My one-liner description: Cli-fi feminist dystopian where the world has been basically destroyed and people apply to be selected to live in sealed domes that are meant to carry on humanity and everyone else is left to fend for themselves with the understanding that they will all likely die.

I highly suggest going into this one as blindly as possible.

Y’all, I FLEW through this book. I couldn’t put it down. The story is told from multiple viewpoints and they were all interesting, all different.

I feel like giving much more info kind of gives some of the story away. But what I will say is that this is a book of found family, grief, joy, examining the choices we make, an exploration of corporate cis feminism, and explores whether good intentions excuse the ignoring of consent and the manipulation of entire populations.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this advance copy of Yours For The Taking.

Before I begin my review, I will strongly urge you to go into this reading experience blindly. When I received the eARC, I instantly started reading it without looking up the summary or any pre-reviews and I am so glad I did. So, go read the book and then come back, read my review, and discuss your thoughts with me because I really loved this book.

In 2050, the planet is in a state of crisis. Climate change has wrecked the environment beyond repair and people are beginning to look elsewhere for living arrangements and a way out. And so, The Inside Project is born. Inside is an elite, weather-safe city structure set on all the major continents, in which you are only allowed entry upon having your application selected. Each continent is running their Inside differently and North America’s has flaws from the get-go. This mesmerizing story follows three main characters, Ava, Olympia, and Shelby, and how their paths cross in the Inside. Once they begin to see the cracks in the system, there is no going back.

With the introduction of each of the main characters, I was instantly drawn into them, connecting with their strife or cheering them on. The way in which Gabrielle chose these characters from three very different walks of life and converged their storylines together throughout the plot was unmatched. I understood their sorrow, their confusion, and their hope for the future so easily. Their growth and development built so smoothly that it couldn’t be anything but sincere.

This book was not only an incredibly enjoyable read, it was also thought-provoking. It took a mirror to the way we view the patriarchy in our society. I was completely enthralled from page one of this book and the pacing and structure was phenomenal. I would love to hear Gabrielle’s planning process because the plot felt so genuine and fluid throughout the book, I would imagine she had to plan extensively. Props to her! I am still in awe that this is her first book, and you better believe I will be a life-long reader now!

Big thank you again to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Gabrielle Korn for sending me an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Setting: dystopian New York / space
Rep: queer cast, POC protagonists

This was a solid sci-fi/dystopia with a very human touch! It's not big on drama or action - it feels like quite a passive story, like something we're hearing about after it's happened rather than being in the middle of the action, but I enjoyed it. I'd say it's the lightest end of the sci-fi spectrum and it didn't delve very deep into the sciencey bits or technicalities. It's more of a character study of a set of people living in this futuristic world, 30-50 years on from our current world.

Listen, this was so good that I wanted to just eat my Kindle after I finished it. "Yours For The Taking" has definitely earned a place as one of my favorite distopian sci-fi novels, ever. It was friggin delicious.

The story starts is off in the year 2050. Earth has started to become inhabitable due to severe climate change. One of the main protagonists, Jaqueline Millander, is in charge of creating one of the self sustaining "Inside" communities where humanity can survive...or at least the ones who have been selected to be able to.

"Inside" is as large as a city, and to everyone's surprise, all female. Because frankly, it's because of men that the world even got to this point. War, ruining the environment and the patriarchy are all things that Jaqueline wants to breed out in her "experiment". So she watches and tries to control how it all plays out from her space shuttle where she lives with the other most wealthy and elite.

There was not a single dull moment in this book for me. I connected with or at least totally understood every main character and where they were coming from. This novel was so well planned out, written and goddamn perfect I can't even stand it. The fact that this is the author's first novel is just bonkers to me. I will RUSH to be at the front of the line for any future releases for her now.

I cannot give enough thanks to NetGalley and St. Marten's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley for the arc of this novel!

This book has such a perfect formula. Maybe I’m bias, I find queer rep in sci-fi/fantasy, something I still want to hoot and holler about! I just hope for this novel to reach the masses

Received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for review purposes.

This is an interesting dystopian novel set in what felt like a relatively near future where climate change has progressed to the point that the Earth is basically mostly too hot to inhabit safely. The super rich and the very lucky have been selected to live in "Inside" communities--basically giant, city-sized complexes that are completely self-contained and self-sustaining. This book follows a few different people living Inside and the uber rich benefactress of the North American inside. The benefactress has individually decided on adjustments she plans to make to the population and lifestyles of "her" Inside including limiting the population to certain demographics and even drugging them unknowingly if they step out of line. We also follow some everyday folks who live Inside and watch their adjustment to the new conditions. I thought more could be done with that in terms of exploring all the different issues that could arise with such a stark change of environment but the author felt like they really wanted to make a point about the dangers of what can happen when one person, based on success or wealth etc..., is given too much control over policies and procedures. The novel followed these people for a period of more than 20 years so the whole thing required some suspension of disbelief just because I think a lot of other things would have happened between the start of this Inside experiment and the place where the book ultimately ended.

The premise of this book is interesting but I wanted more about the daily life stuff of how this Inside thing would work. I was almost craving something like in John Marrs' The One where we got so many perspectives of how this invention could impact different people in different ways. I want to read that book. This one was good but how cool would like a short story collection be with different authors taking up this idea from various characters' perspectives and playing with what could happen???

I am still thinking about this book several days later. It is especially creepy that we have had crazy weather and a crazier debate about the source of that crazy weather.

This book did a really great job of making you pick a side, then making you regret that side. It is chilling how realistic it is / could be. This book also felt inclusive in its treatment of men. I wasn't sorry about that.

This book is for anyone who enjoys a mixture of dystopian futurism mixed with a good old fashioned love story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I often find it hard to get into sci-fi / post-apocalyptic fiction because it takes a minute to wrap my head around what the world is in this scenario, and sometimes that can feel heavy handed, where the world is developed more strongly than the characters. That said, I think the author did a good job of balancing the two. I loved how queer this book was and how much it centered on gender and the way it is enforced in societies. I wanted to keep going and see what would happen, and was surprised by the length of time covered in the span of the storyline. I'd read a sequel!

This book unfortunately was not for me. I DNFed at about 100 pages in. I think it has the plot and substance and characters and everything you could want; something about the writing style just didn't mesh well with me right now. It's a huge case of 'it's not you, it's ME' though, because I truly think that this just was not the right time for me to read this, and I know this book will appeal to a lot of people. I would recommend it to anyone looking to read a diverse sci-fi with critiques on how feminism can be exclusive and gatekeepy. There was phenomenal representation, something that can be hard to find in sci-fi.

And who knows, maybe down the road, I'll pick it up again and it will be the right time!

Because all of the parts were there and it has potential to appeal to a lot of people, I'm optimistically giving this 4 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

This book was truly a wild ride! I’m always down for a good thought provoking dystopian novel! I won’t say the story is post apocalyptic bc as the book says multiple times - the world never truly ends, just changes and people adapt- but it is definitely post (what we know as) civilization.

The story spans a 30+ year time line with multiple characters and starts at the end of the world as we know it, where people are being forced to consider alternate forms of survival due to increasing temperatures and instances of natural disasters.

The solution comes in the form of closing off parts of major cities and turning them into “Inside”. Most of the story takes place inside the walls of the North American Inside, a closed off and fortified Manhattan. It seems like a dream to be accepted into Inside and have been chosen for survival in this human made Utopia, but things aren’t quite as they seem. Their main investor, a self proclaimed ultra feminist, has her own ideas of what makes the perfect place to live and what makes up the perfect population.

As the story unfolds, the project becomes more and more unethical, dangerous, and - for the reader - increasingly thought provoking. I will think about this book and these characters often. I read this book via an eARC from NetGalley, which did not influence my opinion at all! I will absolutely be purchasing it upon its release date later this year!

Yours for the Taking is an exilirating ride throughout the entire book. It begins in the future in the year 2050. As the result of climate change, life on Earth is almost unlivable. There is overbearing heat, coastal erosion, flooding, and the constant threat of tornados, hurricanes and other destructive weather conditions. It centers around an all-female utopian experiment that the protagonist, Jacqueline Millender envisioned. But unfortunately, she has her own warped agenda. This is the perfect read for anyone who likes plot driven sci-fi. The characters are interesting and believable, racially and socioeconomically diverse, with plenty of LGBTQ representation. I loved it and I highly recomment theis book. I was fortunate to receive this novel from Netgalley as an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5! Although I struggled a bit with some of the world building and pacing at times, the book's exploration of queer love and chosen family, interwoven with very real threats like climate disaster and surveillance, has stuck with me since finishing. Looking forward to following Gabrielle's fiction career!

I’m not normally a sci/fi fan but the summary interested me and I’m really glad I read it. The chapters are short and told from multiple perspectives and it kept me wanting to read more. It felt like it could be a YA read but I’d recommend it nonetheless to someone interested in stories with queer characters and/or climate change.

A thoroughly engaging book that will leave you thinking about it long after you turn the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn is an outstanding read.
I knew once I read the description I had to get this one.

I love dystopian type stories and Yours for the Taking sucked into the year of 2050 and held me captive.

There are slight bits of romance here and there, tons of intriguing suspense, adrenaline-pumping action all throughout the story, and lots of character development spread throughout the story. All those things I listed are perfectly divided throughout the story, making for a superior way of story-telling.
Well written characters, an incredibly thought-out plot line with an amazing thought-provoking story. Her world building and storytelling was just phenomenal.
This dystopian novel got me read for hours.
A creative, unique story that was truly an unputdownable book.

I only hope Gabrielle Korn continues to create such stories to keep me entertained for years to come.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Remember that period of time when we luxuriated in excellent, thought-provoking dystopias all the time? THE CITY OF EMBER was the absolute best and that was before we had all the technology we have today, which in turn allows us to imagine even more otherwordly nothingness. And I devoured those books.

This took me back to those days--a juicy dystopia with a fascinating experimental power structure, complicated morals around how those in power implemented control, and the boundaries between where you can want the best for a group of people without listening to what they actually want.

The entire concept of the Inside was a strong enough premise to carry the book, but it also had fascinating relationships, characters to root for, and commentary on what makes us human, how we become successful, and how we see the world.

An absolute delight of a read! I managed to pace myself and savour how delicious it was.

If an author was to google all the topics that sell right now, come up with a list, and then write a book that checked every box on that list, you’d get this this novel. Seriously.
That was my initial impression, but because life kept getting in a way, this book took me an usually long time (several days as oppose to a customary day or two at most) to finish and thus I ended up with several fresh perspectives on it. Which is to say that as annoyingly pandering and self-consciously tryhard as I found it to begin with, I actually ended up not minding it that much and rather liking some aspects of it.
So how do you write speculative fiction that sells in this day and age? Well, it has to be feminist, strongly so. In fact, avoid male characters in general whenever possible. Also, it has to be queer. As queer as you can make it. Throw in lesbians and trans people, heavily. Then make sure you have enough politically correct messages offered in a precise politically correct language. If you do it right, it will provide a clever sociopolitical commentary.
As this book does, to its credit. Because the overall motif here seems to be that a dictatorship is a dictatorship no matter how well meant it might be and any dream taken too far can and will become a nightmare.
Dystopian commentary aside, there’s some interesting worldbuilding here (as Earth becomes borderline uninhabitable and alternative methods for survival have to be engineered), though it takes a backseat to the ideology.
The writing is mostly good but uneven as the author rushes to cover an expansive timeline and flips between alternating narrators. Sometimes it’s just too plain and factual, sometimes it’s surprisingly emotionally engaging. Sometimes (often) it’s pure women’s fiction, occasionally, it’s literature.
But overall, it’s just about interesting enough, original enough and engaging enough to just about override it’s precocious, box-checking trendiness and enjoy. Thanks Netgalley.

Yours for the taking takes place thirty years in the future where the effects of climate change worsen, making Earth almost unlivable. The only way to survive is to be accepted in The Inside Project, a series of weatherproof structures across the globe.
Of devastating beauty, Yours for the Taking is a novel which makes you think and reflect. It’s concept is extremely unique. I don’t want to spoil anymore because I need you to be able to appreciate its twists and turns for yourself.
I loved this book so much and appreciated how real and diverse the characters were. I became so attached to specific personalities. It had me staying up until 3am, so enamored with how well-written and well-executed it was. Yours for the taking is definitely a must-read!

Yours for the Taking is a wild ride from start to finish. The story begins in the year 2050. Climate change has made life on Earth almost unlivable between the overbearing heat, coastal erosion, and constant threat of tornados and other destructive storms. City-like self-sustaining structures called The Inside exist throughout the planet and a lottery chooses who gets to live there. The Inside that exists in what is present day New York City is financed and controlled by Jacqueline Millender who has her own agenda. Jacqueline, extreme feminist, wants her Inside to be free of men, who she concludes is the cause of all the destruction on the planet. Jacqueline's manipulation of all that goes on Inside leads to unexpected results and not quite the all-female utopian experiment that she envisioned. Perfect for anyone who likes plot driven sci-fi. The characters are racially and socioeconomically diverse with plenty of LGBTQ representation. I was grateful to receive this ARC from netgalley and St. Martin's Press.

DRC provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Devastatingly beautiful, Yours for the Taking is a novel that makes you think and reflect. Loved it.