“Battle Royale” is not for the faint of heart. It is brutal, unforgiving, and merciless. It will swallow you whole and spit you back up again only when you’re already half-digested. It will do frightening things to your heart rate and it will make you want to throw up your lunch while inside this beast of a book.

At the same time, “Battle Royale” is a story of heroism and humanity in the face of an impossibly dire situation. It will make you pity supposed villains and cry for fallen minor characters. It is in no way a heartless novel and in the most twisted of ways, it is at the same time poignant and hopeful.

Koushun Takami tells the story of the 42 students from Shiroiwa Junior High School who have been randomly selected to be one of the fifty classes in the Republic of Greater East Asia to participate in the yearly Program, a fight to the death at the end of which only one student can remain alive. Under the coercion of metal collars that can be detonated to explode at will, an initially harmonious group of classmates turn on each other.

It’s impossible to talk about “Battle Royale” without also addressing Suzanne Collins’ much more recent “The Hunger Games”. The similarities between the two novels are limited primarily to the nearly identical premises of their stories. I would recommend “Battle Royale” to readers of “The Hunger Games” if - and only if - they can handle a substantially higher level of brutality and intensity.

Those who can’t stomach large quantities of heavy, dark literature or are queasy reading about blood and guts should steer clear of “Battle Royale”. Those who believe themselves ready to read this novel should still proceed with caution, but while daunting, it is also honest and brilliant. “Battle Royale” will be the ride of your life.

I very strongly recommend that those with a weak stomach skip the scenes of violence. As in the case of any good horror movie, the human imagination can always create more disturbing images than any amount of special effects and fake blood ever could. Several scenes quite literally made me feel sick to my stomach; there is nothing metaphorical about the nausea-inducing nature of Takami’s description of blood and bone. The graphicness and gore in “Battle Royale” served to give it a jarring realism. Of the 42 students that we begin with, I can count on one hand the fraction of students who had quick, painless deaths.

The more significant part of the novel however, lies in Takami’s examination of the human mind and conscience. He explores the darkest, most frightening crevasses of human nature, clobbering us over the head with what he finds, laying out his warnings without censure. In my opinion, it is this aspect of “Battle Royale” that sets it apart from similar novels. There are many writers who can make your blood curdle with guts and horror, but “Battle Royale” illustrates psychological elements that will remain with you long after you put the novel down.

Takami asks forbidden questions and gives brutally honest answers. What can turn a best friend into an enemy in the span of a day? What kind of pressure can push someone to insanity in a matter of hours? Surrounded by bloodshed and fear, how can a person retain their humanity? What if a person was never born with that same humanity in the first place? What could drive 15-year-olds to commit the absolute moral crime of murder?

As each of these questions are answered, we also start to see how truly heartbreaking this story is. Between these 42 students are histories and years of friendship, love and dreams for the future. The narration of “Battle Royale” moves from character to character and gives a detailed exposition of the web of relationships that connect each student to this tight-knit, once-innocent class. We see the backstory of each character and why they choose to make the decisions they make. Even the most morally reprehensible character is hard to blame for their actions, and this sustained sympathy for all characters both ‘good’ and ‘evil’ makes “Battle Royale” an extremely emotionally taxing read. As terror, suspicion, and exhaustion begin to overwhelm the students, some loyalties crumble, while others grow even stronger only to end in death.

I repeat that “Battle Royale” is not for the weak of heart. It is intended for more mature audiences for good reason. But it is also an eye opener, a daring journey that will make you question yourself as a person and foster in you a greater appreciation for the preciousness of life.