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A review by dajna
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
5.0
Hey, you! Yes you: read this book!
Ok, there are indeed too many names and too many carachters to remember, but don't worry: they tend to die steadily, so you don't need to remember all of them.
I loved the book because it's politically incorrect. The kids fight and the author indulges in some pretty epic splatter scenes.
Dystopian setting: present time, different Japan. People lives are overall decent under a dictatorship who focuses on economic welfare and industrialization. Sometimes this Japan looks like the current China, since internet is filtered and resemble a WAN, and rock music goes against their traditional values. But the plot seems dramatically greek to me. As Athens were forced to send 7 boys and 7 girls to the Minotaur as a price to pay for their submission to Crete, the families of the Republic of Greater East Asia must sacrifices a bunch of teenagers every year to the game. Once a year the school field-trip turns into a nightmare for a random high school class: the students are deported to a remote location and forced to fight each other, until all but one are killed.
You can stop here and enjoy the story, or you can go a little deeper. This kid are skilled: we have musicians, athletes, hackers and rebels, and they put their skills to work. Still, they find time to speak about crushes, love and friendship. They rebuild relationships over the tabula rasa that the government gave them. They rarely whine. And they have their own story.
Yes, here is the second reason why I liked the book. Koushun Takami took time to create a background for his fighters, and he presents us with a list of stereotypes in a non-stereotypical way. You have the girls who met at the temple and the leader of the school bullies. You have the son of a government official and some love children from an orphanage. You have the hacker and the athlete and a sociopath, the cosplayer and the queer guy. Sooner or later you'll find someone to relate.
And then there's him, Shogo. The rebel. The leader. The martyr. But I'm not going to talk about him, because I'd like you to meet him through the pages.
What about the finale? Well, the cynical part of me liked the end before the boat, but I'm glad to see a crack, finally, into the system.
Ok, there are indeed too many names and too many carachters to remember, but don't worry: they tend to die steadily, so you don't need to remember all of them.
I loved the book because it's politically incorrect. The kids fight and the author indulges in some pretty epic splatter scenes.
Spoiler
The girls at the lighthouse are a perfect example of lack of trust that turns into a muss murder, for example.Dystopian setting: present time, different Japan. People lives are overall decent under a dictatorship who focuses on economic welfare and industrialization. Sometimes this Japan looks like the current China, since internet is filtered and resemble a WAN, and rock music goes against their traditional values. But the plot seems dramatically greek to me. As Athens were forced to send 7 boys and 7 girls to the Minotaur as a price to pay for their submission to Crete, the families of the Republic of Greater East Asia must sacrifices a bunch of teenagers every year to the game. Once a year the school field-trip turns into a nightmare for a random high school class: the students are deported to a remote location and forced to fight each other, until all but one are killed.
You can stop here and enjoy the story, or you can go a little deeper. This kid are skilled: we have musicians, athletes, hackers and rebels, and they put their skills to work. Still, they find time to speak about crushes, love and friendship. They rebuild relationships over the tabula rasa that the government gave them. They rarely whine. And they have their own story.
Yes, here is the second reason why I liked the book. Koushun Takami took time to create a background for his fighters, and he presents us with a list of stereotypes in a non-stereotypical way. You have the girls who met at the temple and the leader of the school bullies. You have the son of a government official and some love children from an orphanage. You have the hacker and the athlete and a sociopath, the cosplayer and the queer guy. Sooner or later you'll find someone to relate.
And then there's him, Shogo. The rebel. The leader. The martyr. But I'm not going to talk about him, because I'd like you to meet him through the pages.
What about the finale? Well, the cynical part of me liked the end before the boat, but I'm glad to see a crack, finally, into the system.