A review by sarahweyand
Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feedback are my own. 

Let me begin by saying this is a queer science fiction book with great rep and an interesting premise of a climate dystopian world. I feel like all my sentences about how I feel after reading this book follow the structure of "I really wanted to like x, but y...". To prove my point, a list:
  • I really wanted to like the sapphic romances, but they felt too shallow and poorly developed for us to value them as much as we were seemingly meant to.
  • I really wanted to like the premise of the elite leaving the planet behind and living on space ships, but the science seemed too poorly thought-out (How are these people going from space to earth to space to earth? Where are they getting the fuel? I have too many questions.)
  • I really wanted to like the plot twist about Jacqueline's Inside development strategy, but it seemed a little too mustache-twirling evil and obliviously ignorant to be believable.

I could keep going. Some things were certainly done well and I enjoyed myself enough overall. This book just needed another two or so passes by an editor to tighten up some character development and motivations. I liked the questions and thoughts the themes of this book provoked, and the concept was pretty different from most things I've read recently. Pretty 50/50 on this one, but would be interesting in reading Korn's sophomore novel for sure!
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