Retros_x
Hero
I've read "The Compound" by Aisling Rawle, a debut novel about a reality show in a miserable, doomed world - so our real world? Or near future? It is never completely revealed what is going on in the fictional world of this book, because it all plays in the shooting location and the contestants of the reality show are not allowed to talk about their former "real" life.
This was an interesting emotional experience - I thought for the most time of reading this book that it would have no emotional impact on me. The clean, concise prose, the characters we know almost nothing about and only witness their actions, everything. But the eerie subtle worldbuilding created a strong atmosphere and the last chapters left me weirdly depressed. Its not that something overly tragic happens, but I guess thats the point of it.
The compound is like our burning world, it doesn't go out in a bang, but slowly everybody leaves it until it is empty, silent and dead. Possible next sentient beings will see the remains of of us wondering what the hell we did here and why did naughty word up so much, being convinced they will do better next time, similar how the protagonist Lily thought she would do better than previous contestants.
The protagonists think they finally have an easy life, getting all the luxuries they always wanted without work, but don't realize that they work hard for it and are not actually free. They are dependent on the whims of the producers of the show, who force them to do humiliating tasks and set them up against each other. Similar to in our world where the population of the industry nations think they are free and can consume whatever they want. But in reality they are humiliated and betted against each other by the rich and powerful, forced to sacrifice their life time as workforce for the rich, never experiencing true freedom and being novacained by the bliss of consumerism, although that never lasts long. Or they give up, in reality as in the ficional novel.
There is a third option of course: Stand up against the norm, against the men in power, try to change the rules, the system, start a revolution. Change the course of history. But the hypothesis of the author seems to be quite bleak and depressing: Never one of the characters even think of turning against the producers of the show - Humans will never actually learn, history repeats itself and we are doomed to slowly dying out.
The book is advertised as "Love Island meets Lord of the Flies". I think it fits, but add even more cynicsm and bleakness to it.
This was an interesting emotional experience - I thought for the most time of reading this book that it would have no emotional impact on me. The clean, concise prose, the characters we know almost nothing about and only witness their actions, everything. But the eerie subtle worldbuilding created a strong atmosphere and the last chapters left me weirdly depressed. Its not that something overly tragic happens, but I guess thats the point of it.
The compound is like our burning world, it doesn't go out in a bang, but slowly everybody leaves it until it is empty, silent and dead. Possible next sentient beings will see the remains of of us wondering what the hell we did here and why did naughty word up so much, being convinced they will do better next time, similar how the protagonist Lily thought she would do better than previous contestants.
The protagonists think they finally have an easy life, getting all the luxuries they always wanted without work, but don't realize that they work hard for it and are not actually free. They are dependent on the whims of the producers of the show, who force them to do humiliating tasks and set them up against each other. Similar to in our world where the population of the industry nations think they are free and can consume whatever they want. But in reality they are humiliated and betted against each other by the rich and powerful, forced to sacrifice their life time as workforce for the rich, never experiencing true freedom and being novacained by the bliss of consumerism, although that never lasts long. Or they give up, in reality as in the ficional novel.
There is a third option of course: Stand up against the norm, against the men in power, try to change the rules, the system, start a revolution. Change the course of history. But the hypothesis of the author seems to be quite bleak and depressing: Never one of the characters even think of turning against the producers of the show - Humans will never actually learn, history repeats itself and we are doomed to slowly dying out.
The book is advertised as "Love Island meets Lord of the Flies". I think it fits, but add even more cynicsm and bleakness to it.
