Battle Royale was a novel published in 1999 by Koushun Takami, who also created a manga in the same name, it was translated into several languages after being a best-seller in Japan despite it's controversial content.
I enjoyed the film, and I was interested in how it was interpreted from the book, I started reading at Christmas, read to about 100 pages in, and became bored, then forced myself to pick it back up again recently, there are a few reasons for this.
1) It's a long book, almost unnecessarily long, there were many times I was pressed about the fact the author made details that just weren't needed to be known.
2) Some sentences were just weird. Seriously, It compares violence to the most bizarre things, I remember a quote that related a girl who was shot in the head to a pie being thrown at her head and the blood being the insides of the pie (?) I'm going to assume it's because of the Japanese to English translation, some sentences would flow better in it's native language and sound strange in another
3) I didn't particularly like the writing style, it sounded very basic at times and heavily relied on the same writing style every paragraph (The characters travel to a new place, it's described, the characters take some action then it describes certain memories in their past, repeat, repeat) I could also blame this on the translation but it could have been improved somehow.
However, I can't deny that this book is very good, I liked how the chapters were laid out, but above all I loved the plot and the characters (except Noriko) The characters were so real, they all had their strengths and flaws, and even if you were rooting for a particular character they soon were killed one way or another, and that aggravated me, but that's what made it a good book, it's realistic, which is what made it different to the similar plot of 'The hunger games'. My favourite character has to be Takako, who was threatened to be raped from a desperate classmate and despite being shot in the leg and pounded in the side of the head she still managed to blind him, crush his genitals then stab him with an ice pick (girl power x) However this novel is full of depressing stories of lovers who 1) Commit suicide together, 2) Try to find each other during the bloody battle and 3) Even resort to killing one another because they are so terrified they don't trust anyone. You can't help but feel connected to some particular characters, those who ended up responsible for many deaths and those who innocently perished and they make you think about what you would do if you were in the same situation.
Read it if you
1)Liked the hunger games
2)Like gore
3)Want something long to read
4) If you want to read something different
“You wear nice clothes, you seek respect, you make a lot of money, but what's the point? It's all pointless. Of course, this kind of meaninglessness might suit this crappy nation. But, you see, we still have emotions like joy and happiness, right? They may not mount to much. But they fill up our emptiness. That's the only explanation I have.” - Shogo
“I hope you fall in love with someone nice and have a good marriage. I might end up dying without knowing what it's like to be in love.”
“By then she was dead. In fact, she may have been dead a while ago. Physically, several seconds ago, mentally, ages ago.”
“All of a sudden Yutaka realized he had created a cloud of dust all around him. Oh no! No! This sucks. This blows more than your mama! Hey, now's not the time to come up with stupid jokes!”
“Someday I'm going to marry someone like my mom and I'll be smiling all the time the way my Mom and Dad are.”
