I thought, from the blurb, I'd enjoy the novel. I didn't think I'd love it as much as I did. By the time I got a third of the way in, I found it un-put-down-able. I quickly embraced the manufactured drama of the tasks as well as the rules (the voice of production reminding players not to discuss production is soooo Big Brother lol). It's reality TV with the social commentary of The Truman Show.

I almost don't want to talk more about its details with those who haven't read it, the same way I didn't want to read commentary beyond the blurb because I knew I'd buy into it. And I did.

Highly recommended, and it'll probably be one of the books I can (and will) recommend to a lot of people.
I can't wait to read what she writes next.


Yep, I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved so much about this book. The reality tv show aspect, and especially the game aspect, led to some messy drama. Described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies or The Hunger Games, there’s plenty of drama and deception.

Honestly just like when I’m watching a reality competition show, I can’t learn all these people’s names until it’s down to the final few. There were several that I didn’t even try to remember because I could tell they weren’t going to be super relevant or important. I think the idea for this tv show was really creative, and I enjoyed reading about the tasks they had to do to earn rewards.

This was a thought provoking read. We don’t know much about the world outside the confines of the compound, which makes for an interesting read. I wouldn’t say any of the characters are really likeable, but it was still fun to read about them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I highly recommend getting into this cold. The first chapter makes for a very disorienting experience but the set up works really well.

Absolutely compulsive read that for the most part hits that sweet spot between shallow escapism and a more profound existential message. The existential dilemma here being the mundane, routine existence vs instant gratification and superficiality.

The writing is simplistic, juvenile even and it fits perfectly the premise of the story. I don't have many complaints but one of them is that the author break the rules she laid out herself whenever the narrative requires it. Without revealing the plot, we are told several things about the life in the Compound at the beginning. Towards the end when the stakes are much higher these rules completely change or characters acquire useful skills out of nowhere.

Several times the narrative touches on the concept of weather the actions of the participants are real or driven by the desire to win rewards and I wish this is where it stayed as it would have made a much more interesting reading experience. On that level making Lily more of an observer rather than a participant is quite fitting, in theory. Unfortunately Lily isn't shrewd or observant and so we are stuck with her dullness.

In the end I feel that the book is very aware of its own shortcomings and the author understands the importance of moving things along at a really good pace. I anticipate this will be the breakout summer read.

Love Island meets the Hunger Games, a compelling read in a wild setting for the ages!

I really enjoyed this unique read!

Interesting premise. Loved the locked room aspect as it provided a feeling of uneasiness throughout whether it's the uncertainty of the outside...or the inside of the compound. Easy to read despite longer chapters. This book has relevant social commentary about happiness, race, gender roles, sexuality, consumerism, in a way that's digestible but isn't afraid to go there.

Found the characters to be realistic, if a bit extreme at times. Nothing happens but also so much happens that inform us about these characters and the society. FMC is kind of detached; not super relatable to me but easy to follow alongside and understandable. I feel like I KNOW this girl and girls like her. She is truly a product of her unhappiness, dead end job, uneasy society, etc.

An abrupt yet solid ending made this well done, thought provoking debut through and through!

READ FOR
- Reality TV Setting
- Locked Room Suspense
- Quick Read

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC in exchange for honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC. When I read the premise I was so excited, I’m a huge Bachelor/reality dating show fan and also love apocalyptic and competition books. I did overall enjoy this and found it hard to put down, I absolutely needed to know what was going to happen to all of the characters. I wish there was more context as to what the state of the outside world was, and a little more from the ending. Overall I would recommend this, if you think the premise sounds interesting you will likely enjoy it!

The Compound follows reality show contests at an isolated compound in the middle of the desert. The book has been described as "when Love Island meets Lord of the Flies" but I'm not sure if I would characterize it this way. Yes there is a reality tv show component to it that focuses on heterosexual companionship, but this dystopian fiction lacks the violence of Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale and even Hunger Games. It's more like The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. The dystopian aspect for this book is referred to as like a background character but not explored.

I liked how this book uncovered individuals layer by layer. The character development was amazing. At it's heart this book is about relationships and materialism. I really enjoyed this debut book! Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this advance reader copy. My opinions are my own.

E-ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and the publisher: thank you! 4 ⭐️

Through Lily, the protagonist, we get the honest account of a woman competing on a reality competition show (more Big Brother than other games mentioned) desperate to win. The question is of course, at what cost; and to what end? Winning promises celebrity-status.

The backdrop is a “Compound” dropped into the desert, where 20 people compete for purported “love,” adoration of the invisible tv audience, and most importantly, the material goods they get as a result of completing assigned tasks (with a cheeky shout out to the name brands that provide them, of course!). Life is pretty good, until you wake up without a member of the opposite sex in bed with you. Then you are banished to the desert, never to return.

Outside of the compound, a dystopian near-future reality that doesn’t seem, to some characters, all that desirable to go back to.

As someone who loves Big Brother, I was delighted by this. It’s like your favorite vapid houseguest in a single unedited confessional detailing their entire season. But I think there are some genuinely GOOD writing choices in this that made me think at the end.

I am a gay man and of course at one point was like, “surely this gets addressed? These can’t all be straight people.” And then that same page there was an acknowledgment of that; a wink of queer that got me back on board and didn’t feel “token”-y when it really could have. Whether other characters fell into being that is another discussion, and perhaps that was part of the point.

Anyway, this has gotten long. I said to my partner, “it wasn’t challenging, but it was FUN! I was hooked.” And I stand by it being fun, but I’m thinking about that trampoline anecdote and realizing I missed the thesis of the book when it was thrown at me so early on, and so maybe I sold it a bit short.

The Compound takes place on a Love Island/The Circle-type (?) reality TV show, following Lily, a competitor's, perspective. I have read a billion reality-TV focused books, and this was one of the better ones that I've read. Lily was a great main character, and the twists and turns in the book kept me reading to find out what might happen. I especially liked how the author vaguely referred to life outside of the TV show, which kept the mystery up for me about the universe of the book.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for this eARC. As a huge fan of Love Island, I really liked the dark twist here. The story takes place on a ranch not too dissimilar to the villa reality fans would recognize. There is a similar coupling of individuals, but the twist is that none of the women know how they've arrived there and the men have had to traipse through the desert. Returning to life seems unfathomable, and with cameras watching their every move, the story steadily lapses from a reality TV romp to The Hunger Games. I really liked this one, but had to knock it down for the ending.

As someone who loves reality TV, this book was so addicting. It reads like a black mirror episode and it felt so real I could picture the whole book easily.
You’re following Lily when she wakes up in this big empty house in the middle of the desert, along with a bunch of other contestants. They have tasks they must complete to win prizes and household essentials - food, furniture, etc. but, at the end of the night if you aren’t sharing a bed with someone, you’re banished and you lose, which obviously makes for such interesting relationships between the contestants.
It’s full of drama, cheating, lying, everything you would expect from a reality show. Reading from Lily’s POV really made you feel like you were on the show yourself, never quite knowing who to trust or even if you should trust Lily. I loved how unique all the characters were and how differently all their relationships progressed. Overall I really liked it!! It is such a strong debut novel and I definitely will pick up future books from this author. Thank you Netgalley for the early copy!!!

I really enjoyed this. I found the writing kept the tension and development of the characters and plot moving forward and kept me engaged. I really think the layers that are constantly pulled back with each character allowed me to keep learning more and more about them. I really enjoyed this book and think it was a great read

Very unsettling and ominous. Enjoyed the premise of a bloodier Love Island, and the looming threat of a world at war in the background.

⭐️ 3.5/5 rounded down.

Wait… have I been tricked?! This was advertised as a Love Island/Hunger Games crossover but after finishing it… where were the Hunger Games vibes?! This was definitely more of a Love Island-type read based in a not so distant dystopian world. The entire book takes place in “The Compound” starting with our main character waking up in her bed and ending when the last contestant leaves. We only briefly hear about the outside world through the characters. We learn there has been a recent war, people only live until they’re about 40 years old, possibly other things I’m forgetting? But from what we learn about the current state of the world, it doesn’t sound TOO different from our own. It seems like people have normal jobs, normal families and friends, cellphones, they can travel, they watch TV. Past contestants of the show go on to become influencers, similar to what we see today with reality shows. I just wish we had learned something a little more about this world that made it more “dystopian” and dark because you could tell the vibes were off but the author doesn’t dive too deep here.

Not much really happens in the book. It starts with 19 characters and slowly dwindles down to the last few. Contestants have to complete group and individual challenges to “banish” people from the compound and win prizes from the outside world. If you’re left sleeping alone in your bed at night, you’re banished.

Looking back at its entirety after finishing, I enjoyed the story, just not as much as I thought I would. (I was expecting the story to turn Hunger Games-ish with contestants having to fight to the death but that was NOT this story). It’s an interesting concept and I was intrigued by what was coming next and who was going to be the ultimate winner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A hot debut novel about the absurdity of competitive reality shows enters the villa!

"The Compound" follows Lily and other 19 contestants who must complete challenges in order to receive not just luxury rewards, but also necessary house supplies, such as toilet paper.

The premise of this novel was what caused me to pick this up, and although I was curious to see how it would all turn out for the winner, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I kept on hoping for bigger and bigger twists, and was in hopes the ending would leave me satisfied.

I would recommend this to fans of "Love Island" that are able to understand just how ridiculous sometimes the show can be.

So fun and unique. Survivor x big brother x the bachelor. This story really sucks you in and shakes you up. Its easy to get caught up in the story and the atmosphere of the setting. I didn't mind how not everything was crystal clear and logical, it really helped create a rather disorienting reading experience that I think furthered the effectiveness of the writing. However I wouldn't have minded a few more details, a tiny bit more world building/sense of self and purpose for our mc. overall though - enjoyed! recommend!

Aisling Rawle shines a light on our obsession with reality tv, the promise of fame from losing yourself and your inhibitions on reality tv and our desire for material possessions. All of that is wrapped up in a book that follows 20 people who couple up in a house and compete to be the last person there in order to receive infinite items and escape from an otherwise mundane life. It’s a great recipe for a book.

The book is filled with a lot of exposition describing the rules of the show, past seasons and day to day life in the compound. It’s sometimes too much to digest but it’s also engaging and boring at times. The character dialogue was minimal but what was there provided the story/show to move forward. The main character warns you that there are rules and if broken a punishment will be provided. It’s told quite ominously and I wished punishments had been given prior to the middle of the book so there could have been a bit more tension in the beginning. I was expecting more danger and it never came. I would have liked more boundaries being pushed. I loved the concept of the plot and how the author laid out breadcrumbs of information but the main protagonist, Lily, was so boring. The only thing she had going for herself was her beauty. She brought no skills to the house, she had no value and had no personal convictions. Everyone else was so much more interesting and I kept reading because of them.

While the author truly incapsulates the reader in the compound environment, I would have liked more world building outside. There are brief mentions of war and climate issues but it’s never fully fleshed out leaving you unable to develop that side. I couldn’t imagine if the stakes in going back out into the world were high or low. But the author does such a great job building life within the compound that you hardly ever consider the outside world until it’s alluded to. I often thought about the view point of the audience and how they were seeing so much more than what the reader saw since you lived the experience through Lily only. It certainly makes you think about yourself as a viewer of reality tv. Why we’re drawn to these shows, our view point of producer manipulation, why we root for certain people and want to watch people flame out. The book is great at lifting the veil of our own love of reality while also sucking us into this version of “reality.”

It might sound like I didn’t enjoy this book because I wanted more outside world building and a main character with more purpose but I loved the story. I found myself engaged and by the middle of the book, I couldn’t put it down. The book ended exactly as it began and I’d love to read a second season.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Compound releases June 24, 2025

<i>Love Island</I> meets <I>Lord of the Flies</I> in this compelling debut featuring a reality tv game show where ten women and ten men compete to be the last one living in a secluded compound in the desert.

Daily communal tasks allow them to earn necessities like food and furniture, while personal tasks allow the characters to earn luxuries that would make them more comfortable or desirable.
Their stay could last anywhere from weeks to months, as long as they wake up next to someone of the opposite sex and are likeable enough to escape the occasional banishments.

I love fiction that doubles as a great character study, forcing you to question whether you can build genuine friendships when the ability to divulge personal information about yourself is removed and your main motivations revolve around earning material goods.
Analyzing all of the interactions between the characters and trying to discern whether something was authentic or actually a personal task was thoroughly enjoyable.

Rawle did an exceptional job at crafting an intimate setting in a way where it never felt like the entire world was watching them for entertainment.

A Love Island-Lord of the Flies-Traitors-Survivors mashup set in a dystopian world? I’m in. Contestants on the reality series in The Compound compete to team up with a partner of the opposite sex, stay in the house, win increasingly fancy prizes, and slowly eliminate their rivals. I wouldn’t necessarily classify the contestants as likable but I wanted to keep reading to see how things would play out for them either way. Like all good reality shows, there was a good mix of suspense, emotion, and drama. The novel’s central themes about the corruption caused by consumerism and influencer culture have given me lots to think about.

I wanted more world building outside of the compound especially around the ideas of climate destruction and war, but I thought this was really solid for a debut novel. I’m excited to see what this author creates in the future. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a dark look at a competition show from behind the scenes. It was twisted and gritty and I was here for it. It starts kind of slow but then picks up. This is the world we live in now where people will be filmed and do whatever to "win". This book was like watching a guilty pleasure just in book form.

I read this one a while back and needed to re-read the end before posting because I wanted to forget how much it creeped me out, but it stuck with me (in such a good way?) This book is almost impossible to describe, so you will have to pick it up... seriously.

The Compound is a wild, unsettling ride that blends the drama of Love Island with the raw desperation of Lord of the Flies. The story follows Lily, a beautiful but aimless twenty-something who wakes up in a remote desert compound as part of a hit reality show.

The goal? Outlast nineteen other contestants to win a life-changing prize. Along the way, she competes in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and makeup—along with necessities like food, appliances, and even a front door. But as the game progresses and the producers tighten their grip, it becomes clear that the competition isn’t just about strategy—it’s about survival.

What makes this book so compelling is how it taps into the dark side of reality TV. It starts off like any high-stakes competition, but as things spiral out of control, the contestants’ choices become more desperate, and the lines between entertainment and exploitation blur. The book doesn’t just make you question the ethics of the show—it makes you question why we, as an audience, are so drawn to watching people pushed to their limits.

The writing is sharp and immersive, making it easy to feel like you’re right there in the Compound, watching every twist and betrayal unfold. It’s fast-paced, completely addictive, and full of moments that will have you questioning what’s real and what’s manufactured. But beneath the drama, it also digs into deeper themes—fame, power, control, and the terrifying ways people can be manipulated when they have nowhere else to go.

If you’re into psychological thrillers with a social commentary edge, The Compound is a must-read. It’s gripping, unsettling, and lingers in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page—kind of like a reality show you can’t stop watching, even when you know you should.