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eschoeps 's review for:
Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
I really enjoyed this book. But there were a few really bothersome things that really annoyed me while I was reading. First of all, the plot is fantastic. It's basically the Hunger Games but with Japanese students, and they all know each other. They aren't strangers thrown together. They've grown up together. And there are 42 students. It's kind of annoying to keep track of all the students and their names, but I definitely still enjoyed how many people were participating. Also, this book didn't seem as showy as the Hunger Games. It was more serious and allegorical, and had a nasty message for China. As serious as this book was, I positively loved all the gory descriptions. Sometimes they seemed unreal, but I love gore, and this book delivered the goods. Despite the fun parts, the romances between players seemed contrived and silly. These students are 14-15 and they're professing intense love and dying for their supposed lover. It was pretty ridiculous. Finally, the author attempted to inject jokes into the players mouths and thoughts at times, and it miserably failed. the jokes were not funny, and they were pretty awkward and unnecessary for the dark situations that the characters were involved in. The author should have just stuck to the dark feeling of the book. I understand why he tried to add comic relief, but it sucked. If you loved the Hunger Games, you MUST read this book. If you love gore, you MUST read this book. It was fantastic.