BATTLE ROYALE Koushin Takami

With all the young adult genre novels about post apocalypse, future societies, angels, werewolves, vampires, zombies and everything else in between, one particular plot type that's out in the market is about survival, the basic story of to kill or be killed. And there's an interesting flavor if kids do it, the actual game of killing that is.

Imagine the SURVIVOR show, but instead of fighting for material reward, they are fighting for their life, survival of the fittest.  Also imagine that raging kids or teenagers are involved. It's either monsters or life threatening challenges are created by these sick organizers (usually the government) or the goal is simply for the participants to kill each other. I've read the Maze Runner Series and Catching Fire. Both have interesting plots and challenges. While Maze Runner is an experiment, Catching Fire is a tradition. If you like this kind of genre, I hope you won't miss Koushun Takami's The Battle Royale because by far, this one tops the list for me.

Battle Royale is about a yearly military government project where they randomly select a 3rd year HS class to be deported to a controlled island to kill each other. Winner would obviously be the last man standing. Society knows of this with only the hopes that their son, daughter, sister, brother or friend will not be a part of that selected class. Anyone creating violent objections from family, friends and organizations will immediately be put to death. The fight is televised and all actions completely monitored.

The kids being in the same class know each other and developed their own groups or connection, which is an added emotional burden. With minimal explanation, they were only given collars to wear and randomly selected weapons and supplies to carry in the island. There is no escape. If they try to escape, they will be killed. If they take off their collars, it will self detonate. If no one is killed within 24 hours, all collars will self detonate resulting to no winner. And some additional challenge, there will be randomly selected areas that the government will announce every few hours for the kids to avoid. If they find out that they are in the forbidden area at the announced time, their collars will also self-detonate. So the challenge is to strategically hide from your peers, familiarize the map, listen to announcements and efficiently kill opponents (which are your classmates and friends), without losing one's sanity. Did I mention that suicide is allowed?

What's interesting about the novel is how the human behavior will transform given the situation. It clearly mirrored the degradation of reasoning and emergence of paranoia and how these affect and transcend through their actions. The novel also explicitly showcased the emotional and psychological damage it has imposed on these kids more than the physical one. For round 30 so students, the author has given a glimpse of each student's background and how the person reacted to the situation. As a person, fighting for one's life, the reader will get to fully understand why someone pulled the trigger. Others were scared, others were paranoid, others became systematic while others were betrayed. It doesn't matter if they're highschool or college; it's the intensity and rawness of a person trying to survive.

Sure, there will be gory deaths and commendable twists. Written in 1996, a disturbing, fast paced and interesting read, this is the ultimate survival-thriller book. You've read Catching Fire, well this is as raw and real as it gets.

**OUT IN LEADING BOOKSTORES. GOT MINE IN FULLY BOOKED around 800 Pesos. Worth it.