Monday, June 18, 2012
YA - Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami, 2009 (graphic novel)
"In an alternative future Japan, junior high students are forced to fight
to the death! L to R (Western Style). Koushun Takami's notorious
high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of
junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part
of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced
to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized
as violent exploitation when first published in Japan--where it then
proceeded to become a runaway bestseller--Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for
the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and
(barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit
movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a
contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in
the English language. A group of high school students are taken to small
isolated island and forced to fight each other until only one remains
alive! If they break the rules a special collar blows their heads off.
Koushun Takami's brutal, high-octane thriller is told in breathless.
blow-by-blow fashion. Battle Royale is a contemporary Japanese pulp classic now available for the first time in English." (from Amazon.com)
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I found this to be incredibly disturbing. The copy I got from the library was manga-style (right to left). I wonder how different it is from this description I pulled off Amazon.
ReplyDeleteViolent, sadistic, and somewhat perverted, this Hunger Games-like book really bothered me. The story begins with 21 boys and 21 girls, ostensibly all ninth graders. There are many characters featured and I found it hard to keep most of them straight. I won't read the sequels, but I'm sure they're very popular with some teens. Too dark for me!