piddlepiddle 's review for:

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

3.0

---

I was real interested in the beginning. When there was the mystery of The Centre and what was going on there. As the story went on I was less interested. I wanted more of it to take place in The Centre and was less interested in the minds that created it. I think this would have made an amazing horror novel if it lingered in the horror more. The writing was beautiful, and I loved the commentary at the beginning when she was dating Adam! I wanted the whole book to be about learning language and how that relates to culture. The lines about white people learning “non-white” languages and being applauded for it in ways that poc aren’t were chefs kiss perfect and I wish the whole book kinda focused around that and similar linguistic themes. I just didn’t enjoy the turn it took (and also this had a reveal that is one of my squicks so I enjoyed that even less).