Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Centre

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

10 reviews

kjurewicz's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was a disappointment. It reminded me of Nine Perfect Strangers (but not as good). First of all, the main character was completely unlikable. Anisa was annoying and pretentious while also making a lot of dumb, nonsensical decisions, especially in her relationship with Adam and when it came to finding out the truth about The Centre and its founders. The book moved at a glacial pace to get to the big reveal about The Centre’s true process. That was definitely the best part of the book, as well as the memory that was induced by Naima’s tea near the end and Anisa’s tension-filled exploration of the staff areas. However, there were not enough tense/exciting moments; in fact, there were a lot of missed opportunities for tension, suspense, and symbolism (I thought the plants would be a lot more significant!) And the ending was vague and unsatisfying (although there was a clever attempt to break the fourth wall). And the whole situation with Arjun - ugh, just why?

Overall, this book had a lot of potential to be an awesome modern day Gothic novel, but missed the mark in a lot of ways.

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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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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

3.5

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wildcitrus's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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lizzym126's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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btaylorb's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this, it's incredibly dark and has a leisurely, lush tone that contrasts well with the sense of high tension every time the main character goes to The Center. As always in a good horror novel, this story uses those glimpses at the monster behind the curtain to shed light on things that are truly horrific: racism (particularly through the supremacy of the Western canon and Western European language), classism, and sexism. Meanwhile the body horror, when it's revealed is more subdued. There's also a really good red herring early on that I would occasionally remember throughout the story and then gradually forget about. I loved how flawed and earnest the main character is: She is by turns introspective and aware of her privilege as she delves into why she's so unhappy, but also often blind and uncaring toward other characters.

I thought the use of different languages throughout, in particular Urdu, the MC's first language, was really well executed. I listened to the audio version where the Urdu dialogue is read by the narrator, but as far as I can tell they're not always translated for the listener. Apparently, these sections are also not delineated by italics in the physical or ebook editions. I think this is such a clever way to create a sense of intimacy with the characters and reinforce some of what the book is exploring around language and communication. I don't feel at all like I lost anything by not understanding those few sections. In the final section of the audiobook, the author gives an interview where she talks about the idea that if you don't understand something, it might just not be meant for you, and that's okay - and this is sometimes a central point of the story.

Also noteworthy: There's one passage toward the end where a racial slur gets bleeped in the narration of the audio. I'm going to glance at the physical copy at my library, because I'm curious if it's similarly censored in some way in the text. I would love to know if this was an authorial choice or an editorial one for the audio edition; I'm hopeful it's the former because, given the premise, I think that's an interesting and powerful detail.

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jessy4550's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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melanieripple's review

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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bcrowes11's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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escapismforlife's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

Thanks to Zando Projects for accepting me to read the eARC for The Centre, it was a ride and unexpected one for me to but I enjoyed this ominous and modern story. This book had me conscious and reflective of how varied or similiar the lifestyle of protagnist Anisa's , who is from Pakistan, is. It's often tied down by her selfish mentality and vaules that come from living in this case London and the unfamiliarity of her ethnicity there.The relationships she has are not stable in a country that is not completely hers and she therefore makes a lot of her proximity to anyone more distanced.

Anisa wants more when in comes to her job that she does translating Bollywood movies,which like almost everything has become a thing to improve upon or move on from. That is of course until she is a told about the highly exclusive language school The Centre which she is told about from this guy Adam. Its a place you can go to learn to speak fluently in ten days and is meant to be kept a seceret by those who know about it. Anyways while they have a complicated date relationship to each other she goes after receiving her invite. And along the way there discovers a whole lot and builds relationship with the very top person and manger Shiba . Its very obscure about what's happening until the very end and did so along the formation of them growing closer.

I definitely had no clue what to expect going into this mystery/ thriller because it was so unexpected but made the most sense to why everything around The Centre was so private. It was one I unexpecdtly loved every second that was unpacked in the plotlines of this debut book from Ayesha Manazir Siddiq.

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