Very progressive book (LGBTIA and climate change are front and center) but the characters aren't well written and I didn't love the plot.

So many thoughts about this book! I've read quite a few dystopian/utopian feminist books over the past decade, but they all seem to leave out a piece- it could be race, class, education, or the whole LGBT spectrum. This author seems to have thought of every possible angle of what a feminist utopia could be and then breaks it all down piece by piece. Such a thought provoking read- definitely wish I had read this with a book club.

What really worked for me: the way that even smart, capable, critical-thinking people can get swept along in the face of rhetoric and minor concessions. We see the perilous danger of white feminism and what it could be if allowed to fester. And Korn also did a very good job at pulling people from different backgrounds to show various effects.

However, most things kind of fall apart under close scrutiny. I was constantly bubbling with questions about how religion would factor into the Inside, or how so many smart and educated people (from diverse backgrounds!) didn’t look deeper or rebel at all. We don’t know if there was some kind of system of justice. We don’t know what manufacturing or any other kind of non-food-related production looked like. I think having the limited viewpoints saved Korn from having to explain those things, but it also meant that I personally got wrapped around the axel wondering about them.

The other thing that really got me was the timeline. We kind of do a fast-forward montage of like 25 years, which is a LONG time. We also get the sense that some of our characters would get bored in 20 years (legit can’t fathom how Shelby, a personal assistant, didn’t read her boss’s email even ONCE in twenty years; no way). There’s no way everyone would just be mindlessly going along with things for that long, particularly not if they’re both highly educated and from varying backgrounds. If it was 5 years, yeah okay, but 20 is way too long for absolutely nothing to change or be challenged.

But one more thing I did really like was how Korn played with generation stereotypes; with millennials being the old people and Gen Z being, like, parents of teenagers. The nods to those stereotypes and memes were great.

Is dystopian feminist futures becoming a new subgenre? If you like Naomi Alderman, I'd say you'll probably like this book.

Yours for the Taking is a dystopian novel that focuses primarily on three women (Jacqueline, Olympia, and Eva). Each woman benefits (though in vastly different ways) from the Inside Project. The Inside Project is essentially a large enclosed, self-sustaining living habitat that is meant to hold millions of people. These habitats were a way of saving humanity in the face of brutal climate change. There are several throughout the world, but this novel focuses on the one in North America.

There are several other characters that are important to the story, including the daughters born on the Inside, but I think you get the gist of the story. There are honestly very good points about gender and gender identity. The arguments between Olympia and Jacqueline about gender are honestly well-researched and well thought out. The actual story left me wanting.

Overall, I thought the book was messy and could have used more background on what life Inside was like.

Check my website for the full review!

Thanks St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

Yours for the Taking is set in the future and spans the years 2050-2078. Climate change has devastated the planet which sparks the need for new ideas to save humanity. The “Inside” project is supposed to do just that, but there’s more to it than the public knows. This climate change based story is a good read for dystopian fans and those looking to read stories with a strong cast of women and lgbt+ characters.

I had high hopes for this book, but it didn’t quite reach them. The premise of this book is interesting and I did enjoy the story for the most part, but there were several moments that would have more powerful if they were left for the reader to reflect on and not immediately explained away. This tendency for over-explaining made me question who was the intended audience of the book and took me out of the story. There were a few specific parts in the story that also irked me including a line about having children to fill a void and a character bed-sharing with an infant.

This story spans two decades so there’s a fair amount of time that’s quickly described in a couple paragraphs and not detailed which makes sense, but I do wish there were more scenes in the book in place of some of these descriptions so that I could get more engaged in the characters and their interactions. The ending also felt anticlimactic and I wish there was more there. Overall though, this was a book I did mostly enjoy reading and would recommend to others as I can see this being something that some people really love even though it wasn’t that for me.

I’ve never quite read a book like this before, but I found it quite intriguing. It made me think of things I don’t often think about. I liked the LGBTQIA’s reputation in this. The ending of this book I had some mixed feeling about and feel like it was a bit rushed. I would have like it if they would have done like a 10 years later type thing at the end, but over all I would definitely recommend I enjoyed reading it. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A bit too scattered to completely work, not just in terms of the ideas being conveyed but also in terms of the characters and narratives. Despite there being many perspectives, each character is easy to connect to as they are introduced, as there's a clear view of their relationships, struggles, decisions. However, as the story continues, that specificity seems to take a bit of a backseat. Each character gets relatively rushed continuations of their narratives (and chapters are rather short here), which makes their respective conclusions seem not to be entirely earned. I appreciated the worldbuilding and the way the author plays with ideas, but this didn't really stick the landing for me.

Yours for the Taking reads like the girlbossification of the anti-girlboss novel. Korn's quality of prose and pacing kept me from putting it down, but the longer I read, the more heavy-handed the story became. Unfortunately, any nuance is stripped away from what could have been a very interesting novel.

Could not finish fast enough. Stayed engaged with every page. Was stimulating on so many levels. Will be looking out for more from this author. Thanks for allowing me to read!

Ooh, I got chills from the prologue alone.
This story has all the elements to get me to love it: near future, sci-fi dystopian and queer.
As someone with climate anxiety (who doesn't have it at this point, am I right?) my palms were sweating with the descriptions of this not so distant future.
I really liked Ava and this story had me hooked from the beginning. What first drew me in was the cover and then the title (I try not to read the description so I don't get any spoilers) and then the story completely swept me away. I'm excited to read future works of this author and to share this one with my friends and followers.
Sometimes there are just books that really hit you with their brilliance and this is one of them. Great work!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Yours for the Taking is at once a found family story, a queer narrative, and a scathing critique of anti-trans movements backdropped by a climate dystopia and capitalism run-amok. There are so many levels to the story and characters that it’s like a box of mysteries just waiting to be unpacked and left me speechless.

This story takes place in a disaster ridden world, where the climate is in full collapse and humanity is on the edge of societal breakdown. In the midst of this, the Inside project is proposed, where structures are built in population hot spots around the globe and small portions of humanity are invited to attempt to ride out the climate disaster. And if one of the Inside cubes goes a little rogue and decides to cut men out of its population? Well, nobody needs to know.

Yours for the Taking is extremely concerned about the topic of autonomy, particularly women’s autonomy, which is cognizant of debates and struggles today. It’s what the book, ultimately, is about. Each of the characters is grappling with autonomy in some way, some to a greater extent than others, which makes the overall narrative seem in conversation with real world problems.

This is one of those books where I would have to suggest doing as little research into it as possible just to get the full effect of the unwinding story. I went in fairly blind (though I requested the ARC, I had only skimmed the summary and heard a few of my TikTok mutuals gush about it) and it was probably the best way to experience the narrative. The extent of the antagonist’s atrocities and plans is revealed slowly and deliberately by Korn.

The power of this book and the way in which it weaves together the stories of several women to create an overall message about womanhood, paired with a strong writing style puts Yours for the Taking in the running for my best book of 2023 (and it hasn’t even been released yet!). Though the themes are heavy and the topics hard to grapple with at times, I truly believe it is well worth the read.

Korn, following the tradition of American utopia and dystopia novels like Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward 2000-1887 and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, writes a book that's more about the ideas than the characters themselves. Here, Korn's characters are facing the limitations of feminism in a world rapidly deteriorating from climate change, and when gender is so much more than a male/female binary. The characters, all interacting with a so-called feminist utopia where men are abandoned and left to die with the Earth, each come face to face a future that is indeed female, which brings about its own oppression and systemic issues. Korn's novel seems to argue that no utopia can be built off of a gender binary; that any form of hierarchy will ultimately find ways to be harmful and oppressive. A great book for your book club to discuss, and one you'll likely want to dissect with a group of friends. Though sometimes a bit on the nose and blunt about its themes, this seems to follow with the intent of the book– not to explore characters, but to explore a philosophical question.

Yours For the Taking is a philosophical utopian novel that will leave you thinking. As the novel explores the construction of gender as a binary and the deterioration of the Earth, it asks the reader to ponder: Should the future really be female?

This felt very different from the books that I’ve been reading this year. It was a good palate cleanse after reading a very lengthy fantasy series. I love that this book is set in the future and it gave me insane futuristic vibes. The author has such a way of getting so damn detailed. There were sentences that I read twice (maybe 3 times) because I was so blown away by the descriptions. I don’t like to give much away in my reviews, but I want to give a huge thumbs up to the author for allowing me to read this. Incredible read and incredible writing.

Wow! What a read! This is my favorite book that I’ve read this year. From start to finish, I was completely hooked. I could not put this book down. It was an enjoyable, page-turning, futuristic dystopian tale about the impacts of climate change and people’s choices on how they will stay alive. A billionaire, Jaqueline Milender (who reminded me of Elon Musk) designs a living arrangement that’s called The Inside which she claims will save the planet through female empowerment- but it ends up being in very unorthodox ways. The book then follows strong women characters as they navigate their new reality. This book is full of love, resilience, as well as beautiful queer and trans representation. It also prompts the reader to reflect and question what gender roles really mean, and to contemplate the impacts of climate change. This read will stay with me for a very long time! I absolutely loved it, and I highly recommend it!!

An interesting story of love, found family, betrayal, gender bias, and social unrest.

I really enjoyed the multiple viewpoints in the book and how each character showed a different part of the story. The story itself was an interesting one and full of plot twists. It also highlighted some of the gender and class differences we face today.

The story went on a bit long for me, however. There’s only so many times I could read about the same problems of being Inside repeatedly. I understand why this was done and I really wanted to hear something different by the end of the book. There were also a few loose ends that I didn’t think were fully wrapped up.

Still, this was a good book and one that I enjoyed reading overall.

I'm trying to figure out where to start with talking about this book, but at the very least, I can safely say that this one had such a chokehold on me and I'm going to be screaming at people to read it when it comes out in December. This is my favorite kind of sci fi - one that is terrifying because it feels so close to being a reality.

This book asks a lot of questions - are men the biggest issue with society, and therefore the cause of climate change? Would life be better in a society with all women? What would that look like for trans women, trans men, and nonbinary people? How does this proposed society treat women of different wealth classes and educational backgrounds? What happens when we let a billionaire have control over the future of humankind?

None of these questions have simple or easy answers, and while the future of Gabrielle Korn's world has some ideas, it doesn't claim to solve for them. Instead, it challenges the reader to answer these for themselves while seeing how this might unfold through the eyes of a handful of characters. It all sounds very daunting, but it ends up being a very fast paced, accessible story.

I don't think it's perfect - the book spans years, and there are many times that I wish we could have spent more in or learned about more characters in them. I also found the ending a little too neatly wrapped up, but it still had me begging for a sequel. It still manages to be a 5 star read for me, though, because my experience reading it was just so good. I found this alternate future (or not alternate? Like I said, it feels so close to what might actually happen) endlessly fascinating and impressive. I want more of these characters and more from Gabrielle Korn!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC!

I'm a dystopian gal. I love an end-of-times, the world is collapsing novel. Yours for the Taking has made the list of my favorites in this genre. The world-building was great; the descriptions of Inside and the outside world painted a vivid picture of where humanity was heading. I felt like I could see Inside with its cookie cutter apartments, multi-level gardening structures, and clandestine "bars" with alcohol-free wine. I could feel the smog outside and empathize with the people doomed to remain there.

While I didn't love all the characters (who ever does), I felt like I actually got to know the major players in the plot. Most of the characters had some depth, and I was able to connect with them in a way that made me care for their futures. I was rooting for Ava and Olympia while worrying for Shelby. That's not something I find myself doing very often, but Gabrielle's writing got me there. Oh! And the queer representation! I find many authors awkwardly shoehorn queer characters into stories as a pandering tactic, but Gabrielle managed to show that representation can be done and be done very well.

All in all, this was a pretty good book. Better dialogue would've bumped this one up to five stars for me.

Thanks a million to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

A fascinating dystopian novel. The world is in chaos and leaders in the feminist movement set out to attempt a solution. Lots of imagination used here and I guarantee you will enjoy this one. It is thought provoking yet scary.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

For her fiction debut, Gabrielle Korn teleports into the alarming future with a queer climate fiction novel that opens in the year 2050. A resident of a now-sinking Brooklyn, Ava has the chance to escape the inevitable when she’s admitted to the refuge that is The Inside Project, created by girlboss par excellence Jacqueline Millender. But, as you might imagine, this supposed feminist utopia is not all that it seems. Korn manages to grapple with weighty topics while also delivering a compelling read, rife with twists—and a sequel is already in the works.

https://www.elle.com/culture/books/g42156598/best-books-of-2023/

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly I found this deeply tepid, and like if twitter identity discourse was rehashed into a novel. I appreciated the epistolary moments of it (and honestly my rating is closer to 2.5 stars), but it's something where the book just felt hollow at points. I wanted to care for the cast, but I think the time scale on this was too over eager and wanted to cover too much ground, which ended up tripping it up. Also, Jacqueline as a central character almost felt like a parody at points, and while I loved the intent behind her, I feel as if the author didn't quite strike the right balance with her. Anyway! Wanted to like this! Loved the ideas it was playing with! But I honestly think that this would be a better movie than a book, and the storytelling style lends itself more to a visual medium, and in book form it just didn't quite clicks.