Tag: feminism

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Date of publication: December 5th, 2023

Genre: Science Fiction, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Dystopia, Lesbian, Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Feminism

Purchase Links: Kindle | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

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/women’s rights advocate, and thanks to a generous donation, she’s just become the director of the Inside being built on the bones of Manhattan. Her ideas are unorthodox, yet alluring—she’s built a whole brand around rethinking the very concept of empowerment.

Shelby, a business major from a working-class family, is drawn to Jacqueline’s promises of power and impact. When she lands her dream job as Jacqueline’s 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. As Ava, 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 do—and who she is willing to sacrifice—to keep her dream alive.

At once a mesmerizing story of queer love, betrayal, and chosen family, and an unflinching indictment of cis, corporate feminism, Yours for the Taking holds a mirror to our own world, in all its beauty and horror.

First Line:

The Inside Project started with the best intentions.

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The pace of Yours for the Taking held steady at a medium fast pace.

POV: Yours for the Taking was told in 1st person, 3rd person, and 2nd person POV.

Trigger/Content Warning: Yours for the Taking has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

  • Transphobia
  • Confinement
  • Grief
  • Death
  • Emotional Abuse
  • Mental Illness
  • Misogyny
  • Suicide
  • Medical Trauma
  • Death of a parent
  • Pregnancy
  • Gaslighting
  • Classism
  • Ableism
  • Bullying
  • Panic attack/disorders
  • Self-harm
  • Rape
  • Slavery
  • Toxic Relationships
  • Violence
  • Forced Institutionalization
  • Medical Content
  • Kidnapping
  • Lesbophobia
  • Pandemic/Edemic
  • Body Horror
  • Suicidal Thoughts
  • Abandonment
  • Refugee Experiences
  • Workplace Harassment
  • Depression
  • Drugging
  • Eugenics
  • Loss of autonomy
  • Climate Change

Sexual Content: Yours for the Taking has moderate to graphic sexual content.

Language: There is moderate to graphic swearing in Yours for the Taking. Also, terminology and language will be offensive to most readers.

Setting: Yours for the Taking is set in a dystopian New York City.

Age Range: I recommend Yours for the Taking to anyone over 21.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

In 2050, the world is ravaged by climate change. When a reclusive billionaire/women’s rights advocate decides to build climate-safe, domed cities, it is a ray of hope for most people. Ava is one of those people, and when she is selected to live in the Manhattan Inside, she is thrilled. But, when her girlfriend, Orchid, isn’t selected, Ava is forced to journey to The Inside alone. Once settled, Ava learns of a program that will guarantee her better meals and rooms. But, doing this program would mean doing something she never planned–becoming a mother.

Jacqueline Millender is the reclusive billionaire/women’s rights advocate who pitched the idea of The Inside Project to donors. She wants to make a perfect world where women and men run equally. Or does she? There are secrets hidden from her donors and the people who run the day-to-day administration of The Inside Project. These secrets can make the project (and Jacqueline’s lifestyle) crash and burn.

Shelby is a young, bright transwoman who wants to make an impact in the world. Horrified by the effects of climate change, she hears about Jacqueline and her life as a women’s rights advocate. So, when Shelby becomes Jacqueline’s assistant, Shelby jumps at it. But Shelby soon learns things aren’t all sunshine and roses with Jacqueline or what she wants to be with The Inside Project.

Olympia is a promising medical student on the verge of graduating when Jacqueline offers her a job as the head of her health department. When she is forced to accept, Jacqueline shows her a different side of The Inside Project than what is projected to the world. Only Olympia’s actions prevent Jacqueline from doing something that could ruin the project. But Olympia can only stall for so long.

How will Shelby, Ava, and Olympia unite to bring down Jacqueline? What is so horrible that they will lose everything to prevent a more significant catastrophe?

Main Characters

Ava: I liked Ava the best of all the main characters. Her core values at the beginning of the book were the same at the end. She was sweet, and she loved her daughters. But, she knew, deep down, that something wasn’t right with The Inside. She was my favorite character in the entire book.

Jacqueline Millender: I liked what she initially put forward at the beginning of the book. She was building safe havens for people during the climate crisis that they were experiencing. But, slowly, cracks started to show in her facade and what she was doing. By the middle of the book, she disgusted me (what she had Olympia do to Ava and the other Inside residents was criminal). By the end of the book, I pitied and didn’t like her. I want to believe she was drunk on power, but with everything revealed about her family and herself, I think not.

Shelby Silver: Shelby rated second on the characters I liked. She went into the job with Jacqueline with rose-colored glasses. Even I could see how she was treated as early as the chapters where Olympia got recruited. Once she got on the ship (after the bedbug debacle), she was treated as less than a person. In the end, she is the one who brings about Jacqueline’s downfall.

Olympia: Olympia, for me, was a morally gray character. She followed Jacqueline’s orders until she started to develop a conscience. But until then, Olympia was willing to do whatever it took to cover up what Jacqueline was doing in that Inside facility. I liked that she finally found her backbone, stood up to Jacqueline, and ended what was happening. What Jacqueline suggested and what Shelby found out was the straw that broke her.

My review:

I am going to be very blunt here: If you do not like feminist books that are centered almost entirely on queer, lesbian, and trans people, then this book might not be the book for you. The author laid the “men destroyed everything, so the women need to fix it” on very thick in this book. But, you know, in a way, she’s right. Our climate is changing, and the powers in charge sit there, twiddling their thumbs. And yes, they are 85% men. I’m not saying that an entirely matrical society would be different, but anything that will slow climate change would be welcome.

The main storyline is wrapped around the four main characters, climate change, and takes place over twenty-two years. It was well written. As mentioned above, I found it very heavy-handed with the “men are destroyers” angles. I also wasn’t expecting it to go the way it did with any of the main characters. The author interconnected everyone, and she did it very gradually.

The storyline with Ava, The Inside, and her daughters brought tears to my eyes. I felt so bad for her, and I wanted at least something to go right for her (at the beginning of her storyline). The way Orchid left her was horrible. Then she went through the added trauma of bearing children, going through pre and post-natal depression. She was happy while Brook and July were with her but lost when they left.

The storyline with Jacqueline brought a terrible taste to my mouth. I didn’t like her initially, but I figured she was building these safe havens for people. But then, the author took her character and added these layers to it that made me disgusted. Over the twenty-two years that she ruled over her fiefdom (and yes, it was that), she suggested such horrible, vile things that I truly hoped Olympia wouldn’t listen to her. She got everything that was coming to her and then some.

The storyline with Shelby was sad. She adored Jacqueline and would do anything to help her. It broke my heart to see how she was treated, not only by Jacqueline but by other people. She was so sweet. I was also in awe of Shelby’s resourcefulness. She, along with Olympia and July, worked together to bring Jacqueline down.

The storyline with Olympia was sad, but I felt that she made her bed for most of the book. At the beginning of her storyline, she was forced into the position (someone doxxed her). But, after that, she participated in everything Jacqueline asked or wanted. It wasn’t until the death of one of Brook and July’s friends and the coverup that she realized that maybe what she was doing wasn’t good. I mentioned that Olympia was more of a morally gray character, and I believe she was. Olympia starts acting like the human and doctor she is by the end of the book. And that began by fessing up to Ava about what was going on.

There isn’t a happy ending in Maybe Once, Maybe Twice. The book ends with a maybe. I’m not too fond of books that end with a maybe. I need to know what happens to people. I hope they end up where they are going, but the implications could be better.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Gabrielle Korn for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Yours for the Taking. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

If you enjoy reading books similar to Yours for the Taking, then you will enjoy these books:

Other books by Gabrielle Korn

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

Publisher: Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Date of publication: November 1st, 2022

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Adult, Book Club, Feminism, New York

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | Alibris | Powells | IndieBound | Indigo | BetterWorldBooks

Goodreads Synopsis:

This is not just another novel about a dead girl. Two women—one alive, one dead—are brought together in the dark underbelly of New York City to solve a tragic murder.

When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over.

Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.

Alice is sure Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her short life and tragic death. Ruby just wants to forget what she saw…but she can’t seem to stop thinking about the young woman she found. If she keeps looking, can she give this unidentified Jane Doe the ending and closure she deserves?

A “heartbreaking, beautiful, and hugely important novel” (Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author), Before You Knew My Name doesn’t just wonder whodunnit—it also asks who was she? And what did she leave behind?

First Line:

You will already have an idea of me. There are enough of us dead girls out there.

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

I am a huge true crime junkie. I listen to various podcasts, watch ID Discover, and read fictional mysteries/suspense/thrillers. So, when I got the Before You Knew My Name invite, I accepted it. No hesitation, I downloaded this book to my Kindle in record time. I am glad I did because I enjoyed reading this book a lot.

Before You Knew My Name was an exciting book. This was the story of Alice, an eighteen-year-old girl from Wisconsin who had traveled to New York City. Alice was murdered and left for dead on a rocky pier. She is determined to help the woman who discovered her, Ruby, find her murderer and get justice. But this is also the story of Ruby. Ruby, from Australia, had been stuck in a rut for a while when she decided she needed a new start. And for her, it means traveling to New York City. But Ruby is the one who discovers Alice’s body, and Ruby is the one who pushes the police for answers. Will Ruby find herself in New York City? Will Alice get her justice?

There are trigger warnings in this book. The trigger warning is underage sexual contact/situations, cheating, mentions of sexual abuse, suicide, child abuse, and drinking. If any of these trigger you, I suggest not reading this book.

Before You Knew My Name was a medium-fast-paced book set in New York City. It starts fast, slows down in the middle of the book, and then picks up towards the end. The pacing was perfect for this book. Any faster, and I would have had an issue keeping up. Any slower, and the book would have dragged.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Alice and Ruby when they were both introduced. Alice seemed like an unreliable narrator. At the beginning of her story, she glossed over a lot. Ruby was a hot mess, and you know what? I related to her.

  • Alice— As I mentioned above, I wasn’t too sure about Alice at the beginning of her storyline. She was very unreliable and kept glossing over her earlier years. But, as the book went on and she opened up about her life pre-New York City, I started to like her. I did think she was too trusting (mainly with Noah, but he ended up being a teddy bear). When the killer killed her, it did hit me hard. I was a freaking mess. Then I got mad and hoped the police would catch the killer soon.
  • Ruby—I liked her right from the beginning. She was a hot mess but relatable (as I described above). I wasn’t that shocked that she up and left Melbourne. She needed a new start. But her fresh start didn’t exactly go as planned when she found Alice. I loved how her character grew after finding Alice. She became almost obsessed with finding the killer, and she did have a great support system (a found family) in New York. My only quibble with her was Ash. He was like a drug to her, and she needed to let him go.

There were many memorable secondary characters in Before You Knew My Name. They each brought added depth to the plotline. There were some that I wished had more book time (Noah and Tina were two), and others (like Alice’s teacher/lover) needed less book time.

Before You Knew My Name was a combination of mystery and thriller. It fits perfectly into those genres. I think there could have been a tad more thriller, but that’s just me.

Alice’s storyline was poignant. But it also made me unbelievably mad during some parts. Alice had some awful things happen to her, but she dealt with them with a grace that I know I wouldn’t have had. But, once she arrived in New York with that camera and found Noah, she turned into a different girl. She began to see a future. And that is what made me so unbelievably angry when she was murdered. The killer snuffed out her light too soon.

Ruby’s storyline was just as poignant but in a different way. She needed a change. She was stagnating in her life in Australia. So, her going to New York City and starting over was good. And, in a way, finding Alice’s body was a good thing too. Because if she didn’t, she would have never gone to the support group. She would have never met Lennie, and she would have never joined The Death Club. She also would have never met Josh, Susan, or even Noah.

The storyline with Alice’s killer was interesting. The author kept his identity and motive under wraps until almost the end of the book. Ruby had a hand leading the detectives to him when she remembered something crucial about the night she found Alice.

The end of Before You Knew My Name was poignant. The author was able to merge all the storylines, and she ended them in a way that tugged at my heartstrings. From beginning to end, this book will make you think about all the John and Jane Does out there.

Three Reasons You Should Read Before You Knew My Name:

  1. It was a true mystery. The author kept Alice’s killer under wraps until the end.
  2. The book had a great pace to it. It made reading and keeping track of the different storylines very easy.
  3. The characters were very relatable.

Three Reasons You Shouldn’t Read Before You Knew My Name:

  1. The trigger warnings.
  2. Alice being murdered. I was so angry about that (even though I knew it would happen).
  3. Ruby being a hot mess.

I would recommend Before You Knew My Name to anyone over 21. There is language, nongraphic sexual content, and violence. Also, see my trigger warnings.

If you enjoyed reading Before You Knew My Name, you will enjoy reading these books:

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Date of publication: January 18th, 2022

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy, Supernatural, Feminism

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible | B&N | Google Play | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

A biting novel from an electrifying new voice, Such a Pretty Smile is a heart-stopping tour-de-force about powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them.

There’s something out there that’s killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.

2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.

2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.

As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty.

There was blood in the water–a dull pink bloom–the morning Lila Sawyer heard about the first missing girl.

such a pretty smile by kristi demeester

I am going to be the odd one out with this book. Why? Well, I didn’t care for it. I know (ducking rotten tomatoes and hearing boos echoing across all the platforms I post to), it is not the popular opinion. I wanted to like this book and was pretty excited to read it after all the favorable reviews. Then I read it, and it fell flat for me.

Such a Pretty Smile did have an exciting storyline. The book centers around Lila and her mother, Caroline. In the 2019 storyline, Lila is a teenager dealing with a lot in her life. Her mother has a reputation for creating creepy statues made out of materials she found on her walks. Her father is distant, focusing more on her newborn sister, born premature and with a severe health complication. She is also dealing with peer pressure, a frenemy who alternately bullies and befriends her and questions her sexuality. To top it off, Lila has heard dogs bark, and there is a voice in her head telling her to do things that she usually wouldn’t do. Meanwhile, brutalized bodies of young girls are being found around the Atlanta area.

In the 2004 timeline, Caroline is under an immense about of pressure. Her father is in hospice, and she is drowning under the bills associated with it. Caroline takes a job teaching private art lessons to a homeschooled teenager to make ends meet. But, things are happening to Caroline that she can’t understand. She hears dogs barking nonstop, and she is having delusions. When she talks to her psychiatrist about that, she gets drugged, but that doesn’t stop it. Everything comes to a head when she finds out about her past, which ties directly to the current murders.

When Lila finds out about Caroline’s past, the storylines meet and she runs back to New Orleans to investigate Jazzland. What happens will send shockwaves in everyone’s lives and change them forever.

I did feel bad for Lila. She was smothered by her mother and ignored by her father. On top of that, she dealt with bullying and figured out her sexuality. She was a pressure cooker and was about to blow. Honestly, I was surprised that she waited as long as she did to freak out on Macy, her father, and her stepmother. I did wonder (when she started hearing the dogs barking) if her stress was manifesting. But it wasn’t until she was in the car (sweating her butt off) that I understood what was happening to her was paranormal.

I also felt bad for Caroline. She had a lot on her plate in 2004. She was solely responsible for her dying father’s medical/hospice bills. She was trying to get through art school and launch her career. She had to deal with a fiance who didn’t support her in anything. So, when she started hearing dogs barking and seeing things, she figured that it was because of stress. I wish that she could have had a break in that storyline. But it went from one thing to another when her father told her that she was kidnapped when she was a child. It was then that everything amped up. Her descent into mental illness and how the male figures in her life treated her were awful.

The horror angle of Such a Pretty Smile was well written, but it didn’t do anything for me. I was waiting for some epic battle or at least The Cur getting what it deserved. It didn’t happen. Instead, there was a rail against men and how women were expected to confirm (which we are, and yes, it is unfair). I felt a little let down when the author explained everything at the end of the book. I was left feeling meh.

I did like the solid feminist stance that the book took. But, I did feel that it was a bit much in places—one of the things that made me “meh” about Such a Pretty Smile.

I did enjoy the ending and seeing how Lila ended up after the events of Jazzland. I am glad that she met with people who understood what she went through. I also wondered, with how the final paragraphs were worded, if there was going to be a sequel. Maybe The Cur will get what is coming to it.

I would recommend Such a Pretty Smile to anyone over 21. There is sex, violence, and language.