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Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Aisling Rawle: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show'
Since the days of Big Brother, reality TV has been a world ripe for extreme behaviour — making it the perfect setting for a thrilling novel about what happens when the experience goes wrong. Irish author Aisling Rawle describes her debut, The Compound, as 'Love Island meets Lord of the Flies' and 'Animal Farm — but if everyone was hot and wanted skincare'. In the opening pages, its protagonist Lily — a young, attractive 20-something — wakes up in a large house surrounded by an expansive desert. She's willingly taking part in The Compound, a reality show that sees young men and women couple up and compete for prizes. But from the off, it's clear that life in the compound will be anything but easy. There are several striking things about Rawle. One is that she's so softly-spoken that my recording device barely picks up her voice in the busy cafe, but what she has to say about reality TV, materialism, and social media is deeply wise. The second is that she's not a die-hard reality TV fan. The third? She's not on social media. Despite this, the 27-year-old Leitrim-born, Dublin-based former English teacher (she's currently on a break to focus on her writing) is an astute guide to what reality TV can tell us about human behaviour. Aisling Rawle, author: "I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter," Photograph Moya Nolan The idea for the book emerged during Rawle's summer break two years ago. 'The first day of the holidays, I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter,' she says. 'I wrote that scene and then I wrote the rest of it in this mad rush. When it was finished, I knew so little about the publishing industry that I was brazen enough to reach out to an agent and she very kindly took me on.' The book was written in a six-week 'fever dream' and soon multiple publishers were bidding to publish The Compound in Ireland and overseas. The novel picks apart the 'extreme' gender stereotyping across many reality TV shows. 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert,' Rawle says of The Compound. 'I think that it is such a cruel aspect of dating shows and reality TV shows — the appearance of women is so scrutinised, and it's seen as the most important thing. I think we take it for granted. Even things like the Kardashian [family], it feels like so many conversations revolve around their relative attractiveness. They'll even do it amongst each other. I remember one viral moment of [Kim] Kardashian saying [to her sister Kourtney], 'you are the least interesting to look at'.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert' Photograph Moya Nolan While watching Love Island during the pandemic, Rawle and her friends started to jokingly describe it as 'heterosexual paradise'. 'The heteronormativity is astounding,' she says with a baffled laugh. 'It does present the idea not only that the norm is heterosexuality, but that the people worth viewing are heterosexual.' She examines this in the novel, with readers guessing whether characters are really as straight as they present themselves. The book is set in the not-too-distant future, and hints at climate issues and ongoing wars. 'We don't know a whole lot about the outside, but it's burning and there's conflict and tension and Lily desperately wants to get away. To me, that didn't feel very dissimilar to the world today,' says Rawle. The producers in The Compound come off as manipulative, faceless people who push the participants to do terrible things. 'I wanted to put a little bit of finger-pointing towards the people who create these really toxic situations and pass it off as entertainment,' she says. As readers, we know the producers have the power, but we recognise that the viewers are culpable too. Rawle watched a lot of Love Island during the covid lockdowns. 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture, which I also wanted to criticise a little in this book,' she says. Aisling Rawle, author: 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture." Photograph Moya Nolan While she sees influencing as a valid way of making a living, the 'transactional nature' of it can feel inauthentic and lead to people second-guessing what is a genuine human interaction or not. 'We all know that social media is fake, and we've known that for years, but I think the more it creeps into our lives, the more we've normalised that fakeness is the exchange of reality,' she says, adding later with a laugh: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show … I feel like that's just the norm now,' referring to the 1998 film starring Jim Carrey about a man whose entire life is filmed. She says that with reality television shows, 'there is a strange line between entertainment and exploitation', something that Lily discovers in the house. In The Compound, the participants know that to win the approval of the producers and viewers they must adhere to certain rules. These reflect larger societal expectations on people, says Rawle. 'The three driving forces of the reality TV show were, the driving forces of young adult life. Which is, you have to find a partner, you have to get a house, and then you have to get nice things. That's what it means to be a successful adult. I wanted to turn that up to the extreme.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' Photograph Moya Nolan Lily is a character who thinks a lot about how people view her, and adjusts herself to meet their expectations. But she also has negative ideas about herself, believing she is stupid. She sees her worth as being tied up in her looks. Lily's belief that she is stupid is something Rawle noticed in students: how judgement can have a lasting impact. 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' The competition in The Compound pits beautiful people against beautiful people, creating a hierarchy of attractiveness. Lily believes she has to be the most desirable person in the compound, and compares herself to everyone else, 'which I think is a horrible way to be', says Rawle. The book is written in the first-person so that the reader could potentially 'understand Lily's experience, but also feel removed enough that you would confront your own associations of judgment'. Aisling Rawle, author: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' Photograph Moya Nolan The book helped Rawle work through some of her own frustrations about the issues she explores in it. 'It was very cathartic,' she says. She never knew what the next scene was going to be, comparing herself to an 'evil producer' of the show. 'But I also felt like a viewer of the show going 'who's going tonight?'' The book is underpinned by Rawle's feminism. Growing up with a younger brother and older sister, she says her teenage feminist awakening was spurred on by books such as Jane Eyre. More recently, the novel Detransition Baby by transgender writer Torrey Peters further helped her ideas of gender evolve. Though she once joined Facebook, she isn't on social media. Why? While she says there is a lot of good on the apps, for her staying focused is a priority. She adds: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' This gentle refusal of social media is a sign of how Rawle is able to decide what social norms she does and doesn't want to take on board. Part of the book is influenced by her experiences of earning more money after college, and finding that 'life revolved around what was the next thing to purchase, which to me didn't feel like there was a lot of fulfillment or meaning in it'. The Compound by Aisling Rawle The characters in The Compound undertake tasks in order to win expensive items. The tasks can be deeply unpleasant but are seen as worth it because of the result. As someone in her late 20s, she is part of a generation dealing with multiple stresses, most notably the housing crisis. She feels extremely lucky to be able to rent on her own, but recalls teaching piano in the evenings while being a teacher by day. 'I knew teachers who would go home on the weekend and do carpentry jobs, or personal trainer jobs,' she says. Excitingly for an Irish author, The Compound is being published in America and was recently chosen for the Good Morning America book club for July. Rawle remains sanguine: 'The book was the success for me. Everything else was secondary.' While The Compound does end at a moment that's a good jumping-off point for a sequel, Rawle's next book is about something totally unrelated. 'It's funny, the protagonist of the next book is very superstitious, and I've become superstitious — so I'm reluctant to say too much,' she offers. It's an exciting time for Rawle, but she seems well capable of dealing with the whirlwind of publishing a book on both sides of the Atlantic. All that's left is to ask the burning question: would she ever go on a reality show herself? 'It's a definite no,' she says, laughing. 'You couldn't pay me enough!' The Compound by Aisling Rawle, published by Harper Collins, is out now Read More Diary of a Gen Z Student: The differences between Irish and Portugese men when it comes to flirting
24-06-2025
- 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.
