Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Compound

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Compound by Aisling Rawle, Aisling Rawle

29 reviews

unhingedbookbitch's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

My first reaction? Love Island, but make it post-apocalyptic. Basically what the next season will look like once society fully collapses. Honestly, I was into it. Two of my life goals are 1) become a reality TV icon and 2) survive the end times, so this felt like a two-for-one special.

I usually enjoy speculative reality TV stories with ambiguous endings, but this book kind of gave... entry-level. Like if I were grading it, I’d give it a C+—solid concept, some interesting themes, but the execution felt like it ran out of budget halfway through.

You can tell the author wanted to explore real issues—racism, misogyny, homophobia in reality TV—and I respect the attempt. For example, there’s a moment where the only Black woman expresses concern she’ll be paired with the only Black man just because they match skin tones. Real! Valid! And then… nothing. The moment just vanishes like someone said “racism exists” and then sat back down like it was handled.

Same with the queerness angle—there are a couple characters who express same-gender attraction, and the show’s fear of it is noted, but again… the narrative just throws a tarp over it and walks away. Like—are we confronting this or what?? If you’re gonna invite the elephant into the room, either talk to her or give her snacks. Don’t just let her hover awkwardly in the corner like a middle school substitute teacher.

It felt like watching someone go, “Look! A cockroach!” and then do nothing. Not stomp it, not spray it, not even trap it under a cup. Just letting it vibe out. And no offense to cockroach truthers, but I grew up with flying ones the size of small birds, so I do not play like that.

You get what I’m saying? The problems were pointed at, but never actually handled. It’s like if the book said, “This man is a misogynist,” and then expected me to give it a standing ovation for noticing. Like… yes?? Correct?? But now what??

Final Verdict:
This book had the bones of something great, but never really put meat on them. It felt like it wanted to be deep but got distracted by hot people making out in the apocalypse—and hey, same, but I needed a little more follow-through. Would I watch this as a Netflix show at 1 a.m. with a snack I’m ashamed of? Absolutely. Would I reread it? Probably not unless the world actually ends and I need something to barter with.

Content Warnings

cassiereadsbooks_'s review against another edition

2.0

Content Warnings

jessicajernigan's review against another edition

4.0

dark funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is just a very weird and creepy book, and I mean that in the best way possible. I guess I would categorize it as reality show dystopia?

Content Warnings

hunni_reads's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

booksbeforebs's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

‘The Compound’ is a strong debut novel, and it marks Aisling Rawle as a writer to watch. Although described as ‘Lord of the Flies’ meets ‘Love Island’, it will likely appeal to fans of the latter more than fans of the former, as the brutality and survival element of the story is somewhat over-egged in the synopsis. Indeed, while ‘The Compound’ does have dark and borderline dystopian elements, I was expecting something far more barbaric; however, this didn’t stop me from enjoying the story for what it is, and I’m not sure if I would have given the book a chance had it been marketed as more ‘Love Island’, as the dark underbelly of the industry and the social commentary around reality TV and consumerism are what appeal to me.

The writing is good (although tighter editing is required in places, as it occasionally becomes clunky, the same adjective is used a distracting number of times and there are inconsistencies in the narrative voice); the characters are intriguing, if unlikeable (by design), and I was eager to find out what would happen to them, even though I never knew for certain what outcome I was hoping for; and the world-building is well-handled, with readers being given exactly the information they need, when they need it (no info-dumping here). I also appreciated that the social commentary element isn’t directly pointed to and readers aren’t lectured, but instead are trusted to form their own opinions. At the end, especially, readers are invited to draw their own conclusion. For some readers, this might make the ending unsatisfying, but personally I thought it worked and achieved what the writer was hoping to achieve. I will certainly be thinking about it, and the book overall and the issues it raised, for a long time.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Aisling Rawle and HarperCollins UK for the ARC.

⚠️ Body shaming, sexism, violence, injury

Content Warnings

orla_h's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

In the desert, there's a compound. Ten women are there, waiting for ten men to arrive. When the men arrive (late and less one of their number), the game is afoot. Every person who is not sharing a bed with a member of the opposite sex when the sun rises is banished.
Everything is filmed, everything must be earned through tasks (communal or personal), and the contestants are punished for breaking any of the rules.
The Compound really doesn't read like a debut novel. It's assured and propulsive, and uses its premise to examine all kinds of social issues without losing any of its pace or bite.
The contestants are mostly interesting and well drawn, Lily especially so. She's hyperaware of how she looks, how she'll look on camera, the effect she's having on the men, and initially seems pretty shallow. Another blonde who lives and dies by her fashion magazines, who likes to be dolled up to the nines, and wants shiny things. She's not just that, though - people seldom really are what they seem on the surface.
Most of the contestants are morally grey and are nudged one way or another by the unseen producers. It's fun to see the manipulation, until it suddenly isn't and the tension ratchets up several gears.
The last third of the book is genuinely scary in places - it earns its comparison to Lord of the Flies.
I stayed up way too late (on a school night!) to finish this, and had trouble sleeping afterwards (complimentary). By rights, The Compound should be one of the buzziest books of the summer.

Thanks to Harper Collins and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Content Warnings

lauren_lovestoread's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

OMG what a book! This was such a unique story! I read the majority of it in one day.
Following the contestants of this dystopian-esque Love Island-meets-Lord-of-the-Flies reality show through the narrator, Lily’s, POV is incredibly gripping. The author keeps you guessing with what is happening next, and the tension between the characters builds so quickly and only made me read faster. The lengths some of them go to in order to win were horrifying and I could not look away. My only complaint is that the ending felt rushed, and somewhat anticlimactic. Really solid sci-fi horror novel!

Content Warnings