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solsina206 's review for:
Battle Royale: Remastered
by Koushun Takami
dark
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
r/menwritingwomen will have a filled day with this one.
on a more serious note, this book was bad. In a way I did not expect at all. it’s hard to not draw a parallel to The Hunger Games but for me there is no question: THG is MILES ahead of this book.
on a more serious note, this book was bad. In a way I did not expect at all. it’s hard to not draw a parallel to The Hunger Games but for me there is no question: THG is MILES ahead of this book.
the good things: the idea and concept. of course the idea of kids stuck on an island forced to kill each other is brilliant. it’s a strong and violent allegory for real life. that is partially why this book inspired so many pieces of media. why it got so popular and controversial. i also enjoyed the last 100 pages. this was the only time in the book where i was at the edge of my seat. the rest of the time the book was really boring.
i do not mind violence at all. but for a book so gruesome it was not exciting at all. i did not feel scared for any of the characters because i did not care about them. out of 42 students dying maybe 6 deaths were actually impactful. the rest of the time it is more or less the same. and the characters are so naive in a way that is nonsensical. the main dude especially. « yes this experiment has been conducted for many years so many other classes had to kill each other, but MY class is different amd we will all band together to dismantle the government » meanwhile kiriyma is on his 10th kill. like be so for real. i would understand being like this at first but after 200 pages and he is still like this i wanted someone to kill him. « what?! people would kill others to survive! » uh… obviously?!! and so many characters were like this for SO. LONG. pack it up! i was rooting for the villains cause at least they got shit done.
it was impossible for me to get attached to 42 people so… i just didn’t. i liked 4 of them and the rest died before i could get attached. too many characters in my opinion. the author tried to make you like them in 5 pages by telling us about their personalities but it falls flat for all of them. classic telling and not showing.
the main flaw of the book however is that it is poorly written. Dear God. What was that? I’m going to be kind and assume it’s mainly the translation. maybe Japanese doesn’t translate well in english. the book is too long!!! 600 pages for what? at least 100 could’ve been cut off just because of the repetitions characters would say something in dialog and the narration would just repeat it! over and over again. character motivation just gets repetitive. yes we know you want to tear down the government because they killed you friend YOU ALREADY TOLD US 3 TIMES TWO PAGES AGO!!! Does this book think i’m stupid? the dialog is also just bad and cringeworthy they do not feel like 15 year olds (although this can be because of cultural differences as i am
not japanese)
the book is simultaneously gory and childish with surface level analysis of the human condition. some commentary was interesting and still relèvent today but most was the generic « bad government are bad » « government are pitting the people against each other to keep the power » which… yes… and? what more does this story bring?
i brought it up in the first sentence of my review and im repeating it here the writing for female characters is atrocious. biggest case of madonna-whore complex i’ve read. they are either kind, naive, wide eyed and sweet or sluts with no mercy. and too many of them had a crush on the unimpressive main guy. too many careless references to sexual assault for me to enjoy the book.
anyway… just read the Hunger Games. you can skip this one entirely and not miss out on anything.