Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi's The Centre was a wonderful pre-summer read. Not that it wouldn't be wonderful at other times, but that—at a time when I'm holding on by my fingernails trying to make it through the last few weeks of the academic year—it took me to a completely different, yet familiar world that engaged me and caught me up in a story in just the way I needed.

The completely different part has to do with the central conceit of the novel: a secretive company has designed a program that allows those willing to pay ($20,000 per language) to learn any language in just 10 days. Not learn as in master basic phrases for travel. Learn as in speak with fluency and sophistication. Assuming one had the money, who wouldn't want to go for it? The Centre, where this language instruction occurs offers a a rigidly structured program: learners may not speak to or acknowledge one another. They have three one-hour meditation sessions a day. They're fed fabulous food and live on a campus surrounding a beautiful garden. They also spend hours-long sessions each day listening to the voice of a single speaker of the desired language. At first, learners understand nothing, become bored, nap, grow frustrated, but at some point, suddenly, everything that native speaker says makes perfect sense.

Anisa, the central character and narrator, learns about The Centre from a soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend. Anyone who has used there services is allowed to tell one other person about them. If that person is assessed as "appropriate" they'll have the opportunity to become a learned. Anisa makes the cut, learning first German, then Russian. And she grows increasingly curious about how this system works. (Cue the unsettling, eerie music.)

The familiar part is Anisa herself. She's a wealthy Pakastani living in Britain, working to provide Urdu subtitles for Bollywood films. Her best friend, Naima, who works as a sort of new age guide, primarily for women of color providing readings, rituals, and workshops. While my life is substantially different from theirs, what feels familiar is the closeness they share, their long conversations, their reflection on their own lives, and the questions they ask. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with them.

The Centre and Anisha herself move forward along these parallel rails, one fantastical, the other warmly supportive, bouncing between uneasiness and simple comforts. The novel is next-to-impossible to put down. Anisa tells a great story, and one wants to experience it in its entirety. If you enjoy science fiction, not-too-gory horror, and/or "women's fiction" (a term I hate, but one that communicates what I mean), you're going to find The Centre a real gift. When you reach a point where you need some good distraction, turn to The Centre. Things may or may not end happily ever after, but you'll get the break you need.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

The Centre has an intriguing premise: being able to become native-fluent in another language in 10 days. I remain unclear how this happens hypothetically excluding that one disturbing factor.

The beginning almost had me drop the book as it seemed too light and "gossipy." And the ending was underwhelming and did not provide closure.

However, the pages and journey between the beginning and the end kept my attention. I found Anisa's experiences to be innovative and I enjoyed reading about them. I did not think her interaction with a friend's father was necessary and moreso, it was out of character.

Lastly, I thought the author's voice sounded very American (to my American ears). I'll keep an eye on Siddiqi's future work as I'd like to see her future titles.

Thanks to Zando Projects, Gillian Flynn Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Not your typical thriller. Yes there's a mysterious school with a method none of the students understand. While that is what we're trying to figure out along with the m.c., it's the things we see along the way that were most interesting to me. The immigrant experience, partition, micro-aggressions, how language changes our identities and how we think, can one still have privilege as a minority. I wish we would have gone deeper into the idea of translation and how it can connect to colonialism and oppression.

This is a slow burn, but it almost goes too quickly in the last quarter.

I was extremely excited for this read. The premise felt dynamic and full of possibility. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark for me. Although still an interesting story to go on, with a protagonist that gains layers as you continue, it wasn’t as compelling as I had wished. This is largely on my part as I had gone into this believing it would be mostly about the workings of The Centre and discoveries about a cultish and linguistic secret society. It is, but more than that it’s about a woman navigating her life and relationships while severely lacking a sense of direction or satisfaction within her own life. I found that I wasn’t too invested in her interactions and instead constantly was wishing for content on the secret society front. That being said, the focus on characters and events allowed for cultural comparison that was perfectly fitting for a book about learning languages in solitude. This is a wild tale and will absolutely enthrall some readers, but I was not one of them.

4.25⭐️

The Centre is a genre bending piece of feminist fiction that explores identity, language, conformity, class, and even touches on intergenerational trauma. It feels like contemporary fiction for a lot of the book, but it also has some of the suspense and intrigue of a mystery, and some gory moments indicative of horror.

Our main character Anisa is a Pakistani woman living in London who works as a translator. She comes from a wealthy family but is somewhat dissatisfied with the unextraordinary life she has created for herself. When her white boyfriend tells her about The Centre, a place shrouded in secrecy where you can go for two weeks to become 100% fluent in a new language, she jumps at the opportunity.

Pros:
● I think the beginning is incredible! I sat down and read the first 30% in one sitting and was just dying to know more details about The Centre and what made it special. I was immediately brainstorming theories but at the same time eager to learn more about the main character and her family background.

● The author does a great job turning this book into a slow descent of darkness. I noticed the tone slowly changing through till the end, which just made it flow really seamlessly and hold my attention.

● I really enjoyed the female friendships in this book. The MC has two significant female friendships that we spend a lot of time exploring the nuances of - and they are each very different from each other. They aren't always positive or healthy or desirable, but it was made clear at least one was really worth fighting for. It was refreshing to see a book that focused on the importance of female friendships instead of the all too popular romantic side arc that we see very often.

● I love the direction it took at the end, although I know a lot of people probably won't. I do wish the ending had been explored more - but I was shocked and fairly satisfied.

Cons:

● This is probably very picky of me, but there were a few random lines that really did not fit with the rest of the text that completely threw me off. For example, there is a moment where the MC literally says "But whatever. Broken heart emoji," as part of her first person narration. Don't let this turn you off from reading it because it doesn't happen often - but I just found it to be completely random and made no sense with the image I had created of this character in my head.

● The middle felt long, and I think that is because the pacing was a bit off. Maybe I am just slow and this was more predictable than I found it to be, but I wish there had been more clues or like smaller reveals to hold our attention throughout the book (instead of one big reveal towards the end). By about 50% I was feeling impatient and just wanted to know more about The Centre already.

I really enjoyed this book overall and I am excited to see what else the author creates in the future!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Zando for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review*

the premise of this book gets a solid 5/5 from me, such an interesting concept and subject for a book. as someone obsessed with languages, the whole "learning a language" aspect of the story was so interesting to me that i had no attention issues over the first half of the book like some reviewers have described. i firmly believe that language learning is an underserved plot or subject matter for books. the ideas here are also so interesting - do you take on something of the culture, personality, or values of the group or individual that you learn a language from? why is it so valued for english speakers to learn another language, but only expected for speakers of other languages to learn english? (obviously we all know the answer to that.) how does the brain assimilate language?

the commentary from the narrator was casual and varied in style - at times a bit "opinion dumping" - but that does not bother me at all. The dialogue was odd... one character says "lol" out loud? but again, not something that bothers me.

where I think this book had some unfulfilled potential is the development of all these ideas. of course it IS all connected - colonialism, classism, racism, exploitation, language, etc. - but the first 2/3 or so of the book is dedicated to throwing all these pieces into the ring, and then they are kind of just left there, and the book ends. i found the premise and idea behind the book stronger than the final execution, but ultimately i did still enjoy reading this so much (despite its disturbing content), and I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

one note - the main character spends a fair amount of time disparaging a partner who seems to have little to no libido. i'm not sure what the intended reading of this is - if it is supposed to be a statement on the main character, on the partner, on race dynamics, other?, but it was a bit uncomfortable to read. it is fine to have low libido. it is also fine for that to be something you don't want in a relationship, but it doesn't make someone a bad partner because they have a libido that doesn't satisfy your preferences.

The premise of this novel is definitely one that will hook you. I did figure out the twist pretty early on, which makes me wonder what that says about me. The MC is what ultimately made me dislike this book, she was so incredibly judgmental and yet when her judgement would have been warranted…well…I don’t want to ruin it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Zando Projects, Gillian Flynn Books for an ARC in return for my review.

The idea of this story is really intriguing -- it has a great hook and that's initially what made me want to read on. However, I was quite disappointed in the quality of the writing; I expected better. It's written more like an unedited personal essay than a novel, and not in a way that feels intentional. I always read dialogue in my head as if it is being spoken, and the characters in this book really do not talk like real people talk. As well as that, the book is heavy-handed in its communication of the underlying themes; there is no subtlety here. I would have liked more focus on the mystery of the Centre and less on Anisa's life.

This book was *compelling*. I could not put it down. It's creepy and dark and riveting.

There were a couple of wobbles to me--sections that did more telling than showing or attempts at metaphor or foreshadowing that didn't quite work for me--but overall, the plot delivered on its potential. At times it bit off more than it could chew as it tried to take on colonialism, islamophobia, classism, and racism. The explicit mentions often read as after-thoughts that could have gone implied instead of named. The extended metaphor that served as a critique of colonialism and capitalism felt like enough without needing the side quests.

All that being said, this is an interesting companion to books like R.F. Kuang's Babel. Hers is fantasy that goes deep into the embeddedness of colonialism in the acquisition of language, whereas this is horror that looks more at the ethics of acquiring unintended knowledge. So while they do different things, they pair nicely together.

Overall this was fun, un-putt-down-able, and dark in ways I really liked. Pick up for a fun and creepy time!

Anisa feels like her life lacks fulfillment, that she's meant to be doing something greater than translating Bollywood films and spending her days cozied up in her apartment. When her new boyfriend, Adam, learns perfect Urdu at an unprecedented speed, Anisa confronts him and learns the secret of The Centre-- a selective school that gives Learners the ability to be fluent in any language in just ten days. Anisa embarks on her own language-learning journey, and after sparking a connection with one of the school's employees, vows to learn more about how the process works, which brings unforeseen consequences.

This novel will take you on a wild ride from start to finish. Anisa, in her own stream of consciousness, takes you through it all. The premise is very unique; I had never stopped to consider what it would be like to learn a language fluently in less than two weeks. To that point, the story lends itself to great conversations around race, gender, and especially class inequality. Anisa has the perspective of an upper-class Pakistani living in London, so she offers her own experience with discrimination and the class-divide in Pakistan.

The characters in this novel were written with great depth, and each person held their own purpose. I especially connected with Anisa when she reflected on what gives life meaning. I also loved Naima and the playful banter she brought to the story.

This novel was smart, meta, funny and gave me a lot of time to sit in the text and reflect. Oh, and I definitely didn't see that twist coming (I felt a little bit like Anisa when everyone around hersays "You must know, right?"). Not sure I would characterize this book as mystery-- there are elements of that, but it felt more like literary fiction to me. Very excited to read whatever comes next from Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi.

*Thanks to NetGalley for exchanging an e-ARC of this book for an unbiased review!

The premise for this book was cool and I reccomend it for anyone who loves language or linguistics. It was really engaging, but the pacing threw me off a bit throughout the story. I liked most of the characters, even our main character who is pretty unlikable because I felt like it served a purpose for the story. The twist in the book was really crazy and I was pretty shocked. I feel like that twist colored the rest of the book for me and I definitely wouldn't watn to re-read it. I think if you are looking for a book which doesn't feel like anything else and you won't expect the plot then this is for you.

Anisa Ellahi is a thirty-something Pakistanti émigré who ekes out a living in London subtitling Bollywood movies, while dreaming of translating “great works of literature”. She meets and starts living with Adam, a fellow translator, who is quite caring and sort of OK, even if strangely passionless. He makes up for the aptitude he lacks in the bedroom with a superhuman knack for languages, which he appears to master with incredible fluency and ease. One day, Adam reveals his secret. He is a repeat visitor to the Centre, an elite, invite-only academy which promises to get its students to speak a language like a native within a matter of days. When Anisa herself becomes a student at the Centre, she starts to discover the dark secrets behind the Centre’s success...

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s debut novel is based on an original and shocking premise which makes of The Centre a gripping thriller-like read. It also combines many disparate elements: speculative fiction, horror, comedy, women’s fiction, multicultural fiction. It is also a moral/socially-conscious novel, with the Centre doubling as an extended metaphor for imbalances of power (between cultures, between social classes, between generations, between sexes). All his makes The Centre an interesting and exciting read – even a page-turner, I would say. However, I wonder whether the novel tries to be too many things at the same time, such that it ultimately loses its focus. I also found the open-ended meta-(non)ending rather frustrating.

Despite reservations, this is a promising and enjoyable debut.

3.5*

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-centre-by-ayesha-manazir-siddiqi.html

Great book! I was so interested in what was going to happen next at every point. I looked up the books described to see if they were real too! I've given four stars because I found the ending didn't resolve much and that was a shame, but the bulk of this book is a five star experience.

An intriguing novel. A fascinating premise. Some good writing. Plus quite a lot of other content regarding race and racism, class, beliefs, friendship and love. Ayesha Siddiqi certainly packs a lot in here.

The story follows Anisa who is bored and frustrated by her job as a subtitler for Bollywood films. She wants more (even though as a privileged rich kid she doesn't need more money). Then she meets Adam who is fluent in several languages. Anisa is impressed but Adam is secretive about how and where he learned to be "native speaker fluent" in quite so many different tongues.

Eventually Anisa is inducted into The Centre where she meets Shiba who runs it. As the two become close the secrets of The Centre begin to reveal themselves.

I have to say that in Anisa we are given a thoroughly unlikeable character who seems to think she is loveable. Don't misunderstand. I really liked how honestly she is portrayed - so judgemental of others flaws without seeing the same things (or worse) in herself.

The actual Centre and its secrets were, for me, less interesting than everything else. Siddiqi really doesn't pull any punches about the tensions not only between white and black but also India and Pakistan, men and women, older and younger. She certainly made me think.

A thoroughly fascinating read and I only knocked a star off because I was mildly disappointed with the secret of The Centre. I'd definitely recommend this book and I look forward to more by the same author.

What in the WORLD did I just read.

Hello publisher, we need trigger warnings for cannibalism. Some people don’t like that as a shocking reveal near the very end of the book??

I try not to post negative reviews, but eeeef I feel cheated. This book had a fascinating premise and so many interesting things to say about language and how it changes you, but I wouldn’t recommend. Random unexpected cannibalism aside, the mc’s hyper-wokeness was annoying, the story wandered into so many things that never came back, and there are some weird undertones (again, cannibalism aside).

Still grateful to Netgalley and Zando for the arc—the premise sounded amazing!

-A

" It has always been like that, I thought, so much gratitude and admiration when a white person speaks a non-white language and only contempt and indignation for non-white people
who don’t speak English."


The Centre By Ayesh Manazir Siddiqi
My rating: ⭐⭐✨ (2.5/5)

I don't know how to feel about this book. On one hand, I see its potential and the immense talent that the author has, and on the other hand I am a witness to its poor execution.

1. Characterisation:
Anisa, our main character, is a linguist living in the UK who spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies and lamenting about the failures of her life. She comes from an extremely wealthy Pakistani family.

To be quite frank, Anisa is an unlikeable protagonist. She is pushy, sometimes ignorant and overall a very complex character who is not everyone's cup of tea. I liked her narrative voice and her personality though at times she did tend to be very infuriating.

Since this book is told via first person limited point of view, we see very little of other characters.
Adam, Anisa's ex is the man who introduced her to the centre, he is meek and a pushover with issues in the bedroom(if you know what I mean.) And these issues are mentioned so many times in the first 35% that you'd want to stop reading right away.

Then we have Naima, other supporting character, who is Anisa's best friend. A woman obsessed with spirituality and other such concepts.

All of these characters are very superficial and shallow. I had no emotional connection to any of them what so ever and found myself cringing multiple times at the things they were saying because they didn't feel like people. They felt like multiple tweets aimed at promoting social awareness embodied.

2. Privilege: Who has it?
In the beginning, the author did try to have some form of conversation around the intricacies of privelege and how Anisa being an extremely rich woman despite the colour of her skin, hasn't really had to struggle all of her life but one can easily tell how disconnected Anisa is to her own privelege.

I mean the book tries to hold meaningful conversations on white privelege without acknowledging the fact that Anisa is a rich upper caste and upper class brown woman who is safe enough to live in UK at the age of 35 without being forced into an arranged marriage. Her parents are well off and they have a huge bungalow in Karachi.

This wouldn't bug me a lot but it's Anisa's insistence on viewing everybody else through this hyper critical pseudo-woke lens is what makes me laugh. Adding to this, the only person who calls her out on this privelege is Adam, the man whom Anisa takes every opportunity to demean and demonise.

Not only that, further in the novel there are a few discussions about how class based discrimination but the author lacks the subtlety to handle it and all of the writer's attempts at being nuanced at discussing privelege comes across as a bunch of Instagram infographics.

3. The plot structure:
While I'm writing the review I am unaware of this book being a part of a series.
The plot is poorly structured and rushed. Things are barely coherent and none of the things make sense. The author has a skillful way of including tension into the novel but doesn't know how to write a satisfying conclusion. It's as if she got tired of writing the novel and decided to just end it at whatever point she was last writing.

I feel that this book could've been eons better if the writer had simply written 100 more pages of useful material and cut out all those rants about how Adam was underperforming in the bedroom.

4. Language and Colonialism:
From the synopsis and the quote that I've included in this review, one would assume that this book discusses how languages are oftentimes a tool of Colonialism and the subjugation of those nations deemed 'oriental' by the west.
Alas, if you're looking for meaningful commentary done in an interesting way, then please go read another book.

5. Writing style:
The writing is quite average and there is nothing special about it. It's easy to read and properly paced.
I think the unreliable narrator was done well but could've been better.

Overall, this book was disappointing. It ended too abruptly and if there is ever a sequel I will be open to reading it. I didn't rate it lower than 2.5 stars because there were parts where the novel was interesting and certain aspects that were unique.

A real page turner that is blunt and sharp, yet tender at moments, 'The Centre' captures an intricate embodiment of language and translation, and all the entailed representational politics.

I wanted to love this book. The authors writing style is great but the story fell short. Too much time was spent on a relationship that wasn’t important to the story and then the ending felt rushed and unfinished. I think the plot was interesting and unique so I’m giving 3 stars.

3.25/5

Anisa, a young Pakistani woman living in London, is in a bit of a slump. She has a crummy job subtitling Bollywood films, a boyfriend she doesn't care much for and an allowance from her wealthy parents. But she has big dreams, she wants to become a famous translator. When her lame white boyfriend suddenly learns to speak Urdu like a native in a week she confronts him and discovers the root of his linguistical success: an exclusive, expensive, invite only learning program known as The Center. And just like that her life is changed. But not everything is at it seems at The Center and Anisa will have to reckon the truth behind the program's sucess.

I enjoyed this book more when it was about Anisa, as a person, an immigrant, a young woman, and less when it focused on the mystery of The Center. I pretty much saw the big twist coming. The writing was quite earnest and sincere and I liked Anisa as the protagonist. I could relate to her struggles and to feeling like her life wasn't what she had envisioned. The descriptions were quite good too and the plot flowed nicely but it lost me at 70% or so. I did finish it, I just felt like the ending was rushed. Overall a great debut that I would recommend for anyone looking for something different to read.

I think I was probably pre-programmed to enjoy this book. I sought out a copy of this on NetGalley (many thanks) after reading the author’s essay on Translation in Violent Phenomena. The beginning considerations on translation immediately gripped me, especially as I have read the same essay that the protagonist was contemplating on the translation of “Maman est morte”.

I rushed though the first half of the book because the premise was so fun, and the writing so humorous. I enjoyed the talk about adapting to life in London, also the intricacies of her relationship with Adam. I particularly liked the perspective switch when Adam confronts her after their trip to Karachi. The layering of cultural insensitivities and individual insensitivities. I also really enjoyed her observations about female friendships. Why do we not celebrate the milestones in these relationships, that are sometimes so crucial in our lives?

The second half of the book dragged a little bit more for me, especially as it seemed to move away from the initial premise slightly. It seemed to lose sight of the fact it was a language learning tool and moved on to be it being more about legacy. I felt the focus on language was lost, which for me was the big appeal of the book. I was also getting slightly confused as I was struggling to work out the time periods in which the action was taking place. For instance, the way it was described the period in Delhi felt like it was a significant time period, it described them building habits and relationships, but I think it was only suppose to be about a week.

I really enjoyed the end and the self referential element. Although again, I found the timeframes and lack of urgency slightly confusing. It felt maybe like it was trying to cover too many themes.

Still it was a very enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone interested in multilingualism, and I would definitely be keen to read any future books from this author.