GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, THE NEW YORKER, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, OPRAH DAILY, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY
Amazon 
Best Literature & Fiction
Winner for Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction (2025)
I am reviewing this audiobook for Reading Ireland Month. It is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. Please use the hashtags #readingirelandmonth26 or #begorrathon if you choose to participate.
Book Blurb:
Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.
Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?
Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.
My Review:
Boy, can I pick’em. It’s the whole reality show thing and I’m not a fan. Don’t watch them. But Lily has decided to participate in a reality show, one she is familiar with, remembers some of the history, knows or can anticipate what to expect.
I missed that it was a blurred dystopian type world, perhaps sometime in the near distant future. That world outside is crappy. Lily is ready to escape—anywhere. And “anywhere” becomes a vague and obscure feature. She is one of twenty vying to become the last person standing, espousing the mantra “Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all.” She is pretty but vacuous.
The narrative captures the support characters through Lily’s eyes with her set of morals (or lack of them), ideologies, thirst, and competition. No one is viewed “what you see is what you get” as everyone might have ulterior motives. Who is next to stab you in the back and step over your body to climb the ladder?
From playing musical beds and graphic details to plotting the next exit candidate, this one left me cold, battling to get through, and tired of the language, the loss of humanity, and any real characters in which I could engage or invest. The call to Lily’s mum at the end did it for me. That’s just sad.
Well, mercy. Maybe you’re a fan of reality TV. This might work for you. Or dystopian? This might work for you. But not a book for me. Shouldn’t have chosen or failed to DNF. Cannot recommend.
Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.
Rosepoint Publishing: Two point Five Stars 
Book Details:
Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Dystopian Science Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Lucy Boynton
Release Date: June 24, 2025
Title Links:
Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
The Author: Aisling Rawle was born in 1998 and raised in County Leitrim in the West of Ireland. She now lives in Dublin. The Compound is her first book.
©2026 V Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 