Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Centre

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The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

34 reviews

megansoetaert's review

mysterious fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

loooved the setting of this!! london, India, and the Centre. the settings felt so rich. i loved the premise of this story too!! i would do (almost) anything to speak more languages, and language & translation itself is so interesting.

i was so creeped out by the Centre and was so excited for the big reveal… but it all felt lackluster to me. the reveal/last third of the book was underwhelming and left me wanting more.

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americattt's review

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dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

“We spoke then of soft and tender things, damaged and frightened things. I’ll keep our exchange between us for now, as I continue to learn how to care for these very fragile things, and how to translate into words that which has not been spoken.”

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readwithbells's review against another edition

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5.0

What a freaking read. I wish I had a physical copy so I could have highlighted things because it had so much going on I feel like annotations would only have been a good thing. This is a text on appropriation and consumer culture, critiquing elite universities that promote inclusion despite their racist and colonialist histories. This is about an unreliable (and selfish) narrator completely enmeshed in capitalist consumerism and internet wokeness that manifests itself as constant moral critiques of every person around her (and of course, never of herself). The Centre itself is fascinating, and although I accidentally spoiled the twist for myself by checking the trigger warnings, it was still an absolute delight t try king to figure out how it all worked. I could have had another 200 pages inside Anisa’s head (though Naima is obviously the best character). Genuinely obsessed with this. I had such a good time.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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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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sarahbess's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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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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