Always a fan of dystopian type reads! This was no exception! I was pretty jazzed that I was able to read this via NetGalley. My views (which are awesome) are my own!

Climate Change is happening and it is making the world a not so fun place.....hopefully you are one of the chosen females to sustain life in this new community. There is a lot of cishet feminism represented and topics that need discussing! This discusses and lets you sit on the heavy topics of queerness, feminism and being equal in an unequal world.

Pick this book up! Thank you NetGalley and the wonderful author Gabrielle Korn! Can't wait to read more from this upcoming author!

It’s 2050, and the only places safe to live after the effects of the climate crisis are enclosed cities run by The Inside Project, directed by Jacqueline Millender. Jacqueline has a vision of women’s empowerment — as long as they have enough cash to pay for it. This follows several main characters inside and outside of the company and is described as a “mesmerizing story of queer love, betrayal, and chosen family, and an unflinching indictment of cis, corporate feminism.”

This hard a really strong beginning but I felt a little bogged down by the time jumps.

I ended up DNFing but it might be just for the meanwhile.
I’d like to come back and finish it.

This is at once Apocalyptic and Dystopian, which is an interesting combination. We see our world fall a part due to climate change as well as the Inside, planned communities to preserve humanity on a small scale. The New York City Inside is run by billionaire Girl Boss Jacqueline Millender as an experiment. Will a society entirely made of of women be superior to a unisex society? At first it seems like a feminist dream, but experimenting on people without their knowledge never goes well.

I enjoyed this book. It's more about the concept than the characters, who are mostly flat. The writing is overall very good and the concept is very thought out and interesting. The book follows three women: Ava, a citizen of the Inside, Olympia, one of the minds behind the Inside and the community doctor, and Shelby, Jacqueline's assistant. I enjoyed all of these perspectives.

I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

Solid speculative fiction novel that focuses on what if Elon Musk was a woman and people actually decided to let her try and make her own dome cities as the world was even more rapidly falling apart than it was currently. Ended up being a bit simplistic in the sense that the clearly evil Elon Musk analogue eventually gets put in jail when her cultish insanity comes out. The character work is solid, but I honestly won't remember too much of this in another month or so.

Not reviewing St martins press books till they speak about their problematic employee. But yes this book was amazing !

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn is pretty out there and isn't afraid to be. I would suggest for readers of The Stand and Hugh Howey's Silo, Wool, and Shift. Although not as action-packed, the post-climate change dystopia is character-driven and I thought the author did a great job...until the end. It felt too open-ended for me. I'm not sure if the author wanted to hint at a sequel, but it wasn't set up that way. With a nearly all female-identifying cast, this book did a great job of building the world and delivering a pretty impactful story. I would read more by this author.

Favorite quotes:
“Normal only sounds good if you benefit from it,” Olympia said.

She’d always imagined that having a dead loved one might feel like hearing a voice in the next room, a room you can’t get into.

I'm really torn. On the one hand, I was engrossed from start to finish, and on the whole this is an interesting look at how trying to build a utopia in a time of climate change can quickly devolve into eugenics. What the book needed, I think, was at least a hundred more pages. It wrapped up far too quickly and too easily. I'm infuriated by the end but I enjoyed the ride.

In Gabrielle Korn's debut fiction novel, "Your for the Taking," a feminist multibillionaire's ambitious solution to a climate change-induced housing crisis reveals a dark underside that challenges the very essence of community and progress.

Set in a shrinking New York City of the 2050s, Ava, a young white woman, finds herself navigating a dwindling landscape alongside her girlfriend. When the opportunity arises to apply for the Inside Project, a groundbreaking initiative backed by tech innovator Jacqueline Millender, Ava and her partner seize the chance. Selected to join the Inside housing program, Ava's journey intertwines with two other women: Shelby, Jacqueline's trans assistant, and Olympia, Inside's Black, queer medical director. As Ava delves deeper into the inner workings of Inside, she uncovers a web of personal agendas and willful ignorance that shape the program's foundations. Despite its lofty goals, the program's flaws and contradictions come to light, challenging Ava and her companions to confront the true cost of progress.

While the novel's premise is timely and thought-provoking, its execution falls slightly short in the latter half. Despite occasional reveals, the story lacks surprises and fails to fully engage with its complex characters. The limited scope of relationships within the narrative adds to a sense of isolation, underscoring the novel's critique of community and connection. Ultimately, "Your for the Taking" shines with intriguing ideas but struggles to delve into deeper thematic exploration. Like its central figure, the novel grapples with ambitious concepts but fails to reach its full potential.

I was really intrigued by the premise but the characters needed a bit more. One in particular was hard for me to like.

This was another “try something different” challenge, since I have been enjoying more dystopian literature. And while the storyline was fascinating and held great promise – a ruined future resulting from climate fallout - and a narcissistic businesswoman who wishes to save the world, it fell a bit short for me.

There was a missed opportunity to really delve into the characters’ emotions and into themes of female power and abuse, as this book seemed mostly to scratch the surface. The ending was quite tidy as well, and would have benefitted from some additional conflict.

I don’t tend to favor plot-focused books like this, as they often have little emphasis on the writing, with a lack of sentence variety (lots and lots of simple sentences here) and very few setting descriptions. When I look back on this story, I realize I truly have no picture of what Inside looked like. After I’d written this review, I peeked at a few other comments and see that this, more than likely, is why people have pegged the novel as a YA piece. And perhaps it really is, but was marketed otherwise? I don’t read in the YA genre and am no expert.

That said, this was an entertaining book and did raise some interesting questions about complacency, happiness, and family.

The premise and characters are super interesting in this book, but I agree with other readers that the ideas don’t feel flushed out. I think that is partially because this book spans a few decades and because the book is rather short. I would recommend this book as the beginning of a larger discussion on climate disasters and gender dynamics.

I was interested in this book because of the unique take on a dystopian novel. For a debut, I am really impressed with the quality of writing and can really see the effort put in creating a setting that is cohesive and makes sense thematically and realistically. Usually in these types of novels, the setting is not something that needs a lot of connecting to since the reader is able to extrapolate from real life examples without a lot of effort. As a result, the connection then comes down to the chracters and the character dynamics—how they interact with each other, consequences of such interactions, and thus creating stakes that are dependent on the characters.

I found myself having a hard time connecting with the characters and their motives. I felt they were slightly too removed from my understanding.

Thank you to the publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was a very engaging story and i was able to get through it pretty quickly! i thought it touched on the tough topics well without being boring!

Content Warnings: Forced pregnancy, Non-Consensual drugging, Cults, Drug overdose, Climate anxiety, doxing

I found the message of the book the most successful part. It reflects contemporary challenges marginalized communities, particularly the LGBTQ+ community, face not just from the traditional specter of rich, white, CIS-men but of rich, white, privileged TERFs. In particular, the risk of interacting with TERFs and allowing them to bend one’s personal values and morals was on point, and I think will resonate with many people. I also felt the world building overall was pretty well described, and I was curious throughout to keep reading.

However, I found all the characters flat. The time span covered in the book (20+ years) is not really reflected in either the planned/isolated communities (and those who do not inhabit them) or the individuals themselves. I also found the book overall predictable and with the open ending not very satisfying.

3.5/5 stars
Yours For The Taking. The Debut novel by Gabrielle Korn.

Yours For The Taking is a very interesting story that weaves themes of climate fiction, speculative fiction and dystopian fiction into one intriguing tale. The story takes place in the mid-late 21st century where the climate is rapidly deteriorating and sustaining human life on Earth as we know it is coming to an end. The governments and private industry concoct a plan to make “Insides” where a massive number of people can live in a controlled environment. North America’s Inside is located in present-day Manhattan. But of course the motives of a character in private industry has wild plans and that is what makes this novel so interesting.

People are picked to live in the North American Inside near the start of this story and we follow the main character through this journey. Ava goes in to the Inside as a 20-something and we follow her through into middle age. Her daughter also hits her early 20s by the end of this book and becomes a very important character in her own right. The story follows these women along with a few other characters in a highly-controlled environment that is the brainchild of a billionaire & women’s rights activist, Jacquelyn.. On the surface, everything looks utopian and perfect. Matching outfits, gardens, great smelling air and safety from the trashed Earth. It’s VERY quickly revealed that all is not what it seems. I don’t want to give away a lot because it just gets really wild and interesting!

I found this book to be a very engaging read and I got through it pretty quickly. While it dealt with some very serious issues it was a very entertaining read. The characters and their relationships are well developed. The love stories, family ties and friendships really give us a sense of who these people are. The building of the villain, Jacquelyn, the wealthy-white-billionaire-woman’s rights advocate is pretty good because the reader is just given every reason to despise her. She thinks she has great intentions, but she is way off-base and so unethical. While this book didn’t have any good twist reveals, it was still captivating as you wanted to see where this all ended up. And of course, you want to see the billionaire tumble.

I recommend this book to fans of speculative fiction, dystopian fiction, women’s fiction, LGBTQIA+ relationships & issues and climate fiction.

Thank you Netgalley, Gabrielle Korn and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book! The storyline was captivating from start to finish, with well-developed characters. Couldn't put it down! Highly recommend to any book lover.

The world korn created is so visceral and consuming I’m pretty sure my body did not move a muscle for 3 hours while reading this. I was in a trance!

I love speculative fiction from women writers. Although different in plot and story, I really enjoyed reading this and The Future by Naomi Alderman in quick succession. This focused on similar themes of how those with corporate power can enact whichever future they want, however they see it fit. It’s a dark book that I wish I hadn’t read before bed because of how stressed out I was for the characters.

There is so much more to say on this one that I can’t quite process everything I want to say without it sounding like word vomit, but it's an enjoyable story!

Yours for the Taking seems to be more about the big picture (including concepts and critiques) than it does about story details. I am all about a near-futuristic world where they don't have to explain every single thing, but I did want a little more explanation on many things in the Inside.

Duplicate review due to approval for audiobook and eARC.

DNF'd pretty early on.

I thought the idea behind this story was fascinating! It should have all the things I like about cli-fi: dystopia/utopia, strong female MC, a political message worth reading about, and an ambiguous ending.

Unfortunately this story was not for me. Everything about it felt heavy-handed and forced. While I can completely understand why some readers will love this story -- I prefer my books with slightly more subtlety.

I do look forward to see if this author will write another book in the future so I can give them another try.