Hot Take: "The Compound" by Aisling Rawle only works because she decided to tell the story from the POV of the most shallow and unreflective protagonist of all time. As a result, she didn't have to delve deeply into the racist and misogynistic conditions that underlay the story. I still don't know if that was a very calculated and clever move or if Rawle just got lucky.

The story revolves around Lily, a blond, thin white woman, who is one of ten contestans in a reality show in a not too distant future that seems to be dystopian but we don't learn too much about what's happening on the outside world. In the show, contestants have to perform group tasks and individual tasks, as well as stay in a couple and build relationships with the other contestans in order to stay in the compound. The book is marketed as Lord of the Flies meets Love Island and I have never read the former but the depicted reality show definitely isn't as well thought out ad LI (especially cause there are no bombshells, which is just sad). The book's critique of reality tv shows as well as capitalism, individualism and gender norms is pretty basic but valid. All in all, the book is entertaining enough and doesn't really harm anyone so I enjoyed reading it but it is also not that great. So, if you're into reality tv shows you can totally read it but if you haven't seen Vanderpump Rules yet, I would recommend watching that instead.
(And if you’re into Lord of the Flies just reread that, I guess.)