Battle Royale, Vol. 9
Ratings122
Average rating4.1
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING
A soul crushing take on fascism & a deep dive into the effects of extreme despair and will to live on humans.
There were time I was literally too anxious to read because I was TOO INVESTED I felt like I was also hiding on the island
The ending quote made me tear up GOD it just tastes like hope and pain at the same time
Gobbled these 600 pages in like 2 days & im a slow reader, that's how good this book is
One of the most thrilling & emotionally engaging dystopian books I ever read
6/5
This was an interesting experience for me - I came to the novel after having seen the film version and having read the manga (well, chapter 1 of it, anyways), and yet, at the same time, this was the first time that I can really saw that I got something other than mindless violence from Battle Royale.
The basic premise: a futuristic, totalitarian Japanese society has set up a game where each year, one high school class is randomly chosen to participate. Participants of the ‘game' are placed on an island, each given a randomly assigned weapon, and are told that the last one left surviving will be the one allowed off of the island.
It sounds grisly and violent, and it is - there were parts where I had to put the book down for a bit lest the violence overwhelm me. However, like any truly good violent piece of art, that violence is used as a metaphor - in this case, for how society tends to pit people against each other, and how living a dog-eat-dog type of life might end up with someone on top, but it also ends up with a lot of corpses along the way.
There are a lot of characters in the book, and it's a little hard to tell them apart from each other originally (due to them all being the same age, from roughly the same background, etc), but throughout the book you get to learn more about all of the little details that make up a life. You learn about their personal history, their silly little feuds and crushes, and the dreams they had for the future, before the game got in the way. If anything, that's the most horrific part of the book - not the blood and gore, but seeing people go from these little concerns over which boy (or girl) likes who, and then being thrust into a world where their very lives are at stake.
To sume up: the basic concept is The Running Man meets Lord of the Flies, with bits of slasher movies and The Catcher In The Rye thrown in for good measure. And, if you can get past the violent elements, it's definitely worth reading.
I didn't think this book was going to end. Just when you thought there was one ending, the story was still going. I really liked it though.
2.5/5 stars. Would have been more but the translation was fairly average; a vehicle referred to as a truck, car and a pick-up in the space of 1 page. Plus you know, all the violence.
an all time favorite for me i cant express my love for this book enough the length intimidated me but after about page 350 i flew through HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING
A soul crushing take on fascism & a deep dive into the effects of extreme despair and will to live on humans.
There were time I was literally too anxious to read because I was TOO INVESTED I felt like I was also hiding on the island
The ending quote made me tear up GOD it just tastes like hope and pain at the same time
Gobbled these 600 pages in like 2 days & im a slow reader, that's how good this book is
One of the most thrilling & emotionally engaging dystopian books I ever read
6/5
Ho iniziato questo libro con grandi aspettative, la quarta di copertina mi aveva affascinato molto, sebbene non ami particolarmente la cultura giapponese e i manga, ho un'età per cui è cresciuta a Spider-Man, non a Dragon-Ball. In ogni caso, avendo amato libro come il “Signore delle Mosche” ed “Hunger Games”, mi sembrava che la tavola era apparecchiata a dovere.
La prima cosa che mi ha travolto sono stati i nomi, tutti che mi suonavano uguali e praticamente per tutto il libro, a parte i quattro o cinque personaggi fulcro della storia, non ho capito chi faceva cosa, chi uccideva chi, dove si spostavano i vari ragazzi nell'isola, quarantuno studenti sono molti e questo mi ha scombussolato un po', ma alla fine non era poi questo grande problema visto che mediamente i vari personaggi venivano presentati per morire poche pagine dopo.
Quello che veramente non andava, mano a mano che proseguivo con la lettura e scemava la curiosità iniziale sono due cose: la prima è la prosa, qualche peccato immagino lo abbia commesso il traduttore, ma il tutto è troppo lineare, semplice, troppo scarno e con punte di stereotipi dei più banali. La seconda è che questi ragazzi di quindici anni che sono dei Rambo (quasi tutti) che si pigliano pallottole in corpo e ancora si lanciano in combattimento, preparano bombe, violano sistemi militari, mettono su giri di prostituzione... insomma io ho una figlia di quell'età e se la buttassero su un isola a sopravvivere uccidendo il prossimo, credo che stramazzerebbe al suolo immobile, altro che maneggiare pistole come se non avesse fatto null'altro nella vita.
Il tutto con dietro la bandiera di quanto siano brutti e cattivi gli stati totalitari che piegano la vita dei cittadini... ma davvero? Meno male che ce lo insegna questo libro!
Ah già poi c'è il finale, e io lì che leggevo e speravo che so... che il tutto era un videogame e il giocatore si sconnetteva dalla macchina per poi scoprire che in verità il gioco era reale e il tutto iniziava adesso, o che era una prova per testare gli umani da parte di una razza aliena, o che gli studenti uccisi si risvegliavano come zombi... o che ne so... tutto meno lo scontato finale che letto.
Ma anche no.