Title: The Compound
By: Aisling Rawle
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 292
Release Date: June 24th, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:
Lily—a bored, beautiful twentysomething—wakes up on a remote desert compound alongside nineteen other contestants on a popular reality TV show. To win, she must outlast her housemates while competing in challenges for luxury rewards, such as champagne and lipstick, and communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.
The cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: Why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she'll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?
Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.
Review:
The Compound was not what I expected, and for a while that threw me off. The story leans into the strange and unsettling, unfolding in a way that feels deliberately off-kilter, almost like it wants you to sit with your discomfort rather than rush to clarity. At times I wasn’t sure where the narrative was taking me, and I did have moments of hesitation because of that. Still, there’s something quietly compelling about Rawle’s writing and the way the atmosphere tightens as the book progresses. Even when it felt odd or unexpected, it held my attention and lingered in my thoughts after I finished. Not a perfect read for me, but a memorable one, and ultimately worthy of four stars.
