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.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.


I am not quite certain what this book is trying to be. Speculative fiction generally focuses on either ideas primarily or plot and characters primarily. With the way this book starts off and its narration style, it seems to be a book that is trying to focus on ideas. And the ideas that it presents/attempts to challenge initially are promising. It could have been a interesting thought experiment about corporate feminism, gender essentialism, and the climate crisis.

However, somewhere along the way it shifts from exploring ideas with regards to climate fiction and feminism to just the exploits of one megalomaniacal woman. It's says less about the bigger ideas and more about how narcissistic Jacqueline is. It tries to shift to be a more character focused work on occasion as well, but all it leads to is a lack of cohesion in the narrative and ideas that feel very surface level. The attempts to focus on character/plot also falls flat in isolation as there isn't really any tension and the eventual resolution is very anticlimactic.

There has been a significant amount written with regards to feminist theories and climate change. This novel could have addressed or be in conversation with that, but instead it focuses on things that are overdone and contrite. It doesn't even take a strong stance on anything. Yes, billionaire bad, but I think we all know that at this point, so what else?

There is another aspect that was a pet peeve of mine, but is removed from my general critique of the narrative. Going a bit on the spoiler territory, <spoiler>I really wasn't a fan of Orchid and she was inserted back into the narrative needlessly. I don't think she added anything and the ending being about her reuniting with Ava feel super off the cuff. The whole point of Ava and Brook leaving was reuniting with July, and it is made clear that that won't happen. It feels like Orchid was added back into the narrative only so that the book could end with Ava leaving and trying to make it seem like the act still had a point. I don't think anyone reading the book would find themselve rooting for Ava to get together an ex who she has long since gotten over and find that to be a very satisfying conclusion. </spoiler>.

Overall, a pretty disappointing read from something that had a lot of potential.

This was a twisty and epic adventure that I loved reading every page. Female driven and amazing I could not put it down. I can not wait for more from this author!

First of all, I’m a fan of dystopian books and this one started off really great, but the ending fell flat for me. Overall, the story was intriguing and the author did a great job of characterization. I loved the queer rep in the story and how it added to the realness of the entire thing. Climate change is already a scary topic and throughout this book, Korn really does a great job of making it feel more imminent than it already is.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Imagine a future where climate change ravages the world making it unlivable. The governments dissolve and a single government united the world in a common goal, to combat climate change. They devise a plan to create a city Inside, where select people will help to keep civilization alive.

The year is 2050 and Jacqueline Millender founder of Yours!, requests to not only fund Americas Inside but to direct it… from space. The wealthy and elite flee to space as they are unsure if Inside will succeed.

The story follows Ava, Olympia, and Shelby as the main characters with more added in as it spans 30+ years. The characters are all relatable, even though each come from different walks of life.

I was intrigued as soon as I picked this novel up and was bummed to have to put it down to read a book club book. I couldn’t wait to get back to it. This book dives into the problems of white cis gendered feminism, by creating a story you don’t want put down. My only qualm with the story was I wanted to know more about what was happening with the weather and climate outside as the story progressed. We got a little bit of what was going on but I wanted a little more.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press, and Gabrielle Korn for the eARC copy! I can’t wait to get my hands on a hard copy!

thank you to netgalley and st. martin's press!

2.5/5, rounded to 3

I have reallyyyyy mixed feelings about this book. I'm in the environmental field and while I definitely acknowledge that climate change is an issue we have to worry about, it feels wrong to create a story with such a doomed perspective for the world without any foundation of resilience apart from this girl-boss white feminist savior complex perspective. the story was interesting and intriguing, but taking on this climate doomism perspective is faulty and paints this idea that things are fucked beyond repair when there is still work we can do together as a community !!!!!!! </3 I did like that the author acknowledged TERF-y perspectives within feminism, but there was not really any discussion of race in the story.

overall, I thought this was interesting but takes a bit of a flawed perspective when looking at climate change and the state of the world.

What an incredible story of love, found family, and feminism with excellent queer representation. The book is set in the near future where climate change has ravaged the planet. the solution is to move to the “Inside.” I could not put this book down - the story was so well thought out and flowed perfectly. I felt a connection with each character and I loved to see their stories intertwine.

I recommend going into this book blind, as there were many aspects that gave me goosebumps as I dove into the world Korn created.

This book may be the best book I read all year. I will 100% be purchasing a copy when it is published in December.

I received an advance copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I can see what this book is aiming for. I think its heart is in the right place. I support the effort behind it to criticize both patriarchy and white and trans-exclusionary brands of feminism; to take some shots at cultures of power that hate disabled people, hate fat people, hate POC, hate queer people. This book is trying to be a story about queer survival and triumph, and I'm all about that.

Unfortunately, the writing failed to compel me at all. The first two thirds of the book read a lot like one of those training videos you have to watch at work where "characters" with the depth of cardboard cutouts have stilted conversations full of keywords that you will later be asked to select in the quiz at the end. The last hundred pages felt slightly more natural, but for me it was too little too late. There wasn't a single character who felt developed or who I cared about, even after I passed the segment of the book about POV characters compromising their morals and compromising each other's autonomy in the face of environmental collapse and got to the part where everyone turns on a dime and triumphs over one evil Girlboss Prime. For me, examining how ordinary people who think they're progressive might be manipulated into terrible things only works if those people are believable, a little likeable, and I have empathy for their bad choices.

I think a lot of the concepts here would be thought-provoking if presented as essays about the world we're in right now; as fiction about the future, it suffered from way too much telling and almost zero showing, felt sadly soulless, and seemed to mythologize motherhood almost as much as the Girlboss Cult was mythologizing motherhood. But all that said, there are many glowing reviews as well, so...ymmv?

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is going to be a modern classic. It is incredibly relevant to current world events while containing cautions and lessons relevant for any generation.

There is a decent sized cast of characters, all of which felt perfectly represented in regards to the amount of page time given. They are well rounded with motivations and fears. Since the book spans multiple decades, the reader gets to follow along as the characters age and change.

If you're looking for a book with commentary on white feminism, intersectionality, queerness, climate change, misogyny, and capitalism, you have to check this book out. I am blown away by Korn's writing and her ability to weave such important topics into a novel.

My poor Kindle... The number of times I slammed it down and had an emotional outburst, goddamn.

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn was more powerful than I ever expected it to be. I was ready for LBGTQIA+ stories and climate change and feminist politics, but my expectations were absolutely blown out of the water.

If you enjoyed 1984, the world-building/political machinations of The Hunger Games, V for Vendetta, or any other totalitarian dystopian society story, and you want to know what it looks like when painted in soft pink and mauve and gardenia-scented, I cannot emphasize it enough: PLEASE READ THIS. Gabrielle Korn delivers us a villain as charismatic as school aged Tom Riddle with the sickening sweet color palette and abrasive femininity of Umbridge.

Rating: 4.5
This book is really good! It’s paced well, with interesting characters and fascinating themes. It takes place several decades in the future and shows what a world even more damaged by climate change might look like. I don’t want to reveal too much about the turns the plot takes, but just know that it’s a bit intense! The story follows a few main character perspectives and each of the main characters has a different type of role in society so you’re able to see the impacts on various groups. Most of the characters are queer as well.
The biggest theme in this book is highlighting the problems and dangers of white cishet feminism, and it explores different aspects of this topic. The only reason this book didn’t get a full five stars from me is that I thought these themes were presented a little too directly on the page; there seemed to be a little lack of trust in the reader to understand the main points.
I think this would make a good book to read with a friend or a group because there’s a lot to talk about!
There’s a few heavy topics in this book, but I’d especially like to note a TW for forced pregnancy.
I’m excited to read more from this author in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.