Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

34 reviews

albernikolauras's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

This might end up being a favorite of the year. I just don't know.

The Centre follows Anisa as she finds out about a language school that allows you to master the language in 10 days (for quite a price) and how Anisa's life changes because of it. This book is rich in character study as you follow Anisa into her obsession of becoming a renowned translator. This book drips with discussions on colonialism and its affects on language, people, and their families. I think it handles this discussion on a level that I wished Babel had (disclaimer - I DNFed Babel 30% in so maybe it changed).

Such a fun book with such a complicated character.

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book_buddy_rob's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was a lot of fun to read but also so creative in the way it uses the idea of language and translation as the thrilling element of the story.

It’s truly one of the most unique thrillers I’ve ever read and I love a book where there’s lots to analyze and interpret, and this definitely delivers.

I will say in the middle, the pacing does drag a little bit but I still was invested in the story. But the twist at the end made it totally worth it and this becomes one of those books where you’re not quite sure what you read in a very satisfying way.

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wildcitrus's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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megwilli's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

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sofiam19's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

When it ended, I thought I missed something. Premise was interesting but didn’t feel like it landed and the ending was not great. Seemed like they were trying to bring up multiple themes and the author just didn’t follow through enough.

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amreynrt's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Well that was a page turner for sure! I loved the way the book starts, the very first line is quite funny.

I was really into the story and found it interesting to dive more into the topic of translation. But all in all, I feel like I loved the book all the way until the trip to India. After that, I didn't really like the decisions made by Anisa, nor the Inception-type writing Siddiqi chose. Are we, really, a Learner as well? This felt a little forced, especially since we could not feel like Learners without the whole Centre experience. I felt like the intent was for the readers to feel "oh, wow, I'm one too", but it just didn't happen for me.

The story itself is interesting and you definitely want to find out how they achieve fluency in such a short time period. I liked that the main character was flawed and that they let her know, even though she doesn't feel any remorse at all.

In the end, I think I did not understand who Anisa is as a person. I didn't really understand the ending either.

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