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Killing Show #1
Killing Show Vol. 1
A reality program known as Killing Show has captivated the hearts and minds of Floating City’s citizens—upper and lower class alike.
Each and every game in this survival tournament is packed to the gills with blood and violence, ruckus and commotion, cheering and jeering, flowers and fireworks.
Xia Tian, a prisoner from Lower City, meets his teammate Bai Jing’an in a pre-game draw.
Faced with life-or-death challenges under the spotlight, these two star contestants gradually find hope in each other and ignite the spark of rebellion that will one day set the era ablaze.
Welcome to Killing Show! Enjoy!
Each and every game in this survival tournament is packed to the gills with blood and violence, ruckus and commotion, cheering and jeering, flowers and fireworks.
Xia Tian, a prisoner from Lower City, meets his teammate Bai Jing’an in a pre-game draw.
Faced with life-or-death challenges under the spotlight, these two star contestants gradually find hope in each other and ignite the spark of rebellion that will one day set the era ablaze.
Welcome to Killing Show! Enjoy!
284 pages, Paperback
Published December 31, 2025
5 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 2, 2026
⌞ pre-read ᯓ★ ⌝
>/i>
when i found out this was available on my kindle i didn’t even think twice about buying it because hello????? the only thing i know about it is that it’s basically the ✨gay✨version of the hunger games so yeah, i had to make this my first book of 2026 to start my year off right
⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻
⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻
⌞ review ᯓ★ ⌝ >/i>
🍎 killing show immediately captured my interest when i first saw a review awhile back that said it was basically the hunger games but Gay. so yeah, i had to get my hands on this.
🔪 did it disappoint on that front??? ehhhh…yes and no. yes, this danmei was twisted & dark & featured similar themes like thg if thg was on steroids but this volume sorely lacked romance to the point i had to double check that the two main characters even develop romantic feelings toward each other at some point
🍎 however!!!!!! this volume was 14 chapters. out of a 169 chapters in total. the lack of romance in this makes sense but i was itching for a hint of anything since at the start of the volume, xia tian (mc) & bai jing’an (ml) are already teammates. throughout the volume you get snippets of how they were when they first met but this volume their relationship was odd. they feel like strangers even though there is this mutual care going on. this volume literally started off with the two of the hiding a body together and even xia tian is questioned why that didn’t bring them closer 💀
🔪 i was locked into the plot from the start. i clearly devoured the whole thing because there was no downtime at all, the plot was speeding at a constant 200mph.
🍎 i already liked xia tian but the moment he made a flower crown in the middle of a match, just because, and then proceeded to be a total baddass while fighting i knew he must be protected at all cost. the author literally didn’t let him breathe for a second. every other page he was being traumatized and i know that the next 4 volumes will follow the same pattern.
🔪 idk how i feel about bai jing’an. i find his characterization fascinating but this volume was predominantly from xia tian’s pov and there was only a few times where we got to see inside his head. still though, he’s very much ride or die for xia tian which is why i find their dynamic so juicy because in this world the stakes are sky high all the time
🍎 overall : killing show was good but i was waiting for it to be great. i heard amazing stuff about this danmei so maybe i just need a few more volumes to fully invest myself in the eventual romance between xia tian & bai jing’an
( ★★★☆☆ ) 🍎🔪 • [ 3.25 out of 5.0 stars ]
✎ trigger warnings: gore, torture, cannibalism, rape
when i found out this was available on my kindle i didn’t even think twice about buying it because hello????? the only thing i know about it is that it’s basically the ✨gay✨version of the hunger games so yeah, i had to make this my first book of 2026 to start my year off right
⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻
“To be precise, he died to save me, even though I didn’t deserve it. There are many things in this world worth dying for; a full meal more or less counts. But not me, for sure.”
⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ ⸻
⌞ review ᯓ★ ⌝ >/i>
🍎 killing show immediately captured my interest when i first saw a review awhile back that said it was basically the hunger games but Gay. so yeah, i had to get my hands on this.
🔪 did it disappoint on that front??? ehhhh…yes and no. yes, this danmei was twisted & dark & featured similar themes like thg if thg was on steroids but this volume sorely lacked romance to the point i had to double check that the two main characters even develop romantic feelings toward each other at some point
🍎 however!!!!!! this volume was 14 chapters. out of a 169 chapters in total. the lack of romance in this makes sense but i was itching for a hint of anything since at the start of the volume, xia tian (mc) & bai jing’an (ml) are already teammates. throughout the volume you get snippets of how they were when they first met but this volume their relationship was odd. they feel like strangers even though there is this mutual care going on. this volume literally started off with the two of the hiding a body together and even xia tian is questioned why that didn’t bring them closer 💀
🔪 i was locked into the plot from the start. i clearly devoured the whole thing because there was no downtime at all, the plot was speeding at a constant 200mph.
🍎 i already liked xia tian but the moment he made a flower crown in the middle of a match, just because, and then proceeded to be a total baddass while fighting i knew he must be protected at all cost. the author literally didn’t let him breathe for a second. every other page he was being traumatized and i know that the next 4 volumes will follow the same pattern.
🔪 idk how i feel about bai jing’an. i find his characterization fascinating but this volume was predominantly from xia tian’s pov and there was only a few times where we got to see inside his head. still though, he’s very much ride or die for xia tian which is why i find their dynamic so juicy because in this world the stakes are sky high all the time
🍎 overall : killing show was good but i was waiting for it to be great. i heard amazing stuff about this danmei so maybe i just need a few more volumes to fully invest myself in the eventual romance between xia tian & bai jing’an
( ★★★☆☆ ) 🍎🔪 • [ 3.25 out of 5.0 stars ]
✎ trigger warnings: gore, torture, cannibalism, rape
Read
November 8, 2025Dystopian setting with Battle Royale/Hunger Games/survival type games for the morally bankrupt rich/elite’s entertainment. This is gritty, cruel, and gory but so entertaining and thrilling. Not what I typically read but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Gives me hope that I will also like Wine and Gun when I eventually get to it! I also got Gachiakuta type vibes (I’ve only seen season one and have not read the manga).
MC Xia Tian: “dangerous” criminal from the Lower City, good at fighting, charming, carefree on the outside, can be impulsive
ML Bai Jing’an: partner in the Killing Show game, tactician, “boring”, cyber, hacker, smart, calm, indifferent
Read the TWs because there are a lot. I’ll list a few at the end in case it’s considered a spoiler.
Give this a try if you like these…
🩸Dystopian setting with wide gap between the rich and poor
🩸Survival games for entertainment
🩸Descriptive fight scenes with lots of blood and gore
🩸Reluctant allies/partners, slow burn- almost zero in this volume but you can see it on the horizon
🩸Lots of killing without any remorse
🩸Traumatic backstories and honestly just a lot of f’d up stuff happening
Trigger warnings:
❗️rape, SA, torture, gore, cannibalism
MC Xia Tian: “dangerous” criminal from the Lower City, good at fighting, charming, carefree on the outside, can be impulsive
ML Bai Jing’an: partner in the Killing Show game, tactician, “boring”, cyber, hacker, smart, calm, indifferent
Read the TWs because there are a lot. I’ll list a few at the end in case it’s considered a spoiler.
Give this a try if you like these…
🩸Dystopian setting with wide gap between the rich and poor
🩸Survival games for entertainment
🩸Descriptive fight scenes with lots of blood and gore
🩸Reluctant allies/partners, slow burn- almost zero in this volume but you can see it on the horizon
🩸Lots of killing without any remorse
🩸Traumatic backstories and honestly just a lot of f’d up stuff happening
Trigger warnings:
❗️rape, SA, torture, gore, cannibalism
Read
December 28, 2025dnf
nah i dont like it. lotsa lyrical digressions in the middle of action scenes esp, waxing poetics, jumping from one thing to another. its a mess. but yeah whatever im out.
nah i dont like it. lotsa lyrical digressions in the middle of action scenes esp, waxing poetics, jumping from one thing to another. its a mess. but yeah whatever im out.
March 12, 2026
“Sometimes anger would just course through your veins, and like gasoline, there’d be no controlling the aftermath when it came into contact with a spark.”
This is probably the most repulsive, brutal, and sickening danmei I’ve read so far. I knew going in that it would be dark, but I still wasn’t prepared for how ruthless the world is. In most danmei there might be one or two obvious psychopaths causing chaos. Here it honestly feels like an entire generation has grown up warped by a culture that treats human lives like entertainment. People watch contestants suffer and die for fun, and the system behind the show encourages it. The violence is graphic, the cruelty is constant, and non-consensual acts are treated as disturbingly normal in this society. I won’t lie, parts of it made me uncomfortable to read, but that discomfort also made the setting feel chillingly real.
The competition itself is intense and relentless. Contestants are thrown into arenas packed with traps, mutated monsters, and deadly ambushes while producers behind the scenes manipulate everything for better ratings. I felt tense through most of the volume because the story never lets you relax. It’s the kind of narrative where you hesitate to get attached to side characters because you truly don’t know who will survive the next confrontation. Even when the battles stop, the world outside the arena doesn’t feel any safer. Survivors become instant celebrities, and that fame attracts criminals, exploitation, and people looking for revenge. It creates this constant feeling that the contestants are never really free.
Xia Tian was the character who stuck with me the most. His bright, disarming smile makes such a strong first impression, and then you slowly see the ruthless survival instincts behind it. You can tell years of hardship shaped him into someone adaptable and dangerous, always alert to the next threat. Small reactions and little habits hint at the scars he carries. Bai Jing’an balances him in a really interesting way. He moves through chaos with quiet calculation and rarely shows what he’s thinking. Watching their partnership develop was one of my favorite parts of the volume. Xia Tian dives into danger with lethal efficiency while Bai Jing’an guides the strategy, and together they create this tense, fascinating dynamic built on competence and cautious trust. Despite how cruel the story can be, the volume ends on a surprisingly satisfying note, which left me eager to keep reading.
Date Read: 2026.03.10
This is probably the most repulsive, brutal, and sickening danmei I’ve read so far. I knew going in that it would be dark, but I still wasn’t prepared for how ruthless the world is. In most danmei there might be one or two obvious psychopaths causing chaos. Here it honestly feels like an entire generation has grown up warped by a culture that treats human lives like entertainment. People watch contestants suffer and die for fun, and the system behind the show encourages it. The violence is graphic, the cruelty is constant, and non-consensual acts are treated as disturbingly normal in this society. I won’t lie, parts of it made me uncomfortable to read, but that discomfort also made the setting feel chillingly real.
The competition itself is intense and relentless. Contestants are thrown into arenas packed with traps, mutated monsters, and deadly ambushes while producers behind the scenes manipulate everything for better ratings. I felt tense through most of the volume because the story never lets you relax. It’s the kind of narrative where you hesitate to get attached to side characters because you truly don’t know who will survive the next confrontation. Even when the battles stop, the world outside the arena doesn’t feel any safer. Survivors become instant celebrities, and that fame attracts criminals, exploitation, and people looking for revenge. It creates this constant feeling that the contestants are never really free.
Xia Tian was the character who stuck with me the most. His bright, disarming smile makes such a strong first impression, and then you slowly see the ruthless survival instincts behind it. You can tell years of hardship shaped him into someone adaptable and dangerous, always alert to the next threat. Small reactions and little habits hint at the scars he carries. Bai Jing’an balances him in a really interesting way. He moves through chaos with quiet calculation and rarely shows what he’s thinking. Watching their partnership develop was one of my favorite parts of the volume. Xia Tian dives into danger with lethal efficiency while Bai Jing’an guides the strategy, and together they create this tense, fascinating dynamic built on competence and cautious trust. Despite how cruel the story can be, the volume ends on a surprisingly satisfying note, which left me eager to keep reading.
Date Read: 2026.03.10
March 23, 2026
Killing Show is a twisted concept. Xia Tian and Bai Jingan are contracted to risk their lives in gladiator-style entertainment, forsaking their humanity, privacy, and identity. The cameras watch their every move while they're in the arena, and every action is distorted to fit a specific narrative to sell them better.
Even when they're outside of the arena, they are unsafe. They have to participate in banquets where people regularly try to drug them. They don't really have rights, despite gaining glory through the Killing Show, because at the end of the day, they are still from the Lower City, and those from the Upper City are permitted to do what they'd like with little repercussion.
Xia Tian spends most of this book in the medieval-style dungeon, but when he's out, he's busy pursuing revenge on those who drugged and assaulted him.
This is a tragic book, and the only consolation provided is that Bai Jingan and Xia Tian might be able to become safe havens for each other in an otherwise dark reality.
Even when they're outside of the arena, they are unsafe. They have to participate in banquets where people regularly try to drug them. They don't really have rights, despite gaining glory through the Killing Show, because at the end of the day, they are still from the Lower City, and those from the Upper City are permitted to do what they'd like with little repercussion.
Xia Tian spends most of this book in the medieval-style dungeon, but when he's out, he's busy pursuing revenge on those who drugged and assaulted him.
This is a tragic book, and the only consolation provided is that Bai Jingan and Xia Tian might be able to become safe havens for each other in an otherwise dark reality.
December 30, 2025
3.5/5
It wasn't a bad read, but I had a lot of issues struggling to get through it in part because of the writing style. Rather than rattle off my laundry list of complaints, I think the only thing that kept me going were the interactions between Xia Tian and Bai Jing'an, and an occasional description here or there. The fight scenes were also okay.
Hoping that the later volumes will pick up, but if you're looking for something akin to the survival game trope, I do feel there are much stronger contenders out there which I'd recommend before this one.
It wasn't a bad read, but I had a lot of issues struggling to get through it in part because of the writing style. Rather than rattle off my laundry list of complaints, I think the only thing that kept me going were the interactions between Xia Tian and Bai Jing'an, and an occasional description here or there. The fight scenes were also okay.
Hoping that the later volumes will pick up, but if you're looking for something akin to the survival game trope, I do feel there are much stronger contenders out there which I'd recommend before this one.
December 8, 2025
Killing Show, Volume 1 by Fox is the first danmei title I’ve read from Via Lactea, and I was genuinely surprised by the number of five-star ratings it has received. While the premise is undeniably gripping—especially the detailed mechanics of the game itself—the reading experience was often frustrating. I found myself working too hard to piece together the protagonists’ motivations and backstories. At times, the nonstop action made me feel like I was dropped into a Hunger Games scenario with a Katniss-level intensity, but without enough quiet space to truly connect with the characters outside the arena.
This volume follows Xia Tian (the warrior) and Bai Jing’an (the tactician) as they compete in the third round of the 199th season of the Killing Show, a brutal survival reality program built on a kill-for-points system. The dystopian world-building highlights the grotesque indulgence of the wealthy and the crushing helplessness of the poor. The combat scenes and game rules are impressively vivid—something I appreciated, given that the text is translated from Chinese.
However, I wish the early chapters invested more in character development before throwing readers full-force into the competition. After reading portions of fan translations, it’s clear that Via Lactea could have fleshed out certain details with reader comprehension in mind.
Overall, I’m giving this a 4-star rating. If this were originally an English-language release, my rating would likely drop to a 2, but the strength of the source material shines through enough to elevate the reading experience despite the translation issues.
This volume follows Xia Tian (the warrior) and Bai Jing’an (the tactician) as they compete in the third round of the 199th season of the Killing Show, a brutal survival reality program built on a kill-for-points system. The dystopian world-building highlights the grotesque indulgence of the wealthy and the crushing helplessness of the poor. The combat scenes and game rules are impressively vivid—something I appreciated, given that the text is translated from Chinese.
However, I wish the early chapters invested more in character development before throwing readers full-force into the competition. After reading portions of fan translations, it’s clear that Via Lactea could have fleshed out certain details with reader comprehension in mind.
Overall, I’m giving this a 4-star rating. If this were originally an English-language release, my rating would likely drop to a 2, but the strength of the source material shines through enough to elevate the reading experience despite the translation issues.
February 10, 2026
Really fun reality show/dystopia novel. I'm surprised how much more realistic it is than usual ones in the genre... and also that it's a lot darker than I am used to. Still, the protagonists are charming and cute, so hopefully things won't get much darker than now.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews