Battle Royale (Le Livre de Poche, #30948)

by Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi

[nannah]

Okay, so I've wanted to read this ever since I finished Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games. And finally, I got my hands on a copy! ... A long (Long) time after I initially wanted to read it, but that's fine.

Book content warnings:
rape
extremely detailed gore and violence (as expected)
guns & gun violence
homophobia
homophobic slurs
ableism

At this point, it's almost useless to describe what Battle Royale is about, but we have a successful fascist government sending high school kids into a death match every other year or so (last one standing wins). Why? You'll have to read to find out. Unlike The Hunger Games, Battle Royale takes you a little bit into every students' PoV, which is a little unnerving but also very satisfying in its own horrific way.

It's very very similar to The Hunger Games, but that's not really what I want to talk about here (that's a discussion for another day..., Plus that statement should really be flipped, to be honest).

This book is filled with interesting characters, but the two main characters, Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nagakawa fall flat in comparison. They're pretty 2-dimensional and lackluster, almost there for contrast maybe. Shuya's character, in particular, gets pretty annoying, saying the same line "I trust you" over and over to the same guy, as if he's changed his mind off-scene sometime.

Anyway, plot-wise, the book kept me on the edge of my seat and never really lagged. Except for the homophobia and total shitty shock factor for when it came to rape I enjoyed it (unfortunately these are really important Exceptions ...).

I know one could argue the homophobia was in-book homophobia (aka the villain saying the American Empire is awful for its "drugs, crime, and h*mosexuals"), but then you have characters audiences are supposed to sympathize with calling gay characters "annoying q*eers", among other slurs. Besides this, the only two characters who weren't straight were part of the "bad student gangs" and were definitely the villains of the story.

Anyway, I'm still glad I finally got to read this.