A review by vanreads
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

5.0

This book is one great psychological thought experiment on human nature as it follows a number of students forced to kill each other off in a twisted game in a fictional dystopic Japan. It does a brilliant job exploring the different backstories of each of the students and what led them to make each of their decisions in the game. Like a lot of Japanese literature, it's more character-driven than plot-driven. I really liked the psychological explorations of each character, but it's definitely not a book I would pick up and read casually for fun on any given day (for obvious reasons).

P.S. Besides the premise, it's really nothing like the Hunger Games at all.