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jamiee_f's review
I loved the premise, I liked our main character, and I was so excited to understand the mystery of The Centre! Anisa was sassy and online and very millenial which I appreciated. She's even kind of an unlikeable main character, which I usually enjoy. There was good commentary on success, friendships, relationships, finding yourself, being an immigrant/child of immigrants, cultural appropriation, who has a right to write which stories, class consciousness, and I liked most of that but it was a LOT to tackle all at once. Then it just.....absolutely dragged in the last half/third.
I couldn't motivate myself to finishafter it seemed like we were slowly driving towards magic cannibalism without a real explanation, and it seemed like all our characters were on board with it. I guessed it would be some sort of cannibalism pretty early on, but by the end it felt like the metaphor of cannibalizing people's souls for cannibalizing culture got SO heavy handed but also didn't go far enough.
I looked up the ending after I met the men who created the center by paying slaves to participate and submit their bodies/souls to the process, because the book was moving too slowly, and it was no longer fun how unlikable all these characters were. I was more interested in understanding the how and why of the process, that's what I was hoping for, but it didn't feel fleshed out enough (no pun intended). I also didn't like the reveal at the end that our main character decided to dedicate her own soul to the Centre. Like...why? It was unsatisfying to me.
I wanted to like it, I wish the ending third did it for me, because the premise was so call and the first two thirds I enjoyed! I would try another work from this author.
I couldn't motivate myself to finish
I looked up the ending after I met the men who created the center by paying slaves to participate and submit their bodies/souls to the process, because the book was moving too slowly, and it was no longer fun how unlikable all these characters were. I was more interested in understanding the how and why of the process, that's what I was hoping for, but it didn't feel fleshed out enough (no pun intended). I also didn't like the reveal at the end that our main character decided to dedicate her own soul to the Centre. Like...why? It was unsatisfying to me.
I wanted to like it, I wish the ending third did it for me, because the premise was so call and the first two thirds I enjoyed! I would try another work from this author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Sexual assault, Death, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Slavery
Moderate: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Sexism
readwithbells's review against another edition
5.0
What a freaking read. I wish I had a physical copy so I could have highlighted things because it had so much going on I feel like annotations would only have been a good thing. This is a text on appropriation and consumer culture, critiquing elite universities that promote inclusion despite their racist and colonialist histories. This is about an unreliable (and selfish) narrator completely enmeshed in capitalist consumerism and internet wokeness that manifests itself as constant moral critiques of every person around her (and of course, never of herself). The Centre itself is fascinating, and although I accidentally spoiled the twist for myself by checking the trigger warnings, it was still an absolute delight t try king to figure out how it all worked. I could have had another 200 pages inside Anisa’s head (though Naima is obviously the best character). Genuinely obsessed with this. I had such a good time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Confinement, Colonisation, and Cannibalism
Minor: Vomit and Slavery
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