No. 104: Battle Royale

by Koushun Takami
translated by Yuji Oniki

This is probably the only novel I have ever read that was translated from Japanese. It was an interesting undertaking to say the least. This book has been compared to Hunger Games, and I must admit that in many ways it is very very similar. The government forces unwilling children to fight to the death, there is a relationship between two of the competitors that makes them unwilling to kill each other. But for me, that is where the similarities end. I don't know if it was the translation, or the author's style, but something left me a little cold. I didn't really care in about 85% of the deaths that the person died. Weird, because typically dead children seems like something I would care about.

But despite the length of the book (pretty long) I didn't really get any emotional attachment to the characters. And I didn't really get that the characters had any emotional attachment to each other. There was no Peta/Katniss action to be specific.

So, an interesting read, but I didn't really love it.