Review: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Title: Battle Royale

Author: Koushun Takami

Translated by: Yuji Oniki

Published by: VIZ Media, LLC

Released: 1999

Summary: Every year or so, a second year junior high school class is chosen at random to fight to the death. Out of 42 students, only one walks out alive. Stranded on an island, not able to trust your former classmates, and constantly being scared of a horrible death; surviving is the only thing that matters. Who lives and who dies? Want the answers? Then jump in to the wild, violent ride that is Battle Royale.

My Thoughts: I'd been interested in Battle Royale ever since I found out it was the predecessor to the Hunger Games. I haven't read The Hunger Games yet, it's on a list of things I plan to do, but I do love the movies. So, I decided to read Battle Royale first to maybe compare and contrast from The Hunger Games. I was also interested in the story just by itself.

I won't say I was disappointed by the story, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I was expecting an intense, violent, and enthralling story, but I got something that just seemed to drag along. This was a slow read for me. I almost at times forced myself to pick it up and read it. I was thinking I was going to get a book I couldn't put down, but instead it was a book I had to read in small increments.

I didn't really get the world, why everything was the way it was. What the overall point of the game was. Was it an experiment? A way to control the population? Or something else that just went completely over my head?

I also had a problem really connecting to any of the students. There were a couple that I recognized as main players, but overall, there were just too many names to remember. 42 kids is a lot of names to remember, and I ended up forgetting a lot of them.

My last reason as to why being slightly disappointed, was just the way the story dragged along. It was very slow going and slow moving, and just not as exciting as I thought it would be.

All in all, just an ehh read for me. I'm glad I read it and experienced it, but it's just not as awesome as I thought it was going to be. This could have been because it is a translated work and some sentences and phrases were a little choppy. I do plan on watching the movie though. I imagine it makes a much more exciting and disturbing movie than a book.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3/5

Not what I thought I was gonna get.