lori85 's review for:

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

2.0

medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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So this is being marketed as horror and a literary thriller that deals with themes of language, colonization, appropriation, and who gets to tell what stories. And it . . . really isn't. Like at all. The bulk of the narrative concerns the MC's naval-gazing and relationships with various people, with the occasional Tumblr-tier "woke" digression inserted to remind us that this is supposed to be a book with Very Important Messages. Then about 3/4 of the way through we finally get to the horror itself . . . only for the author to de-fang it as much as possible:

The Centre's big secret is cannibalism, except all the "victims" died of natural causes and had consented to their bodies being used in such a manner. So it's philosophically vegan! There is almost zero thriller tension and no one is ever actually in any danger.

And the ending just falls off a cliff.