Completely addictive! I could not put this book down and was even sneaking in chapters at work. Admitedly, I Iove reality TV but this was so well executed. I felt completely immersed and attached to the characters. The dialogue was incredible and so real and unpredictable, and there are many layers (if you choose to seek them).

Recap: In a Love Island scernario, Lily finds herself in a compound with 10 women and 9 men. The world is not as we know it, and all players have a desperation to escape reality, for one reason or another. Each person must have a partner in their bed if they wish to survice the night. Lily is gorgeous and its clear she has many suitors. She will need to choose between her best strategic bet, or the man she connects most with. And she will need to make significant compromises if she wants to win.

I found Lily fascinating. She comes across as a shallow, superficial, materialistic Barbie doll, But we begin to learn what shapes her and her own crippling self-esteem. Lily is shrewd, insightful with high levels of determination. She may even have what it takes to win this kind of game. But she is up again some fierce competitors and they have their own motivations.

Very enjoyable. Not as dark and twisted as I was expecting it to be reading the blurb, but very entertaining anyway. I'm a big fan of reality TV so this was hugely entertaining. I was rooting for Lily from the start. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. I read it in one sitting ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So this is how you write a book about reality TV. Aisling Rawle's debut novel, The Compound, like many recent thrillers, riffs off the success of shows like Survivor and The Traitors; yet, this is not a thriller, but a page-turning literary novel about why these shows are so absorbing and addictive, and yet infinitely forgettable. Lily knows she is very pretty and not very smart. When she's chosen to live in the compound, she sees it as her only chance to have a better life, lured by the promises of gifts from expensive brands as she completes challenges. But other people have also come to the compound, and Lily must participate in joint tasks with the whole group as well as coupling up with one of the men if she wants to stay. Like everyone else, she's been watching the compound on television for a long time, so she knows the drill. Rawle's decision to make Lily's narrative voice so detached is absolute genius - her flat narration mimicks how these shows suck us into their reality ('you've betrayed me!' 'you're a traitor!' 'you are responsible for the failure of the task!') and yet tell us that these emotions don't matter. The tagline that this book is a cross between Love Island and The Hunger Games is actually completely spot-on, but its affect is totally different; don't expect YA dystopia or trashy romance. Like her fellow contestants, we learn very little about Lily and she's happy to keep it that way, subsuming her selfhood within the role she's playing. She's also eerily unworried about what viewers will think of her moral decisions, instead focusing on providing entertainment; there's a sense that the only thing you need to aim for in the compound is being remembered. 'The longer you stay the more famous you become. No one remembers the people who only stay for a few days, but everyone remembers the two girls who stayed for six weeks.' This reminded me a lot of Daisy Johnson's excellent short story 'How to Win', but to sustain this voice at novel-length is an accomplishment, and I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

If you, like me, watch reality TV as a guilty pleasure whilst critiquing it - then this is the book for you! It's an eerie insight into the dangers of consumption, reality TV and human nature.

You don't have to be a fan of Love Island to enjoy this book but if you've watched the show, you'll recognise the nods to it with the set up of the compound and the girls iced coffee morning chats. More than that, Rawle explores issues that present themselves on the show such as race, attitudes towards women, and the duty of care of producers.

Rawle draws out reality TV trends and concerning behaviours to their extremes, but in a future world of increased scarcity and conflict, it felt like it could be all too real.

On a more human level, I was hooked following Lily's progression through the show, the development of her relationships, and the building brutality that the show fostered. Lily's flaws were openly presented in the story, but her motivations always felt understandable, and despite being underestimated by them she had a real insight into the other contestants.

Amazing! A mix of love island and the hands maids tale.. so realistic and chilling full of twists and turns
I found the large cast a little confusing at the beginning but this was probably a wanted effect

I really enjoyed this one. If you like reality TV shows and have always wondered what a more drastic version would look like, read The Compound. It‘s essentially Big Brother meets Love Island meets (a less deadly) Hunger Games. In the beginning I found the large cast of characters a little confusing but that quickly became better as you could see early on who was more central to the story. The simultaneously tense and tranquil atmosphere was an element I liked most. The Compound seems a world away from everything and it‘s the characters that make this story so fascinating.

I found this book really dull. It wasn't quite as dark as I expected it to be, given the blurb, in fact the blurb positives were that there were a number of well-written characters, some intentionally forgettable, almost all dislikeable. Negatives, not a lot happens really, I kept expecting it to get better or there was a twist but nothing, I’m afraid I wouldn’t recommend it.

I enjoyed this! It wasn't quite as dark as I expected it to be, given the blurb, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. There were a number of well-written characters, some intentionally forgettable, almost all dislikeable!

This is the book to read if you think reality television is pathetic and so false as to be not worth your time.

Equally it is the book to read if you love reality television shows.

Whichever of these you are, and I will freely admit to being in the first group, there is only one way you should feel when you reach the end of this book.

DISTURBED

Really entertaining, watching people make alliances, and fight amongst themselves, to be one of the final five in this take on reality TV.
A mixed bag of characters that are certainly going to rub each other up the wrong way.
It's slightly sinister anyway, plotting to evict people, but it only gets more so as the days go on.
By the end, we're all a little bit crazy, and I for one am left wondering,would it even be worth it?

This book absolutely hits that sweet spot of being a sinister page-turner while also offering up a critique of late stage capitalism with rampant consumerism and spiritual ennui as a replacement for meaning. The premise is the ultimate reality TV show set in the compound in the middle of a desert ringed with wildfires. The contestants have to pair up in heterosexual, almost totally white couples in order not to be banished, while accumulating rewards that get increasingly expensive (diamond earrings, cashmere, watches, designer clothes and make-up etc.).

Rawle manages to get so much social commentary in here: the lack of make-up and hair products for the single Black woman, the commodification and objectification of bodies (everyone is beautiful, natch!), the divided gender roles where the women do most of the domestic stuff around cooking and cleaning while the men mostly supervise and deal with construction and repairs. There is war in the background and submerged violence, sexual tensions as the women couple up, even if only strategically, while the men spread their, er, 'favours'. And a big driver is consumerism and consumption: they can accumulate more and more expensive stuff the longer they stay in, culminating in a kind of free-fall of goods at the late stage.

But, underneath it all, is also Lily's search for meaning - an escape from her dead-end shop job that she thinks will be overwritten by all the opportunities offered by the compound - only, the more she survives and accumulates the less satisfied she is.

What makes this such a good read is that it has all the gossipy fun of reality TV shows like Love Island without ignoring the deeper, darker, aspects of their cultural positioning and the deadening effect on human consciousness. In lots of ways this is a bleak book, despondent about human nature and what we are prepared to do and be for the sake of consumerist/capitalist success but it wraps up that despair in something that is bright and riveting as a read.