This book was recommendation from a friend of mine (she is also the friend that recommended Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac) and once again I am a fan of her pick. I have only read the novel, but there is also a manga as well as a movie made that I plan on watching and reading very soon. The whole premise of the story is a little bizarre, but easy enough to understand, a class of 42 students are left on an island and have to kill each other until only one survives. This is a program that is run by the government that is said to help national defenses, but it is just a way for the government to exert it's power over the people and keep them from rebelling. The book is set in Japan, which is called the Republic of Eastern Asia and is a totalitarian government. You follow mostly the struggle of Shogo Kawada, Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa to survive in the game, but you also gets glimpse into other characters head and there are a few other subplots going on. This was probably my favorite aspect of the book because I love books that let you see the same event through different perspectives.
Koushun Takami however didn't just makes this a blood and guts book, though there is more then enough of that to go around, but he also dives into so many back stories that it makes each chapter interesting and it helps the reader connect with characters even if it is only for a few pages. You get to see all the different spectrum of the game through these different characters and I am really impressed with how the situation is seen in all these lights. You have the totally scared and terrified students, the ones trying to save everyone, and then those that are participating in the game because they have already given up on others and the world. As someone who plans on majoring in fiction writing it was really interesting for me to see him effectively write so many different personalities.
Oddly enough I didn't feel overly connected to a lot of the characters as I have in some of the other novels I have read. You feel for all of them, but maybe because you are always switching from person to person I didn't connect instantly with one person. I did however come up with a few favorites. My two favorite guy characters had to be Hiroki Sugimura and Shogo Kawada. Hiroki was very true to his thoughts and personality throughout the whole novel and thought I was very sad when he died, I was happy that he finally accomplished what he had been trying to do the whole game, which was finding Kayoko Kotohiki. Though I was sad he died, I found his death oddly peaceful in a way. Shogo Kawada was just a badass and a good guy which is what made him my favorite over Kazuo Kiriyama who was just a badass. The fact that Shogo takes care of Shuya and Noriko. He was smart and talented and at the end of the novel I realized just how much I loved him as a character. My two favorite female characters had to be Noriko Nakagawa and Yukie Utsumi. Noriko is such a strong character through out the novel even though she isn't as fierce as a lot of the other female characters. She is the rock of the little group and is always usually the voice of reason for the boys. She is observant and smart though she is quite. She also killed Kazuo which instantly made her my favorite. Yukie is my second favorite because I related to her a lot more then the other characters in the novel. She is smart and loyal and tries, even though it backfires, to save her friends. She also saves the man she loves even if it is against her friends wishes. I really wish she was in novel more because she is so interesting and likable.
Now you can't read this book, or at least I couldn't, without thinking about what I would do if I was in this situation. I came to the scary conclusion that I would probably kill one of my classmates in order to survive. I wouldn't go out of my way to find them and kill them, but if it was between me and them I would pick me. My whole attitude would also depend on what weapon I received. If I had a gun then I would find somewhere to sit and pray that everyone else just killed each other off, though if I had a close friend or boyfriend this might change. The character I think I would act most like is probably either Yukie or Kayoko. If I had a group of good friends that I could trust I would find a few of them and hide out, though that backfired I would try to run things or I would hide by myself for the entire game in complete and utter fear by myself.
The fact that I think I would take someones life is really kind of scary, but this is the kind of questions that the novel wants to bring up. Under the entertaining and thrilling story of these kids killing one another it is also dealing with so many deep issues like the power of the government and human nature. I highly recommend
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