YOURS FOR THE TAKING by Gabrielle Korn

In Korn’s dystopian novel, the earth as we know it is crumbling due to climate change, while billonaire, feminist, Jacqueline Mellinder, rolls out her vision of a world without men. Mellinder is the director of a weather safe city, known as The Inside Project, built on the rubble of what used to be Manhattan.

One of the first policies linked with The Inside Project, is an emphasis on recruiting ciswomen (women who identify as women, as opposed to trans women) who meet certain criteria. Mellinder wants to create a super race of women who, she hopes, will rule the world. In Mellinder’s Inside Project, inhabitants are drugged through the ventilation system, to improve their mood and they are randomly assigned to work various jobs, most of which are menial.

In Yours for the Taking, we are introduced to several female characters, most of whom are lesbian. Shelby is Jacqueline Mellinder’s assistant. Olympia is a physician and one of the few black women in the Inside Project. Ava, whose partner, Orchid wasn’t chosen for this safe city, and Ava’s two children, Brooke and July. July is Mellinder’s child (unbeknownst to Ava) but was birthed and is being raised by Ava.

Brooke and July grow up as sisters and are very close, but when they are young adults, they make plans to leave The Inside Project. Mellinder hears of this and scoops July from her bed in the middle of the night and takes her to live in the nearby space shuttle where Mellinder’s been residing for some time. (It’s never clear why Mellinder lives in the space shuttle).

Once Shelby realizes what kind of world Mellinder is trying to create ( a world devoid of men), she informs July and together they decide to report Mellinder to a larger administrative body, who imprison Mellinder in order to stop her from ridding the world of men.

This book is a bit of a satire on feminism run amok. It is also a book which, at its heart, is about female power and identity. The plot was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages and if you are interested in dystopian fiction and strong female characters, you might enjoy this book.