Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

66 reviews

suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Yippee out of my reading slump :D I would say the pros of this book are that the story itself was really interesting and it was honestly fast to visualize and get through. I would say this comes off less as a sci-fi and more as a thriller in my opinion (similar to Get Out the movie), but with a lot of diversity and some really smart moments. This was a blind purchase for me, and I think that is the best way to go into this book.

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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fast-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? It's complicated

1.0

At 20-30%, I kept reading because I thought it might eventually go somewhere.
At 50%, I thought we were finally getting to something decent.
By 75%, I was finishing this out of spite.
This book is all kinds of confused about the story it’s telling. The majority of it is just the story of a woman unhappy with her life and striving for more. There’s a whisper of a “thriller,” until it smacks you across the face at about 85% and then ends so abruptly and with such an obvious cop-out that I feel nothing but annoyed that I spent the day reading this. And frustrated that it really could’ve done something. Take out everything about her weird ex (who is set up to be way more important than he is) and her best friend’s business and relationship (which is probably the best-developed content but totally irrelevant) and you have a 20-page short horror story with a decent premise, a wild twist, and an obvious ending. I’m annoyed that this book tried to do so many things (cultural critique, class & colonization discussion, womanhood, etc.) that could’ve been good but did them so poorly.

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dexkit10's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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anditsreal's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Absolutely loved it. Only disappointment was the misrepresentation of Tantra as a sexual practice (that's the Western appropriation of it, traditional Tantra has absolutely nothing to do with sex).

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chris_reads's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

The end felt a little abrupt. Characters could be frustrating but were ultimately compelling. The prose and themes are where this book really shines though.

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parissummerreads's review

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dark mysterious reflective 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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angelkisses's review

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced

overall a pretty enjoyable book with an engaging thriller plot and commentary on the intersections/interactions between colonialism, patriarchy and classism (material exploitation more generally, as it impacts and is impacted by superstructure).

something weird about mentioning David's time in the IDF (specifically to do with mind hacking?) and not go further into it... considering this story is so clearly about The Centres exploitative origins and nature (cannibalism as a metaphor for colonialism) its weird that there wasnt any pushback from the narrative around Israel as a ethnostate apartheid settler colony especially when the narrative explicitly deals with things like Parition and British imperialism.

I think it's a bit confused but ultimately very readable!

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q_bert13'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

An interesting story filled with a cast of complex characters. I enjoyed Manazir Siddiqi’s writing style, and how she would include memories & events from the past to fuel the ‘present’ in the story.

SLIGHT SPOILERS!

However, towards the end I did not enjoy the dynamic between the MC and her (possible lover)’s father. I know it’s to emphasize the MC’s flaws and create a sense of fear/discomfort between them, but still… super creepy.

Content Warnings

joduewekeperez's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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skogsheks's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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