Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

65 reviews

livia_jewel's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Child death

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

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

arixsuu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

An amazing book to start this year. I don't think I can find anything like this one. Best book of the year by far, or one of the best in any case. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Suicide, and Torture

mysteryspouse's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Death, Physical abuse, Child death, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, and Pedophilia

heidi_grey's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Oh wow, this is really dark. And gory. Check the TWs, I can see why this is not YA even though the main characters are high schoolers. 

There are a lot of similarities to Hunger Games (obviously) but BR focuses a lot more on the individual characters, their background and their inner turmoil. I was honestly quite impressed with the author’s ability to create 42 unique and distinctive students that we meet throughout the story. I found it hard to put the book down.

My only complaint is with how stereotypical the female students were portrayed. They are often depicted as whimsical, hysterical, weak, having crushes… or they are killed off right away. Add to that various comments about so-and-so would have made a good wife and you get the gist. I would have liked at least one strong independent woman that had it together!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape and Suicide

Minor: Vomit

luisaaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

I was reading two different translations of this book in tandem, one on my phone and one a a physical copy. The people in the reviews complaining about poor translation/writing probably read the older translation, which I agree does read as more of a rough draft/ literal translation. The actual remastered version of this story was WOW. so so good. the writing was well done and still easy to understand, and the plot twists especially the end were crazy. lots of gore, but lots of fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Suicide

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Rape, War, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Vomit, and Suicide

excritos's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

0.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Bullying, Body horror, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death

ajourneythroughpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I love this book! So good. Read it about 4 times now and it was still just as good as I remembered. Not rated 5 stars because of some sexism and homophobia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Death, Violence, Blood, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexism

Minor: Torture, Suicide, Rape, and Homophobia