From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

Battle Royale

Koushun Takami

Discussion: . Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

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. Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

* Week 1: Introduction
By Jessica · 102 posts · 1093 views

last updated Aug 11, 2015 02:06PM

* Week 1: Progress Post
By Jessica · 100 posts · 421 views

last updated Nov 06, 2015 06:29AM

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What Members Thought

Feb 01, 2018 Leonor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: terror-horror, dystopia, suspense, desafío-2018

Reseña

Historia de survival horror, pionera en este género. Cuenta la historia de una clase de colegio, con jóvenes de unos 15 años de edad, que en vez de ir a un paseo escolar, los llevan a una isla donde deben matarse unos a otros hasta que sólo quede uno vivo, para lo cual se les provee de diversas armas e implementos.

Los protagonistas son Shuya y Noriko, dos jóvenes que traban relación por un amigo que tenían en común, que se hacen aliados dentro de esta cruenta carnicería para intentar sobr ...more

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Nov 22, 2013 Lalo rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013

Me enteré de la existencia de Battle Royale por las críticas y acusaciones de plagio de los juegos del hambre, que Suzane Collins se había basado en este libro para su trilogía. Entonces lo puse en lista de espera.
Hace un año aproximadamente, leí unas cuantas páginas y me dio flojera continuar. De repente me enteré que había película y decidí reiniciar la lectura.

La comparación obligatoria con THG es inútil, no se parecen en prácticamente nada, salvo la idea de jóvenes en una competencia en la ...more

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Mar 13, 2015 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-popsugar-challenge, read-2015

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's enjoyable (in a twisted way) and makes you turn the page. On the other hand, I have so many complaints. As someone who really enjoyed The Hunger Games, I couldn't help but compare the two as I was reading. This may have been a disservice to the author given that the one preceded the other by almost a decade, but considering Collins obviously was inspired by BR (I mean, really), I had to at least consider the question of whether or I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's enjoyable (in a twisted way) and makes you turn the page. On the other hand, I have so many complaints. As someone who really enjoyed The Hunger Games, I couldn't help but compare the two as I was reading. This may have been a disservice to the author given that the one preceded the other by almost a decade, but considering Collins obviously was inspired by BR (I mean, really), I had to at least consider the question of whether or not The Hunger Games improved upon the initial concept. While I really did enjoy BR, I have to say that The Hunger Games did.

The one way that BR could have had the upper hand was with the character development. It's a whopping 617 pages long, a considerable length given the basic premise. The author did go into some depth and there were some flash backs. But I think it was a missed opportunity. There are a lot of characters. As an English reader, I really (really) struggled with the names and keeping the characters straight. To an extent, that's inevitable with over 40 characters, but I do believe it could have been avoided. Orange is the New Black comes to mind as a true success in character development and BR could have used the same approach, spending a true chapter getting to know each character, including an actual physical description. Since the novel is also a manga series, I don't see where that is unrealistic. We received descriptions about some characters, but this was very disjointed, with these descriptions sometimes occurring after a death or from another character's viewpoint.

Another way that the novel didn't really shine was with the world building. Sure we got a little bit of a feel for the current climate, but again, with 617 pages, the author could have given us more. As much as a I hesitate to constantly compare The Hunger Games, the world building was something I loved about that series, with vivid descriptions of the characters and the surrounding world.

In the end, I also did not particularly like the characters, which is troublesome for a novel that is supposed to make you feel something when the characters died. I found Takumi to be a little direct in this department, as he failed to be subtle with the reader's feelings. There were multiple times where Takumi blatantly said "She will never [do something] again". Well yeah, make me feel something about their death that isn't through such a direct approach. Many of the characters were full of painful stereotypes and the main character was a little too sexist for me to give two shits about whether he died. I know that they're supposed be junior high students but when it's halfway through the book and you have most of the characters still crying about killing each other and the main character shocked that a girl *gasp* could kill others, then it becomes a little maddening. I ended up liking the "unlikeable" characters like Mitsuko more than any of the others, which may or may not be a good thing.

Many of my complaints may be rooted in cultural differences so I can't penalize the author for these issues. Maybe it would have been a lot easier to follow the characters with names like Mike and Sally but obviously that's an issue for me as an English reader. I have to fault the translator a little, as I do believe that some effort there would have vastly improved the experience, making it less repetitive and flow more nicely given that it is not originally written in English. Despite the issues I do have with the story and the writing, it was a page turner the ending wrapped up the story nicely, and I did care about the characters, even if it wasn't about the ones that I "should" have. ...more

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