Why I loved Battle Royale (spoilers)
A group of 42 students in junior high forced to kill off each other. Most of them having violent and merciless tendencies, having no choice but to become murderers. Though, only one can be renowned as the survivor of this absolute bloodbath. Within this novel, it is all about knowing your resources, having a strategy, and becoming cold-blooded. But who will be the one to reign?
The premise of Battle Royale wasn’t new for me to hear, but the execution of the story was just striking. The author did an amazing job to not only intrigue me with his version of a simple plot, but was also able to make me feel such pity towards some of the characters. Of course I am not one to lie and say I feel sympathy for each and every student (mind you, all 42 of them), but I did manage to grow some connections with a few.
I just couldn’t put down this book because of the way it’s written. The type of writing that takes you on a journey. Some parts of the book could be looked at as too vivid, but I really enjoyed the amount of detail in the violence and how deranged one could become in a situation like this. The characters here were brutal to the point where it felt they were just killing for fun. This work of fiction is amazingly absurd. Many books within the fiction realm can go overboard in the ridiculousness, but I truly think this novel has just the right amount. In my eyes, the author made the plot sound so believable, it left me horror-struck.
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The plot-twist at the end.. I had no clue that would even happen. Actually, let me say that again, the plot twists! When those plot-twists started showing up, let me just say my adrenaline was pumping and I was reading in awe. The author made the decision to wait for the ending of the book to make me emotionally distressed for not expecting the REAL ending. I mean he was slowly giving away some evidence of hefty plottwists, but I was just so invested I did not pick up on them that easily. Throughout my read, I was seeing Shuya Nanahara winning Battle Royale. The author had me absolutely shocked to see that one of Shuya’s alliance members, Shogo Kawada, betrayed them in the end. Or so I thought… The shock factor continued as it was all apart of Kawada’s plan to pretend to betray his fellow team, leaving both Shuya and Noriko alive. He was also able to hack into the system of the collars around their necks, removing them all apart of his scheme. The sudden death of Kawada was unfortunate to read, but it was so relieving to see both Kawada’s help and having 2 players, Shuya and Noriko, remaining alive becoming outlaws.
A favorite character of mine, which may seem uncommon(?), would have to be Mitsuko Souma. I can already tell that some readers may think I am crazy for saying this, but hear me out… Throughout the book, I was not too thrilled on most of the characters. Many of them did feel a bit like filler, though I do know that they are just minor characters in the book. I enjoyed reading Mitsuko’s perspective on some of the chapters since she was probably my favorite cutthroat character in the book! My heart went out to her during reading because of all the trauma she has been through, making it feel as if she had nothing to lose during her duration of this so-called “game”. I was disappointed at how quickly she was killed off by Kazuo from his machine gun which never seemed to run out of bullets (lol).
One minor critique I could think of about Battle Royale would be their strategies to survive. I feel there was not too much emphasis on how most of them found their food, water, and making their shelters. I feel there should have been more priority on how the students were surviving, whilst killing others at the same time. If there was more added onto the survival aspect, I feel it would have made this already amazing book even better.
I really enjoyed this book! 5/5 stars. Overall, Battle Royale executed a great plot full of action, hunger to kill, and ended with a bang. I would read this again in the future and you should too.
P.S- This is my first review on Medium and I am so thrilled to be pumping out more review throughout this year. I am so excited to be apart of this community. I hope you all enjoy! — Kalea Brandi
