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A review by _scvvter
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I picked this as an audiobook off of my Libby app since my libby only ever has 13 audiobooks that I want to read available. The premise seemed interesting to me and I'm always a sucker for a dark comedy. I was confused on whether or not this book was a horror or a mystery/thriller because both Goodreads and StoryGraph said different things. Now that I know everything that happens, I'd definetly say it does fir the literary thriller/myserty more.
This novel follows a translator who's unsatisfied of where she is in her career. After her white boyfriend quickly learns the family's native tongue in a week after she tried to teach him for months, he tells her about this place called "The Centre". They promise to teach any language to select group of people. Her enjoyment turns to suspicion as the mysterious ways of the centre starts to intruige her. She soon finds that to learn these languages comes with a price that may cost her more than the heft $20,000.
My god this book was a wild ride but not in a good way. I feel so dissapointed to say that because I was excited for the book but it didn't meet my expectations at all.
To start off let's go with the characters. Our main character Ellahi is alright. She's the first ever main character that I've met that fell in the middle of "Only a mouth peice for the author" and Complex character. I constantly felt that I almost understood her as a real character but then she had her moments where the author was like "here's one of my beliefs". But it also felt intentional in a way. Like the main character isn't as woke as she seems and says all of this shit to hide her actual flaws. However, she kind gets called out on that but not in that way so it's weird. The boyfriend lowkey fucks off by the halfway point. The best friend was decent but felt like it didn't connect thematically to the main plot.While I forgot her name, I liked the one lady Ellahi befriended who ran The Centre. She was interesting. Everyone else lowkey felt flat and unimportant.
Speaking of theme, my god I couldn't tell what the author was focusing on with this book. Like of course. the main point seemed to be around translation. But the novel also touched on misogyny, racism, classism, academic spaces, relationships?, connection?, gender roles, etc. Not saying it's wrong to put a bunch of themes into a novel. Hell, all novels have multiple themes to come from it. I feel like Siddiqi tried to juggle all of them at once but was trying to make all of them get equal parts in the novel. They all got such a spotlight it was hard to find what was the MAIN point of all of this. Also beside the obvious misogyny is bad and effects women, racism is bad and effects people of color, classism is bad and being apart of a marginalized community doesn't make it any less bad, the other themes felt muddles and I couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say.
I'd say the worst part of this novel for me was the plot and the pacing. The mystery of how The Centre works is a slow-burn. To be frank, Ellahi had one thing that felt off to her and she ran the fuck with it. I'd say it continues like that until we find out what they're hiding, then shits just starts happening. Like it felt like the ending was just shit getting thrown at the wall and whatever stuck is what she decided to let happen. I spent the whole last act being like "what....what...why?" My neck basically snapped from the whiplash of the pacing.
The final critique I want to make is of what was shown to us and what was told. I felt like a lot of the important stuff was told while the unimportant was shown. The author used a single chapter to explain SEVERAL MONTHS of character events and emotions. I was so confused by that choice because it would have really had me feel her possible changes of how she saw the translation world. But no, we got full scene with her boyfriend (lowkey didn't need him to show up again because it felt like he didn't add much decide causing the inciting incident) and then the best friend arc (It was decently written but I had no idea what that had to do with the story). I left the story baffled about a lot of the authors decisions.
Sadly, The Centre dissapointed me. Nothing full worked for me. I believe Siddiqi is a wonderful writer and, with time, she can become great. I just don't think this was a huge misstep in that journey.
Final Score: 4/10
Edited Note #2: Girl I slept on it and this book is a one star omg.
Final Score: 2/10
This novel follows a translator who's unsatisfied of where she is in her career. After her white boyfriend quickly learns the family's native tongue in a week after she tried to teach him for months, he tells her about this place called "The Centre". They promise to teach any language to select group of people. Her enjoyment turns to suspicion as the mysterious ways of the centre starts to intruige her. She soon finds that to learn these languages comes with a price that may cost her more than the heft $20,000.
My god this book was a wild ride but not in a good way. I feel so dissapointed to say that because I was excited for the book but it didn't meet my expectations at all.
To start off let's go with the characters. Our main character Ellahi is alright. She's the first ever main character that I've met that fell in the middle of "Only a mouth peice for the author" and Complex character. I constantly felt that I almost understood her as a real character but then she had her moments where the author was like "here's one of my beliefs". But it also felt intentional in a way. Like the main character isn't as woke as she seems and says all of this shit to hide her actual flaws. However, she kind gets called out on that but not in that way so it's weird. The boyfriend lowkey fucks off by the halfway point. The best friend was decent but felt like it didn't connect thematically to the main plot.
Speaking of theme, my god I couldn't tell what the author was focusing on with this book. Like of course. the main point seemed to be around translation. But the novel also touched on misogyny, racism, classism, academic spaces, relationships?, connection?, gender roles, etc. Not saying it's wrong to put a bunch of themes into a novel. Hell, all novels have multiple themes to come from it. I feel like Siddiqi tried to juggle all of them at once but was trying to make all of them get equal parts in the novel. They all got such a spotlight it was hard to find what was the MAIN point of all of this. Also beside the obvious misogyny is bad and effects women, racism is bad and effects people of color, classism is bad and being apart of a marginalized community doesn't make it any less bad, the other themes felt muddles and I couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say.
I'd say the worst part of this novel for me was the plot and the pacing. The mystery of how The Centre works is a slow-burn. To be frank, Ellahi had one thing that felt off to her and she ran the fuck with it. I'd say it continues like that until we find out what they're hiding, then shits just starts happening. Like it felt like the ending was just shit getting thrown at the wall and whatever stuck is what she decided to let happen. I spent the whole last act being like "what....what...why?" My neck basically snapped from the whiplash of the pacing.
The final critique I want to make is of what was shown to us and what was told. I felt like a lot of the important stuff was told while the unimportant was shown. The author used a single chapter to explain SEVERAL MONTHS of character events and emotions. I was so confused by that choice because it would have really had me feel her possible changes of how she saw the translation world. But no, we got full scene with her boyfriend (lowkey didn't need him to show up again because it felt like he didn't add much decide causing the inciting incident) and then the best friend arc (It was decently written but I had no idea what that had to do with the story). I left the story baffled about a lot of the authors decisions.
Sadly, The Centre dissapointed me. Nothing full worked for me. I believe Siddiqi is a wonderful writer and, with time, she can become great. I just don't think this was a huge misstep in that journey.
Final Score: 4/10
Edited Note #2: Girl I slept on it and this book is a one star omg.
Final Score: 2/10
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Cannibalism