Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

7 reviews

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

excellent on all levels, I've recommended it to everyone I can

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Sorry, this book left more questions than answers and not in a good way.
My issue is mostly about the books take on logistics of a climate change-ravaged world. It took everything in me to be able to suspend disbelief over and over while reading along. 

How could a glorified bubble protect people indefinitely from rising ocean levels??

 How could sending a manned shuttle from space to earth and back EVERY WEEK to get “fresh produce” be at all efficient??? if there are freaking spas and luxury amenities on the space station, they couldn’t add a few hydroponics bays????????? If there is practically no society anymore outside the bubbles, how are they maintaining a launch site to get back to the space station?

Somehow freaking Xanax is a magical drug that can target specific memories to erase? There’s a whole scene where the character  slowly loses just the memories the leaders want her to lose. At first I thought there was like a complicated psychological system, but they just use a vent to somehow waft Xanax into everyone’s room? WHAT

And biggest of all, the ending. Finally, all the women in power in the NYC bubble realize they shouldn’t be drugging thousands of women and children, and I’m pretty sure they specifically imply they don’t want to drug them anymore because that takes away the woman’s ability to choose and consent. But then, the head doctor of the bubble helped two woman sneak out to the surface and never ask any of the other women and children if they want to leave their fucked up lies-filled bubble??? So they take away their ability to choose and consent AGAIN and that fact is just brushed aside like it’s no big issue?
And then the two escapees WELDED THE ONLY EXIT SHUT SO NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO LEAVE AGAIN????????? I can’t.


This book definitely kept my mind working, trying to fill the numerous gaping plot holes.

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Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I was skeptical early on reading this, but I ended up really liking it. It's a good takedown of gender essentialism set on the backdrop of early apocalypse-level climate change. There's heavy use of dramatic irony that works really well to keep you invested in reading it. All of the POV characters are well-written, including the perfectly hateable villain. The ending is hopeful but a little unsatisfying, which sort of feels perfect for the story.

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fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It was fine! I enjoyed this author's memoir back when that came out and it's kind of cool she's able to write like this, too!

In a way, this felt more realistic than other dystopian novels.
I say this because the rich have all the power in the novel, and we're already seeing that now--private fire fighters, bunkers, etc. Was Jacqueline's idea for a gender essentialist "utopia" ridiculous and dangerous? Of course it was. Were the ones trying to help make it better "from the inside" doomed from the start? Yes, they were. Does this track with where things are and where things are going? Sure does!


I wouldn't re-read this but I would be up for an ad hoc book club hangout to talk through the book itself.

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