Wow this book hooked me from the very first page! This was such a whirlwind of a book that I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. For being a debut the story was easy to follow with characters that are easy to get to know. I think many readers will read the summary for this book and think it’s just another reality TV type of story they would be mistaken because it’s much more than that. It’s definitely an interesting view of reality shows, consumerism and motivations. Overall this was a great debut and I’ll be sure to be on the lookout for more books from this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

Rawle takes the Big Brother concept to the next level in her debut novel. The story unfolds slowly–Rawle built a complex world and there was a lot to establish about the show and its rules. The story kept this slow-ish pace until the dramatic, explosive ending. There are a lot of characters at the start, but I was able to distinguish them well enough until the core group was established. Lily was mostly unlikeable but the perfect narrator for this world. This slow-burn examination of the reality TV universe was fascinating. I look forward to more from this author!

I was so excited to read this book, markets as Lord of the Flies meets Love Island, but I did not jive with the writing.

I think that others will really enjoy this one - I liked the story overall, but the prose and writing tended to take me out of the story a bit.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC!

This book was compulsively readable. Despite generally creating characters who are basically all unlikable, I had to find out what was going to happen. I was also impressed by how Rawle chose to lay information to the reader - dripping bits and pieces to us as if we were on the show and figuring things out along with the characters. And it was also interesting to be focused so much on the Compound and what was unfolding within that we didn't really need to know much about what was going on in the outside world, or about the lives of the contestants before (or after) being on the Compound.
I think Rawle did a great job of creating complex characters, even with there being so many to keep track of. I think I liked every character and hated every character at various points in the book - they were just all so human.
I can't wait to see what else Rawle writes in the future!

I made myself a promise that if I was not really enjoying a book that I would just give up. Life is too short. I'm not enjoying this book at all. It's going nowhere.

I'm going to waste my time with something else.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

4-4.5⭐️

I didn’t know much about this book going in, other than it was supposed to be Love Island meets Lord of the Flies. I tend to enjoy going in mostly blind to books, so if that is also you, know that you should read this book, and stop here.

We are dropped in to the Compound as our narrator, Lily, wakes up in a room full of beds with one other person with little to no explanation. The two partner up as they explore the grounds and find 8 other women, waking up in various places throughout the property. They quickly decide they need to pick up (as the previous tenants left it a mess) as they prepare for the boys to arrive. We learn that these 19 strangers are contestants on a reality show where every moment is recorded and they have to live by a specific set of rules as they complete personal and group challenges to earn prizes and essential supplies—you can’t talk about the show or having seen it before, you can’t talk about yourself or the details of your personal challenges, and you can’t harm another contestant… until the final 5. As we get hints of a vaguely dystopian world, what’s not to love about this “paradise?”

This book is addicting and hard to put down. I binged it in about 2 sessions.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.

The Compound was so intriguing to me. I didn't fully get the concept at first, but then I could not put it down. I disliked pretty much every character with a few exceptions and those exceptions were hurt by our FMC and that was annoying. There was a lot more violence than I would have guessed and I am confused why the people would have let it play out. Regardless, I read this in one sitting. It was such an interesting concept.

Interesting debut about the lengths people go to for a bit of fame and material possessions and how it can warp into something else entirely.

The bulk of the book is the day to day of the contestants which easily becomes a bit boring; it lulls you into a sort of complacent mood before yanking the rug from underneath your feet. Eventually things start to pick up and then it all snowballs, but I do think the pacing in the first 3/4 could have been a bit faster.

None of the characters are particularly likable yet I found myself reading this in one sitting despite the fact that I didn’t resonate with any of them. In fact, some were downright awful. It’s the book version of trashy reality tv that sucks in, but with a much darker and insidious undercurrent. You’re waiting for it all to implode and in that aspect, Rawle delivers.

There are some areas where things are a bit nonsensical; the producers intervene for one altercation yet when a contestant is in even more danger they let it play out. I know reality shows run on high drama, but that didn’t seem plausible. Entertaining, but not entirely believable.

All in all it was a decent read for me, and I’m interested to see what Rawle comes up with next. The Compound is entertaining but in that brain rot doom scrolling sort of way, which as a mood reader is absolutely appreciated, and at times is just what one needs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the E-ARC; the above review is my honest opinion left of my own volition.

The Compound by Aisling Rawle has a fun premise and interesting concepts but never seemed to engage me like a lot of similar stories. Rawle I feel will have a knockout success soon but The Compound for me is just ok.

The Compound is unlike any reality TV novel I’ve ever read. It’s dark, thoughtful, creepy at times, and more literary than other reality TV novels. The Compound is a large house and grounds in the middle of an isolated desert in an unnamed country. And, it’s the center of a reality show that is a cross between Love Island and Survivor. Our main character is Lily and she’s a contestant on this reality show. It took me about 10% (when she’s world building) to get into the story, but I was obsessed after that. The concept for this reality show is fantastic and I’d actually love to watch it play out for real on TV. The structure of the show facilitates commentary on materialism, status, power, and group dynamics. There’s a bit of a Lord of the Flies element and the study of group dynamics was my favorite part of this story. The publisher is calling this novel dystopian, but that is very subtly in the background.

A reality show set in an unnamed place in a dystopian future. It reminded me of what I think the show Big Brother is like but I’ve never seen that show myself.
A group of people come together and have to complete tasks in order to get things they need individually or as a group..
I enjoyed the book and the writing but I really disliked the main character Lily. She drove me crazy. I’m sure she was supposed too be like that to be competitive but man she wore on my last nerve.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for a honest opinion. 3.75⭐️because I didn’t like Lily

I’m going to be chewing on this one for quite a while. This was an absolute banger - I tore through it in under a day and wish I had more. The Compound strikes the very rare balance of being both an addictive story that sucks you in as well as a stunning social commentary. I read another comment that said the description of this book sold it short, and I could not agree more. I almost didn’t pick it up as it was marketed as a mix of Love Island and Lord of the Flies, but it’s so much more than that - I would really describe this more as a modern day Animal Farm embedded within the familiar social constructs of reality tv, providing one of the sharpest commentaries on capitalism that I can ever remember reading in a piece of fiction. There’s so much to unpack here about the decisions we all make in order to survive within a system only designed to benefit a select group, and what we’re willing to trade in order to gain or maintain power within our current constructs. Listeners of Diabolical Lies will be absolutely smitten with this read, and it should be required reading for every AP English course. A 10/10 read, and one I’ll definitely return to again in the future.

I'll admit I'm a sucker for Love Island, so naturally, when I saw this being described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, I dropped everything to read it. And it was a spectacular decision! This is Rawle's debut novel, and they knocked it out of the park! While the main theme of this remains similar to Love Island, it gives reminiscences of Black Mirror, Survivor, Big Brother, and a bit of The Hunger Games. This novel takes a magnifying glass to our society and forces us to reconcile with the construct of reality TV, the need for fame, societal performance, consumerism, capitalism, gender roles, our need for connection, and so much more. This book truly felt like I was watching a show play out, rather than reading it. I want to say so many things about it, but this is one of the novels where the less you know going in, the better.

This is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, and I highly recommend it to everyone. This is peak summer reading, and it just might be my favorite book of the summer.

Thank you, Random House Publishing, and Aisling Rawle for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to many more books from Rawle.

The Compound is a compelling debut. It’s a slow burn character study that is difficult to describe without spoilers. Let me repeat myself: this book is a slowwwwwwww burn! It has dramatic elements and is psychologically thrilling, but the first third of the story is rather mundane. The pacing is not going to work for every reader, but I found the story to be gripping from the first few chapters — even when not much was going on.

The novel is packed with commentary of consumerism, capitalism, reality TV, gender roles, performance, and honestly so much more. Rawle has a lot to say, and she executes it in a way that never feels overwhelming or overwritten.

Overall, I really really enjoyed my time reading this! Thank you to Random House, Netgalley, and the author for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads 6/18/25.

Review to be posted to Instagram stories 6/19/25 and in my monthly reading wrap up at the end of June.

I loooooved this book. Is it the perfect book? No. But it hooked me from page one and did not let go of me until the last word.
The Compound tells the story of Lily, a young beautiful woman, on a reality tv competition show with 18 others. Think Bachelor in Paradise meets The Hunger Games. If that isn’t the best setup for a book you’ve ever heard, I want to know what is. You are immersed in the action right away and it is so engrossing and propulsive. I liked getting to know Lily and the other characters but I really enjoyed the unhinged drama and craziness. This book would be an amazing reading slump buster.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book.

this book is truly one of the best i have read in a longggg time. imagine love island with some dystopian vibes sprinkled in there. such a cool plot!!!

One of the true 5 star reads of the year for me - I was hooked from the start all the way to the end. What starts as a simple gameshow quickly becomes desperate, then tense, and ultimately totally unhinged.

A really unique premise, a fun cast of characters (especially when it gets pared down a bit, it was hard to keep track of people at first), and a protagonist who neither terribly heroic or smart but instead cunning and pragmatic - I really really enjoyed this one.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A poor shopgirl wakes up on the set of her favorite reality show with several other female contestants and a group of men trekking across the desert to them and the compound they'll call home.

The show itself is very heavily Love Island-coded with a dash or two of The Hunger Games -- the boys' trek across the desert, the tasks for supplies they'll need to live (and more luxurious rewards along the way), the shift to more competition and fewer restrictions as the end nears...

The dystopia is very light and really only hinted at in the periphery. The drudgery of existing in late stage capitalism, the threats of war and climate change. While it's not quite as violent and certainly not dealing with the same social commentary as Chain Gang All Stars, I felt a similarity here with the suffering-as-entertainment angle and the sense that this is a world that our own could very easily become in the near future.

What social commentary there is seems pretty blatantly pointed at overconsumption. Contestants complete personal tasks ranging from betraying a friend to publicly humiliating oneself to receive clothes, jewelry, makeup, champagne, record players... The final prize being the ability to stay in the compound as long as you like and have any item you want on demand, no tasks needed.

The very final chapter was a bit of a letdown to me. I don't feel that the protagonist experienced much character development.

But boy oh boy, the ride to get there was PEAK poolside reading. Almost every big plot twist is an exciting, climactic scene. This was every bit as bingeable as any actual guilty pleasure reality show, even (maybe especially?) when things tilt from tense to horrifying.

I am a reality TV and psychological fiction fan so this seemed so up my ally, and it was done SO well!!!! I absolutely adored this book. Wow. The writing was excellent, the plot was wonderful. I spent so much time thinking about the ending, the plot, and what I'd do in this situation.
THANK YOU to netgalley and the author/publisher for the ARC

This book? Unhinged. In the best, most bingeable, “did-that-just-happen?” kind of way. If you’re tempted to read the blurb first—don’t. Trust me. Going in blind makes the reveal so much wilder.

Forget what they say about Love Island meets Lord of the Flies—this is more like Big Brother on a bender with a side of psychological warfare. You wake up in a desert compound with nine other women and a million questions. Cameras. Rules. Viewers. And then the men show up...

What follows is a slow burn that explodes into chaos. It's dark. It's satirical. It's disturbing. And yet you won’t be able to look away. Aisling Rawle pulls no punches, and by the end, I was left staring at the wall asking, “What did I just read… and why do I kinda want to read it again?”

Not for the faint of heart. But definitely for those who love their fiction fierce, freaky, and full of WTF moments.