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▾Recommendations

Member recommendations

Jacey25 recommends The Crimson Labyrinth by Yusuke Kishi
Konran recommends Hunters of the Red Moon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
LadyHazy recommends The Long Walk by Stephen King
Kira recommends The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, "The Hunger Games is a shorter, less violent book, with a similar plotline of children forced to fight to the death."
mniday recommends The Running Man by Stephen King
slickdpdx recommends Kung Fu High School by Ryan Gattis

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▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 32 (next | show all)

Kind of like a cross between Survivor & 'Lord of the Flies', the story is about a future when the government sends a class of kids to an island to kill or be killed. Each gets a weapon & they battle until only one is left.

It was pretty well written, but didn't do a lot for me. The basic premise of game didn't seem particularly well set up to me nor very real. The reasoning behind the game, the politics, was unreal. The action was OK, fairly realistic in some ways, wrong in others. It came highly recommended by my son who was in his late teens at the time. (

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jimmaclachlan | Sep 25, 2009 |

I honestly loved this book and couldn't read it fast enough. There was such a diverse group of students on the island, most of which were easy to relate to, and it was interesting to see how "The Program" led them to turn on each other once fear and the instinct to survive took over. Battle Royale was violent and unsettling but it also showed the value of friendship. I highly recommend this to anyone who can handle intense violence! (

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ShannonRattray | Sep 24, 2009 |

The story was great... Very exciting. However, the translation was poor and it really took a lot away from the book. (

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joelshults | Jul 9, 2009 |

The story was great... Very exciting. However, the translation was poor and it really took a lot away from the book. (

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joelshults | Jul 9, 2009 |

Having watched the film, I was very enthusiastic to read the book, however with so many characters and such powerful acting from the former, I expected to be disappointed.
On the contrary, I was more than surprised that instead, this was a book that was very difficult to put down. Each individual character was depicted brilliantly and there was as much action to be had in the book as the film - excellently written and thoroughly compelling. I strongly recommend this. (

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kezumi | Jun 17, 2009 |

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▾Common Knowledge

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Series (with order)

Battle Royale (1)

Canonical Title

Battle Royale

Original publication date

2003

People/Characters

Important places

Republic of Greater East Asia

Japan

Shiroiwa, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Okishima, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Shodoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Important events

Awards and honors

Epigraph

"A student is not a tangerine." - Kinpachi Sakamoto, Third Tear Class B

"But tramps like us, baby we were born to run" - Bruce Springsteen, "Born to Run"

"It's so hard to love" - Motoharu Sano, "It's so hard to love"

"During all those last weeks I spent there, there was a peculiar evil feeling in the air - an atmosphere os suspicion, fear, uncertainty, and veiled hatred. You seemed to spend all your time holding whispered conversations in corners of cafes and wondering whether that person at the next table was a police spy. I do not know if I can bring home to you how deeply that action touched me. It sounds a small thing, but it was not. You have got to realize what was the feeling of the time - the horrible atmosphere of suspicion and hatred." - George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

Dedication

I dedicate this to everyone I love. Even though it might not be appreciated.

First words

As the bus entered the prefectural capital of Takamatsu, garden suburbs transformed into city streets of multicolored neon, headlights of oncoming cars, and checkered lights of office buildings.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

King, Stephen

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▾Common Knowledge (short form)

Canonical title	Battle Royale
Original publication date	2003
Series	Battle Royale (1)
People/Characters	Yoshio Akamatsu, Mizuho Inada, Keita Iijima, Yukie Utsumi, Tatsumichi Oki, Megumi Eto (show all 49)
Important places	Republic of Greater East Asia, Japan, Shiroiwa, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, Okishima, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, Shodoshima, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Awards and honors	ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2009.04 \| Death and Dying, 2009)
Epigraph	"A student is not a tangerine." - Kinpachi Sakamoto, Third Tear Class B, "But tramps like us, baby we were born to run" - Bruce Springsteen, "Born to Run", "It's so hard to love" - Motoharu Sano, "It's so hard to love", "During all those last weeks I spent there, there was a peculiar evil feeling in the air - an atmosphere os suspicion, fear, uncertainty, and veiled hatred. You seemed to spend all your time holding whispered conversations in... (show all)
Dedication	I dedicate this to everyone I love. Even though it might not be appreciated.
First words	As the bus entered the prefectural capital of Takamatsu, garden suburbs transformed into city streets of multicolored neon, headlights of oncoming cars, and checkered lights of office buildings.
Last words	(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And we won't stop till we win.
Blurbers	King, Stephen

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 156931778X, Paperback)

Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence in a dystopian world, it is one of Japan's best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400)

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