What grabbed me about this book's description was the promise of a story about a secret language school that can teach you any language in 2 weeks...but what sucked me in was the author's wonderful writing style (cerebral, but also not cumbersome), description of her culture and cities, and the way she can put into words things that I have never heard said aloud.

I loved this book, and I didn't want it to end! I hope there will be more to this story!

Thank you to the author, Gillian Flynn Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an unsettling read - it started out slow and I found the main character extremely annoying and self-absorbed, but it picked up speed and got darker and stranger by the chapter. Yes, I saw the ultimate twist coming (maybe I read too many thrillers), but still found it a gripping read and look forward to reading more from this author.

This was a fast, unsettling, and overall fantastic read. Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi managed to blend humor, cultural commentary, relationship drama, and friendship drama into a single story surrounding the theme of language. The writing is simplistic without being juvenile, and manages to move at a quick speed, even when little is happening action-wise. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys unique thrillers, an exploration of racism, female friendships, and an engaging protagonist and narrator. I think my only complaint would be that the pacing slowed significantly about half-way through the story, and it dragged on for quite a while like that before picking up again in a rush to the conclusion.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

I had such high hopes for this book. Actually, when I finished I had rated it 3 stars, but I had to marinate think about what I read.

The story started off too slow and it started off with the main character whining. The synopsis is fascinating and had my interest. An controversial subjectand an unlikablemain character doesn't mesh well. The main character made me dislike the book so much. I've enjoyed books with unlikable characters before. There was something about her that I couldn't get past and enjoy the story. She felt too real, I know people like her. Always blaming everyone one else, not taking responsibility, very manipulative.

I could have dealt with less of the main character and more of the supporting casts, as well as more about the overall process of the project.

By the time the twist came, I was ready to DNF the book. The twist and how it was all going to play out renewed my interest. Unfortunately, the book couldn't sustain it and I just wanted it to be over.

Anisa's boyfriend goes away for two weeks and comes back speaking better Urdu than she does. He tell her about the Centre, a place where in just 10 days you can become fluent in a new language. Anisa goes to learn German and becomes close with the manager, Shiba. The more she learns about the Centre the more she wants to understand its secrets. It's a suspenseful book that has a lot to say about colonialism and language. The ending left me with more questions than answer, but it was a thought-provoking and slightly horrifying read.

**Listened to the audiobook and followed along with the kindle version**

The premise of this book was so intriguing. I was really excited to read this, and even more excited to listen to the audio book. (I love an audiobook!!)
However, I found this book to be too much of a good thing. I found that there was too much going on, and more and more subplots were being introduced as the book went on, leaving me questioning what the book was supposed to be about, and what message I should be getting from it.
It immediately had me hooked, as it started at a super fast pace - but the more it went on, the more it kind of lost me as it went down different rabbit holes and then ended rather abruptly.

I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook, and she played the different characters with different accents and tones - making it really easy to follow.
However, the actual plot of the book just left me confused.

I liked the idea - but didn't like the execution.

Anisa is a Pakistani woman living in London working as a translator of Bollywood movies. She dreams of becoming a translator of great works of literature. Through her dumb, annoying boyfriend she finds out about an extremely exclusive language learning program called “The Centre” that guarantees fluency in only ten days. What happens from here is anika visiting the program and learning of the secret, scary truths that make it all possible.

This STUNNING and spooky debut is the second release from Gillian Flynn’s imprint for Zando. There was a “Heart of Darkness” reference by page 60 so I knew I was in for a trip. Because I keep notes for reviews, I had written down my theories. The things I highlighted totally led towards the reveal, but I never fully got there on my own. WOW.

I love the main character <3. Anisa has absolutely zero respect for rules, causing more chaos in an already mysterious situation. She’s so realistically selfish but acknowledges her privilege in terms of class. Given the subject of learning languages and translation, the book is able to explore immigration and colonialism. Rarely do I find fiction that is this enthralling while also hitting the realities of the world we live in.

Also due to Anisa being a translator- this book is dripping in meticulous word choice. I’ve saved so many quotes!! I truly can’t wait for this book to come out next week so all of my friends can read it. I even recommended it to my dad. Thank you so much NetGalley and Zando Projects for this eArc!

Pros: I heard about this book on the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide and thought its premise sounded interesting. It seems like books about translators (e.g., Babel) are very popular right now—like the new campus novel. I switched between the ebook and audio versions of this book and really liked the audiobook narrator. Her narration sounded like how I thought the main character would speak.

Cons: I feel like I’ve read this plot (main character joins a secret club that has some sinister practices) a lot. I was also expecting more from Gillian Flynn’s imprint.

Thank you to NetGalley, Zando Projects, Dreamscape Media, and Gillian Flynn Books for the opportunity to read this book.

The Centre is a fast-paced speculative delight! Anisa, an ambitious woman held back by her fear of inadequacy and quiet middle class shame, is given the opportunity of a lifetime by her sweet if tepid ex. A referral to the Centre, a secret elite language learning agency with guarded methods, promises the seemingly impossible - "Learners" will become fluent in their chosen language of study in 10 days. Thought it seems too good to be true, Anisa can't resist the allure of becoming a "serious" translator, moving on from her current gig of subtitling Bollywood films. She finds out soon enough anything improbable comes at a steep price, even beyond the $20,000 fee.

I started The Centre coming out of a reading slump and was sucked in from the first chapter. Anisa is a complicated character at a strange point in her life. She has stability in her career, friendships, and a romantic relationship, yet she feels stagnant and hungry for breakout success. She has an insecurity that she keeps hidden behind her acerbic judgements of others. She is simultaneously loveable and frustrating, and I appreciated Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi's careful construction of Anisa's life as she sees it while still letting us glimpse her from other perspectives. The conversations in here about the emotional yet technical work of translation, the challenge of maintaining friendships, pushing back against the milestones of womanhood, and the insatiable desire to succeed were engaging and honest, even ugly in a way that I loved. And the idea of the Centre itself! Despite evoking a feeling of dread, I felt allured by the idea of such rapid fluency from a mysterious process, just like Anisa. This was a creepy page-turner that was explored a lot thematically, and I loved it!

Unfortunately, I just didn’t click with this one. The protagonist fell flat to me and I couldn’t get into it. A did not finish for me.

A great interrogation of under what circumstances and for whom we value language knowledge and where we don’t.

There is some jumping around between Anisa and Adam, Anissa and Naima and then the Centre, Shiba, etc. that confused me initially, but ultimately I was eager to find out how all the clues and puzzle pieces fit together and enjoyed the interactions as thought provoking asides.

I somehow shielded myself from the ultimate twist and didn’t put the pieces together until the main character figured it out. That was both disturbing and interesting. It changed the way I viewed the actions before and the reminder of the book.

Really loved the passages with ruminations on human taboos, methods of knowledge acquisition, language, and communication. Siddiqi does a great job with descriptions of scenes of cities across the world as well as with painting the other worldly Centre in contrast to those.

The main character in this book grated on me so much that it was hard for me to enjoy the entirety of the novel. I did think the premise was interesting and the book explores topics such as immigration, privilege, identity, etc. The reveal was obvious to me and I think if you read a decent amount of thrillers/mysteries you will likely be able to see it coming. Overall was a decent read aside from the MC and some of the dialogue.

4.5 ⭐️

Thank you, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi and Gillian Flynn Books, for providing me with an Arc through NetGalley! An e-book was provided before the release date in exchange for an honest review.

The Centre is a dark take on the literary world of translation and how an act of translation is to devour one’s knowledge. Following Anisa, an unreliable narrator, as she navigates life with a feeling of being unaccomplished within her translations. Anisa can be an unlikeable character. She is a layered and well-developed character that, at times, can be hypocritical. She unknowingly destroys her relationships, sometimes forgetting she is not the only person with emotions.

At first, the book reads slowly, and it was a little wait with how long it took to get to the language school portion of the book. However, once you go with the flow, the book is a quick read. I could hardly put it down! The author has a fantastic way with words and dialogue, keeping up a mysterious and eerie vibe. The book is worth the read, and the twist at the end?? OMG!

I would highly suggest looking at some content warnings before picking up this book due to some of the twists and turns being slightly triggering to some.

I can’t wait to receive the hard copy that I’ve preordered, and I look forward to seeing more great things from this author!

Eerie, immersive, and totally addictive!

I had zero idea what to expect going in and OMG I was left speechless by the end. On the outside, The Center is a prestigious language school with guaranteed fluency in two weeks. On the inside, its success is owed to something so surreal and wildly imaginative it's difficult to process.

I loved the eerie clues and cult-like vibes, leading up to the dark twist in the end. The skull shaped plant pot featured on the book's cover art is mentioned in the lobby entrance to The Center—a nice detail adding to the creep factor. I found the characters unique and well fleshed out. I enjoyed following Anisa, the protagonist, as she explored London, Karachi, and Delhi. Every scene was immersive and kept me hooked, turning the pages late into the night. It's a story that explores self-identity, love, friendship, with layers of privilege, and appropriation. The chapters were very long—which I usually find off-putting—but it didn't affect the overall pace for me.

There are two scenes I still can't shake. The first is between Anisa and her friend's 60-year old father, while they're in his office having drinks there was a sexual encounter that I'm still unsure was consensual or not. The second is the gap in Anisa's memory which finally resurfaces, revealing the truth behind the forbidden doors in The Center while she was snooping around—truly horrific. It gave me serious Jordan Peele vibes and I loved it!

4.5/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

For readers who enjoy macabre twists with a unique voice, compelling female characters, and thought-provoking themes.

I thought this book was really fun! I enjoyed reading it and it went very quickly, which was great because I was in a bit of a slump. I thought the twist was pretty good but was expecting something a bit more conceptual or sci-fi-esque or whatever -- not a complaint though. Thank you so much for the advance ebook! Will definitely be recommending

This is a strange book that took some turns I did not see coming. While the premise was good and the actual mystery very interesting, I found the sexual content of this book to be off putting and unnecessary.

Anisa, born in Pakistan, lives in London and works as a translator for Bollywood films, longing to do more serious translation work. She is drawn to Adam when she hears him speak fluently in multiple languages. After months of dating, Adam can’t seem to pick up a single phrase in her native Urdu. When she invites him to visit her family in Karachi, he joins her there after a 10-day business trip and is suddenly fully fluent in the language. Baffled by this, Anisa pushes him to tell her how he did it and he shares with her that he studies at The Centre, where they have discovered a way to immerse Learners in a language to achieve fluency in just ten days. Anisa soon arrives at The Centre herself, where she is instructed not to interact with other Learners, meditates each morning, is served a delicious, prescribed diet, and spends hour upon hour in a listening booth as her Storyteller’s voice washes over her. She becomes close with Shiba, who oversees operations at The Centre and is soon thirsty to know how the process works, uncovering possibly nefarious methods.

I loved the writing style of this book, how it goes off in tangents as one would if telling a story to someone else. Others may find this irritating but I found it made the characters and events seem more real. I would not call this a thriller, as it has a fairly slow-moving plot with a lot of character building. Instead, I’d say this is speculative fiction; a story that invites the reader to ponder what she would do if given the chance to learn a language in ten days, and what she would be willing to pay for the skill.

This is a really unique book by a promising debut author. It certainly won’t be for everyone and I found that while some proponents of the story were given many pages, others could have used more explanation and exploration by the author. Again, this is not a typical thriller, it is much more literary and meandering. Be prepared to really sink into Anisa’s mind and follow her as she indecisively leads the reader through the novel.

Really juicy, interesting novel. I’m a big fan of weird literary fiction, and this certainly fell in that category. I spent half the book feeling an eery sense of dread- you’re not given the secrets of The Centre until about three quarters in. And when the reveal hits, it hits hard.

A really visceral story with a unique premise. My only gripe was that I felt like some of the events were a bit rushed. Since the story takes place over a matter of years, some of the moments in between visits to The Centre feel a bit too fast paced. Would’ve loved to linger on the narrator’s career as a translator more.

Overall, a very surprising, urgent, and thought-provoking novel. A powerful read.

I was very excited to see Gillian Flynn has her own imprint. I love her twisty, dark stories, and I am excited to see which stories she chooses to publish. I loved the premise of the book - a secret translation school that requires a dark price? Intriguing! Like many social thrillers, I was into the storyline for most of the book but felt a little bit let down in the end. However, the more time that passes since I finished the book, the more I appreciate the ending, so I think it was the right choice. Overall recommend for fans of social thrillers.

A "super elite, supersecret" language school centers this high concept speculative thriller. London-dwelling Pakistani translator Anisa knows that crafting a brilliant translation is a daunting task: it must authentically replicate the feeling of a work in a different language. She longs to be a translator of the highest caliber, so she is intrigued when a friend clues her in to a potential shortcut. He learned a language in just ten days at a new training facility, and when he offers to refer her to the program, she leaps at the opportunity. But the more immersed she becomes in the Centre's methods, the more uneasy she grows with its requirements–and yet the harder it becomes for her to stay away. A scintillating debut.