Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

57 reviews

nakedsushi's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense medium-paced

3.0

I watched the movie in college and really liked it at the time, but I admit I didn't remember a lot of it other than the initial premise. I wanted to read this to see if the book was any different and if there was more of a backstory about why there was a program like the one the kids were forced into, but unfortunately the book wasn't all that. The context of the program is still vague, or if not vague, makes no sense about why people are just okay with a once a year killing of 29 kids, other than fear of the government, or rocking the boat.

It is really weird to be reading this book at this stage in US authoritarianism, and I thought it would hit harder, but something about the writing made it difficult for me to really immerse myself into it. Maybe because of the sexist overtones of the main narrator, even though the point of view shifts multiple times, but I couldn't really get into the headspace. Even getting more background in the characters, which would make them feel more real didn't make their deaths that powerful.

I ended up skimming a lot of chapters, especially ones about random students mostly because I knew what would happen to them, or it was a repetitive rehash of their death, which I already read about from a different character's point of view.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

greenbutler's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book will give you intense gore and action, and it will also give you a good exploration of many topics including survival, morality, and government. Where this book struggles is its approach to characters. It has 42 students all participating in this so-called "game", and the book tries to make you care for every single one of them being showing you all of their backstories. I get what the author's going for here, but it has this loop of "introduce character, show their backstory, kill them off", especially early on, and it's pretty repetitive and also the main reason this book is slow-paced enough to be 600 pages despite taking place over only a day. It's fine to have a slow pace and a large cast, and you should want the reader to care for your MAIN characters, but when your cast is this big and you try to develop all of them, you're going to have pacing issues because you're just not gonna be able to fit all that in one book.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kittcaat's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

aligorical's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

effys's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.25

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite so worthy of a high page count, there was constantly something happening and the tension this book built was immense. 
I definitely struggled with all the different characters early on in the book but as it went on it got easier to differentiate them. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

alexander15's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jrod9291's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

davidalexingram's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

whimsicalish's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Every time I picked it up, I had a difficult time putting it down.

"ehhh just one more chapter"
"well I can't leave it there, one more"
"hmmm it's only ten minutes past my bed time..."
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

essiie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings