Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

16 reviews

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I can see many groups of people having a hard time swallowing this book. It has so much classism, racism, sexism, and just plain life jacking that I could see anyone just being moral outraged. But that’s kind of the point of the book. It wants you to be upset about how many lies the characters tell themselves to believe that what’s happening is ‘for the best.’ 
It’s so easy to forget how everything can sound like a good idea if spoken with enough confidence. Extremism can be so hard to spot when you’re blinded by the charisma of someone who is liked by so many people. This book is just a reminder of all that can be lost if you let too many decision be taken from you in the name of ‘for the best.’ I think the biggest downfall of this novel is the speed in which the story was wrapped up. I felt idealistic in a book that warns you about trusting ‘ideals.’ 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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: Complicated

A fast read, the pace was really propulsive. But, with that, some nuance that I would have enjoyed was missing. Really looking forward to the sequel. 

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

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himpersonal's review

4.0
adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-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: Complicated

This was interesting - almost like a reverse Handmaid’s Tale. Some might even say a feminist’s Utopia. Except of course it can’t be, because it’s built by flawed humans. There are forces who want to resist, and plenty more who want to ignore what is wrong because it’s inconvenient to question what feels like a good deal, especially when they are the chosen ones. Some might even say it feels a bit like it could be a prophetic metaphor for our current situation in the US.

This book might be a call to action for the woke who need to be further woken. As for those whom I call asleep (as in not woke), this book might just be a bit of science fiction that could someday make a good movie - with the right director. (Let’s take the red pill people, please!)

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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I enjoyed the book in general, and many of the characters were interesting. A fun thought experiment for exploring gender, hierarchy, and control. Ultimately though it feels like there are gaps in the worldbuilding
like only a single person dying Inside in 22 years
, and the fallout of the ending meant that things did feel somewhat rushed and unrealistic
for example, the rest of the staff just going along with Olympia being leader after having just been shown to be hostile to her and her ideas.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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