Reviews

Battle Royale: Remastered by Koushun Takami

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i_need_new_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

ellereadss_'s review against another edition

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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? No

5.0

Battle Royale
– Koushun Takami
★★★★★

I feel sick.

I feel sick is probably the best way to describe how this book made me feel. From the beginning to the end there was one forever occurring feeling: nausea. Koushun Takami writes in such a realistic way, that every moment is brutal and gruesome. And honestly, I love that. What is a little bit of fun without being left disgusted, devastated or in shock?

Battle Royale is longer than the books I tend to read, with my copy reaching over 600 pages, but it never felt this way. Everything happens so quickly that before you know it you're halfway! If the balance of fast action mixed with slower, yet short, personal moments wasn't met as well, then I wouldn't have been able to enjoy reading this book as much as I did.

My favourite part of Koushun Takami's writing, however, has to be his depiction of paranoia and what drives people to fight in such a scenario, where one is forced to be against those you know in a matter of life or death. He depicts the drive to kill, mostly through paranoia but other reasons too, in such a realistic and compelling way. In the end, they're all just kids; humans. Even if I did end up rooting for the demise or victory of some of the characters, I still can't forget the fact that they are just human. There were some aspects I did not enjoy so much, like how the female characters were treated like damsels in distress, but these either slowly became less relevant or in the end barely impact the quality of the story.

As a Hunger Games fanatic, this book is the perfect read. There are, without a doubt, several similarities between the two but there are a vast majority of differences too. If you love the Hunger Games, you'll love this. I promise you that. This is a book everyone should read at some point in their life, I don't think my life will be the same after it. "Someone once said, if you could see for yourself then there'd be no need to lend an ear to what others said."