartoonish. the whole book felt like an outline of a story written on a napkin more than the story itself.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this -- a dystopian, sapphic love story with tons of emotion. One of my new favorites I think!

4.5 stars
This book was a very thought-provoking look at what happens when one person pushes their version of utopia on a population (in this case an unsuspecting population). The book grappled with issues of consent, gender and class identity, transparency, free will, and what it means to be a feminist. It’s a lot to cover in one work of fiction, but Korn does it well.

Climate change has fully wreaked havoc on the planet and to save humanity (or a small fraction of it), closed communities (called Inside) are being set up around the world - these are full societies sealed away to protect inhabitants from the brutal heat, constant severe storms, and food and water shortages. There are also really rich people living on spaceships orbiting the planet (a la Wall-E).

The book is told through the experiences of several protagonists, all associated with the NYC Inside. Jacqueline Millender is a billionaire who has created one of the “waves” of feminism and has strong ideas on what is wrong with society and how to fix it. Shelby is a trans woman and Jacqueline’s assistant. Olympia was hand picked by Jacqueline to run the medical program, and effectively be the director, of the NYC Inside and takes the job in part because she was doxed by men’s rights groups online for an opinion piece she wrote and subsequently had her other offers rescinded. Ava is a woman who gets into the NY Inside, but her girlfriend Orchid doesn’t make the cut. The story told through the viewpoints of these characters, and some other side characters, is compelling, interesting, and disturbing. The end is not neatly tied up, nor should it be, but it feels complete.

I feel like there have been several of these kinds of “thought experiment “ books about what society would look like if women were in charge and Yours for the Taking has something new and interesting to offer to the genre. I appreciated the clear-eyed critique of the White cis-het feminist worldview if put on all of society. I also really liked the points that were made on consent, particularly by the new generation of kids who were born Inside. Overall I really enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it. Also, can we please please combat climate change so we can avoid a version of this future?

4.5 ⭐ OMG. This book. So much good stuff in here. Do yourself a favor. Go into this one blind. (I literally saw lesbians and climate change and jumped in with both feet, and so glad I did!) Brilliantly written, the characters are so real, the plot. This book has all the makings of a huge hit.

It's the year 2050, climate change is ravaging the world, and billionaire / women's rights advocate Jacqueline Millender is funding the North American survival structure built to house a few million people, but she has her own agenda.

Ava gets accepted to live Inside, but her girlfriend doesn't, and so Ava must go alone. This book follows Ava's journey and a half dozen other women (including trans + non binary) in this epic scientific experiment. Mostly female cast, all super strong characters, and an amazing story that is a scathing commentary on the world we live in today.

Heart wrenching. Frightening. Beautiful. Loved it! ❤️

[Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!]

WOW what a tale!

It's 2050 and as the world is slowly dying, Jacqueline Millender, a very powerful mogul is trying to same society via "The Inside Project" Millender has a very specific idea of how to save the world and that includes who is worth saving. Surrounding Jacqueline are various characters including her trans personal assistant and her strong willed doctor-director of the program. Alternatively, Ava, is a young scavenger living in Brooklyn is granted a ticket to the program. Through her eyes we are able to experience the project as it grows.

This story is a thriller but also a treatise on feminism and reproduction. Jacqueline is very much the contemporary old white liberal who truly believes she knows what is best for all of us. Korn has chosen excellent characters to illustrate a story that isn't too far from reality. I was engrossed from the start and you will be too. If you love dystopia, have a healthy fear of billionaires, or just want to read the next great feminist thriller, Yours For The Taking is for you!
#StMartinsPress #YourForTheTaking #GabrielleKorn

**Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This one took a little while to reel me in, but I ended up really enjoying where this book leads. I don't think I have ever read an end of world 'apocalypse' story quite like this one. There is a huge focus on gender roles LGBTQ and feminism and lent a unique tone to this rather dreary theme.

Although this is an end of world themed book, a bigger focus was put on the 'Inside' and the experimentation that came with it. There was a lot of back in forth POV with multiple characters, but the author made these flow very well and honestly, I love how short the chapters were.

I'm not the biggest fan of ending that are meant to be left to assumption and that was no exception in this book. I wanted more answers to what happened to the characters and all the 'Inside' structures.

Overall, a fun unique read!

This is a really thought-provoking look at a near-future world and how the goals of creating a community without the patriarchy is a more complex problem than it originally appears. Korn does a good job of really breaking down the simplistic view from the billionaire funding the project - an older, wealthy, cis-hetero, white female - about how to create this reality by just eliminating men from the picture. Touching on topics such as the gender spectrum, power imbalances, trans-rights, bodily autonomy, and more, this book probably isn't for everyone who isn't ready for that kind of political statement along with their speculative/climate fiction. It can be at times a little simple and obvious with the themes, but overall I think it would make a great book club read to open discussions on these topics.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Coming out in December of this year is a dystopian epic! A timely commentary on how humanity will react to the climate crisis. If we seize the opportunity to be better, will we ACTUALLY be better?

Multi generational, multiple POV, queer voices and powerful women.

This book sucked me in from the very first sentence and had me in a chokehold until I finished it 24 hours later. I was texting with another friend who was reading it at the same time and we both couldn’t get over how absolutely wild and yet terrifyingly realistic it all was. Every chapter felt like a surprise and every time I felt like I knew what was going to happen next I was wrong.

This book is one that really makes you think in addition to being utterly binge-able. By far one of the best books I’ve read this year!

Extremely intriguing conceit that put LGBTQIAP+ characters at the forefront.

Great sci-fi choice form my Pride Reading time. Climate change is not to be ignored. This story is almost like a Black Mirror episode which are now too close for comfort.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn takes a question I'm sure many of us have asked ourselves (would the world be better if women were in charge) to its most extreme end. The book opens in 2050, with the world on the brink of catastrophic collapse due to climate change. A United World Government is convened to determine how to save at least a portion of the population, and the solution is five "Insides" - fully operational hubs that will function as cities. The key investor in the North American Inside is Jacqueline Millender, a billionaire and feminist who has nefarious ideas for "her" inside.

Jacqueline's plan is to allow only women and only women of a certain "caliber" per her own narrow definition. Into a space designed for 3 million go only 50,000. Jacqueline then heads up into outer space, along with all the other billionaires who can afford it. Once everyone is inside, key details from her plan begin to emerge that reveal she may be just as bad as the male world leaders that predate her.

The book follows three key women: Ava, a resident in the Inside (along with later her two children Brook and July), Olympia, a former med student turned Medical Director for the Inside, and Shelby, a trans woman who Jacqueline hires as her assistant. We also briefly check in with a few "outsiders" including Orchid, Ava's former lover, and Camilla, Shelby's younger sister.

I like a great deal about this book. It poses interesting questions about and interrogates feminism in a way that is crucially important - what good is feminism if its end goal is not equality (as it should be) but a hierarchy where now women are on the top. And what is a "woman", in today's world where we have come to agree (or most of us have) that gender is a social construct and not a binary.

What didn't work for me may work for other readers, but it all felt just a little too earnest. I think it could have been a little grittier and darker, and maybe things shouldn't have worked out quite so easily for our key characters. Obviously the world they're living in, no matter what, is a troubled one, but I hoped for a bit more ambiguity and realism, perhaps.

I'd say this is a solid 4 stars for the very interesting and thoughtful concept, and for keeping me invested from start to finish. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the ARC.