Michael's review
Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
Michael's review
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Michael's review
rating:
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recommended for: the non-squeamish, trash film fans
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 of this place, but it doesn't go into so much detail you're distracted from the "good stuff."
And the "good stuff" is watching all the little petty relationships of being 15 suddenly twisted horribly by the extreme fear of knowing only one person will be allowed to live. It's ridiculous, and it's full of eye-popping, gut-wrenching violence. You keep getting thrown into the head of someone and given their whole mental landscape for maybe 1 or 2 chapters, before they die in some comple...more
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 of this place, but it doesn't go into so much detail you're distracted from the "good stuff."
And the "good stuff" is watching all the little petty relationships of being 15 suddenly twisted horribly by the extreme fear of knowing only one person will be allowed to live. It's ridiculous, and it's full of eye-popping, gut-wrenching violence. You keep getting thrown into the head of someone and given their whole mental landscape for maybe 1 or 2 chapters, before they die in some comple...more


