Battle Royale in Overdue Podcast

Jul 23, 2013 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

42 students start the game, only one is allowed to claim victory and walk away with the prize - their life.

*I kept thinking - Lord of the Flies meets 1984.*

Fifteen-year-old students are forced by a totalitarian government to participate in a "program" or "game" to the death. The "program" has rules that guarantee maximum bloodshed and send the young participants over the edge with paranoia. Fast paced and addictive, and it certainly has a fair share of gratuitous violence, but is psychological 42 students start the game, only one is allowed to claim victory and walk away with the prize - their life.

*I kept thinking - Lord of the Flies meets 1984.*

Fifteen-year-old students are forced by a totalitarian government to participate in a "program" or "game" to the death. The "program" has rules that guarantee maximum bloodshed and send the young participants over the edge with paranoia. Fast paced and addictive, and it certainly has a fair share of gratuitous violence, but is psychological as much as anything else. Every student's actions are lead by either fear or love, as we get down to the most basic of instincts for survival there does not seem to be room (or time) for anything else. No slow lead-up here, this book starts right off with serious stress and strain within the first fifty pages and does not let up even when you are closing the back cover. There is plenty of scheming, strategy, and mind games to go along with all the non-stop action between our characters and as a reader I was not sure about actual intentions until the very end. The back stories trickle in as the action pounds away, giving bite size pieces that start to add up only as the pages dwindle. In between the gunshots, stabbings, beatings, explosions, strangulation, and poisonings there are some real questions raised about government, culture, and psychology.

This book was hard to put down and while the translation felt a bit awkward and the rhythm a tad choppy it was an exceedingly easy read with very little time to reflect on these flaws. More egregious is the constant references to characters all being "in love" with one other (mostly unrequited), especially the scattered harem of our primary protagonist Shuya Nanahara. At fifteen I understand that hormones are, for lack of a more accurate term, jacked, and that they are all trying to come to terms with their budding sexuality and confusing affections/desires, but really? I also was left with some questions raised by how the one homosexual character was portrayed; it is just one character and I generally try not to read too much into one small piece such as this, but it came off a bit stereotypical? homophobic? I'm not even sure. Like I said, it's just one character so probably nothing more to it than that. This book had some great surprises, but I also feel as though it missed out on some fine opportunities to counter expectations as well.

Now, should I weigh in on The Hunger Games comparison?
I suppose I will:
The similarities in the over-arching premises and basic outlines are undeniable. It would be far from the first time that someone 'Americanized' (or Anlgo-fied) a piece and turned into something massively marketable. That being said, there have been numerous books and films centering around hunting people/a fight to the last man standing. The Most Dangerous Game and The Running Man come to mind, and it's not hard to see how the Roman Colosseum combats would be a large influence, hell you can even point to movies such as Bloodlust and Predator. The two have a very different feel once you get down to the details and into the depths of the book, so I guess I fall on the side of: meh, I'm not sure if it can be called a rip-off, but was there some influence of the earlier on the latter written, probably, whether intentional or not. I enjoyed both and am glad they both exist.

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May 06, 2014 Amanda rated it really liked it

I kind of liked The Hunger Games, but this is a thousand times better.

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Apr 26, 2013 Beth rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction-dystopian

I can see why this book is compared to The Hunger Games. The stories are similar and Battle Royal was written first. For me it was ok it was definitely more violent than HG and the characters where one dementional but I did like the story.

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Aug 06, 2012 R rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book has been on my "to read" list for a long time, so finally having been able to tackle it is such a relief (given the size of the book, I've been shying away from it for a while). But thankfully, having the ebook version somehow made it easier to read.

I can definitely see the parallels between this novel and the Hunger Games, because the premise is fairly similar. But somehow, I felt this to be darker, and far more violent. In Hunger Games, we only ever see the perspective of one charac ...more

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