The Compound

By:

Aisling Rawle

Spice Scale

Number of books

1 Published

KU

❌

Audiobook

✅

Series Status

Complete

Interconnected

N/A

Overall Rating

Coming Soon

The Compound by Aisling Rawle is a dark satirical thriller set on a remote desert reality TV show where bored twenty-something Lily wakes up in a decaying luxury compound with nine other young women, awaiting ten men who must trek through the wilderness to join them. Under constant surveillance, contestants complete group tasks for survival essentials like food and water, and personal challenges for luxuries like champagne or lipstick, all while forming romantic pairings to secure beds and avoid banishment to the harsh desert. As resources dwindle, alliances fracture into betrayals, factions form, and civility erodes into moral compromises driven by scarcity and ambition, Lily navigates scheming, fleeting connections, and her own growing doubts about whether winning justifies the psychological toll, without revealing the brutal endgame or her final choices.

Jamie’s review

Lily is a beautiful, bored, not very likable 20 something FMC who competes in a deeply disturbing reality show with 18 other people. In order to win she has to outlast everyone else and compete in demented communal and personal challenges.

I saw someone summarized by saying "it's Love Island meets Lord of the Flies" 😆

I loved the writing (debut novel!) but I wished it wasn't so slowwwww until the hair raising final chapters. None of the characters were particularly likable besides Sam and Candice.

It was a thought provoking look at consumerism, oppression, and how desensitized we are willing to become in the name of entertainment.

I just didn't connect with Lily like I wanted to but this suspenseful read was hard to put down.

I saw someone summarized by saying "it's Love Island meets Lord of the Flies" 😆

I loved the writing (debut novel!) but I wished it wasn't so slowwwww until the hair raising final chapters. None of the characters were particularly likable besides Sam and Candice.

It was a thought provoking look at consumerism, oppression, and how desensitized we are willing to become in the name of entertainment.

I just didn't connect with Lily like I wanted to but this suspenseful read was hard to put down.