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careinthelibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
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.
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
dakinpj's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Sexism
mysteryspouse's review against another edition
- 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
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
excritos's review against another edition
- 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
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
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
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
kait_sixcrowsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, and Death
Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Homophobia
seventhcr0w's review against another edition
4.0
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
wispy_reviews's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Battle Royale is the next step after Lord of the Flies; after you examine the cruelty of humans in a vacuum, you must examine our cruelty in the systems we’ve created ourselves. It’s so incredibly difficult to fix a broken system when people insist on participating in it, and “play the game.”
It was difficult to keep up with so many names, but that can be attributed to me being a westerner not accustomed to Japanese names. Even so the author did a great job with context clues, so even if you didn’t remember a character immediately he helps you with what they did previously.
What really blew me away was how effortlessly the narrative voice changed; we got a perfect psychological imprint of each character as they became the focus.
Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexual harassment, Murder, Child death, Pedophilia, Violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Gun violence, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Rape
fe_aye's review against another edition
- 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
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
ollie_again's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
My second issue was the constant conversations about who has a crush on whom. I'm not a teenager for quite some time, but I don't think that teenagers are in need of romance drama 24/7 while they are in life-death situations. At least not every single one of them. And how those feelings are discussed is a completely different issue. Just get on with it and get dying. This book would be so much better (and shorter) if the author cut out all the romance crap. The friendship would serve just the same purpose while not feeling cheap, especially because that one characters has/had feelings for their classmate is always revealed in such a rushed way (mostly seconds before death of one or both of the two), it's usually one-sided and it's just about "oh this person is feeling like shit about this person dying because crush, I guess". Characters (and especially girls) freezing and reminiscing about the guys they had a crush on in the most inconvenient times happened one too many times for me to care. The relationship based on friendship worked much better and made more sense, but they were few and far between compared to the crushes.
I could do without the mentions of prostitution of 15y, sexual traumas of way too many girls, but that was something I kind of expected from this book. A lot of things were there just for a shock value and while it might mask as a character's history as to why they are fucked up, it didn't really land.
Might be a controversial take but I would prefer if
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, and Gore
Moderate: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide
Minor: Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Vomit