What if LOVE ISLAND Was Set in a Dystopian Nightmare?

For Lily, a restless but devastatingly beautiful twentysomething, being cast in a popular reality TV series is a dream come true. For the next several months, she will lounge in a villa with other hot young singles. They will mingle, make connections, make out, and most importantly, complete challenges to win prizes for the compound and for themselves. There are a few rules. They can never chat about their lives in the outside world. They can’t disclose what challenges they had to complete to get their individual prizes. And they have to slowly banish each other, one by one, until only the final contestants remain. With how mundane and directionless her life is on the outside, all Lily wants is to make it to the end and stay in the Compound for as long as possible.

But staying in the Compound is not as easy as it seems. When contestants are unable or unwilling to complete group challenges, they risk missing out on prizes that are essential to living a comfortable life—and eventually, prizes that are essential to their survival. As the stakes continue to rise, contestants question each other’s motives. Alliances are built and tested. Clear enemies and villains rise to the surface. The struggle for power over the Compound becomes all the more desperate and violent as the days pass. And as readers, we get the sense that the outside world (the one no one is allowed to talk about) is crumbling.

To stay in the Compound could mean a life of fame and fortune. It could mean adoring fans. It could mean the promise of comfort beyond anyone’s imagination. But at what cost? How much will the contestants be willing to sacrifice? How far will they go to betray each other? How much humiliation will they be willing to endure? The answers to these questions might surprise you.

The Compound is a thrilling debut from author Aisling Rawle that will have you eagerly turning pages to discover how Lily and her fellow contestants’ stories will conclude. It’s a fun and quick read, but it’s also a story that will force you to reflect on your own consumption of reality TV and the stories/characters that most fascinate us when we watch. The horrifying truth is that The Compound is not too far off from the world we live in today, and the way we use reality TV to distract us from our own realities and dehumanize others. Is that an unsettling truth to sit with? Yes. But that’s also part of what made this such an exciting read.