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Feb 10, 2012

Simeon rated it:

I read the first hundred pages of Battle Royale before I fell asleep, then dreamt that I was in The Program. (I remember fleeing a pretty intense gunfight and thinking nonsensically: dammit, at least I'm getting good exercise.)

I hardly thought about it until the next evening, when I began reading again and only finished as the sun rose.

You cannot know gunfights or car chases until you've read Battle Royale.

It's fantastical, it's pulpy, and it's brilliant. I wish it had been w More...

6 comments like (18 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

Everything about this book makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. I say again, "yuck yuck yuck," both to the absurd violence and the shallow emotion of this story. Every time the plot turned toward something interesting, it was quickly replaced by a turn toward Lame. I get the comparison of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, with this book (which is the reason I picked it up in the first place) because of the basic Lord of the Flies, kids-will-be-kids premise. I, however, f More...

141 comments like (21 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

I came across this book after reading “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins which was claimed to be a “Battle Royale” rip-off. Needless to say, I was curious…

I have to admit, similarities between these two books are undeniable. They both are based on the same idea of teenagers forced to participate in a deadly game where only one person wins and lives. However at the same time these books are completely different. I believe you can enjoy and appreciate them both equally. If “Hunger Game More...

7 comments like (56 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2009

Michael rated it:

So unputdownable it's ridiculous. Took a 4-hour plane ride i intended to sleep on and instead read all 624 pages of this; and while I'm a fast reader, even I'm not THAT fast usually.

Basically, as everyone else is saying, it's a book about one class of Japanese junior high kids put on an island with a small bag of supplies, a random weapon (grenade? crossbow? Uzi? fork?), an exploding tracking collar, and orders to kill, kill, kill. Nice fascist dystopia world you see around the edges o More...

4 comments like (45 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Kira rated it:

EDIT: Okay, so as of 12/08/2011, I have 100 followers! Yippee! Thanks, guys.

(Note: I chose to announce this petty little achievement on my Battle Royale review simply because of the epicness of said book. Don't judge me.)

There is absolutely nothing I can say about this book other than WIN.

If you have a weak stomach, be prepared. If you have a pacemaker, also be prepared. But really, people, can you honestly say that Ms. Collin's work didn't rip this off? Come More...

6 comments like (19 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rae rated it:

Okay, this book has a premise that you can't beat: 40 school children are set on an island with exploding electronic collars and are ordered to kill each other. Each child is given a backpack with one weapon and sometimes that weapon is good (hand held machine gun) or bad (a violin). BOOM! POW! Can't be beat! Except for the writing (or perhaps the translation) is so bad that one can hardly get through the chapters without at least fourteen eye rolls and maybe one dry heave.

Plus giga More...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Katherine rated it:

"Lord of the Flies" meets "The Most Dangerous Game" meets the gruesome, bloody stylings of Quentin Tarantino... on acid who killed Stephen King and tossed his body into BTK's backyard.

I have read this book twice in the last two years both times within two days and I can guarantee that I'll read it a time or two (or three) again in the future (NERD!). The very thought of being 15-year-olds and being thrust into a situation where you have to kill or be killed, your More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

Cassy rated it:

Whenever I think of this book, I picture Takami sitting down with a piece of paper and making a list of dozens of cool, violent ways to kill a person. Poison! Jumping off a cliff! Lot of guns! Strangulation! An exploding head! Falling off a roof! And my personal favorite, splitting open a head with a machete like it is a ripe watermelon!

Then he goes about the task of writing a book that incorporates each and every one of these deaths.

And are you concerned that you will ne More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2011

Trudi rated it:

I'm a huge fan of dystopian books, where the future is bleak and infinitely dangerous and if you're gonna survive, you better check your morals at the door. With reality TV everywhere we look these days, and the UFC a mainstream pastime, it's easy to imagine a Survivor where tribe members voted out don't go home, but are executed instead. I figure society's perpetual blood lust is never as deeply buried as we think (or hope).

Stephen King describes Battle Royale as "an insanely More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2007

Albert rated it:

I heard about the movie before I read the book, so I knew that the premise was a combination of Lord of the Flies and automatic weapons. I just didn't expect the violence to affect me so deeply. I guess I've never been exposed to extreme violence in books where my imagination comes up with images. I definitely discovered a new closet of images with this book.

I started this book on a long subway ride home. I was so engrossed by the book I missed my stop by five stations. I will admit More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Brandy rated it:

I picked this up based on the fervor over "OMG The Hunger Games so totally ripped this off." And for the first half of this book, I agreed: I thought I knew exactly where BR was going, and how it would get there. It's the story of 40 teens who are instructed to kill each other until only one remains, and are each given a bag containing food, water, and a weapon--some as great as machine guns, others as worthless as forks. Early on some alliances are made, then broken; people are bet More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2011

Cinnamon rated it:

This review may also be found on A Thousand Little Pages.

I think it's been about five minutes since I read the last word of Battle Royale. My heart is still pounding abnormally fast, and every few seconds, I have to take a break from typing to watch the French countryside rushing by outside the train window instead.* The view is strangely soothing, and I definitely need some calming right now.

So. Battle Royale. Was. Epic. Dare I say it? It was better than The Hunger Games, an More...

11 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Jim rated it:

Kind of like a cross between Survivor & 'Lord of the Flies', the story is about a future when the government sends a class of kids to an island to kill or be killed. Each gets a weapon & they battle until only one is left.

It was pretty well written, but didn't do a lot for me. The basic premise of game didn't seem particularly well set up to me nor very real. The reasoning behind the game, the politics, was unreal. The action was OK, fairly realistic in some ways, wrong in others. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Malissa rated it:

I read this book because I had heard that the plot was *very* similar to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games (this was published first), and I was curious. So, of course, I was reading it as a Hunger Games fan and comparing. While the plots are definitely similar in a lot of ways, I didn't like this nearly as well as The Hunger Games for several reasons. One, the author seemed to try to develop *all* of the 42 students who participate in the "game" to some extent and I felt like that lef More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

bannikin rated it:

Cult novels are hard to resist. Lord of the Flies. Naked Lunch. A Clockwork Orange. Fight Club. Startling. Brutal. Original. Compelling. They frighten me to death, yet I love them. It's that kind of complicated.

I picked up Takami's Battle Royale mainly because the guy in the bookshop opened his mouth and said 'cult novel'. Just two little words and I was immediately consumed with the need to know why.

Wikipedia gives the following plot outline:

"The novel and ma More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Wow. The movie was pretty full-on, the book perhaps more so (the book came first). I finished reading it last night and it's still revolving around in my head.

The gist of the plot is this: in an alternate present-day Japan, 50 grade 10 classes from across the country are forced into the Program, a Government-run initiative designed to subdue the population. The students in these classes are gassed while on a "study trip", and wake up in isolated locations - in this story, a More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2007

Morgan rated it:

If you've ever seen the movie, you probably already know what this is about. If you haven't, I'm not sure which I could recommend more. The movie is much easier to watch than the book is to read, and that's saying something.

The basic plot: Japan is one of the few thriving countries in the world (economically speaking) and this is due to the strict control the government has over its people. Part of how it exerts this control is to marshal youngsters into order using the Battle Royal More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2008

Dan rated it:

I expected this to be a Japanese take on "Lord of the Flies" but what I got was un unexpected thrill-ride. It's not a cerebral workout (except for keeping all of the Japanese names separate and distinct; tough at first but as the story progresses, you find out those who you really need to know). This is the type of page-turner that I like to save for my annual beach vacation and, truthfully, I bought it with that purpose in mind but I ended up wasting my time on another 'best seller' t More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2011

Brittany rated it:

How I Came To Read This Book: One of my fave things on GoodReads is reading my friend's reviews of books, and after reading The Hunger Games, I read Jen's review which mentioned Battle Royale and the similarities between the two. So I took it out from the library for comparison's sake.

The Plot: In a dystopian version of East Asia, the government runs 'programs' that pit junior high students against each other in a fight to the death. In this instance, we are dropped onto an island wi More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2011

Hira rated it:

Wow. Just...wow.

I put off reading this book for a long, long time. Partly due to it's size (it didn't take that long to read, but it is sort of lengthy), and also because I heard that The Hunger Games was ripped off it. The similarities between THG, and Battle Royale are undeniable, but I still like them both because of their own unique qualities.

Battle Royale is set in future Japan, where every year, 50 third year junior high classes are chosen for 'the program'. The Pr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Jillian -always aspiring- rated it:

I picked this book up on a whim simply because (a) I've been a fan of Japanese storytelling (modern-day, fantasy, horror, whatever) for years and (b) I've heard about the manga series incarnation of this book from years of being a manga/anime fan. Finally, I picked up the book (despite its $16.99 price tag) -- and I didn't regret it one bit.

The premise is simple for those of you who have already been exposed to Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games: a group of school-age teenagers live More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

Mike The Don rated it:

I don't really get the reason why we, as a society, stuff excessive amounts of violence into every nook and cranny of our lives. Not that I don't necessarily like it, I just don't understand why. Battle Royal doesn't seem to clarify that point. It's just constant face-beating that gets as bloody as a gerbil in a speed bag with broken glass (no exaggeration, it gets THAT bloody).
The book takes place in modern day Japan. The government, which is implied to be perversely evil, takes random cl More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2008

Hank rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2008

Colleen rated it:

In a terrifying way this TRULY the most realistic portrayal of 9th grader emotions I've ever read. I might argue this should be considered YA, and brilliant YA at that, but considering the amount of folks who are determined to keep this book, and the movie it derived from, banned, I might want to keep my mouth a bit more shut.

A surefire way to get me to pay attention to something is to tell me how often it's banned. That was the original reason I sought out the film (and an all-regi More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2008

Pat rated it:

This book is not for the weak of stomach.

This book is Survivor and Lord of the Flies' bastard love child being baby sat by The Running Man. Take a class of Japanese middle schoolers in a dystopian alternate present (or not too far from tomorrow), force them to fend for themselves on an island with orders to kill or be killed and give them a random weapon, record and televise results.

The movie was good, but it can't compare to the book in terms of brutality. You just get More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

Stephen rated it:

This book is truly suspenseful. You constantly fear for the lives of the students that get forced to kill each other. To build the suspense each chapter gives a count of how many kids or left alive as well as who is dead. Its extremely well written. Even though its a translated work from japan.

The book may seem strange due to the fact that middle schoolers are being sent to an island to kill. But if you step outside the box and think of what it would be like for this to really happ More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Ryan added it

Weighing in at just under six hundred pages, Battle Royale is a pulp fiction novel that was just dying to be made into a movie. In fact, it was made into a movie. A very good Japanese movie I might add - one movie that needn’t be spoiled by the likes of Hollywood directors cashing in on the latest imported remake. The novel, which has also been doctored into manga form, has achieved a cult status in its native Japan. Koushun Takami worked as a journalist before giving it all up to become a nov More...

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May 02, 2011

La Stamberga dei Lettori rated it:

Questo è quello che si chiama ‘fascismo vittorioso’. In quale altra parte del mondo si trova una cosa così ripugnante?

Siamo nella '''repubblica''' della Grande Asia. In realtà la res è tutto fuorchè pubblica, dato che il paese è retto da un dittatore, l’Egemone. Per ovviare al problema della violenza giovanile, dilagante in uno stato che ha operato una violenta chiusura al mondo occidentale (principalmente a quello americano), l’esercito ha varato il Programma, una sorta di coscrizione rappresen More...

0 comments like

Nov 16, 2009

Matthew added it

Battle Royale
The setting, conflicts, and symbols make author’s novel Battle Royale intriguing. In Battle Royale, author Koushun Takami talks about a setting in a Japanese environment during World War 2 era beginning with a class of 42 students that gets captured in a deserted island fighting for they’re lives.
The setting is reflects the book because it is in a Japanese environment to show how powerful, dark, evil, and violent the Japanese were back in World War 2. In the deserted More...

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