Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
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Book Reviews of Battle Royale
Book Review: B.R. is a great book for adult readers.
Summary: 5 Stars
Battle Royale takes us to modern day Japan (or China? It's been awhile since I read it) where we find our hero Shuya Nanahara and his classmates on a school bus heading out for a field trip. Shuya & Company fall asleep and wake up in another school building, with a man (can't remember his name) who explains to them that their class has been chosen for "The Program" - the program is when the government takes a class, sends them to an island, and has the students slaughter each other until one person is left. He goes on to let them know there is no way to escape by sea because warships are waiting around the island to blow away anyone who attempts it, there are these "forbidden zones" announced every so-many hours that the students can't go into otherwise they explode because of this silver collar on their necks which allows the man to track their movements.
I'll start off by saying this book is VERY violent, very graphic, and very gorey - all the makings for a great book :). The book practically starts off with some killings - when the students arrive on the island and awake in the school building, the man demands silence but some girl keeps talking so the man throws a knife into her head. Battle Royale starts off with 40 students, and the author goes into great detail explaining how almost all of them get killed. Even better is there is a struggle between two really tough exchange students - Kazuya and Shogo - which, if interpreted right, appears to be a very intense battle of good verse evil.
Speaking of details, Koushun Takami also goes into deep details about the dense forests, blue glimmering water, buildings, ghost houses,steep hills, and other parts of the enviroment. He wrote it so well that I felt like I was there - in fact on the back of the front cover there is a little map to show you all the forbidden zones (and times), where all the above mentioned places are, and so on.
Battle Royale is a pretty long book, and sort of expensive & hard to find, but honestly it is worth it. Your eyes will be glued to the pages, your heat racing, your mind going "I wonder what is going to happen to Shuya and his friends". Not only is this a violent & action packed book, but it is just so well written that I highly recommend it.
Book Review: trauma's of a battle royale
Summary: 5 Stars
Koushun Takami was the master mind behind this suspenseful, intense, nail biting book Battle Royale. With potential and powerful words which exceeds the limitations of a book, it was also created as a high action movie. It is a story that immediately grabs your attention from page one. And unlike a typical "high school relationship" holds your interest til the very end. This story takes place in Japan, where a random class from Shiroiwa Junior high is selected to participate in a program operated by the government. Rules and regulations are given and the students find themselves left on a deserted island with their only mission is... to kill each other! As they get a feel for the game, they start to form groups, partnerships, create alliances and strategies that will increase their chances of survival. One by one the death count rises. And little do they know, through twists and turns, revealed to things such as love and betrayal. These once typical high junior high students will soon find themselves either helpless victims or relentless murderers forced to fight for their lives at all cost. In a story that truly hits you head on from the get go, the main theme is trustworthiness. Harsh punishments and times of dire need bring out a different side of people. Things such as betrayal like in chapter eleven, former gang members agreed to meet at a specific location and when they reached it the leader turned on them, killing everyone. This was also expressed in the quote "if the coin came up tails, i decided i'd take part in this game." where people were relying on something as little as a flip of a coin to determine whether they should betray people they had built a bond with for many years. Another example was the quote, "once we're down to three, I might kill you two and win the game." This showed that trust was a huge issue in this game and you could never let your guard down because anyone could turn on you at any given time. And finally, for the theme, the game put the students in a place where they had to make sacrifices and trust each other to protect one another, like in chapter twenty-two... "Loving someone always requires you to not love someone else."Book Review: The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind
Summary: 5 Stars
For his first novel, Koushun Takami decides to take a hypothetical view of how Japan would exist in the present day if they were to be the victors of the Second World War and to further constitute his image, he decided to integrate both his personal satire of the Japanese school system and a look at the high school student's psychology on life. Through these facets, Takami is able to create a powerful socio-political satire akin to that of Lord of the Flies.
The Republic of Greater East Asia is a result of Japanese victory in WW2. It contains Japan itself, China, and possibly several Pacific Islands. Internally, it is a mess of a totalitarian system that keeps itself rigid and ordered in front of the public eye. It has your typical labeling of Americans as "Imperialists" and its own policy of isolationism. More importantly, however, it has "the Program," a system where 50 high school classes are randomly selected each year to participate in an all out fight to the death with weapons. What does the winner of this mentally scarring tournament receive? A lifetime pension (though most likely meager and measly) and a card autographed by "the Dictator."
More importantly, however, are the students themselves. We see their own immature world where they feel as if they are responsible when they are not, their crushes, their academic pressures, their cliques, all in their primes. In the midst of the chaos, we have those who would try to find their "group" as a false sense of security. William Golding succeeded in capturing the savagery of children. Koushun Takami succeeded in capturing the makeshift responsibility of high school students.
Overall, the background, theme, and message is excellent but to understand it completely is a minor problem since the text seemed to be translated poorly. There are some confusing moments due to the texts and especially in some important parts detailing the motives of the government in the story. However, it is quite minor and it only requires a little bit more thinking...and you will be thinking about this book for quite a while after the last page.
Book Review: Who do you trust?
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to begin by saying that this novel, hell this story can be viewed from two points of view. One: a reflection on the darker aspects of society. And secondly, a story about hope, trust, and faith. From the moment I picked this book up to the moment I closed the cover and put it back down (all of one day) I was captivated and held in thrall by the incredible story telling, the believable characters, and the incredible sense of reality that totally encompasses every last page of this book. Ok that may be a little over the top, but not by much. The setting alone caught my interest, a world controlled by such a level of fascism really frightened me, but more importantly the island, with its small microcosm of society featured by the 42 students really brought it all into brutal, paranoid, bloody, and sometimes faith filled reality for me.
One thing that I loved was that each character, no matter how long, or short they lived, felt like a person to me. They weren't just some body to add to the body count...ok maybe one or two.. But over all you had an idea of who the person was, and how they felt being shoved into this life or death situation. In this novel you can see the worst of society held side by side next those who by their sheer will manage to keep hope alive in this dreary world that fills the pages of this book.
Another great thing is the way that you are kept guessing through out the entire story. Who's telling the truth, who can you trust?, who will eventually turn on you and who will keep their word till the very end. I have not had the pleasure of reading a book this well written (and translated) in a very long time, and I have never read a book quite like this ever. I'm not saying that this book is a life changing experience or even a work that will change your views about some things in the world around you (even though they might, what do I know?) but I will say this, It will make you think and it will give you cause to pause and wonder.. What would you do.. If you found your self in... The Program.
Book Review: Simply wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm an avid reader and a shopaholic(of books) at Amazon(and I'm from the Philippines even) but I've never written a single review for a book no matter how I deemed it wonderful.
Battle Royale is different though; it compelled me to start typing here. This books is simply wonderful and I want my testimony to add to the ever growing list.
Granted, the text was a bit poor; whether or not the Japanese version was originally like that or was corrupted by translation, I don't know. The emotions, reactions and details weren't that specific and seemed rush. There were times that the descriptions would simply bore and I would skip all these.
What's then is so great about Battle Royale? Frankly, I don't know. I just feel lightheaded and satisfied whenever I'm reading it.(I even threw aside the growing pile of homeworks just to be able to finish it.)
One is probably the characters. The class is brimming with different personalities, from a perfect robot, to a porn-star to a queer. There are characters you would feel attached with that reading them die would feel so sad.
Another is the logic in the novel. I probably wasn't that critical, but I deemed there were barely any flaws in the entire system. Ideas came in and went, almost none being far-fetched. The connection from one event and location to another would simply bring you to say "Ah!"
The third one is human relations present in this film. Especially the last chapter, but I'll not get into detail :)
The last one is that there are instanced when I expected something which I thought was "sneaky" and expected very few to notice it. This event happens, and then another thing turns out!
There are probably more reasons, but I couldn't articulate them quite well. One thing though: the story isn't that deep.
But then, I don't really care ^^. So to you reading this review, but this book immediately. It'll truly be worth it.