Battle Royale by Koushun Takami — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists. For the last, oh, 2. I kept thinking about what I'd say in my review. I never know how I'll start a review, but this time I kept thinking of possible opening lines. But, like Lays potato chips, I couldn't stop at just one, so here are my top 3, in no particular order: 1. There.. once.. was.. I'll never read the phrase "That's right" the same way again. I see dead people. Finally. Like many people (I assume) I heard of Battle Royale through The Hunger Games, as people like to claim that THG is derivative of Battle Royale and whatnot. And so, at a library sale last year, I acquired a copy. I was all excited about it, too, because it was super cheap (it was bag day - everything you can stuff into a grocery sized paper bag is $3. SCORE!), and because I love me some everybody- dies- and- the- world's- fucked- up- dystopia. Grim and gritty and violent? My 'Epic Book Recipe' Checklist for The Hunger Games: 1. A sharp and intelligent heroine with just the right amount of emotion who gives in to absolutely. TOKYO - The story takes place in a dystopian future. A tyrannical government, fearful of its youth, forces teens to fight to their death in a televised. A list of similarities between Hunger Games and Battle Royale, two amazing films that have a lot in common This is like the fifth time I've uploaded it, so. Battle Royale has 33,840 ratings and 3,406 reviews. Tatiana said: I came across this book after reading “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins which was claim. Suzanne Collins has created a worldwide phenomenon with The Hunger Games. It’s expected to surpass Twilight. Maybe even be the next Harry Potter. Awesome. Only, UGH. In case you couldn't guess from the eleventy- million ranty- sarcastic status updates, I didn't enjoy this book. It was not awesome. It was awful. AWFUL. It actually started out intriguing enough, but when I hit the first instance of the Dramatic Ellipses Pause, it caught me off guard, like stepping off a curb that's about 3 inches higher than you expected, and it made me furrow my brow and think, "That was awkward." When I ran into the second one just a little bit later, it was like walking into a spiderweb face- first. I should have seen it coming, and now there's annoying shit in my face. I should have known that things were only going to go downhill from there, writing wise. Not only because the Dramatic Ellipses Pause was such a flow killer, but because it heralded all sorts of.. Now I know that this is a translation, and not a very good one, by all accounts. And I know that Japanese culture is different from my own (one of the big themes in the book, actually), and that their way of speaking and thinking and behaving is different from the way I would do it. I have no problem with that. I would like to state for the record that I never expected this book to read as though it was written by an American. But I'm not going to just give all of the bad writing in this book a pass because it's poorly translated from Japanese. Repetition is repetition in any language. There are only so many times I can take being told the same things, over and over and over again, sometimes several times a page, before I start losing my shit. We're told repeatedly how smart certain characters are, how well- regarded they are by their peers, or how poorly thought of they are, or how this one is a star shortstop, or that one is a star basketball freethrower guy, or the other one is a star violinist, or another one is a star evil bitch with an angelic smile. Oh, and in between this narration, and whatever action happens to be going on, we also have the character's inner- dialogue going on. I say dialogue, not monologue, because almost every time, it's seriously like reading a two- sided conversation they're having with themselves, where they repeat many of the same things AGAIN, because, you know, they've got to convince themselves of stuff or something.) Stupid, annoying characters are stupid, annoying characters in any language. I get it. They are kids, and they are thrown into this horrifying situation, of course it's natural to be shocked. How the characters react is one of the reasons that people read books like this. But at some point, the characters have to get over that shit. There's a line from The Shawshank Redemption that says it best: "It comes down to a simple choice, get busy living or get busy dying." So much of this book was spent on shock and disbelief that I was ready to start smashing skulls myself. Again and again and again, we're told how this character or that character or somesuch other character just couldn't believe that their class was chosen, that their class was here, that they were really playing, that they were up for it and killing each other. Again and again. Every perspective change we have to go through the same 7- stage process. Every conversation covers the same ground. Does it make me a terrible person that I just wanted them to start killing each other already?? Just to stop the horrible repetition. And they're supposed to be smart, but they have NO common sense or sense of self- preservation. It's important that I discuss and explain my intricate plan that you aren't really going to understand anyway, rather than think about the fact that someone could overhear it and that that would be bad." Good going, genius. These kids grew up in this society where even misinterpreted comments about the government could get you thrown into a re- education camp, or worse, killed, and they think that a government sponsored, run, and meticulously tracked program is just going to stop listening to the 4. And not only should these kids just straight up assume their every movement and sound is being recorded, but you'd THINK they'd be wary of their own classmates overhearing them. Apparently not. Then there's the ridiculous romance aspects of the story. Because 1. 5 year olds are such noble romantic creatures that form lasting, twu- wuv bonds. And, yet again, how many times do we need to see the "Do you have a crush on someone?" conversation played out? It was awkward the first time, and the second time, and the every- fucking- time. It felt like a grown man was trying to write teenagers talking about their crushes. That's right.. It was that. Seriously, I think that the author really has no idea what a crush is, and thinks that it's either True Love, Soulmate style, or the most dedicated and creepy stalker behavior ever. I'm not sure which, but both were depicted in this book, so maybe that's my answer. It's sure as hell not depicted in any way that's realistic. Hey, you're cute and cool and I like sitting 3 rows behind you in math. I'll write your initials and my initials together in a heart shape inside a notebook that I'll never show to another soul ever, and I'll fantasize about what it would be like to go out with you. But I'm not going to die for you, or with you, and if it looks like there's a chance you'll be attracting danger, I'm abandoning you because I don't really fucking know you, and this ain't Romeo and Juliet. You're just kinda cute. There are lots of kinda cute people out there. Sorry."Then there are the semi- apologies- in- advance. I didn't tell you, but, here's an explanation of something that I had no reason to ever think to tell you previously because it's seriously irrelevant to anything but this exact situation right now, and you didn't need to know it anyway. But sorry I didn't tell you." Or "It might be disrespectful to say this, but, I am going to finish this sentence by saying something completely banal." (This one is probably a culture thing, to be fair.) Or "I don't know what to say, but, right now the words coming out of my mouth are going to be something appropriate to say in this situation, which is the very thing I said I didn't know how to say when I started this sentence."That's right.. I just remembered the thing that I had forgotten until right now, which is that this kind of sentence occurred way too fucking often in this book. That's right.. I've come to a conclusion. That's right.. I just remembered to say the thing I just thought of to say. That's right, I just thought of a question. Can I ask you a question? That's right, the question would be right here. That's right, now I'm going to say more things that I just remembered or decided to say. That's right.. blah blah blah blah.. I think it's probably a good thing that I don't have this book in e- book format, because I'd be so tempted to search key words and phrases just to see how many times they're actually used. I'm that annoyed with this book. I want stats and numbers to quantify my suffering. I have no idea why this book is so highly regarded, except that it's reached cult classic status, and therefore it MUST be amazing. Oh, dang it. I just broke my sarcasm key. Edited: First to correct a typo, and second to add some commentary about the point of this book, which is from one of my posts in the discussion below: I did [actually] get the point of this. At the end, it's put out there that having this kind of Program is useful for controlling the populace. They (the people) don't know the rules and the details, they just know of the Program and see it through the lens that the government wants them to. They see it as a competition, that people are ruthless and willing to kill, or at least use others to protect themselves, and that it's everyone for themselves. This, combined with the fear tactics that the government uses (hauling people away to re- education camps or just outright killing them) makes the probability of someone gathering people together to fight against the government unlikely - because nobody can really trust that the others aren't going to betray them. It's actually effective, and had this been less painful to read, I'd probably have loved it. But the writing got in the way of the message, I think.
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