Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

169 reviews

philosophicellie's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

This book was an amazing read. I've highlighted more than I ever thought because it kept making me think, or laugh.

While no character is particularly lovable I think that is sort of the point, they feel realistically flawed which helps the story to flow in the right way

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jacquelineneedstoreadslower's review against another edition

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reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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chucklesq's review

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dark mysterious 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

3.75

Really enjoyed the premise and the book as a whole. I genuinely didn’t see the twist coming at all which I liked. However I feel like the ending was a bit lacklustre, like the author didn’t know where to go so just didn’t go anywhere.

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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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pkinzw's review

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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? No

2.0

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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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brookebatesratesbooks's review against another edition

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I think I had about one and a half hours left when I decided to just DNF it. I went into the story thinking it was going to be more of a thriller/suspense story. Maybe even horror. Only the reveal was really interesting to me. Everything else that happened in this book, I found it rather boring. And the see sexual scene between the main character and her new friends uncle was just nasty and I wish I could erase it from my brain.

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builtoutofbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

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sidekicksam's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

The Centre follows the story of Anisa, a Pakistani woman in England in her mid-30s, who works as a translator. She learns about the existence of The Centre, a place where you can learn a new language fluently within days. But all isn’t as it seems..

After letting it simmer for a while, and reading some of the reviews on the book, I am left with a weird aftertaste. I breezed through the book, feeling it was easy to read, twisty and compelling. But there were also some odd choices - I already felt weirded about the inclusion of an Israeli character (who was also ex-IDF) in these times, but there are other insensitivities in the book, and some of the story-choices just don’t feel like good choices in hindsight. The MC’s unlikeability is fine, but she’s too passive to be believable.

I would expect her to have more of a reaction to the fact that people were dying for others to learn the language. I also think cannibalism is becoming too easy a plot-point in a lot of the contemporary fiction books, but alas.

Mixed feelings.

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