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siriface's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, and Drug use
escapismforlife's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
3.5
Thanks to Zando Projects for accepting me to read the eARC for The Centre, it was a ride and unexpected one for me to but I enjoyed this ominous and modern story. This book had me conscious and reflective of how varied or similiar the lifestyle of protagnist Anisa's, is. It's often tied down by her selfish mentality and vaules that come from living in this case London and the unfamiliarity of her ethnicity there.The relationships she has are not stable in a country that is not completely hers and she therefore makes a lot of her proximity to anyone more distanced.
Anisa wants more when in comes to her job that she does translating Bollywood movies,which like almost everything has become a thing to improve upon or move on from. That is of course until she is a told about the highly exclusive language school The Centre which she is told about from this guy Adam. Its a place you can go to learn to speak fluently in ten days and is meant to be kept a seceret by those who know about it. Anyways while they have a complicated date relationship to each other she goes after receiving her invite. And along the way discovers a whole lot and builds relationship with the very top person and manger Shiba . Its very obscure about what's happening until the very end and did so along the formation of them growing closer.
I definitely had no clue how this mystery or thriller ended. It was so dark but made the most sense to why everything around The Centre was so private.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Misogyny, Death, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Gore, Murder, and Racial slurs
nailartklaudia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism and Death
hannahdotmay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Centre was a book made to be devoured. An odd, offbeat story following a young Pakistani woman unsure of her self in more ways than one. When offered the chance to transform her professional life from translator of Urdu, working on Bollywood film subtitles from bed, to a translator of great works of literature, in less than 2 weeks, she jumps at the chance.
At the centre, the language acquisition process is kept under close wraps, and the immersive program is run by an enigmatic woman, Shiba. The two grow close, a complicated friendship & a little bit more, starts to emerge.
The reveal in this book was impeccable, I had an inkling but I still wasn’t disappointed. The chatty authorial voice made dialogue easy to read but the depth of questioning our characters contemplated regarding the politics of translation, inequalities between European and Global south translated works, class systems in Pakistan and India, misogyny in startup culture - all were well integrated.
Really, this book was lesson in subtlety when conveying complex socio political themes - many current new releases could take note.
One for your beach bag or weekend in bed, either way - easy to devour ❤️🔥
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism, Death, and Cannibalism
joreneereads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-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 premise of this book gets a solid 5/5 from me, such an interesting concept and subject for a book. as someone obsessed with languages, the whole "learning a language" aspect of the story was so interesting to me that i had no attention issues over the first half of the book like some reviewers have described. i firmly believe that language learning is an underserved plot or subject matter for books. the ideas here are also so interesting - do you take on something of the culture, personality, or values of the group or individual that you learn a language from? why is it so valued for english speakers to learn another language, but only expected for speakers of other languages to learn english? (obviously we all know the answer to that.) how does the brain assimilate language?
the commentary from the narrator was casual and varied in style - at times a bit "opinion dumping" - but that does not bother me at all. The dialogue was odd... one character says "lol" out loud? but again, not something that bothers me.
where I think this book had some unfulfilled potential is the development of all these ideas. of course it IS all connected - colonialism, classism, racism, exploitation, language, etc. - but the first 2/3 or so of the book is dedicated to throwing all these pieces into the ring, and then they are kind of just left there, and the book ends. i found the premise and idea behind the book stronger than the final execution, but ultimately i did still enjoy reading this so much (despite its disturbing content), and I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.
one note - the main character spends a fair amount of time disparaging a partner who seems to have little to no libido. i'm not sure what the intended reading of this is - if it is supposed to be a statement on the main character, on the partner, on race dynamics, other?, but it was a bit uncomfortable to read. it is fine to have low libido. it is also fine for that to be something you don't want in a relationship, but it doesn't make someone a bad partner because they have a libido that doesn't satisfy your preferences.
eARC received through netgalley, thank you.
the commentary from the narrator was casual and varied in style - at times a bit "opinion dumping" - but that does not bother me at all. The dialogue was odd... one character says "lol" out loud? but again, not something that bothers me.
where I think this book had some unfulfilled potential is the development of all these ideas. of course it IS all connected - colonialism, classism, racism, exploitation, language, etc. - but the first 2/3 or so of the book is dedicated to throwing all these pieces into the ring, and then they are kind of just left there, and the book ends. i found the premise and idea behind the book stronger than the final execution, but ultimately i did still enjoy reading this so much (despite its disturbing content), and I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.
one note - the main character spends a fair amount of time disparaging a partner who seems to have little to no libido. i'm not sure what the intended reading of this is - if it is supposed to be a statement on the main character, on the partner, on race dynamics, other?, but it was a bit uncomfortable to read. it is fine to have low libido. it is also fine for that to be something you don't want in a relationship, but it doesn't make someone a bad partner because they have a libido that doesn't satisfy your preferences.
eARC received through netgalley, thank you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Racism, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Colonisation, Islamophobia, and Misogyny
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
not_another_ana's review against another edition
challenging
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
3.25
3.25/5
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher
Anisa, a young Pakistani woman living in London, is in a bit of a slump. She has a crummy job subtitling Bollywood films, a boyfriend she doesn't care much for and an allowance from her wealthy parents. But she has big dreams, she wants to become a famous translator. When her lame white boyfriend suddenly learns to speak Urdu like a native in a week she confronts him and discovers the root of his linguistical success: an exclusive, expensive, invite only learning program known as The Center. And just like that her life is changed. But not everything is at it seems at The Center and Anisa will have to reckon the truth behind the program's sucess.
I enjoyed this book more when it was about Anisa, as a person, an immigrant, a young woman, and less when it focused on the mystery of The Center. I pretty much saw the big twist coming. The writing was quite earnest and sincere and I liked Anisa as the protagonist. I could relate to her struggles and to feeling like her life wasn't what she had envisioned. The descriptions were quite good too and the plot flowed nicely but it lost me at 70% or so. I did finish it, I just felt like the ending was rushed. Overall a great debut that I would recommend for anyone looking for something different to read.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher
Anisa, a young Pakistani woman living in London, is in a bit of a slump. She has a crummy job subtitling Bollywood films, a boyfriend she doesn't care much for and an allowance from her wealthy parents. But she has big dreams, she wants to become a famous translator. When her lame white boyfriend suddenly learns to speak Urdu like a native in a week she confronts him and discovers the root of his linguistical success: an exclusive, expensive, invite only learning program known as The Center. And just like that her life is changed. But not everything is at it seems at The Center and Anisa will have to reckon the truth behind the program's sucess.
I enjoyed this book more when it was about Anisa, as a person, an immigrant, a young woman, and less when it focused on the mystery of The Center. I pretty much saw the big twist coming. The writing was quite earnest and sincere and I liked Anisa as the protagonist. I could relate to her struggles and to feeling like her life wasn't what she had envisioned. The descriptions were quite good too and the plot flowed nicely but it lost me at 70% or so. I did finish it, I just felt like the ending was rushed. Overall a great debut that I would recommend for anyone looking for something different to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Cannibalism
Moderate: Classism, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship
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