Photo courtesy of Lindsey Byrnes.
Gabrielle Korn, author of "Yours for the Taking."
By Nyx Cieprisz ’26
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Taking place in a not-so-distant future New York City ravaged by climate change, Gabrielle Korn’s recently-released debut novel “Yours for the Taking,” has been called “[a]t once a mesmerizing story of queer love, betrayal, and chosen family, and an unflinching indictment of white, corporate feminism,” by its publisher, Macmillan.
Korn spent 10 years in media in various roles, including as Netflix’s Head of LGBTQ+ Strategy on Social Media, Nylon Media’s Editor-in-Chief, Refinery29’s Director of Fashion & Culture and, more recently, author of the essay collection “Everybody (Else) Is Perfect.” With “Yours for the Taking,” Korn has made her first — and hopefully not last — foray into fiction.
Korn described the difference between writing this novel and her past work as “night and day.”
“[W]hen you write for someone else, it's not really yours, or at least that's how I started to feel. Writing your own books is like giving yourself permission to say all the things you've been holding in,” Korn said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News.
In “Yours for the Taking,” Korn has refused to hold back. Her attention is focused on the immediacy of climate change and social justice. “[A] few things converged at once for me,” she said while describing where the idea for the novel came from. “First was a couple of stats: one, that climate change is happening faster than humans can adapt to it, and two, that the climate change tipping points will pass before women have equal rights. I started trying to imagine what that kind of world might actually look like.”
Korn later said that to do so, “I did a lot of research into climate change and potential urban planning solutions, but most of it just came from the deepest, darkest, weirdest parts of my brain.” In addition to the ever-present threat of climate disaster, Korn found another source of inspiration in her career path, adding, “I was also working in women's media, so I'm sure a lot of that environment inspired the book.”
It can be difficult to look at forces like climate change, capitalism and rampant inequality without responding with apathy or despair, but Korn rejects defeatism. In imagining what the future could look like beyond dismal statistics, she delves into the continuation of human connection through her characters. In a follow-up interview, she said that “the heart of the book is several overlapping love stories between different types of people. Queer women, sisters, and a mother and her daughters. Those relationships form and shift and evolve throughout the book, but they’re always there, just like in real life.”
These relationships not only persevere through catastrophe but, according to Korn, provide a source of strength: “When things are at their worst we go on because we love each other, and that’s where the joy in the book comes from.”
Korn also spoke about the importance of accurate queer representation as a lesbian herself. “I also wanted to have an ensemble cast of queer women who come from different walks of life instead of having one queer person in a cast of straight people because that felt more true to life,” she told Mount Holyoke News. “Yours for the Taking” is by a queer person, for queer people, and centers the story around queer characters rather than including them purely for the sake of representation. Korn added that “as queer people we tend to find each other, or at least we are always looking for each other…no spoilers but that is also a big part of [the book].”
The book is also, in part, a critique. “To me the book is about a group of people from different walks of life who come together to take down a TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminist],” Korn said, referring to the character of billionaire Jacqueline Millender, who has “built a whole brand around rethinking the very concept of empowerment” according to the book’s blurb.
“[T]here is a certain kind of person who thinks that their personal success is a stand-in for rights for their community,” Korn said. “With white feminists especially, there's this thinking that if you're a woman who is in charge of something, that automatically makes you a feminist, or like, an activist.”
Jacqueline seems to both epitomize and complicate such a person. “I was interested in the way someone might weaponize their own feminism,” Korn said. “She's not always wrong; statistically, men are just a lot more responsible for violence and destruction. And in the case of climate change, I do think you have to look at the world leaders doing nothing and consider the gender element. Jacqueline uses this to her advantage in a way that's not ethical, but I won't spoil it.”
When discussing what she wanted readers to take away from her book, Korn said, “I hope they love to read it. My goal wasn't to answer political questions, it was to pose them, so I hope readers walk away thinking new thoughts.”
By taking on the challenge of imagining what the future might look like in light of looming climate disaster, late-stage capitalism and challenges to feminism, Korn provides readers with much to think about. Yet “Yours for the Taking” also leaves readers with the sense that, whatever the future may bring, we will continue to find strength and solace in our relationships with those we care about.