The Compound

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

I’ve always been a passive kind of person; it is both my worst quality and the thing that people like most about me.

If you've ever watched the tv show Big Brother and wished it had a darker vibe, then you're going to want to read The Compound. Told from contestant Lily's point-of-view readers wake up with her in a house in the desert. As she finds nine other younger women scattered throughout the house we learn that the ten men who will join them will come from the surrounding desert. They will be filmed constantly, Lily's watched and been a fan of the show, and have to complete tasks as a group for rewards and be able to complete personal tasks for goodies. The goal is to be the last one house-guest, when you'll be able to ask for anything you want and get it, provided you still remain in the house. It all sounds like a fun break to win prizes but as the story went on, competitiveness and darker personalities began to seep in through the cracks.

I was there because I thought that this was what I was supposed to want: the house and the rewards and all the nice things.

As the narrator, you'd think your sympathies will be solidly with Lily, and they are at times, but she works as a mirror to hold up to yourself, consumerism, and influencer culture. Lily's honest with us readers and as someone who works a retail job, lives at home at twenty-five, and has a father she hasn't seen in years because he's off fighting a war, she's on the reality tv show to “take a break” and win prizes she would otherwise never be able to afford. Part of the show's concept is that each night the men have to pick a woman to sleep with in bed, if someone doesn't have a partner the next morning they are banished. This creates competition between the women and sets up a heteronormative dynamic. There is a lot being said in this story and while I think the author started some conversations that need to be had, I'm not sure they all stuck the landing, especially towards the end. There wasn't much outerworld building, it's vague future dystopian with climate change and wars, but if you're here for discussions on some of the topics I mentioned, the microcosm world in the house provides enough different personalities and situations.

He looked around him, his face pinched in sadness. “Do you really want to live here, in this…wasteland?” “It’s no worse than what’s out there! Is that what you want to go back to? Constantly living on the periphery of disaster, just waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally reach us, doing stupid, dull work to pass the days until then? We’re safe here— we’re removed from all of it.” “It’s still there, Lily. It’s still happening. You think that because we can’t see it, it’s not going on?”

With so many characters the beginning was a little tougher to get a handle on but it becomes clear fairly early who are the contestants to keep an eye on. I liked how Lily had some personality components that we all probably have and don't necessarily like about ourselves and following along with the choices she made works to confront some of those indoctrinated lines of thought. This had some thriller vibes that I enjoyed, the threat of violence was always prevalent. This often felt poised to say something, it got there at times and never quite reached it at others for me. Coated in the bleakness of late stage capitalism, this dark vibed Big Brother starts a lot of conversations on the ever fascinating topics of societal structures and human nature.