Battle Royale (Derek Pinciak)

Title: Battle Royale
Author: Koushun Takami
Publisher: Ohta Publishing
Pages: 616

I found this book at Barnes and Noble and I bought it because it was recommended to me by Mr.-G.

The book is set in 1997 in a government controlled empire known as The Republic of eastern Asia. The book is about a government experiment that takes 42 middle school students (21 male, 21 female) and puts them through an “experiment”. The students are chosen randomly and are given sleeping gas while they are traveled by bus to a far off island. On the island they wake up with electric collars on and are told that they are playing a game. Each kid is given a weapon and basically the game is a last man standing type of event. The game has rules that make the story more interesting such as one person must die every six hours or every student’s collar will explode killing everyone. Another rule on this island was that every so often a section of the island would get deemed as off limits and if a student went into that area then they would be killed when their collar explodes. The book may seem predictable in thinking that everyone is just killed with one last person standing but that is not the case at all. There are people on the island that are trying to find a way to go against the game, or others that are just trying to avoid everything, and then there are some that feel the need to kill and try to just get it over with. The combination of everyone’s personalities and strategies makes for an extremely exciting story and creates an ending that is truly awesome.

The audience for this story is about 17-30 years old because it is very graphic and the younger audience would appreciate the plot more than really young or really old people.

The author writes in a very elegant and high level way. He is extremely descriptive with everything surrounding the story. He writes in a way that makes you feel like you’re in the moment.

“The island is divided into many zones. Every six hours, your teacher will broadcast updates about which zones are becoming danger zones. If you're in those zones, you should leave quickly because the danger is... Ok, about the necklaces you're wearing. They're 100% waterproof, shockproof and permanent! It monitors your pulse, informing us of your location and movements. So if you linger in a danger zone, or cause trouble we can identify you and transmit radio waves that trigger an alarm and BOOM! It explodes! If you try to rip it off, it explodes too, so promise not to do that, ok?” (Takami, 73)

This quote shows how the author is descriptive and he talks about events in the moment. He is explaining the necklaces with detail while giving you information on the game.

Quote 1: “The Right Way To Fight a Battle Royale" by the BR Act Committee. Hello, everyone in Class B! You are the lucky class chosen for this year's Battle Royale. Congratulations! Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you! Listen well to fight right and with gusto. You are on a deserted island that looks like this! Its about 10 kilometers around, but we evacuated everyone, so it's empty!” (Takami 62)
This passage struck me because it was the set up for the whole story. The whole book is talking about the battle royale and this is the line that the kids become notified.

Quote 2: “You're the only one I trust, Shuya.” (Takami 124)
This quote shows how friendships are formed on the island and some people are banning together to fight against the game together. Friendships are a huge part in the game and they play out interestingly as the story progresses.

Quote 3: “Its tough when friends die on you, but hang in there!” (Takami 389)
This quote is the reality of the game. In the game someone that you rely on can die and it is almost symbolic of a family member dying. Without that person your game could be lost so easily because that one person was who you needed to get through.

This book was an awesome book in my opinion. It may seem like a long read with the amount of pages but I can say that it was the fastest I’ve ever read a book of this length. The story is told in a way that made me just want to keep reading and not put it down. I am a person of competitive nature and this book took a competitive angle and just expanded what you thought was possible. The novel throws so many surprises at you and I can consider it one of the better books I’ve read. I would recommend this book to anyone because I think it is a fit for many different types of people.