Reviews - The Compound | The StoryGraph

2.86k reviews for:

The Compound

Aisling Rawle

3.8 AVERAGE

pinkelfish's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

truly think this is going to become a dystopian classic

ltho483's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective sad tense fast-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

madw0lfe's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I can't decide if I actually liked this book or not...

ditareads's review against another edition

3.5

dark reflective sad tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lianaet's review against another edition

3.5

emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Having never seen Love Island but watched a lot of Big Brother that's more in line with what this felt like to read. And then the Lord of the Flies bit comes in with the fact that these people are mostly left to their own devices in this big house.

The concept was intriguing enough, and the writing easy enough that I sped through this. But I gotta say it felt a little lacking substance wise - but ultimately I'm unsurprised considering they went with Love Island as basically a comp title.

Definitely had some interesting moments of what people will do to win a competition like this - and the end prize being somewhat lacklustre feels like commentary on what the point really all is.

I think in the end, I was let down by Lily as the main character - she is telling the story in first person and somehow it felt like she was the fly on the wall. She did a couple things... but at the same time the book repeatedly points out that shes young and stupid (she even admits that she thinks 6 plus 7 is 14?). So the scheming she manages feel like they came from the author rather than the character.

A fascinating debut for sure though, keen to see what Aisling Rawle writes next.