Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

21 reviews

thehannahclaire's review

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dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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bookishbrenbren's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

I think I enjoyed this book but it's not the type of book I prefer so I guess I'm stuck in between enjoying what I got and wishing I'd gotten more of what I wanted 🤔 if that makes sense.

The writing has no subtlety or subterfuge (and what is there is more like a tongue in cheek between her and the reader). There is this element of metafiction to it - the narrator constantly breaks the fourth wall to address the reader directly and you exist as a second level consumer of the story, always questioning what's real and what isn't. Which, idk, sometimes I thought it was brilliant but most times it was just too casual for me and kept calling attention away from the story, back to this idea of the book as metafiction, like 'don't forget!' - more like the princess bride movie than If An Egyptian.
The author also brought up lots of great little aside ideas but a lot of the times she throws a line out and then dismisses it as boring or banal or cliche or whatever and that started to irritate me. We get it, you're not writing about immigrants or race or class, you're just writing about immigrants and race and class. Allllso the main character is kind of unlikeable 😂 but her friendship with Naima was the sparkling star of the story (can you tell I like character-driven novels?) they support and disappoint each other like humans and I froth for that. But again with the meta, their conversation about there HAS to be a Desi wedding scene for "those guys" nudge nudge wink wink... it was cute ngl but did it add? Did it add?
Now that I've complained, lol, the plot is excellent, the pacing is excellent, the suspense is suspensing and the ending is a lovely little cherry on top. The author's humor is also sprinkled as a nice little bonus throughout the book.

CW one of the characters is mentioned as being from Israel and having learned "mind hacking" in the IOF. Um ok, who was he mind hacking on occupied land...

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samanthaleereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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caitgiam's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.5

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rosemary's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

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pallasreads's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

Good ideas, and a lot of them, but I would’ve liked about fifty more pages to dig into the main character’s psyche a little more. After chatting with book club, it seems like different people see different parts of their identity and experience reflected back to them. I hope to read more books from Siddiqi

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ethanmmc's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.75

Interesting ideas about culture and friendship, but the sci-fi element (how do people become fluent in a new language in just 10 days) remains undeveloped. We're told, eventually, "it works like this" but with no plausible explanation of how or why "this" would work.

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riflelizards's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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ryuutchi's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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anntharai's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Normally if I guess the twist it can't be a 5 star book for me, but even though I got it early on I thought this book was fantastic. Its also one of the best applications of audiobook production I've heard. Tiny bit obsessed.

It's the layering that gets me, it's not just about one thing. The esstereggs are there (including on the cover art, IMO but no idea if that's intentional or not)

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