I really did not expect this to be as good as it turned out to be. Yes, the premise sounds awesome - I mean "Lord of the Flies meets Love Island"? Can it even get any cooler? I expected this to be fun, yes, but I didn't expect the depth and important commentary.
There is an eerie atmosphere to the whole story: We are dropped into this Compound, following our protagonist Lily who is beautiful yet, by her own admission, not much else to the point that she has trouble with the simplest maths. She's a great protagonist and there is depth to her reasons for being in this compound. The reader learns that this is a Love Island kind of dating show set in this run down house in the middle of the desert, and the more we learn about it the more horrifying it becomes.
It starts with the fact that while the girls wake up in the compound with no recollection of how they came there, the guys have to actually track through an apparently highly dangerous desert that surrounds the house with deadly heat and wild animals that might attack at any moment to even just get to the place. We get small glimpses through Lily or dialogue at the world outside which seems close to complete collapse, multiple characters telling us that humanity will be dead in at most 30 years anyway. The contestants have to find a significant other on day on in order not to get eliminated, and who gets eliminated is based on who ends up waking up alone in bed in the morning. There are competitions the whole group has to participate in together as well as personal challenges for the characters that lead to them getting more and more valuable prizes - ranging from a fridge for the whole group to luxury articles for the individuals sponsored by brands they have to shout out.

This is just the set-up but already there is a feeling of dread, and it never leaves. It's a fascinating read and a clever commentary on consumerism as well as a character study of a sort. There's jealousy, there's performing for an invisible audience, there's competition and manoeuvring and betrayal, all of that wrapped in the vanity that comes with a group of gorgeous people participating in a dating show that is said to be immensely popular - all while the world around it crumbles to dust, which is strong societal commentary on its own. The world is dying, but at least we can watch these beautiful people be dramatic and receive prizes normal people could only ever dream of.

It's clever, it's dark, it's beautiful yet very bleak underneath, it kept me on my toes, it surprised me. Just an all around gem.

Lord of the Flies meets reality dating show? This premise could not have appealed to be more. THE COMPOUND follows 10 men and 10 women competing to be the last to remain on the compound, a fancy home filled with cameras watching every angle and located in the middle of an actual desert where real dangers lurk.

The book is narrated by our main character, Lily, voted as the 2nd most beautiful by the boys and paired up with the boy who was voted as the most beautiful by the girls. Similiar to Love Island, no pairing is set in stone and there are opportunities to change partners, with the risk that once you are left alone by morning, you must go home. With cameras and millions of viewers watching their every move, the cast members’ behavior becomes extremely strategic. Challenges are offered by producers to spice things up, and they must work hard to complete group tasks to earn necessities like furniture, clothing, and even food and water.

The dystopian element is what makes this book so suspenseful. While not outwardly explained, there are mentions of wars and dangers in the outside world—hinting at how this may be their only path to living comfortably after the show. I was easily sucked in to the story due the fast-moving plot (what disaster will occur in this chapter?) and the typical reality dating show drama that I find so entertaining.

The second half really picked up in pace as tensions become higher and Lily begins to feel her life is in real danger. Many are humiliated, alliances are betrayed, and getting out alive eventually becomes their true reality. This is one of those books that is so different from your typical read, the perfect escape that you could easily binge in one or two days. I flew through this on a pool day and couldn’t wait to finish it later that night.

For me, this was the perfect escape and possibly a top 5 read of the year for me. If you love stories of survival, reality TV, or just want something unique to binge this summer—I highly recommend picking this one up!

Rating: 😐/2.75
Review: What?!? Intriguing premise and beginning. Then got slow and by the end I was wondering what was the point. Has vibes of Big Brother and Survivor - but very one dimensional with no one to cheer for.
Format: 👩🏻‍💻
Source: #netgalley
Published on Goodreads 7/4/2025

TLDR: If your ideal read blends psychological thrills, sci-fi, dystopia, and a dash of Love Island obsession, add this to your list immediately!

What an intriguing thriller! I've been on a kick with this genre lately, and this book delivered. It’s described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, which perfectly sets the stage. Prepare to delve into compelling themes like influencer culture, social classes, pervasive consumerism, isolation, and the complexities of mental health.

Knowing this is a debut novel makes it even more impressive. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for Aisling Rawle's future work!

Thank you Random House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full Disclosure: I received an uncorrected galley proof of Aisling Rawle's debut novel, "The Compound," via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

While I can see the appeal of this novel, I must be honest and say that the reality TV fanbase that it plays to has never really included me. "Unscripted, competition/reward" shows haven't been my go-to in any of their many and variously themed incarnations, although like most American adults I have given several shows a season or two of following.

I believe the author's intent may have been to shine a satirical light on the materialistic and often shallow motivations to which these shows play. Unfortunately, for this reader, the stereotypical and limitedly developed characters lent a flatness to the story. The repetition of each day's Community Challeges followed by Personal Tasks for Rewards never broke through and jumpstarted a larger reflection on my part.

@randomhouse | #gifted I’ve long been a reality show junkie, so when I first saw that 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 by Aisling Rawle was a book centered around such a show it immediately went on my TBR. Rawle, a debut author, imagined a fascinating reality show premise. A group of strangers, men and women, make their way to a compound in a sort of desert oasis where they can stay as long as they’re part of a couple. Wake up alone and you’re out! Along the way they can earn a vast array of prizes, from the basics like food and cleaning supplies for the whole group, to fabulous personal luxuries to hoard away for themselves.⁣
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From the very beginning, Rawle had me hooked. I loved the creativity of her show and all the complications that came with it. Its characters were varied and the pace quick. All great, right? Mostly, but it also felt very much like watching a reality TV show, maybe too much. Part of the reason I like reality TV so much is that it’s okay if I get a little distracted, if I’m not always paying 100% attention and I typically don’t. I know the basic layout of the shows, so if something else gets a little in the way, it’s always easy to pick up the thread.⁣
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About halfway through 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, I realized my mind was wandering more than usual. I had the basic set up down and I know how reality shows generally run, so I wasn’t paying the kind of attention I normally do in a book. This isn’t to say surprising things didn’t happen in that second half, it’s more of an interesting observation of my own reading experience with this book. I liked it, I just wish it was not so easy for me to drift around in. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫✨

A poignant and timely critique of our current performance and consumerism culture. An enjoyable and thought provoking read.

20 contestants are sent to live in The Compound. How they choose to live is up to them. They can complete group tasks to get things for the compound as a whole or individual tasks to get items for themselves. The only requirement, they must share their bed with someone else until the final five.

This one fell a bit flat for me….
It was originally described to me as Love Island meets The Hunger Games which is an awful comparison but it was what was widely being circulated. Now I see it’s being compared to Love Island meets Lord of the Flies which is a little more accurate but still not quite right.
If you enjoy reality tv shows I think this is your kind of book! The book follows Lily, a gorgeous young woman who really doesn’t have much going for her other than her looks. I found her to be shallow and uninteresting as a whole and think this would have been a better story if told from the perspective of someone a bit more interesting …
There were moments where I was invested but others where I was waiting for something to happen. I also thought the ending was a bit abrupt but also I don’t think there was much else to go on with the story at that point. I honestly wish it would have been more cut throat, but maybe that’s just me.

It was a decent book overall that will go over really well with people who enjoy reality tv but only if you’re expecting it to be like a reality tv show.

Dystopian reality TV in the desert? Sign me up. This book was unique, dry, dark, thought-provoking. I can’t fully put into words what it was about or what I think about it—but I couldn’t put it down. Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Wow, what a doozy this book was. The synopsis is very true: A mix of Lord of The Flies and Love Island. A group for women and men are in a house in the middle of the dessert and they must complete tasks not only to stay on the show but to get basic things like food and water. This turns into survival mode very quickly. The book follows Lily one of the female contestants who is absolutely determined to win. This book was engaging and dark and really shows what humans do when pushed to the brink. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves dystopian literary fiction / thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this eARC.

If you love Big Brother or Survivor, this book is for you! The group dynamics, unpredictable challenges, behind-the-scenes manipulation, and shifting alliances kept me hooked. The ending fell a little flat for me, but overall, it was a fun and engaging read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

Look, most of us can understand the draw of some trashy reality shows. My personal "guilty pleasure" show is The Challenge, and I will never stop watching. The show in The Compound is a little less athletically driven than The Challenge, but has the drama nailed down. Our main character Lily wakes up at the titular compound where she finds herself with nine other young, attractive women. The setting seems to be the near future, the world seemingly just as dystopian, if not more, than our own. I do wish we'd gotten a bit more worldbuilding in that sense, as I wanted to know what world Lily was escaping from, but alas.

Anyway, the girls expect ten men to show up, but nine do. The compound has several rules: if you do not have a bedmate of the opposite sex, you are eliminated. The contestants also must earn all the elements that make a home- from furniture and doors to food and water, and then more luxury, non-necessity items. The tasks are often messy (think rating the looks of their housemates, breaking people's things, etc.) and are designed for maximum drama. This is truly like watching a very unhinged reality show unfold before your eyes. Lily is not fully likable, but neither is she unlikable. I felt some sort of sympathy for her, but I also was not always a fan of her. This seems intentional, because we are supposed to see the bad and the good sides of these characters.

There is definitely drama, and there are certainly twists and excitement. Obviously, there is a lot of interaction between characters, both positive and negative. We see Lily form bonds (and feuds) with nearly every cast member, to some extent. And we are also able to see how these bonds impact the house dynamic, whether the relationships are friendships, enemies, or lovers. I did hope for a little more from the ending, and a bit more world-building (especially to understand Lily a bit more as a person outside the compound) but it was still compulsively readable and I could not put the book down.

Bottom Line: If you've ever been captivated by a reality show, you'll be captivated by this book!

Wow this book was crazy!!!
Reality tv is still all the rage and this book had everyone out for the fame and rewards. This imaginative, unique story will stay with me but I was a little disappointed in the ending.

I was excited to read this book, but wasn't expecting too much. I was really surprised. It should be called When Reality TV Goes Horribly Wrong. Did not disappoint.

Do you love reality television? How about people behaving badly for material items? Are you a fan of coming-of-age stories with morally grey characters? Do you love books with a dystopian setting? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, The Compound, would be a good book for you to try. Even if you don’t like any of those things, you may still enjoy this book! I do not watch reality television, but while reading the very binge-worthy, The Compound, by Aisling Rawle, I totally get the hype. Even though my personal experience as a viewer of reality TV is quite minimal, as I turned the pages of The Compound, I was able to understand why this sort of television is so riveting. In the same way that viewers become invested in the characters of reality TV, this reader became equally invested in the outcome of the characters and the “game” they were playing, so much so that I found my heart rate accelerating with each turned page.

With characters that I wanted to love, but loved to hate, I couldn’t help but wonder what choices I would make if I were in their shoes. Mainly I was pretty sure I would never put myself in their shoes. Although I remained conflicted about the purpose and benefit of such a show/game, as I learned more about what drove some of the characters to apply to the show, I had more empathy for them. Ultimately, I couldn’t stop turning the pages because I had to know who was going to be voted off the compound next, and who would be the last contestant standing.

This was a fun and immersive reading experience, albeit a disturbing commentary on our materialistic culture, that I will not soon forget. If you are looking for a bingeable story that will take you outside your own daily existence, make The Compound the next book you pull from the shelf.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of The Compound by Aisling Rawle in exchange for my honest review.

The Compound is a fascinating book. Perfectly billed as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, it’s about a reality TV competition on a desert estate that requires its contestants to complete individual and group challenges to win rewards – and to pair up to sleep each night, or risk being banished from the compound. Our entry into the world of the book is Lily, who readers will recognize from reality TV dating shows as an “everygirl” – there’s nothing to make her stand out from the crowd, other than her beauty, because she is not particularly smart or interesting on the surface. But she has quite a story to tell, in the end...

We’re dropped right into the compound in the first chapter, and Aisling Rawle keeps us there for the entire book. Set in the near future, the book gives you a vague sense that all is not right in the outside world; ongoing war and escalating climate events are a constant threat, which makes the compound even more of a haven and escape for our characters – and, Rawle infers, for the viewers of the show. But it’s a cutthroat competition, too, pitting its contestants against each other, stopping just shy of torturing them – all for the entertainment of the folks at home.

And that’s where The Compound really excels, I think. It’s a compulsively readable, salacious story about reality TV, if you want to read it that way. But it can also be read more deeply, as a meditation on consumerism and materialism, modern society’s nonstop desire for MORE – whether it be more stuff or more entertainment. The world is literally burning, but in the compound, our characters are blissfully unbothered while they earn their rewards and are manipulated for ratings, while the cameras greedily soak it all up. I think the cover of the book conveys this message brilliantly.

The Compound is thought-provoking contemporary fiction, while also maintaining the beloved sensationalism of the best beach reads. It really did surprise me in the best way and is an incredibly promising debut for Aisling Rawle. Thank you to Random House for the complimentary reading opportunity.

I’ve heard a lot of buzz about this debut that the publisher describes as “Lord of the Flies meets Love Island”, so I couldn’t wait to pick it up, even despite not being someone who is super into reality television. It was an entertaining summer read with a little more depth than I expected, but the pacing and structure didn’t work as well for this reader. Regardless though, there was enough that was enjoyable that I’ll be looking forward to what this debut author does next!

This story essentially follows a suspenseful reality TV show from start to finish, told from the POV of one of the contestants that allows the readers a glimpse into the show and dynamics between the contestants that hasn’t been seen before. Our narrator is Lily, who is admittedly gorgeous physically but otherwise has a dead-end job in the outside world and not much else going for her. The show opens with a group of men and women all thrust into sharing one big living area (a.k.a., the compound) with each other, and we learn about the dynamics of the show through Lily’s point of view as things start to unfold. While competing for extravagant prizes both individually and as a team, they’re also in a sort of dating show situation, with the goal of waking up with a member of the opposite sex every morning or else reaping the consequences. One by one, the contestants are eliminated until only one winner emerges who can live in the compound with their riches for as long as they please.

Although there is a plot that moves the show along, this story is largely a character study of the MANY characters. Through Lily’s eyes, we see all of the contestants exhibit traits from jealousy, vanity, and greed to found friendship, comradery, and maybe even real love. There are big messages of the negativity of both reality TV and today’s world, such as focus on body image comparisons, overconsumption, greed and lack of diversity, all coming down to highlighting the dangers of consumerism and the lengths people will go to for fame and to have the most “things”.

What didn’t work as well for me as I’d hoped was first the pacing - it was a VERY slow burn, and with all of the characters being relatively hard to root for, I felt like I was constantly reaching out for a thread to hold onto to carry me through and become really invested in, but kept coming up short. There were also lots of characters, and just as with any reality show, since anyone can “make it to the end”, I felt more compelled to remember and get to know them all from the start. Of course we see at the end once we get down to a handful of people left in the compound that it wasn’t necessary to remember everyone, but it’s impossible to know from the start who to pay closest attention to. In terms of dislikable characters, Lily really seemed to lack personality in my eyes and seemed to only be there as a lens through which to watch the show. Overall though, it was a perfect choice for a summer read in this HOT weather lately, and would be a great addition to a beach bag for a book to dip in and out of during a vacation.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Literally ate this up in 24 hours. It's such an easy read and while I don't think it necessarily fully commits to its messaging I do think it's a very interesting look at the culture of reality TV and the separation we and the people involved have to afford ourselves to enjoy it. Overall, this was super addictive and I think it's helped me get over a pretty immense reading slump so happy happy.

The Love Island x eerie suspense crossover I had no idea I needed. The premise will feel familiar to LI viewers, but it has much deeper, sinister roots that kept me flying through the pages. Can’t believe this is a debut; Rawle will be an auto-buy author for me now.

The Compound was savage, juicy, and easy to fly through-- though unfortunately, left me wanting. Set on a reality tv show where contestants win luxury prizes and compete to be the last person standing, we experience this novel through Lily, a contestant on the show who is exceptionally beautiful but self-admittedly does not have much else going for her on the outside world. The story becomes darker and grittier as it progresses. I desperately wanted to know more about the dystopian world outside of The Compound, which is alluded to a few times, but never expounded on. This is definitely dystopian-lite. We are left with sparce information in other aspects of this novel as well. A cool premise and explores themes of materialism, fame, purpose.

Many thanks to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley.