Battle Royale

One of the librarians I work with recommended this one to me. I saw the movie based on the book by Koushun Takami and loved it, so I had to read the book. "Battle Royale" takes place in an alternate world where Japan is under a restrictive government that has a program in which teenagers are forced to participate. A class is basically kidnapped and shipped off to a deserted island where they are issued weapons and given a certain amount of time to kill each other off. There is seemingly no way to escape, and all the kids are outfitted with collars that monitor them so if no one dies in a certain amount of time the collars blow up. It was wonderful how quickly the kids turned on each other and how some of them threw themselves enthusiastically into the idea of killing off their friends.