Book Review: ‘The Compound’ by Aisling Rawle (Love Island meets ‘Lord of the Flies"‘)
As soon as I saw the stunning US cover (sadly not the one on this post because I read the UK version!) I knew I needed to read ‘The Compound’ as soon as physically possible. I just had a feeling about this one and I was so right - I loved it.
I’m a huge fan of near future set novels where our world has been changed by war, the climate crisis, incredibly far gone capitalism and consumerism, and that’s exactly what ‘The Compound’ delivers, in a peripheral way.
You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.
All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.
You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.
Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.
What will you have to do to win?
And what happens to the losers?
The Compound is an addictive literary satire on modern excess: it holds a twisted mirror up to our obsession with winning, losing and, above all, watching.
We never leave the Compound during the novel so we never see this near-dystopian world - our protagonist Lily mentions several times that there’s around 25-30 years left of life as they know it. We don’t know where the compound is, no place or country names are ever mentioned, and there’s very little detail about the world they live in. We know that there are devastating wars and a severe climate crisis with an impending sense of doom, but no details. That would usually wind me up a bit, but in ‘The Compound’ it actually added to the atmosphere and the tension, as well as the premise of being cut off from the world and the rest of the society while on the show and in the compound.
The lives and minds of Lily and the rest of the residents of the compound are completely consumed by their time there, especially as the competition gets fiercer and the producers get more and more cruel with their challenges and prompts. The tension built and built with every chapter, twists and revelations thrown in unexpectedly, and I never really knew what was around the next corner.
Lily is such an unusual protagonist to follow in this genre and it was fascinating to watch such a passive, unmotivated character in this space. The narration felt a little like watching her and wondering what she would do, or not do, next, just like the viewers of the show. While she’s a very passive character for most of the novel, when the competitive element of the show finally lights a fire under her and she starts to move for the things that she needs and wants out of pure desperation, but also survival instinct, I couldn’t turn the pages any faster. As she’s a fairly closed off character who was unreliable to a degree, I was never 100% sure how she would react to anything. I didn’t necessarily like Lily, but I also didn’t not like either, though I was definitely on her side and I was wanting her to come out on top.
‘The Compound’ is a gripping and atmospheric look at consumerism and capitalism as it continues to wreak havoc on our planet and our sense of self. I loved it and I’m already excited for what Aisling Rawle has for us next.
Thank you to The Borough Press and NetGalley for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
