Latest news with #AislingRawle
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
'The Compound' by Aisling Rawle is our 'GMA' Book Club pick for July
The novel explores how reality TV distorts survival, desire, and control. ''The Compound'' by Aisling Rawle, the author's debut novel, is our "GMA" Book Club pick for July. The story follows Lily, a bored and beautiful twenty-something who joins a wildly popular reality show set in a remote desert. To win, she must outlast 19 other contestants by surviving in the Compound the longest, competing in challenges for luxury items like champagne and lipstick, as well as essentials to outfit their communal home, such as food, appliances and even a front door. "Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart?" a synopsis reads. "As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation." "When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she'll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams -- but what will she have to do to win?" the synopsis continues. "The Compound" offers a chilling, addictive look at how entertainment, control and survival collide when the cameras never stop rolling. Read an excerpt below and get a copy of the book here. By clicking on these shopping links, visitors will leave These e-commerce sites are operated under different terms and privacy policies than ABC will receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Prices may change from the date of publication. This month, we are also teaming up with Little Free Library to give out free copies in Times Square and at 150 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Since 2009, more than 300 million books have been shared in Little Free Libraries across the world. Click here to find a copy of ''The Compound" at a Little Free Library location near you. Read along with us and join the conversation all month on our Instagram account, @GMABookClub, and with #GMABookClub. In the morning the boys still hadn't arrived, and we started to worry. I opened my eyes -- the first to wake, again -- and reached for a phone that wasn't there. I woke up properly then, and looked around at all the other girls sleeping soundly. I couldn't see them well in the dark, and I seemed to have forgotten most of their names. The small trace of familiarity from the night before had vanished, and I was reminded that they were strangers to me. In that moment I would have given anything to have gone home. I padded through the house, checking for any changes. In the living area, the screen was still blank. I walked outside, and fancied that I would see the boys waiting for me by the pool. But there was no sign of them. It might have been peaceful outside -- all that flat, pale land stretching out into the distance -- but I disliked the extreme quiet, and went into the kitchen, where I made coffee while keeping an eye out the window. Then I made a huge pan of scrambled eggs and wolfed down what I judged to be a moderate amount. I thought of how ugly I must look on the cameras, stuffing my face alone in the kitchen, my hair unbrushed, my face not yet washed. I finished eating as quickly as I could. When I returned to the bedroom, the other girls were awake. They had been talking, but stopped when I walked in. Mia looked at me with wide eyes. "There you are," she said. "We didn't know where you had gone." "I got coffee," I said. "Why did you get up before everyone else, though?" "I don't know," I said. "I just woke up." "Were you just wandering on your own? That's so weird," Mia said. "No," I said. "I just made breakfast. I made eggs for everyone." "Thanks, Lily," Jacintha said. "That was really thoughtful." I met her eye, and felt a profound rush of gratitude for her, as though she had stopped me from falling off a cliff. After we ate, we took our coffees to the outdoor dining area. There were no chairs, and we stood self-consciously, leaning against the wall, hips cocked. It was difficult to know how to plan our day. We decided to go back to preparing the house in the morning; we could spend the afternoon relaxing and getting to know each other. Cleaning was hard in the heat, particularly in the kitchen, where the temperature was so extreme that we were forced to take frequent breaks, sprinkling our faces and necks with water. When we were done, we changed into our bikinis and got into the pool. I noted the relative flatness of everyone's stomachs, and found that, while Sarah had the most toned abs, I was a sure contender for the shapeliest hips. The pool was enormous; even with the ten of us in at the same time, there was still room left for about fifty refrigerators. We were not as reserved as we had been the day before; we did handstands and splashed each other. Mia and Eloise raced each other, and I swam as deep as I could, keeping my eyes open under the water and navigating around the blurry shapes of the girls' legs. But where were the boys? As we lay in the shade, snacking on tortilla chips and guacamole, I wondered if they had been hurt. Four years ago one of the boys had broken his leg on the way to the compound and had been stranded for twelve hours before the show's execs got to him. It would have taken less time but he had said, over and over, that he didn't want anyone to come get him and that he could make it to the compound eventually. He was taken home immediately. I knew I was going to drive myself mad with thinking, and asked Jacintha if she wanted to play ping-pong. It was tucked around the side of the house, and we played for a while -- I think probably an hour. There was a ball but no paddles, so we played with our hands. I thought that Jacintha was a relaxed kind of person, but she became tremendously competitive once we started to play. She liked to do victory laps of the ping-pong table while I crouched on the ground to retrieve the ball. "What time do you think it is?" I asked her between sets. She pointed above us, at the sun. "It's hard to be sure, but I think around three or four. It's definitely the afternoon." She came to stand beside me and pointed up, again. "See?" I nodded, but I didn't understand precisely how she knew. For me, the sun was just the sun. She turned to face me. She wasn't wearing sunglasses, and only minimal makeup, and her face was clear to me. "Do you think any of the boys will be Black? There's usually one, but not always." "Maybe," I said. I thought about it, then said, "I'm sure there will." "If it's all white boys, I'm screwed," she said. "The white boys never go for the Black girl." "You're stunning," I said. "Any of the boys would be lucky to have you." "You think?" she said, and twisted her earrings around. "Well, you have nothing to worry about anyway. Is that your natural hair color?" I laughed. "What do you think?" We went back to the lawn, where the majority of the girls were sunbathing. "Where were you?" Mia asked. "Why are you always disappearing?" "We were playing ping-pong," I said. She looked like she didn't believe me. What could I say? We were playing ping-pong. Jacintha and I took a seat a little bit away from her, and Candice came over and sat cross-legged on a cushion beside us. Candice had changed out of her swimsuit and into a crochet dress patterned with pretty greens and blues. She wore her long, thick hair in a high ponytail. I could see the beads of sweat on her neck. "Don't worry about Mia," she said. "She'll lighten up once the boys get here." Some of the girls had decided that they would make dinner for everyone. They went inside, intent on their task, and I felt impressed by their industriousness. All I could think of doing was getting cool. Eventually lying about got boring too, and Jacintha asked me to help her sort out some kind of makeshift door for the bathroom. I've always been useless in these kinds of situations: I don't have any sort of mechanical understanding. I've never assembled furniture myself, and I've never voluntarily looked inside the bonnet of a car. But Jacintha seemed to know what she was doing, and I encouraged her and made affirmative noises. In the end, she just hung a sheet over the doorframe. It was easy to move and provided a degree of privacy that we could live with, for now. When dinner was ready, we ate tacos outside and covered our mouths as we spoke. I got the impression that everyone was saving their more interesting talking points for when the boys came; I know I was. Jacintha sat next to me, and I was glad that we were becoming friends. She was nice, and smart, too. Already the ten girls had split into two cliques: throughout the day, Vanessa, Sarah, Melissa, Becca, and Eloise had kept to themselves, cleaning upstairs and eating lunch by the swings, and at dinner they sat a little apart too. Privately, I thought that the second group -- comprising Candice, Susie, Jacintha, Mia, and myself -- was the better one. The other girls were boring and had nothing much to add to a discussion. Mia, glancing at them, remarked, "Vanessa's the only one of them who's pretty, anyway." We were slightly more tense that night, and some of the girls were impatient with each other, interrupting or rolling their eyes. We drank more than we had the first night, too, and struggled to find things to talkabout. Only Susie remained enthusiastic; I don't think the fact that there was a sort of gag placed on our conversation topics bothered her at all. Susie could talk about anything. "I don't even want the boys to come," she said. "We're having so much fun without them." We went inside eventually, to shower and to tend to the burns that we had accumulated. I had a long, red burn running up the length of my arm from when I had fallen asleep in the sun. We lathered aloe vera on each other, until the room smelled sharp and sweet, and we walked around with slow, hesitant steps. I slept poorly, waking constantly. I kept curling my arms under my chin in my sleep, and then wincing myself awake. Eventually I lay like a starfish on my back, listening to the cool rush of the air conditioning and the even breathing of the other girls. The following morning, the boys arrived. *************************** Audio excerpted with permission of Penguin Random House Audio from THE COMPOUND by Aisling Rawle, read by Lucy Boynton.
New York Times
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
It's Fun to Watch Hot People Do Psychotic Things in This Novel
THE COMPOUND, by Aisling Rawle In the second season of Netflix's 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' there's a running gag in which characters constantly reference minute details in the lives of the Kardashians. It happens unbidden: 'Like when Kourtney squirted her breast milk on Kim's psoriasis,' someone will say before wondering: 'How do I know about that?' The joke is: Whether you like it or not — and even if you were raised in a bunker like Kimmy herself — you can't escape the thrall of reality TV. Maybe that's why Aisling Rawle's smart and provocative debut novel, 'The Compound,' is so damn addictive. The story takes place inside a demented reality competition program that is basically musical chairs from hell. Twenty people — 10 men and 10 women — are selected to live in the titular desert house. The residence is grand, but it lies in utter disrepair, lacking even basic amenities like windows and doors. 'It looked a lot like the home of a billionaire, if the billionaire's staff had gone on strike,' our narrator, a contestant named Lily, notes. That's an issue because the environment outside is inhospitable at best and actively dangerous at worst. The game is simple: The person who lasts the longest at the compound wins. But, as in any good competition, there are rules and twists. Primarily: 'You stayed in the compound only if you woke in the morning next to someone of the opposite sex. If you slept alone, you would be gone by sunrise.' To earn food, tools and other supplies to not just survive in the compound but to turn the space into an idyllic resort, contestants must come together and complete communal tasks, some of which involve voting people out, disturbing the delicate balance of the group and unsettling the lifesaving partnerships. Meanwhile, contestants are also working to complete personal tasks to gain luxury goods, often emotionally manipulative assignments designed to force connections with other residents, but they can't reveal these side missions to the group, meaning nobody is ever sure if an action or gesture from a fellow contestant is genuine or just a play for individual profit. Lily knows roughly what to expect from watching previous seasons, but the trouble begins on hers almost immediately. When the men arrive after their long trek through the desert, there are only nine of them; one man didn't make it, though none of the guys will say exactly what happened to him. With uneven numbers, Lily needs to find a bedmate, fast. And just like that, the game is on. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Irish Times
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Good books: The 20 best holiday reads this summer
The Compound by Aisling Rawle (Borough Press, £16.99) Working in a dead-end job in a near future plagued by wars and environmental catastrophe, Lily just wants an easier life. Which is why she applies to be part of a hugely popular reality show in which men and women spend months in a constantly filmed compound in the middle of an unnamed desert, competing challenges in order to get everything from basic food and furniture to luxury items. As the group forms alliances and the challenges get darker (we're told no violence is allowed until only five contestants are left, but then all bets are off apart from actual murder), Aisling Rawle paints a chillingly convincing picture of what people will do for material gain. The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O'Donnell (W&N, £15.99) Seven years after their first outing in The House on Vesper Sands, Inspector Cutter, his sensitive sergeant Gideon Bliss and journalist Octavia Hillingdon return in another atmospheric tale of dark deeds in late Victorian London. Rich and powerful men are being murdered in deeply mysterious circumstances – but does something bigger lie behind these deaths? O'Donnell's ability to create a convincing 19th century world is as strong as ever, and this ripping yarn doesn't disappoint. [ The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O'Donnell: Brilliantly compelling Opens in new window ] Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane (HarperCollins, £9.99) A funny, swoon-worthy love story in which the characters behave and feel like real people is the romantic comedy goal, and no one delivers it quite like Mhairi McFarlane. In Cover Story journalist Bel gets a tip-off that could lead to the biggest story of her career. She decides to do some undercover investigating – but then the paper's annoying new intern Connor nearly blows her cover. Forced to improvise, Bel pretends he's her boyfriend, and the two unwilling colleagues have to work together to get the story. A satisfying and witty romance with emotional depth. It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara (Bantam, £16.99) When Susan O'Donnell accidentally sends a bitchy message about a neighbour to a local community WhatsApp group instead of her sisters, she's horrified and embarrassed. But she doesn't realise that she's set in chain a series of events that will end up in more than one death. Andrea Mara's new thriller is so full of carefully choreographed twists and turns that I literally gasped more than once. Just don't read it before bed if you want an early night because once you start reading, it's hard to stop. READ MORE The Treasures by Harriet Evans (Penguin Viking, £16.99) Summer is the perfect time to curl up with a big family saga and they don't come much bigger or more satisfying than The Treasures, the first in what will be a trilogy by Harriet Evans. It tells the ultimately intertwining stories of Alice Jansen, who grows up by an orchard in upstate New York in the 1960s, and her contemporary Tom Raven, who moves from a remote corner of Scotland to London. Fate will bring them together in a city that's changing by the second. A compelling and richly evocative tale. The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O'Connor (Vintage, £15.99) In 1944, Rome is occupied by the Nazis. But under the nose of the Gestapo's Paul Hauptmann, an escape line known as the Choir is hard at work, smuggling out refugees and Allied POWs to safety. Its members include the glamorous and aristocratic Contessa Giovanna Landini, who attracts Hauptmann's vindictive attention. Like O'Connor's last novel My Father's House , The Ghosts of Rome draws inspiration from real people and true events to create a brilliantly realised historical thriller. [ Joseph O'Connor: 'I don't know what modern Ireland is yet. I'm suspicious about the new sacred cows' Opens in new window ] Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin (Manila Press, £16.99) Jay is on a train in London when she gets a phone call from her father saying that her brother Ferdia is being considered for canonisation. It's 13 years since her devoutly religious brother died suddenly, and as far as Jay's deeply religious parents are concerned, him becoming a saint would be a wonderful thing. But Jay has long ago left a church from which, as a queer woman, she feels utterly alienated. As she's forced to confront the canonisation process, Jay also confronts her relationship to her family and her own past. Ní Mhaoileoin writes about these big issues with warmth and humour as well as sadness. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £15.99) Nadia is an academic working in criminology who has appalled her conservative Muslim mother by abandoning religion. Sara is a sarky young woman who joined Islamic State as a teenager. But when they meet in a UN-run camp in Iraq, where Nadia has been tasked with establishing a rehabilitation centre for 'Isis brides' from around the world, they gradually form a rapport that turns into a friendship. Because Nadia, despite all their ostensible differences, can see herself in this angry, sweary young woman. A funny and provocative novel. The Last Ditch: How One GAA Championship Gave a Sportswriter Back His Life by Eamonn Sweeney (Hachette Books Ireland, £16.99) In 2023 the sports writer Eamonn Sweeney was asked by his publisher to travel around Ireland, following the GAA championships, retracing the journey he'd taken in his 2004 book The Road to Croker. Sweeney loved the idea, but he was sure he couldn't do it. Because since that early odyssey, he'd developed a travel phobia that meant even buying a train ticket was an ordeal. As Sweeney decides to tackle his fears and write this powerful and moving book, he witnesses and celebrates a changing Ireland, and a changing GAA. Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (Titan Books, £9.99) Shell is at a crossroads in her life when she takes a job in a florist's shop at a crumbling north Dublin suburban mall. She's immediately drawn to her charismatic new boss Neve – but she doesn't realise that Neve's heart already belongs to a strange orchid that grows in the mall's terrarium and whose tendrils extend throughout the building, a creature known only as Baby. Gorgeously written and incredibly atmospheric, this very Irish horror story is a brilliant exploration of desire, fear and belonging. Love In Exile by Shon Faye (Allen Lane, £20) After a heart-rending break-up, the writer Shon Faye gradually realised that maybe her feelings of romantic failure weren't based on any fault of her own. Maybe the fault lay in how society presents love itself, and what we expect our romantic relationships to give us? In this beautifully written, thoughtful, moving and ultimately hopeful exploration of love in the 21st century, Faye draws on her own experiences as a trans woman, as well as everyone from Ovid and Engels to bell hooks and Lana del Ray, to draw up a new blueprint of what love can mean. Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way by Elaine Feeney (Harvill Secker, £14.99) Claire O'Connor is an academic who breaks up with her English partner Tom and moves home to the west of Ireland to care for her dying father. Years later, Tom shows up in the neighbourhood to work on a book, and his return not only disrupts Claire's new life but brings out memories of her past. In this superb novel, Elaine Feeney examines everything from intergenerational trauma and violence to tradwives with insight, wit and compassion. [ Elaine Feeney on her new novel: 'I was pushing a sort of Chekhov dinner party in the west of Ireland' Opens in new window ] Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang (Raven, £16.99) Julie Chan works in a supermarket. Her identical twin Chloe, who was adopted by a rich white couple after their parents died in an accident when the girls were young, is an influencer with millions of followers. The sisters have only met once since then, when Chloe used Julie in a viral stunt – but when Julie finds Chloe's lifeless body, she's genuinely horrified. And then she realises her face can unlock Chloe's phone … Julie declares herself dead, takes over Chloe's life and joins her inner circle of mega-influencers – but she'll soon discover the darkness that lies behind their perfect facades. A darkly comic satire that's as gripping as a thriller. Long Story by Vicki Notaro (Penguin Sandycove, £14.99) Irish movie star Tara O'Toole is devastated – and humiliated – when her famous husband leaves her for another woman. She turns to Alex Curtis, her best friend since their teenage days in a Dublin stage school, for support. But then she discovers that their old schoolmate, rock star Sean Sweeney, is publishing a memoir – and what he's written about Tara could destroy her friendship with Alex, who's never quite got over her time with Sean. There's grit as well as gloss in this entertaining read, as Notaro touches on some dark issues as well as delivering a glittering depiction of the high life. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (Quercus, £22) Introducing an immediately likable new detective to the fictional crime canon, this is a gripping murder mystery with a difference. Ali Dawson is part of a secret London police department that investigates very, very cold cases, travelling briefly back in time to find evidence. When she's asked to spend a longer than usual time in Victorian London to clear the name of a government minister's ancestor, Ali finds herself trapped in the past – while, in the 21st century, her son finds himself accused of a crime that might just be connected to the one she's investigating. Words for my Comrades by Dean Van Nguyen (White Rabbit, £25) When the future hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was 10 years old, he was asked by a religious minister what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer? 'A revolutionary.' Irish writer Dean Van Nguyen's fascinating new book tells the story of a musical icon's political life, looking at the influence of his Black Panther activist mother Afeni and showing how his life influenced his political sensibility. Insightful, readable and thoroughly well researched, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of politics and pop culture. The Marriage Vendetta by Catherine Madden (Eriu, £13.99) Eliza Sheridan was once an acclaimed concert pianist. But she abandoned her career to focus on her daughter Mara – and support her playwright husband Richard. When Richard gets an all-consuming job running a Dublin theatre, Eliza finds herself becoming more and more resentful. She consults a marriage counsellor – but she doesn't get the advice she expects. Inspired by the relationship between the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his musical wife Elizabeth Linley, this is an original and darkly funny exploration of marriage – and how to escape a bad one. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Hutchinson Heinemann, £15.99) You don't have to be interested in the space programme to be immediately gripped by the new novel from the author of Daisy Jones and the Six, which begins with a horrific disaster aboard a space shuttle in the 1984 before jumping back four years to astronomer Joan Goodwin's first days as a Nasa recruit. The training programme is intense, but Joan forges strong bonds with some of her colleagues – especially the charismatic aeronautical engineer Vanessa Ford. Both a deeply touching love story and a heartfelt homage to human ingenuity, Atmosphere is, simply, stellar. When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter (Grove Press UK, £20) Graydon Carter became editor of Vanity Fair magazine in 1992, an era in which 'the budget had no ceiling. I could send anybody anywhere for as long as I wanted'. Those days are long gone for any magazine, but they live again in this entertaining, gossipy memoir, which tells Carter's story from his Canadian student journalism days to his infamous teasing of Donald Trump at Spy magazine ( his description of Trump as a 'short-fingered vulgarian' clearly haunts the autocratic president to this day) and eventually his reign at the ultimate celebrity-filled glossy. City Girls Forever by Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster, £14.99) Irish commercial fiction as we know it wouldn't exist without Patricia Scanlan's groundbreaking City Girls novels, which made north Dublin suburbia feel as glamorous as any international blockbuster. In City Girls Forever, the iconic City Girl Gym and Spa is celebrating its 35th anniversary – and old friends Maggie, Devlin and Caroline are planning to celebrate in style. But fate has other plans. Full of drama and warmth, this is vintage Scanlan. [ Author Patricia Scanlan: 'I'm working on an unanticipated project of healing from breast cancer' Opens in new window ]
