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A review by blacktieoptional
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was uncomfortable and voyeuristic and claustrophobic and emotional in all the right ways. As I was listening, I felt like I was experiencing a reality TV show, cheering for couples, detesting the overbearing male contestants, etc. I was also surprised that it touched on topics like racism and consumerism.
It took me a while to get into it because I couldn't keep track of all the contestants - maybe because I was listening to the audiobook - but people get eliminated fairly quickly and everyone in the "main" group of people is fleshed out enough to distinguish them.
There are also some hints to a larger kind of dystopian setting with active wars and bush fires - we don't learn that much about the world beyond the Compound, but the hints stay vague and yet feel a bit too close to what's currently going on in our world to make this feel like a proper science fiction novel. That bit was a bit disorienting at the beginning, but I quickly accepted the Compound to be the eye of the world (just like Lily, the FMC, does).
I'm so glad I stuck through the bumps in the beginning, because the author is so good at creating an eerie and yet alluring atmosphere. The oppressive heat of the desert, the boredom that you need to pretend doesn't exist, the collateral damage of living under the conditions of the compound, the tension between contestants, the men and their entitlement and sometimes barely-restrained violence are so well described that I felt super uncomfortable during large stretches of the book and yet I couldn't stop listening.
Things that I normally don't like work in favour and even enhance the story in this case: the pacing is a bit wonky, with days or weeks that the author jumps over or just summarizes in one sentence - mirroring Lily's skewed sense of time in the compound where there are no clocks and the routine is alway the same.
I'm a bit torn about the ending - on the one hand, it didn't feel as rewarding as I would have liked, on the other hand, it kind of supports the lesson about materialism and consumerism.
It took me a while to get into it because I couldn't keep track of all the contestants - maybe because I was listening to the audiobook - but people get eliminated fairly quickly and everyone in the "main" group of people is fleshed out enough to distinguish them.
There are also some hints to a larger kind of dystopian setting with active wars and bush fires - we don't learn that much about the world beyond the Compound, but the hints stay vague and yet feel a bit too close to what's currently going on in our world to make this feel like a proper science fiction novel. That bit was a bit disorienting at the beginning, but I quickly accepted the Compound to be the eye of the world (just like Lily, the FMC, does).
I'm so glad I stuck through the bumps in the beginning, because the author is so good at creating an eerie and yet alluring atmosphere. The oppressive heat of the desert, the boredom that you need to pretend doesn't exist, the collateral damage of living under the conditions of the compound, the tension between contestants, the men and their entitlement and sometimes barely-restrained violence are so well described that I felt super uncomfortable during large stretches of the book and yet I couldn't stop listening.
Things that I normally don't like work in favour and even enhance the story in this case: the pacing is a bit wonky, with days or weeks that the author jumps over or just summarizes in one sentence - mirroring Lily's skewed sense of time in the compound where there are no clocks and the routine is alway the same.
I'm a bit torn about the ending - on the one hand, it didn't feel as rewarding as I would have liked, on the other hand, it kind of supports the lesson about materialism and consumerism.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism
The animal death/cruelty relates to wild animals, not pets.