Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

47 reviews

day_m18's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

fancy_cherry's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

vsamarda's review against another edition

5.0

It's impressive how a book can be so violent and disturbing but still be such a good read. Almost every student in this book gets their moment, which is remarkable, since there are 42 students in the class chosen for this year's battle royale. After two kinda boring chapters, the atmosphere is set almost right away, with the reveal of

the teachers corpse and the murder of 2 of the students before the game even begins

. Afterwards, we follow almost every character for at least a chapter while they live and die in the game. Some of the deaths are a little bonkers

(eyes gouged out with fingernails and an ice pick to the mouth)

and bullet proof vests do not work that way, but its still a great read from start to finish. I'm thankful that there are peaceful moments in between the action, showing us how people are dealing with things and how, at the end of the day, they're still 15 years old. Some of the action is also very sudden, showing us how these children are really stressed and their nerves are fried, which is to be expected, but its interesting how not every death is premeditated. Also impressive is the near complete lack of breasting boobily moments, especially for a novel from the 90s. The women feel like people, which sounds silly to say, but its honestly a rarity unless you look for it. All in all, it's a very very good read, the ending is very good, and I do recommend it to everyone who can deal with the trigger warnings!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Violence

ashlislibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

nojai's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol

cozyscones's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

I knew I would like this since I really liked the movie years ago, but I'm so glad that I absolutely loved the book!

Did I remember all ~50 characters? No! But the reading pace kept me flying through it and the 20ish that were most important were definitely memorable. The size of the book flew by with the pacing of the short, intense chapters.

This new translation is more action-packed than the original (I compared line by line with the audiobook of the original English translation). You can tell this translator has worked on manga and video games before because the fight scenes are so much smother. But whichever version you have, read it.

What a thrilling, unexpectedly emotionally charged, bloody, anti-fascist roller coaster. This is the inspiration behind Hunger Games and battle royale style video games, but way more politically incendiary. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Car accident

noodlebooknook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Wow where do I even start

Well first of all given the size of the book (650 pages of my edition) I was a little intimidated but this book FLIES by so fast it feels like a 200-300 page book.

The narration style was so unique starting with 42 characters and we get POVs with a lot of them. Which has its normal downsides where sometimes I would be less invested than normal but overall most of the POVs were so interesting.

Also I really had no idea where this book was going at all somehow have managed to avoid spoilers for 25 year and wow wow wow the ending was just amazing.

I will say absolutely trigger warning this was one of the most gore heavy and violent books I’ve read in awhile and it is absolutely an insane read along with other terrible things happening. 

Overall would highly recommend this book to anyone

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

arixsuu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An amazing book to start this year. I don't think I can find anything like this one. Best book of the year by far, or one of the best in any case. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mysteryspouse's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Pedophilia, and Death of parent