violette_magpie 's review for:

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

3.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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It’s absolutely a genre defining book, paved the way for the hunger games and many more. That being said I found it lacklustre in some area. The concept is peak dystopian would not recommend if the current political climate is already stressing you out, with characters so indoctrinated into it they register the program as an inconvenience « oh too bad the school trip is gonna end up with all of us dead », very chilling way too real. But the characters don’t live up to the plot, I found them to be an archetype and not much else. The antagonists especially, whether it’s the mean girl with a traumatic past who becomes a « femme fatale » or the empty guy who turns into a cold blooded monster because he’s bored and even the executive who oversees it all who’s at his core an unhinged power drunk employee.
Overall 5/5 for concept and plot
But 2/5 for characters, I get that they’re middle schoolers but kawada and mimura have a personality so no excuse for the rest of them to be cardboard cutouts of people