Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

13 reviews

capitan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Gore, Bullying, Car accident, Misogyny, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Rape, Classism, and Murder

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

I knew I would like this since I really liked the movie years ago, but I'm so glad that I absolutely loved the book!

Did I remember all ~50 characters? No! But the reading pace kept me flying through it and the 20ish that were most important were definitely memorable. The size of the book flew by with the pacing of the short, intense chapters.

This new translation is more action-packed than the original (I compared line by line with the audiobook of the original English translation). You can tell this translator has worked on manga and video games before because the fight scenes are so much smother. But whichever version you have, read it.

What a thrilling, unexpectedly emotionally charged, bloody, anti-fascist roller coaster. This is the inspiration behind Hunger Games and battle royale style video games, but way more politically incendiary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Blood, and Gun violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexism, Medical content, Classism, Grief, Suicide, Rape, and Mental illness

Minor: Car accident

noodlebooknook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Wow where do I even start

Well first of all given the size of the book (650 pages of my edition) I was a little intimidated but this book FLIES by so fast it feels like a 200-300 page book.

The narration style was so unique starting with 42 characters and we get POVs with a lot of them. Which has its normal downsides where sometimes I would be less invested than normal but overall most of the POVs were so interesting.

Also I really had no idea where this book was going at all somehow have managed to avoid spoilers for 25 year and wow wow wow the ending was just amazing.

I will say absolutely trigger warning this was one of the most gore heavy and violent books I’ve read in awhile and it is absolutely an insane read along with other terrible things happening. 

Overall would highly recommend this book to anyone

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Confinement, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Rape, Violence, and War

vvabecca's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Mental illness, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Medical trauma, Bullying, Car accident, Addiction, Grief, Gore, Body horror, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

seventhcr0w's review against another edition

4.0

japierdole XDDDDDDDDDDD ryje psyche

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Torture, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Minor: Sexual content, Stalking, Homophobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Body shaming

and_the_ocean_burned's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Blood, Gun violence, Suicide, Stalking, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, Murder, and Death

remembermenever's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 The last time I read Battle Royale, it was 2017. I gave it an instant five star rating when I completed it. I thought it was thought-provoking, if I remember right, and an engaging read. Well, it is now 2023. And it is clear that my tastes have changed entirely, as this will not rate higher than a three.

In this reread, something that immediately stuck out to me was that a lot of the characters that had POV scenes all felt very similar in voice, unless they were characters that had multiple scenes. Their voices got muddled together, in such a way that it made it confusing sometimes to remember who was who. And this could be because the author was juggling 43+ characters throughout the novel, from characters who only barely have appearances in the novel, to major characters that we follow for the entirety.

Shuya is a very bland main character, which makes for a very boring main character. He spends much of the novel basically following after Shogo, caring for Noriko, making promises to people that he can’t hope to complete, especially in a death game. He’s also very naive, believing in the good of everyone, even while seeing the results of what is happening all around him. Noriko also comes off as a very trope-heavy character, mostly there to play the part of “damsel”. Shogo is the only one of the unlikely trio who has some sort of plan, and that’s only because of his experiences. 

Moving away from the characters, the pacing just made it hard sometimes. The author chooses to jump from character POV to character POV, leaving the reader to have to catch up with what that character has been doing for the last length of time since they have last been with them, if at all. Only then, do they move forward. Some characters get barely a mention, including one character who lasts until late into the game. The choice makes it so that the reader has to keep up with several storylines at once, and most of them are very separate, only tangentially together (the death game).

And maybe it’s just because it’s been six years, or maybe it’s because my tastes have changed a lot in that time, but this just didn’t do it for me anymore. I was never really a fan of gratuitous violence, but I was able to overlook it for the most part all that long ago. I was drawn to something else initially, though I can’t put my finger on what. And now? Whatever it is, it’s gone. Either I imagined it was there… Or I changed enough that I don’t see it anymore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

fe_aye's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow, this book is a lot of things. It doesn’t feel right to call a story about pointless child murder amazing, but this is certainly an interesting read. Not knowing who you can trust, who will die and who will survive. Some things about this story are a bit off, but overall it’s a book with an interesting commentary on society, and trusting each other, along with the fragility of life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Cursing, Gun violence, Rape, Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexism, Confinement, Rape, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

miketilford's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I attempted to read Battle Royale earlier this year, but couldn't get past the first chapter. So here I am attempting it again, and I'm glad that I did.

The story opens up with a huge info dump regarding the world, and the 42 characters in the story. As if I am going to remember anything about any of those 42 different characters with Japanese names, not going to happen. After this, things do pick up, but the book is plagued with info dump chapters that just kill the momentum. I suppose these chapters are suppose to better fill out the world, and maybe give some philosophical view of society, but I wasn't interested in the world.

Don't get me wrong, the story is good, but the writing itself is terrible. I want to believe that most of this is due to translation, but I don't know. Edit: Okay, it turns out that there are multiple translations. I began reading this on Kindle with the original translation, and switched to the new Nathan Collins translation around the 50% mark. The newer translation is way better, but be forewarned that the character names slightly change if you switch translations as I did.

It almost feels like Takami wanted to write a Manga, but couldn't find a publisher, so he wrote a novel instead. Fun fact, after the success of the novel, he did make this into a Manga, so I may not be too far off.

The main villain of the story is comically evil. He's a straight up sociopath that can't experience feelings. Okay sure, this is straight out of Manga / Anime, but fine whatever. This part is a bit much, but I can deal with. The fact that this 15 year old is basically the Terminator is a bit of a joke. Also, I'm pretty sure bulletproof vests are a one time thing.

With all this criticism, you may think that I didn't like Battle Royale. You wouldn't be further from the truth. The story was great, and despite the few criticisms I had, I loved the rest of it. My favorite scene involved the Lighthouse. The entire scene from the setup to the payoff was absolutely great, and completely believable.

Overall, I found this a surprisingly good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Child death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Child abuse, Gore, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship

anime917's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide, and Torture