Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

10 reviews

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 finish

after 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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexual assault, Death, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Slavery

Moderate: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

melliedm's review

challenging dark reflective medium-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

5.0

A dark, messy look at legacy, language, colonialism, and patriarchy, and what it means to consume and be consumed. 

A part of me wanted to stay in this narrative for another 200 pages, but it truly does end in a powerful place, leaving us with the questions of what Anisa has observed vs what she has learned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Hate crime, Cannibalism, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, and Racial slurs

hazel_oat's review

dark 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Xenophobia, Death, Confinement, Sexual content, and Animal death

Moderate: Violence, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Classism

meg_thebrave's review

dark funny mysterious medium-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

4.5

What a ride this story is. This debut novel is crafted incredibly. I really enjoyed this book a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism and Cultural appropriation

lizzym126's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Cannibalism, Body horror, Racial slurs, Death, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Confinement, Racism, and Classism

Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual content, and Cultural appropriation

jessy4550's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Grief, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Classism, Drug use, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol and Vomit

bloupibloupreads's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Misogyny, Islamophobia, Racism, and Murder

Minor: Classism, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

dafni's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

melanieripple's review

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Classism, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Death, and Islamophobia

Minor: Gore and Racial slurs

escapismforlife's review against another edition

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

3.5

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,  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 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 how  this mystery or  thriller ended. It was so dark but made the most sense to why everything around The Centre was so private. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Misogyny, Death, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Gore, Murder, and Racial slurs