Honestly not sure how I felt about this one, hence delay in giving feedback. I think I enjoyed it? Some of the characterisation felt a little thin, but then again how much do we really get to know the participants in these kinds of shows anyway? I thought the premise was intriguing and I empathised with the main character’s struggle to choose between comfort in a dying world and self determination.

I heard so much hype about this book on Instagram and I was so delighted that it met expectations!

The Compound is described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies and wow, they aren't wrong! The residents are all really unique characters with clearly defined attributes which is so refreshing, and I was drawn to Lily, the main character as it feels like she is hiding something and I'm hoping she reveals her inner most secrets to us as the readers. I also liked Becca, a quieter character she seems more observant, blending in the background but just waiting to make her move!

The residents daily lives are managed by the "producers" a group that we don't really get to meet other than being a reprimanding voice over if one of the residents infringes a rule, so you know they are always watching, it felt very Orwellian!

I have lots of wild scenarios in my mind as to what The Compound is for from scientists testing human reactions to stressful / contained environments, government working out how to best control residents or just the typical TV execs exploiting people for ratings!

The book is a compulsive read, full of tension, alliances based on survival of the fittest and you can see the story slowly unfurl into a battle of the sexes. I like how the author had each of the characters retreat into themselves in an attempt to not give away weaknesses that can be used against them and the typical gender stereotyping helped me to almost smell the testosterone in some of the more physical challenges where the males are assuming less and less of the females.

The Compound is a dark place to reside and a a book that I romped through, for those of you who watch reality TV or competition shows it almost became an obsession to read and see what the characters had been doing each day, just like when we tune in to watch our favourite voyeurism TV shows.

The ending was not one I expected! But after having time to reflect, I wonder if the author was giving a nod to the fact that fame is fleeting and you are only as "visible" to the general public as a celebrity / star whilst you are in their everyday awareness through the media.

I am also curious about who greeted The Compound winner, ambiguous to allow the reader to draw their own narrative future and of course left it open for a follow on option, sequel anyone?

I love that this book is an easy, compulsive read but crucially it makes you think and examine society on a wider level.

*Spoilers* The Compound is an exciting and intelligent novel, an almost-dystopia chronicling our narrator's time in a twisted love island meets big brother with a sprinkling of hunger games. The character development is excellent, and I've never simultaneously felt such strong dislike and also support for a maim character. Exploring morality and the shallowness of reality television, delving into the twisted truth of the desire for material wealth, all in the shadow of a looming and rarely alluded to extinction event. This is a truly unique read, and I was absolutely engrossed. I have to say, however, the ending let me down slightly. I was so hoping for some sickening, awful revelation or clarification of the circumstances but the novel ends as our final contestant leaves the show and there are no further answers as to what comes next. Whilst frustrating, this is a very clever metaphor for reality television, a reminder that it all ends when the camera is switched off and the audience will never know the full story. Incredibly clever, I highly recommend!

Love Island meets The Hunger Games… need I say more? Well written, cleverly put together, and deeply engaging

I found this book to have much in common with [book:The School for Good Mothers|57846320] by Jessamine Chan - a theoretically conceptually interesting novel with a completely flat and lifeless execution. An intriguing premise - ten men and ten women housed in a compound in a remote desert, picked off one by one until there is an eventual winner, against a fuzzy backdrop of political instability and "wars".

This novel is about as vacuous and vapid as influencer culture but that's not even my biggest issue with it. The writing is very much YA or YA-adjacent, but from what I can tell this book is being marketed to an adult audience. I found myself actively, physically, painfully cringing reading some of the prose; it reads at times like a school essay - first we did this task, then we did the next task, then after that we did the next task, and so on. There is no humour or satire in the book and any attempt at it fell flat for me (especially Andrew and his mistaken use of elaborate words which grated on me as the book went on).

Aside from the writing, there is nothing to like about the characters, with little to distinguish them from one another. Lily, our protagonist (the book is written in the first person), is very dislikeable: dim, vain and materialistic, and few of her housemates differ from her.

The attempt at social commentary (reality tv, gender stereotyping, heteronormativity, racism) is shoehorned in without any subtlety and it's pretty awkward and clunky to read.

As for the vague sense of time and place (Arizona? New Mexico? the Australian outback? The 2030s/40s/50s? Who knows?), the lack of any specifics meant I felt even more disengaged as a reader. And the George Orwell epigraph, just no.

Not a hit for me at all, but I think this book will do well with a YA audience - the publishers Harper Collins would do well to direct marketing towards it. A rather lame 1/5 stars unfortunately.

*Many thanks to the publisher Harper Collins for the arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Compound is widely available in bookshops and libraries if I haven't put you off.

I thought I'd love this as a fan of reality TV but unfortunately I found it terrible. I watch love island and enjoy survival shows but it just felt like nothing happened until the end and by then I didn't really care about the cast. The main character Lily was very unlikeable and self centered and I couldn't understand the "challenges" they had to do. For example, tell each other about your 1st kiss or say your grandparents names. Then the contestants would say they didn't want to do any further challenges and decided to wait to the following day?!! How hard is it to say a sentence each, very odd.
In the hundreds of books I've read I've rarely given a 1 star review but sadly I can't give any more.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the arc

This story is a reimagining of a big brother/ love island reality TV show set in a Hunger Games type dystopian world. There is very little said about the world outside the compound other than there is a war in the background, making the compound and its straightforward and transactional task and reward set-up a more attractive proposition to its inhabitants.

The story is immersive from the start, with a compelling narrator in Lily, a make-up sales assistant who is voted the second most attractive woman from the group early on in the book. Getting to know the characters and observing the cliques forming makes up most of the first third of the book. When the group dynamics start to fall apart and the participants’ true motivations emerge, the pace of the book increases. The plot momentum comes to a bit of a faltering end, however, when the story is reduced to just a few characters and it feels like the story has nowhere else to go.

The story loses a few stars for its rather lacklustre end, but on the whole, it does live up to its hype.

Thank you NetGalley for an opportunity to read this in advance of publication

I couldn't gel with this book at all, but as I'm not a fan of love island or those type of reality shows, I don't think I'm really the target audience for this book.
I can see lots of good reviews so I'm clearly in the minority.

The Compound had me hooked from concept alone. It's a bit of a slow build for those already familiar with the romantic reality tv shows this series is based on but there are pleasant twists to the format that keep it interesting. The story has an inevitable and predictable end, but hey, so do the reality shows, and that really doesn't affect how much I want to read/watch and enjoy the drama. The creeping sense of unease, the war in the background of the characters' home lives, and the dissection of consumerism really make this more than a light and fluffy beach read. My heart was pounding, my jaw was on the floor, I was enraged and ready to submit an Ofcom complaint, I was so immersed. Could not recommend this debut highly enough.

Loved this! Binged it in one go just like a series of love island! Incredible scenes between the contestants and thought provoking questions about how far we would go for unlimited prizes! Very cinematic and well written. Will be recommending to all!

✶ PRE-READING ✶
I was intrigued by the high-concept setup - reality TV dystopia with literary overtones is right up my alley. The Lord of the Flies comparison had me bracing for chaos, and I was curious how the Love Island influence would play out. I went in expecting social critique, some darkness, and possibly uncomfortable moments.

✶ POST-READING ✶
As I thought... It had a slow start, but once it found its footing, it delivered strong momentum and a sharp commentary on surveillance culture and performative relationships. The reality show satire was well done and very pointed - Big Brother fans will find it especially effective.

It surprised me by... Leaning harder into the dystopian elements than I expected. The sex-based disqualification rule was a discomforting but deliberate narrative device - it effectively underlined how control, image, and survival are intertwined in this world. It raised the stakes in an unsettling way, which worked thematically even if it made for uneasy reading.

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦
Book Recommendation: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett – for another haunting, feminist survival story with ritual and isolation. It's a little younger than this one, but just as gripping a story.
TV or Movie Recommendation: The One (Netflix) or The Circle – if Black Mirror and reality dating shows had a nightmarish child.

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧
A colour palette: sun-bleached beige, neon pink, and CCTV grey
A soundtrack: synthetic pop laced with static and ominous strings
A season: high summer - relentless heat and rising tensions
A mood: glossy, anxious, increasingly claustrophobic
A scent: sunscreen and sweat with a chemical tang

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★
The Devil – from the Tarot of the Divine.
This card captures the story’s entrapment - both literal and psychological. The women are baited with freedom but bound by rules designed to manipulate desire and conformity. Like The Devil, the book asks: how complicit are we when the chains are made of choice?

A seemingly straight forward reality show which takes a turn when make people fight for survival and even to get into the house in the first place. The twists and turns along the way show that human nature is strong and some people will do anything to win and get the upper hand.

Felt quite uncomfortable at times and you ended up not really liking any of the characters as they were all prepared to sacrifice each other for their own goal.

Upon opening this book I could immediately see why it is attracting so much attention. It doesn't so much pull you in as drag you in, you are plunged into the story and frantic to find out what is going on. The voice of the narrator is incredibly well drawn, leaving the reader unsure of her motives and the book leaves the reader questioning what they would do in a similar situation. Unfortunately however I didn't think the second half of the novel lived up to the first , it lacked suspense and the ending, for me, fell flat. I can see it being hugely popular though.

I found this book very hard to get into. Not for me I'm afraid. It was just too long winded with unnecessary details

This feels harsh to say but I fear that this may be my least favourite read of 2025
I was initially excited as the book started with a George Orwell quote...it went downhill from there. Unfortunately I found this to be relatively uneventful and I kept waiting for something big to happen. The characters all acted exactly as expected so when the 'twist/reveal' came, it felt obvious.
I see what the book was trying to achieve but it just didn't work for me at all.
I'd have loved to know a little more about the dystopian world where this took place
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

You awaken in a scorching desert compound alongside nine other women, all equally desperate to escape their troubled lives. Cameras watch provocatively as ten men arrive—and the rules shift daily. To win, contestants must complete tasks for communal supplies and irresistible luxuries… all while their morality is tested by unseen producers.
The Compound is a razor-sharp debut—intense, unsettling, and timely. It marries the addictive structure of reality TV with a searing critique of surveillance, desire, and desperation. Whether you’re into dystopian satire, thriller pacing, or character-driven moral drama, this is a must-read for the summer.

Recommended for fans of: Black Mirror, The Hunger Games, Survivor, and Lord of the Flies.
Grab your copy, but beware—it might wake you up to your own complicity as both contestant and viewer.

The compound is a fresh and current page turner. The book is set in a reality show where contestants have to live in a house in a desert and the aim of the game is to couple up and complete tasks and try not to get banished by the other players. There are 10 pretty girls (think love island vibes ) and 10 boys. The books makes you think how self obsessed and materialistic a lot of people are these days. I enjoyed the wiring and style with a good plot and mix of characters.

Waking up in a compound in the middle of a desert, Lily is one of ten women competing in a reality TV show with high rewards. In a matter of days, ten men will arrive on foot, having survived the desert, to join the competition. In order to win, each participant must pair up with a member of the opposite sex and complete individual and group tasks that will challenge their integrity, in exchange for increasingly lavish prizes.

I’m obsessed with this book. Set in some kind of apocalyptic future, The Compound is based around a Love Island-style reality show where beautiful young men and women are forced to couple up in order to stay in the game. But this is a little bit more extreme, with harsh challenges (completely run out of food? Banish one person before you can have any more) and severe punishments for any rule-breakers.

The story builds quite slowly, at first simply following Lily and her fellow contestants as they adapt to life in the compound and begin reaping the rewards for completing tasks, but with vague references to the state of the ‘real world’ and an ominous undertone that alludes to something darker. In this way, much like when watching shows like Love Island, I quickly became completely addicted and desperate to know what was going to happen next.

Lily is quite a vapid character who, while not totally likeable, is entirely perfect as a lens through which to see the other characters. All of whom were also entirely perfect examples of consumerist culture and the very real danger of pushing reality TV too far.

I genuinely haven't had a book stay with me so long after finishing it for ages. The 'Love Island meets Lord of the Flies' synopsis of this is a great place to start from but doesn't even scratch the surface of what The Compound is about. It's smart, says so much about the world we live in and has cracking characters my perceptions of whom were constantly changing as I learned more about them.

This isn't merely a satisfying but ultimately disposable beach read (although there's nowt wrong with those either), it's something incredibly well drawn that will keep popping back into your brain ages after you've finished the final page - an intriguing mix of something incredibly entertaining and bingeable (I read it in two sittings) and unsettling. It's the sort of book you want all your friends to read so you can discuss it - so if this isn't a book club staple for 2025/6 then I'll eat my (sun) hat.

I feel like i should caveat this from the start and say i'm not a fan of Love Island - which is the basis for this book. Despite that i didn't hate this book, i didn't love it but i did enjoy the read.

How far would you go to claim your 15 minutes of fame? And will it be worth it in the end?

Love Island meets The Hunger Games, If you're into either then give this a go.