Reviews with content warning for Classism - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

44 reviews

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Centre falls outside my wheelhouse genre-wise but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Anisa is a Pakistani translator who dreams of translating great works of literature but spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies instead. When her boyfriend Adam becomes fluent in Urdu, seemingly overnight, she convinces him to share his secret. The answer is The Centre, a secretive institution that guarantees fluency in any language during a two week residential course. Anisa applies, learns German, later returns to learn Russian, and develops a relationship with the manager which, combined with her curiosity, helps her uncover the shocking secret behind The Centre’s success. I really enjoyed the discussion about translation early in the novel and liked the slow build up of tension, the increasingly ominous feeling that something wasn’t right but not being able to quite put a finger on what. In terms of the reveal there was one particularly memorable image that will stay with me. I also enjoyed mulling over some of the philosophical and ethical implications of The Centre’s methods. Finally, I appreciated the way The Centre’s methods functioned as a startlingly effective metaphor for cultural appropriation.

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thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqui is not what it appears to be based on its description, which makes it sound like a horror or thriller novel. Instead, it’s a quiet, almost slice-of-life, story and a self-aware philosophical musing on power. The writing style is clear, casual, and familiar, which works in the book’s favor, both in terms of readability and in terms of how it interacts with the story’s plot and thematic elements.

The strongest part of the book for me is the relationships between the main character Anisa and her friends. Anisa is so well-realized, she feels like a real person—outwardly likable and relatable but also destructive in her selfish, casual wielding of privilege for her own benefit. Her relationship with her best friend particularly fascinating. It was these complicated relationship dynamics that I enjoyed most about the book.

The Centre broaches a lot of philosophical questions, most of which relate to the theme of power and how people wield it—who has it, who deserves it, how it takes shape in interpersonal relationships where the parties have different and unequal privileges, and whether it can be wielded for moral purposes. The book fails to answer the questions it broaches, but I still found them interesting.

I believe this book will be deeply polarizing. It doesn’t provide answers to its questions, it doesn’t provide resolution to its story, the main character holds deeply questionable morals, and it appears to (unwittingly?) reflect a degree of self-hatred/internalized oppression on the author’s part. Nevertheless, its willingness to ask uncomfortable questions, its creative premise, and well-written and fascinating relationship dynamics outweighed the drawbacks for me.

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sangsmiles's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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brooketreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Cozy horror?

I am so conflicted on my overall feelings on this book. I really like the concept, but the reason for learning a new language felt so low stakes and uninteresting. The idea of the Centre though I loved, but I needed more. We got so much more of time not spent at the Centre. There was a surprising revelation that made me scream (around 76%). The pacing felt really off though. Some things feeling slow and then others feeling rushed. All the Adam stuff felt very irrelevant, other than the fact that he told our MC Anisa about the Centre. The characters felt underdeveloped. I needed more getting to know Anisa, her job, likes, dislikes. I didn’t like that Anisa seemed and implied having feelings for Sheva (spelling? listened on audio) but then made out with Sheva’s dad. It just felt icky to me. I did like the ending. It wasn’t a traditional ending. It felt like there should have been more or there can be more in the future, but there doesn’t have to be.

This story touched on some very important topics of race, racism, privilege, consent, misogyny, and familial and gender expectations. Although I will say, I felt at times some of these topics were discussed in a way that may be seen as insensitive.

Content Warnings: withholding of information not allowing for informed consent, topic of sex, discussion of explicit sexual acts, cannibalism, and death.

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displacedcactus's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This is a speculative literary book about a place where people can become fluent in a language in just two weeks through deep immersion -- but of course there's a catch! Like most literary books with a speculative element, if you read speculative books the twist probably won't surprise you at all*, and there were a couple of weak points, but overall it was a pretty strong debut book -- really really readable and intended to make you think about privilege, greed, and instant gratification.

I'd definitely like to see what this author does when she has a few more books under her belt.

*The twist is also probably spoiled in the SG content warnings, so maybe don't check them unless you need to avoid specific triggers.

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anntharai's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Normally if I guess the twist it can't be a 5 star book for me, but even though I got it early on I thought this book was fantastic. Its also one of the best applications of audiobook production I've heard. Tiny bit obsessed.

It's the layering that gets me, it's not just about one thing. The esstereggs are there (including on the cover art, IMO but no idea if that's intentional or not)

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