*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: June 24, 2025
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 292
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4.5/5
I found The Compound to be compulsively readable and I finished this book in a matter of hours. All I knew going into this book is that it is a dystopian Love Island and I loved discovering the story and following along with our main character, Lily. She is a flawed young twenty something year old who wants so badly to be the winner of the competition.
Being a character driven reader I do think I loved this story more than a plot driven reader because most of the story hinges on the characters and their relationships and motivations. But one of the reasons I couldn’t put this book down was because of all the game elements in the story. There are smaller challenges for each contestant but there are also the big group ones that vary from light hearted to brutal. As the story progresses we get to understand more of the world but also the rules and expectations of the competition. I enjoyed how Rawle cleverly balanced slowly teasing out the world the characters live in with the tension of the competition along with the insidious atmosphere that hung over everything.
My only criticism of the story is that I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. I understand the idea of the ending but I felt like it was lacking something. Overall though I think this is the best thriller that I’ve read this year and I’m excited to see what Rawle writes in the future.
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