Battle Royale

Be warned - you won't be able to put it down! Kudos to both the author and the translator for bringing this story to the masses.

Battle Royale constantly shifts perspectives, but you don't get lost at all. That's some serious literary voodoo. Oh, and the plot line is awesome. Sure, you may have already read/watched The Hunger Games which were published 9 years after this book, but I promise you there's a lot of new material here. It's brutal, graphic, and dark but also honest. How else would the Program go down?

And just you wait for the ending :)

Interesting cultural note: I initially found it very difficult to keep track of all the Japanese names. Since nearly every book I read is “English first,” it's not an issue I encounter typically. Always good to be reminded of the biases we face every day - not every book character is going to be named Jill and Jack.