Reviews - The Compound | The StoryGraph

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3.28k reviews for:

The Compound

Aisling Rawle

3.79 AVERAGE

amaandacuurtis's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Kept me on the edge of my seat. I wish I knew a little bit more about the outside world and the dystopian universe.

nurseamyf's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

An interesting look into the reality show psychology

salemjohnston's review against another edition

2.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

startjpw23's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The story is told in the first person by Lily. She wakes up in a large house. She discovers another girl. They go around and discover other girls. There are 10 girls in total. We learn they are taking part in a reality show. The house and the grounds surrounding it are The Compound. The Compound is surrounded by a desert. The girls are waiting for 10 boys to arrive (note that the author’s use of “girls” and “boys” initially threw me. I thought they were teens. In fact, they are all adults). The compound was left in some disarray by the previous contestants. The girls set about cleaning it up while they await the arrival of the boys. When the boys do arrive, they are worse for wear. There are only 9 of them. I don’t want to say what the rules of the show are. Some things are permitted here that current reality shows don't allow. The story goes from there. I found the story very thrilling. The characters were put in situations that had me concerned for their well-being. I was invested in learning who was or wasn’t kicked off the show. There is some abusive behavior from one of the boys towards some of the girls. There is some non-graphic descriptions of sex. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a very thrilling book set in a reality show takes things a fair amount farther than the current reality shows. If my concerns are an issue for you, you may not want to read the book. My only quibble with the book is I wanted something to be discussed in more detail (I can’t say what as it would be a spoiler).

Content Warnings

kendallreadsitall's review against another edition

4.0

If there’s one thing about me, I am a fiend for reality television, especially Love Island. As soon as I heard of this book described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, I was sold. This story is told through the eyes of Lily, just one of the many of the singles in the compound. Each of them must perform tasks each day to gain rewards. The tasks can either be personal tasks or group tasks, with rewards ranging from food and water to luxury items like jewelry or clothes and everything in between. There’s a catch, you can’t talk about your real life and you can’t talk about your personal tasks. These rules definitely add a strange dystopian element to The Compound and visibly messes with their psyche. The biggest rule of all, you can’t wake up alone and must be sharing a bed with someone or you’re banished from the compound.

I was highly impressed with the character development that was given to each and every member of the compound. I was worried that everything would be muddy and hard to keep track of with so many characters, but Aisling Rawle executed it perfectly and each character had their own voice and backstory. I had definitely formed my own expectations of how this book would play out, but boy was I wrong in the best way. It was heavy, sad, horrifying, romantic, dystopian, and carried much more depth than I could have imagined. Overall, I was really impressed and my expectations were absolutely exceeded!

The audiobook was narrated by Lucy Boynton who did a phenomenal job capturing the sense of dread that this story exuded from the first page!

anduliii's review against another edition

3.75

This book kept kinda shocking me at every turn, I didn't know what to expect since I haven't seen any reviews so the only thing I got was the blurp. I have to say I enjoyed my time with the book more than I expected, the writing is very accessible and the premise is intriguing. I'm not sure I liked the very often sudden change from peacefulness to quite a bit of brutality. Another thing I was missing was more information about the world outside of the compound, there were dropped a little nuggets of information here and there but never explained, which only made it more confusing. But all in all the book was very enjoyable.

(Sam definitely didn't deserve Lily)

candeegirl's review against another edition

4.25

began as a 5 star read for me! I felt very claustrophobic at times with this book, and I really enjoyed it. I loved the concept, and I only wished it was a bit darker at points.

I felt deeply disturbed by Tom, and specifically felt dirty when I felt pity for him. Andrew at times made no sense to me, but I adored Sam </3

the ending fell a little flat, but I hope she does what is hinted at!