Nearly everyone I work with has been talking about the latest season of Love Island — who’s kissing whom, who’s coupling and re-coupling, who’s getting dumped. And while I’m not personally keeping tabs on the villa this summer, I’ve been known to waste hours of my life binging Love Is Blind or The Bachelor.
So when I read the description of Aisling Rawle’s debut novel — “Love Island meets Lord of the Flies!” — I was like, “Hold my golden wine goblet.”
The Compound tells the story of Lily, a beautiful young woman who’s one of 20 contestants on a reality TV show. The men and women gather on a compound in the desert and immediately have to couple up to stay in the game. Anyone who’s alone in bed when the sun comes up is immediately banished. They also have to perform tasks to earn communal necessities like food and appliances, and they compete individually for luxury items like designer clothes or jewelry. Hidden cameras catch every angle of the action, and as you might guess, it doesn’t take long for the competition to go from friendly to fierce.
Then it gets weird. And then it gets dark.
Rawle’s writing is gripping and propulsive, and she hints at a dystopian hellscape just beyond the compound’s gates. When unseen producers raise the stakes, we watch Lily and her housemates go from playing the game to fighting for their lives.
With nods to The Hunger Games and even Black Mirror, The Compound offers prime poolside reading. A binge-worthy guilty pleasure.
