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she was doxed by men’s rights groups online for an opinion piece she wrote and subsequently had her other offers rescinded.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.

The future is feminine or at least in corporate billionaire Jacqueline Millender’s mind. It is 2050 and the earth is dying from climate change catastrophes. Temperatures have risen, the oceans are polluted, water is rising and living outside has become dangerous to their health. The Inside Project has been adopted worldwide to save those who are chosen to live in a city like equivalent surrounded by a weather safe bubble. Jacqueline Millender’s huge donation to the Inside Project being built on what is left of Manhattan is what gives her the directorship of this bubble. Working contrary to all of the other Inside Projects, Jacqueline creates her environment as an example to her feminist beliefs. The story follows a group of women, all but one of them who are chosen for Inside. In the fifteen years that follows some of these women begin to see faults in Jacqueline’s utopian vision.

Yours for the Taking brought me back to the 1970’s when feminism was on the rise. Women would gather to strategize the fight for equality while quietly whispering their quixotic dream of women only communities. Korn is an impressive writer. She captures the essence of the 70’s feminist movement and projects it forward with lots and lots of imagination added. The story is fast paced with multiple storylines gathering speed to an unexpected but satisfying ending.

I received an advance review copy from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley.  I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It's 2050, and climate change has ravaged the world and left large parts uninhabitable. To save humanity as we know it, the Inside Project is created. The Inside Project will consist of weather-safe structures where communities of people will live and work as the world (hopefully) heals itself on the outside. How will people be chosen for these communities? Well, the Manhattan Inside Project is being funded by billionaire feminist Jacqueline Millender - and she's making some tweaks to how "her" project will be run.

I love a good dystopian read and this did not let me down. I enjoyed the multiple storylines from the different characters, all in different positions and places. It is interesting to see how one woman's feminist utopia can quickly fall apart, and how, as the old quote says, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

An engrossing, intriguing, and imaginative read. Jacqueline Millender is a billionaire/women’s rights advocate and makes a generous donation to become the director of the Inside being built on the bones of Manhattan. Soon, it won't be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world. Jacqueline tightens her grip, becoming increasingly unhinged and dangerous in what she is willing to do to ensure her unorthodox ideas are carried out. This was my first futuristic sci-fi read and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I could feel what the characters were going through and the anger they must have felt when they discovered the truth of what was happening.
I did receive this copy from NetGalley, which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I had a great time reading this book. Gabrielle Korn presents us with a not too distant future in which Earth has become uninhabitable due to the devastation of climate change. In this future, massive structures called "Insides" are created to house the lucky few who are accepted. Jacqueline Millender is a billionaire in charge of North America's Inside, and she has plans to use it to destroy patriarchy in one generation.

This book was really interesting and delivered such a sense of foreboding while still keeping you happily trotting along (like many of Inside's residents). Korn grapples with capitalist feminism, exploitation, tyranny and autonomy, gender essentialism, eugenics, etc., all in a fast paced, interwoven character study following the lives of several women as they part and come together in their various post-apocalyptic settings (space, Inside, the wild) - think Station Eleven lite.

While there were some story lines I just didn't care as much about, Korn keeps chapters fast and engaging, so I moved through the novel quickly and felt really satisfied with the resolution (and sometimes lack thereof) with my favorite characters/plot lines. I definitely recommend this novel if you want to challenge your own ideals and reflect on the ways in which government and consent interact.

Yours For the Taking by Gabrielle Korn had an interesting premise of a dystopian society. The idea was that a city would be built inside and above the existing city. However, this city's inhabitants would be handpicked and be female only.
I couldn't get into this story. It seemed like it took every political touchpoint and tried to ram it down your throat. It seemed like it was more about promoting a statement than telling the story. I get that it was trying to make awareness of political issues but you can get your point across by telling a story conhesively like Margaret Atwood or Tochi Onyebucht. This seemed like the story was an afterthought to the politics of toxic masculinity, climate change, corruption in power, and all the other touchpoints it hits on. I couldn't really focus on what the plot of the story was. Perhaps you will get more out of this than me, I couldn't find the story for all the lessons it was trying to teach me in the first couple chapters. I think it would have worked better if it was focused on telling the story and making that story show you the message, instead of beating you with a message and then throwing a story in with it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

A dystopian, sci-fi world in which climate change has ravaged earth? Sign me up every time. The idea of “Insides” was such a cool concept, and one being run by a woman’s power extremist was even more intriguing. The idea of solving the world’s problems be removing men was interesting and I was so invested in how the world turned out. This book really captured my attention and I loved each of the characters. Being done with multiple POVs really helped the story flow and get a better understanding of each person’s beliefs. I think the overall story was great: unique concept, good world-building, complex characters.

The notion of gender being a coin of good and bad - and how problematic that line of thought is - was touched on, but not to the extent I wish it was. I also thought some of the pacing at the end felt rushed. Like some of the characters came to certain solutions really fast, and the conflict seemed to resolve quickly. I wanted that to be fleshed out more. I don’t mind an ambiguous ending either, but it’s not my favorite. I’ll still be recommending this book to anyone who is a fan of sci-fi dystopians.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for an eARC of this book. Opinions are my own and freely given.

In the sapphic sci-fi book Yours for the Taking set in the near future, climate change and capitalism are killing the world. Inside, the solution created to save as many people as possible, turns out to be nowhere near the feminist utopia it set out to be.

It's extreme feminism gone wrong, a white cis woman thinking she can create a society built on equality by eliminating men. However, Inside can't avoid reproducing power hierarchies, only now it's CIS women who're at the top instead of men, and scientists are constantly watching to make sure everyone adheres to the rules that reinforce this.
One of the most fascinating things is that this isn't necessarily done intentionally - just about everyone has good intentions but that turns out to cause a big blind spot when things turn from "theoretically ideal" to something quite different.

Yours for the Taking is a really interesting and thought-provoking read. It deals with issues of gender, power, (in)equality, eugenics, free choice, reproductive rights, surveillance, capitalism, climate change, and feminism, and it'll have you thinking about it long after you've finished reading.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. Yours for the Taking is out December 5.

I love dystopian literature and this one didn't disappoint. The characters were lovable, enjoyable and engaging. The adventure was quite epic. I recommend, great job Gabrielle...


Thank you NetGalley and St martin's Press.

What I was promised: Post Apocalyptic Dystopia with queer themes
What I got: hit over the head with buzzwords with none of the subtlety required to get me to actually think about the ideas presented

The opening is really bad from a technical standpoint. It follows Ava and her realization that her girlfriend isn't going to be able to follow her into the climate change resistant Inside. That's the main conflict of her storyline (one of three), but the novel opens with everything but the main conflict. Instead, before you have a reason to care about this character or even the story as a whole you have to slog through boring prose of how Ava is a teacher, how she acts differently around her students, an entire flashback dedicated to her and Orchid's meetcute, a really brief and uninspired sex scene, the description of their apartment together and how Orchid is a construction worker, AND THEN FINALLY the inciting incident for the character. To make matters worse, the inciting incident just happens and the explanation for what it is and why you, the reader, should care comes after. And then it's immediately dropped to swap to more exposition.

I always feel bad receiving an ARC for a book and then thinking it belongs in the trash, but this novel reads like a second draft. I stuck with it to the 20% mark but by then there were two more point of view characters with chapters that didn't make me care about them either and still no real explanation on what Inside was like. I got bored.

Back to the buzzwords. I could only get myself through the first 20%, but there are way too many ideas presented. The pacing is awful, and the sheer number of complex issues this book attempts to address leaves none of them with enough time to feel meaningful. There's the climate issues, with the Inside and the product line Renewables, to queer relationships, to being trans/nonbinary/poc in spaces where that isn't the norm and how that relates to cooperate offices and spaces, to how much power people with a lot of money have and the consequences of that for everyone else. It's definitely a lot, especially in the opening three chapters (which I repeat are three chapters of exposition because each one follows a different character) and definitely led me feeling overwhelmed.

I'll also critique the Men's Rights protesters the book wants you to believe are bad. It didn't give a reason why? I was pretty confused, all the characters regarded them as scum of the earth but they didn't do anything? Were they protesting a legitimate inequality, like how in the US only men are required to register for the draft, or were they the strawman feminism bad? Honestly, I didn't care enough to find out.

This is the kind of story I would gladly beta read for someone and help them edit for. But as a finished product the author expects readers to shell out money for? Absolutely not.

I'm a big fan of dystopian literature, and Yours for the Taking didn't disappoint. The plot and characters were engaging, and I enjoyed the way it explored the idea of power, plus how it's possible for feminism to be heavily influenced influenced by patriarchy, capitalism, and racism.

So many people will like this book - two of the most obvious groups being fans of The Power by Naomi Alderman and the many, many people who are discovering Silo on Apple TV, based on Hugh Howey's series.