Incredibly readable, The Compound is a unputdownable contemporary novel centered around a reality show where contestants must perform tasks to receive rewards, couple up with the opposite sex, and survive until the end for unlimited physical gifts with the expectation of thanking the sponsors. Much like reality tv, it was hard to look away from this book. I kept wanting to read more and more, curious about the motivations and backstory of each of the contestants. While the characters aren't all fully explored if explored at all, I still was invested in their time on the "show." Because rewards were given out after a task is done, I often found myself wondering if the characters were acting in certain ways for their gift, and it made me, as a reader, feel as though I couldn't trust any of the cast. Super effective storytelling. It is a critique on reality tv, consumerism, and passivity.

As a side note, I feel as though the blurb and marketing is a little misleading to what the book is about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the arc!

The Compound was like a modern day Lord of the Flies where bottomless consumerism is the force that drives people to go to unimaginable lengths - Not for survival, but simply to Get More Stuff. The contestants were there of their own free will, and it was clear they knew what they had signed up for having watched previous seasons of the show. They were unruffled to have to journey through a dangerous desert or wake up with incomplete knowledge of how they got to the compound. They were willing to humiliate themselves or one another for the simplest of amenities, in the pursuit of material goods of increasing value. The escalating violence sneaks up on the reader in the most unsettling of ways, especially as we know contestants are free to leave at any time without penalty, but yet consumerism and materialism rules. The Compound is an unflinching look at the forces that drive so many of us today and begs the question - do we have any limits?

I actually hate reality TV because I imagine this book is how it really is. I see people only caring about beauty, themselves, and having a good time. This book held my attention from start to finish. I would have loved to read about her life outside and the wars. This book has great potential to be a bomb series.

The Compound sells itself as a glossy reality show thriller, but what it delivers is a sharp, unsettling critique of performance, power, and consumer culture. Lily, our detached narrator, drifts through a twisted game that rewards spectacle over substance. It’s eerie, smart, and quietly brutal—less about who wins, more about what we lose when everything becomes entertainment.

This novel is sharp and tightly written with a keen eye for social structures, consumption trends, and evolving media in a landscape that demands our constant attention. Although the pace is on the slower side, I was riveted through the whole thing. I was curious to know so much more about this world—what is going on outside of the compound, what are the side characters’ motivations, what is our narrator’s life like outside of the show. But I can also respect the author’s decision to hold back and focus on what is only taking place inside the compound, a microcosm of how so much of our modern day entertainment is meant to anesthetize us and distract from the horrors of reality.

If you put “Love Island”, “Survivor”, “The Hunger Games”, and “Lord of the Flies” together in a blender, you’d get Aisling Rawle’s debut novel, “The Compound”.

“The Compound” has the feeling of a story that starts in the middle of itself and it took me a while to get into it and to figure out what was going on, but ultimately it’s about an aimless young woman named Lily who signs up for a reality tv show like “Love Island” where contestants are forced to couple up and compete tasks in a mansion in the desert in order to win prizes.

When I read the description of the book I thought it sounded dystopian but in a fun beach read-y kind of way. But it’s much closer to literary fiction, more of a character study than a plot driven book like “The Hunger Games”. It was a really interesting read, though, and I’m sure it’ll be a hit with readers who like trashy TV but also find themselves really questioning the performative and consumerist nature of it all.

This one gets points for being unique. Love Island meets Lord of the Flies. Hunger Games with hot people. The story has a slow start, but it builds as you get to know each character and as the producers’ tasks get more and more risky. The reader knows the rules of the game prevent major violence or harm, but the existence of punishments for misbehaving is enough to raise the stakes. It allows for there to be room to go against the rules and creates a foreboding atmosphere. The mystery of not knowing who each person is and what they’re capable of sucks you in. Social commentary about consumerism, voyeurism, trashy television, and climate change is seamlessly woven into the story and elevates the book. This would make for interesting conversations in book club.

Unfortunately, the book did not hold my attention. The characters were doing instead of adding substance to the story. In an already wide-ranging amount of books regarding reality television, there should have been more to gain from this story.

This was a fantastic beach read. Once I picked this up, I didn’t want to stop reading. If you love shows like Survivor or Big Brother, you will likely enjoy The Compound. Im not particularly a fan of those shows, but I am always drawn to media where a group of people must work together as a way of survival. There are a lot of characters at the beginning and only a few of them actually matter, but It can be confusing at the beginning. That. being said, I did like the mix of the characters, who each brought their own complexities. Additionally, Rawle did a nice job illustrating how bleak overconsumption is.

Thank you to Random House, Netgallery, and Aisling Rawle for an eARC of The Compound in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Lily, a 20-something-year-old, wakes up in a compound with 9 other women. They have all signed up to be on a popular reality television show. Shortly after the women wake up on the compound, they are joined by men. The rules are simple: they cannot reveal personal information about themselves (unless otherwise instructed), they have to complete tasks to obtain furnishings, necessities, and prizes, and they must be coupled each night or risk being banished. The contestants begin to pair up and complete their individual and communal tasks. Tension slowly rises as personalities clash and the competition increases. It becomes evident that producers are meddling to increase ratings. But how far is Lily willing to go to win?

Overall: I liked the premise of this book. As someone who indulges in mindless, reality television gluttony, this book had me questioning the inner workings of what goes into creating those shows. It felt like a commentary on reality in general and the lengths people are willing to go to for financial gain/rewards. Several of the characters fell flat for me, which I believe was intentional. It's more believable for a vapid, malleable FMC to be influenced by producers than would a rigid character with a strong constitution.

Gripes: The development of the "love" between several of the characters fell flat in a manner that did not feel intentional. Perhaps it was. Even still, it would have been nice to have more narrative about the shallowness of those connections and would have prevented those storylines from feeling flat and undeveloped.

Overall: 3/5- Liked it. Would recommend to viewers of reality television.

Lily, a beautiful and bored 20 something lands herself a spot on a reality show where the winner gets to stay and live as long as they please. With not a lot going on in her personal life, she needs to win and is ready to do whatever it takes to be the last one standing.
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10 women wake up in the compound— sprawled about randomly, with no memory of how they got there (ok weird?). After a few days, the men join the compound, except the men are thrown in the dessert and told they have to find it themselves. It takes them a few days and one is left behind and lost, already starting us off with an uneven number. To stay in the compound you must be coupled up or banished.
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The concept of this book pulled me into reading it, and it was not a bad read whatsoever, it was entertaining and easy to read. However, the characters lacked depth, I didn’t care about anybody, and the ending was super unsatisfactory and left me overall disappointed. This book is marketed as thriller, suspense but it fell very flat. I was ready for some crazy things to happen but the “crazy” things were very mild.
I think I was expecting this book to be more wild than it was and maybe that’s my fault for having expectations that maybe weren’t promised to me.
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Fun, raunchy, reality TV show in book form but overall was just vapid and left me wondering what was the point.

It's exhilarating for Lily, waking up on the compound. With little memory of how she got there but full knowledge of why she is, she slowly but surely finds the other nine girls who are waking up across the sprawling grounds, awaiting the arrival of the boys.

The rules on the compound are simple: no discussing life outside of the compound, no divulging personal details of your life before the compound, complete a task and get a reward, and don't tell the others what you had to do in order to get a reward. Simple, straightforward, and makes for great reality tv--which is, at the end of the day, is what life on the compound is all about. Each morning, contestants must awake with a partner in their bed or be banished from the compound. And much like the rules of the compound itself, it's simple enough.

Until it isn't.

"The Compound" is, without a doubt, the most unexpected and compulsively-readable five star read of the year thus far. From page one, it establishes itself as not a "fluff" read but a smartly-written, vividly-descriptive, and genre-bending novel that takes the reality-tv trope and spins it completely on its head. What Aisling Rawle has accomplished in "The Compound" is a story about one of the most mindless addictions of the modern era, reality show competitions, that packs a most unexpected profundity and couples it with a steady undercurrent of dread. From the first page, its clear that the utopia that is the compound will end up in some sort of ruin. But where the story goes is an expertly-balanced blend of predictable and not; its undeniable the book of the summer.

The Compound is an excellent debut for reality TV junkies critical of capitalism looking for a thoughtful perspective on modern desires.

Lily enters a competition which ten men and ten women share a compound - untouched since the previous season's residents - and compete in various tasks for both communal and personal rewards. The nature of the personal rewards makes it difficult to assess the level of authenticity in any interaction and the communal rewards can bring out some residents' coercive nature. Most interestingly, when guests are banished from or otherwise leave the compound, they can choose to bring their rewards or leave them for future contestants to inherit. The participants fluctuate between caring for their environment and letting it fall into ruin, saying much about our own society's ambivalent attitudes about nourishing our planet or leaving future generations to clean up the mess.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the e-arc.

Oh, how I wanted to love The Compound. The premise is intriguing, and the writing itself is clean, but unfortunately, this one just didn’t hold my attention. I ended up setting it aside about halfway through, not because I actively disliked it, but because I found myself loaing interest.
The pacing felt uneven to me, and while the characters had potential to be interesting, I struggled to connect with them. The tension never quite built in the way I was hoping for, and without that driving momentum, my interest gradually waned.
That said, I can absolutely see this finding its audience. There's some interesting political and social commentary. If you enjoy a slow burn, it might still be worth a try.
Not a bad book, just not the right fit for me.

This feels like either a book people will love or hate, due to its unique format and subject. I really enjoyed it - it’s definitely suspenseful, but more in the way of watching your favorite reality television show (which makes sense, since the book chronicles a season of an unnamed reality series), rather than in a thriller sense.

We’re really thrown right into the action, with the 10 female contestants awakening at the titular Compound, in the middle of the desert, awaiting the arrival of the male contestants. From there, we’re introduced to the rules of the game and the ultimate prize for the winner: the ability to ask your anything they want, and the ability to stay at the Compound for as long as they want. The longest winners stayed for six weeks before leaving. I don’t want to say to much more because it’s best to go in learning about the process as it comes up.

Lily is the narrator, an ordinary girl, but very pretty and friendly. The type of girl you expect to see on a show like this. Throughout her journey, she both tries to befriend her fellow contestants, while simultaneously enjoying her time inside the compound, expressing dissatisfaction with her life in the “real world.”

The idea of “real” vs. the fakeness of life on the show was a big theme and one I enjoyed exploring. It’s something that comes up on shows we watch that the book emulates, so it was really interesting to see how the characters interpreted it in this book, and how they all ultimately handled it.

I wish the author would have gone more into life outside of the Compound. There are hints that something bad has happened (wars, disasters, etc.) but we’re never really told. I wish some of that had been talked about and maybe given us some insight into why this kind of show would appeal to people, and why living in the Compound would appeal to Lily.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for something new and different.

With a late June publication date, THE COMPOUND is clearly pitched toward people looking for a beach read or an airport novel. For that purpose, it succeeds. Its large (though always dwindling) cast of ten characters, like reality TV personalities, mostly lack personalities beyond a couple key characteristics, and if readers are paging through this book in a distracting environment, the novel will forgive them for not remembering who "Eloise" is. The plot has enough points studding it to easily regain momentum.

For those looking for a more literary novel, THE COMPOUND seems like a first draft. The characters are weak. Even the protagonist is a cipher: on the one hand, she announces early on that she's a fundamentally passive person, but on the other, she destroys an aggressive man's most prized possession to get a dress. She and the other characters signed up for this reality TV show to get basic bourgeois luxuries (clothes, jewelry, records, etc.), but it isn't entirely clear why they're so desperate for hair dryers, especially because all of them, besides the protagonist, have fairly middle-class jobs. The vaguely dystopian backdrop provides some hints but perhaps lacks sufficient explanatory power. The novel tries to stick the landing in the final chapter—and does a great job of it—but up to that point, the book does not quite provide a convincing case for the psychological motivations at play. This novel is a definite page-tuner, but if one stops for even a minute to consider it, the book can feel inscrutable.

With any luck, THE COMPOUND will be optioned for a TV series and a good set of writers will make something great out of it. Rawle's second novel will hopefully take the strengths of her first but add in the depth that keep it from living up to its potential.

I just finished this book and wow!! It reminded me of the kind of trashy reality TV I sometimes (ok always) love—except smarter, more self-aware, and not quiiiiiiite as trashy. There’s something fascinating about watching people try to fill the empty spaces in their lives with stuff, and The Compound really leans into that—overconsumption, greed, the illusion of security and happiness through material things.

The novel follows Lily, a contestant on the show who wants to stay on the compound for as long as possible. It seems that she’s driven by avoidance—doesn’t want to go home because her life is sad and empty and her work isn’t enough to give her the things that she wants. Her out? Reality TV. She is self aware: she’s not interesting as a person or as a character but what is interesting is all the social commentary happening in this novel. Was a treat to chat about all the things that this book brings up.

One of the things I appreciated most was the ambiguity surrounding the outside world. Is there a war? A climate collapse? Something else entirely? The vagueness works—it lets the compound become a kind of pressure cooker where everyone’s desperation is amplified, and you’re left wondering if any of it actually matters in the end.

The Compound by Aisling Rawle is a dark literary satire that blends elements of reality TV, dystopia, and social commentary. It felt like a mix of "Love Island" meets "Lord of the Flies."
The story follows Lily, a young, beautiful woman who wakes up in a remote, unfurnished compound in the middle of a desert. She is one of twenty contestants (ten women and ten men, though the male contingent arrives later and with an initial imbalance) on a hugely popular reality television show. The contestants are all keen to escape the grim reality of the outside world, which is implied to be suffering from poverty, political unrest, and environmental catastrophe.
The premise of the show is that contestants compete in challenges to win luxury goods and basic necessities, both for the communal living space and for themselves individually (e.g., food, appliances, makeup, champagne). A crucial rule is that by sundown each day, each contestant must have chosen a bedmate of the opposite sex, or face immediate banishment from the compound.
As the competition intensifies and the stakes rise – fueled by hunger, ambition, and the constant gaze of cameras broadcasting to millions – the true nature of each resident begins to reveal itself. The line between desire and desperation blurs, and the unseen producers seem willing to push the contestants into increasingly upsetting and even dangerous situations to keep ratings high.
The Compound explores themes such as:
* The dark side of reality television and performance culture: It satirizes the exploitation, manipulation, and commodification of human relationships and desires for entertainment.
* Consumerism and capitalist greed: The contestants are driven by the pursuit of "nice things" and a comfortable life, even at a high moral cost.
* Dystopian elements: The vague but bleak state of the outside world provides a backdrop for the contestants' desperate clinging to the artificial paradise of the compound.
* Human nature under pressure: The novel examines how individuals respond to extreme competition, scarcity, and moral dilemmas, revealing both the best and worst aspects of humanity.
Overall, The Compound is an addictive and thought-provoking read that critiques contemporary society's obsessions with fame, materialism, and voyeurism.

I’m going to be so honest, with the description of lord of the flies meets love island I was a little skeptical but it was SO fun and I FLEW through it.

A vaguely dystopian reality tv show about hot people having to couple up and then turn on each other to win prizes to make the compound their living on more comfortable. Starting with needs like food and a freezer and ending with luxuries like hot tubs, we see how their cruelty and disregard for each other grows the longer they are on the compound.

I truly loved that the main character remained stupid throughout the book. She applied for the show because she wanted luxuries and an easy life and that did not change throughout the story despite other characters talking about wanting more. She was hot and that was her weapon and I loved that.

It was not a deep exploration of capitalism and exploitation, but it wasn’t trying to be. It was just plain ole fun with a consciousness that we’re living in a capitalist hellscape and money doesn’t buy happiness, but nice things are nice nevertheless.

Ok LOVED this weird story.

You’re kind of thrown into this bizarre setting: a compound of 10 women in the desert. As the story progresses it seems to be a reality show of some sort, and upon the arrival of 10 men from the arid wilderness, they can then couple up and begin to win prizes. Some are in it looking for a relationship, others want a hoard of luxury items, and a few prefer this lifestyle to their own reality.

We find out there are rules that cannot be violated, until the final 5 contestants, then it’s basically a no holds barred survival of the fittest contest. Even violence is allowed, and as a player you’d just have to hope the producers would step in before you’re killed.

Honestly this was so unhinged and intriguing. On one hand I wish there had been a bit more world building, but on the other, the mystery of the whole show concept and the current state of the world works. It makes you feel like you’re in the compound as well, isolated from current events and news of family and friends.

I kept trying to guess if this was an alt present day, alt 1900s setting (since the women were so keen to impress the men and provide for them at first as well as hyper fixated on their appearances), or maybe even a near future.

Our narrator Lily and her fellow females start in this nirvana; an oasis in the arid waste. It’s a carefree setting that seems perfect on the surface, but everything begins to crack as time progresses and relationships are made, broken, and strained. Blood is spilled, minds are broken, and hearts are bared and ripped apart for the viewers’ pleasure. The whole hidden crew seemed so ominous, especially how they manipulated certain events and escalated situations.

I really applaud the author on this incredibly unique story.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Random House Publishing for a copy!