Battle Royale by Koushun Takami Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Battle Royale
Book Review: Why is every review so long?
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is great!
Yes there is violence. Yes it is necessary. No it is not gratuitous. No it is not banned in the USA. Yes it has something to say... Read the book and find out for yourself.
Personal note: Stephen King recommended this book in Entertainment Weekly and it is much like his story "The Long Walk" (written under an alias) which I read years and years ago - and still think about often. Sorry, but this book will make you think. Please, don't hurt your brain.
Book Review: Wow
Summary: 5 Stars
A co-worker recommended this book and he let me borrow his copy. I didn't have high hopes for it (most of the books that get recommended to me turn out to be of the Koontz & King variety, you know, not good) but I read this as it looked like it had an interesting premise. After the fifth page I could not put this book down. It is simply a smooth, fluid, action packed, beautifully written book and I loved it. Even more amazing is it was this authors first book. I hear there is a movie adaptation of this book and although I haven't seen it, I can't imagine someone watching it without reading this book first. I returned the book to him today and ordered a copy for myself soon after. I don't give five stars to just any book but I think this one deserved it, if I could give six I would.
Book Review: Wow...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never written a "review" on Amazon, but I finished this book and felt compelled to voice my opinion. READ THIS BOOK. It was, hands down, the most amazing and entertaining read. Simultaneously terrifying, thrilling, nauseating and compelling.Book Review: You know you want to read it.
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first picked up this book, I had high expectations for it. It was recomended to me many times, but I thought that it couldn't be that great. Or could it? It was.The story is relativly simple. In the future, Japan, or "The Republic of Greater East Asia", is owned by a megalomaniac who delights in kidnapping classes of junior-high students, placing them in secluded locations, strapping bombs around their necks, loading them full of high-powered weaponry, and forcing them to kill their mates that they have known for years. Sounds like fun.
The book itself, of course, quickly focuses on a protagonist, so you will have a fairly good idea of who will 'win' early on. However, Koushun Takami gets into the minds of most of the kids on the island. You will get to know a good number of them fairly well, then watch as their brains get torn out, blown out, or crushed out. Oh, yeah, another thing Takami does well is think of nice, creative deaths.
I recommend this book to anyone willing to stop saying "That's so horrible" and realize it for what it is - a work of fiction.
Book Review: brilliant.
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly, you assume with a movie like Battle Royale that the book will pale in comparison. And maybe, for the first 100 pages it does: you have -seen- this happen, and a dully translated description of it feels like nothing.However, the backstories encorporated in the novel Battle Royale really serve to strengthen your empathy with the overall plot and characters. Characters that seemed to have no real emphasis in the movie become three dimensional and not merely gore devices.
The background story of the Republic also serves crucially to explain a parable that, while close to a Japanese view of world and government, should serve closer to an American one. While Battle Royale seems to be an unthinkable act of violence to put 15 year olds through for wagers, perhaps this parable is something that in the 21st century we should be considering. How far is too far?
Kiriyama in the book, however, I just don't find dreadfully evil and delicious as in the movie, but I supposes sacrifices must be made for a well rounded piece of fiction. Definately worth the read, and the movie is brilliant as well. Perhaps after this encounter with the original book I can justify the ugliness of Battle Royale II.