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savaburry 's review for:
The Compound
by Aisling Rawle
DID NOT FINISH: 43%
DNF @ 48% 8/27/25
This book is boring. Dystopian Love Island would be an interesting concept, hence my attempt at reading this book. But the topics that it was attempting to discuss are things that I already know. I already know that people are superficial. I already know that racism is prevalent. I already know that capitalism ruins lives. This wasn't as deep as it wanted you to think it was.
All the characters in this are so boring and non descript that it was impossible for me to care about them in any way. They all are just variations of each other with no discernable differences besides the ONE girl being black. It was less cutthroat and more idiotic and I guess the challenges were supposed to make you feel like they were on the edge but I wasn't buying it. These were people on a dating show that is explicitly copying horny LI but they're weird about spitting in each other's mouths for bucket of nails? Yes. A bucket of nails. Because the prizes they won for these stupid tasks were random as hell. I understand the concept of this is supposed to be "what would you do to win. Is winning really worth it??" and that you're supposed to feel bad for these people that are doing challenges for scraps of human decency but like I said, the void of personality displayed by everyone made it hard to care.
This honestly felt like reading a white woman's creative writing prompt that was supposed to show how hard it is being a human or something but like....I need dystopian to give me more than "desert". Nothing about the dystopian really makes sense besides them being on tv trying to win basic necessities. I'm sure there was a passing mention of war, but at the point that I stopped there wasn't. In addition, who's watching? Where are they? What YEAR is this supposed to? Everything was so damn vague that you're like just reading for the vibe that supposed to be giving hardcore. The most thrilling thing about this thriller was my decision to DNF.
Def was not the audience for this and if you found it to be eye opening I'm so happy for you.
This book is boring. Dystopian Love Island would be an interesting concept, hence my attempt at reading this book. But the topics that it was attempting to discuss are things that I already know. I already know that people are superficial. I already know that racism is prevalent. I already know that capitalism ruins lives. This wasn't as deep as it wanted you to think it was.
All the characters in this are so boring and non descript that it was impossible for me to care about them in any way. They all are just variations of each other with no discernable differences besides the ONE girl being black. It was less cutthroat and more idiotic and I guess the challenges were supposed to make you feel like they were on the edge but I wasn't buying it. These were people on a dating show that is explicitly copying horny LI but they're weird about spitting in each other's mouths for bucket of nails? Yes. A bucket of nails. Because the prizes they won for these stupid tasks were random as hell. I understand the concept of this is supposed to be "what would you do to win. Is winning really worth it??" and that you're supposed to feel bad for these people that are doing challenges for scraps of human decency but like I said, the void of personality displayed by everyone made it hard to care.
This honestly felt like reading a white woman's creative writing prompt that was supposed to show how hard it is being a human or something but like....I need dystopian to give me more than "desert". Nothing about the dystopian really makes sense besides them being on tv trying to win basic necessities. I'm sure there was a passing mention of war, but at the point that I stopped there wasn't. In addition, who's watching? Where are they? What YEAR is this supposed to? Everything was so damn vague that you're like just reading for the vibe that supposed to be giving hardcore. The most thrilling thing about this thriller was my decision to DNF.
Def was not the audience for this and if you found it to be eye opening I'm so happy for you.