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annahollamby 's review for:
Yours for the Taking
by Gabrielle Korn
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
i found 'yours for the taking' overall to be an interesting and engaging read. however, i think it had some glaring issues. for example, much of the book felt overly simplistic, glossing over seemingly important details in order to reach a conclusion more quickly. this meant the world-building fell short in places. i think korn was maybe doing too much with this book, trying to pack in various themes and plots which then limited the ability to flesh each of them out fully. certain points felt fairly clumsy / ham-fisted, whilst others felt pretty heavy handed, really labouring the point.
i still liked the book and looked forward to picking it back up but i felt some ideas could have been wrapped up sooner rather than meandering throughout, and other ideas needed to be explored with more subtlety and nuance! i felt the ending was rushed and dissatisfying, without a dramatic climax, but i will probably read the next book in the series if my library acquires a copy.
also, as a personal aside: for all the moralising this book does on various issues, why on earth did there need to be a small section where stone lesbians were discussed so derogatorily? and then later in the book we're told the stone top in question was really only stone because they weren't attracted to their partner and didn't want to say anything, which is just a massive misappropriation and misrepresentation of a very diverse, valid, and nuanced sexual identity. like it was literally so unnecessary!? why was it included lol? you should be able to say “don’t touch me” to anyone ever in any context and not have it be considered in the realm of surprising or insulting imho. it certainly shouldn't be used as a point to question someone's gayness! it was a very small detail, and likely only so insulting to me because i'm a stone lesbian, but still i feel like for how woke this book tries to make itself, it could have really done without the cheap digs.
i still liked the book and looked forward to picking it back up but i felt some ideas could have been wrapped up sooner rather than meandering throughout, and other ideas needed to be explored with more subtlety and nuance! i felt the ending was rushed and dissatisfying, without a dramatic climax, but i will probably read the next book in the series if my library acquires a copy.
also, as a personal aside: for all the moralising this book does on various issues, why on earth did there need to be a small section where stone lesbians were discussed so derogatorily? and then later in the book we're told the stone top in question was really only stone because they weren't attracted to their partner and didn't want to say anything, which is just a massive misappropriation and misrepresentation of a very diverse, valid, and nuanced sexual identity. like it was literally so unnecessary!? why was it included lol? you should be able to say “don’t touch me” to anyone ever in any context and not have it be considered in the realm of surprising or insulting imho. it certainly shouldn't be used as a point to question someone's gayness! it was a very small detail, and likely only so insulting to me because i'm a stone lesbian, but still i feel like for how woke this book tries to make itself, it could have really done without the cheap digs.