A review by marimo
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like Battle Royale! It's a classic, and had been on my reading list for years, so I had high hopes. But it just doesn't hold up to the hype.

The main characters are bland and mostly one dimensional, their individual stories were not engaging and they had little to no character development through the novel. It was repetitive, and every interesting character introduced was killed off shortly after. Not even the main antagonist is interesting; he's stupidly overpowered to the point that literally no character can stand up to him. That might be forgiveable if he had a personality to make up for it, but no. The other main antagonist is well developed, but

Spoiler

she's also killed off by the overpowered main antagonist like she's nothing despite proving herself a threat earlier in the novel.

 

The plot itself is interesting... but that's it. There's nothing else to hold it up. It isn't well paced either; a scene worth powering through followed by a scene I skim until it's interesting again followed by a scene that makes me put the book down and read something better. 

I understand why it's a classic, but you're better off sticking to the movie in this case.