Yours for the Taking

The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what’s left of Brooklyn, and though they love each other, it’s hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. 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 Millender is a reclusive billionaire/womens rights advocate, and thanks to a generous donation, shes just become the director of the Inside being built on the bones of Manhattan. Her ideas are unorthodox, yet alluringshe’s built a whole brand around rethinking the very concept of empowerment.

Shelby, a business major from a working-class family, is drawn to Jacquelines promises of power and impact. When she lands her dream job as Jacquelines personal assistant, she’s instantly swept up into the glamourous world of corporatized feminism. Also drawn into Jacqueline’s orbit is Olympia, who is finishing up medical school when Jacqueline recruits her to run the health department Inside. The more Olympia learns about the project, though, the more she realizes there’s something much larger at play.

When Ava is accepted to live Inside and her girlfriend isnt, shes forced to go alone. But her heartbreak is quickly replaced with a feeling of belonging: Inside seems like its the safe space shes been searching for most of the time. Other times she cant shake the feeling that something is deeply off. As she, Olympia, and Shelby start to notice the cracks in Jacqueline’s system, Jacqueline tightens her grip, becoming increasingly unhinged and dangerous in what she is willing to doand who she is willing to sacrificeto keep her dream alive.

At once a mesmerizing story of queer love, betrayal, and chosen family, and an unflinching indictment of white, corporate feminism, Gabrielle Korn’sYours for the Takingholds a mirror to our own world, in all its beauty and horror.

Hardcover, Dec 5th 2023