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readbyella_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
Minor: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault
miketilford's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
jomima's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
i wish shuya's personality was developed on - sometimes it got a bit frustrating whenever he refused to accept that his friends were killing each other.
but the ending is overall satisfactory, though bittersweet. :)
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
nannahnannah's review against another edition
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
At this point, it's almost useless to describe what Battle Royale is about, but we have a successful fascist government sending high school kids into a death match every other year or so (last one standing wins). Why? You'll have to read to find out. Unlike The Hunger Games, Battle Royale takes you a little bit into every students' PoV, which is a little unnerving but also very satisfying in its own horrific way.
It's very very similar to The Hunger Games, but that's not really what I want to talk about here (that's a discussion for another day..., Plus that statement should really be flipped, to be honest).
This book is filled with interesting characters, but the two main characters, Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nagakawa fall flat in comparison. They're pretty 2-dimensional and lackluster, almost there for contrast maybe. Shuya's character, in particular, gets pretty annoying, saying the same line "I trust you" over and over to the same guy, as if he's changed his mind off-scene sometime.
Anyway, plot-wise, the book kept me on the edge of my seat and never really lagged. Except for the homophobia and total shitty shock factor for when it came to rape I enjoyed it (unfortunately these are really important Exceptions ...).
I know one could argue the homophobia was in-book homophobia (aka the villain saying the American Empire is awful for its "drugs, crime, and h*mosexuals"), but then you have characters audiences are supposed to sympathize with calling gay characters "annoying q*eers", among other slurs. Besides this, the only two characters who weren't straight were part of the "bad student gangs" and were definitely the villains of the story.
Anyway, I'm still glad I finally got to read this.
Graphic: Violence and Gore
Moderate: Rape and Homophobia
Minor: Ableism
daniaustria's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
sf92's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
0.25
Graphic: Gore and Violence
This was difficult to read and got boringsamdej's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Child death, Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual violence
Minor: Death of parent
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
stateofiction'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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Suicide, Sexual violence, Rape, Pedophilia, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Body horror, and Blood
Moderate: Homophobia
duyanh's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Violence, War, Vomit, Gun violence, Grief, Kidnapping, Blood, Child death, Police brutality, Gore, Murder, and Misogyny