Such a unique premise but ultimately I struggled with this novel. I struggled to stay engaged with the writing, but at the same time I really enjoyed the tension that the author built throughout.

This was really dark, and that held me so much, not to mention the slow burn that got it's hooks into me too that kept pulling me along. This was fun, despite the truly dark vibes. I can easily sell this to people who want to start horror, or dark academia and in a softer way.

This book is chewy in a good way. A couple of my coworkers and I read it together, and we all three came away with different opinions and theories. Did Anisa take her friend's suggestion of writing a fictionalized version of what was going on at the centre in order to expose them? Multiple clues suggest that might be the case! Or, did Anisa agree to be a Storyteller, and the contents of this book are just the throwaway bits that will be edited out of the tapes? A large clue hints at this possibility. Or is it more important that the reader not know for sure?
Though a little heavy-handed in some places, this novel had some wonderful things to say about class/race/intellect, even if the consumption analogy seems to fall apart a bit when the founders also want to be consumed after their time is up.
I'm looking very forward to whatever Siddiqi does next!

I really did not care for the conversational writing style. I understand it was intentional/how the story was being told by the main character, but I found it distracting and a waste of words. The plot of the book was interesting, but felt like it jumped the shark a little bit at the end? Overall, I think the plotting and characterization could have been tighter. Definitely a compelling book, though, and I LOVE the cover.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Centre in exchange for an honest review.

The Centre explores a myriad of themes, including translation, language, colonialism, power, and class, skillfully woven together by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. I’d recommend this book if you enjoy:
- dark academia;
- discussions of race, gender, culture, and class;
- character-driven stories;
- poetic writing;
- female friendships;
- unreliable narrators.

The narrative follows Anisa, a Pakistani woman who moves to England to study and later becomes an Urdu translator with aspirations for something greater. Her romantic encounter with Adam, a multilingual man, introduces her to The Centre—an isolated language facility promising fluency in any language within 10 days. Anisa, drawn by the allure, decides to learn German, propelling her into a successful career as a renowned translator.

The novel delves into intriguing discussions rooted in psychology and linguistics, questioning whether the language we speak influences our thought processes. As Anisa becomes entwined with The Centre, her connection with Shiba, one of the founder’s daughter, unravels additional tensions, including dynamics between Indians and Pakistanis. Anisa’s portrayal as an unlikeable and unreliable narrator adds complexity to the narrative, adding a layer of fascination. If I had to complain about anything, it’d be that, as much as I love an open ending, this one felt unsatisfactory. However, this is a great debut novel and I’m excited to see Siddiqi’s future works.

If you enjoyed The Secret History, A Certain Hunger, and Babel, I definitely think you should give this one a chance.

Bookstagram: @narrativasinfinitas

The blurb to this was so intriguing, I had to read it. I love books about language and translation at the best of times, and appreciated that this was a central part of the premise. I also appreciated the characterisation and overall execution of the story, although it did feel like the narrative loses steam at times. It did keep me engaged overall and I’d be interested to read more of the writer’s work in future,

The narrative revolves around 35-year-old Anisa Ellahi, who resides in London and is employed as an Urdu-English translator for Bollywood films. Anisa harbours a deep-seated aspiration to transcend her current role and become a translator for timeless works of literature. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she enters a romantic relationship with Adam, a multilingual individual proficient in over 10 languages. Intrigued by Adam's background, Anisa discovers that he underwent training at The Centre, an exclusive and secretive language school where he mastered each new language in a mere 10 days.

Initially sceptical, Anisa's curiosity prevails, compelling her to enroll in The Centre to learn German. The unconventional teaching methods at The Centre challenge her, but by the seventh day, Anisa finds herself flawlessly comprehending German. However, as she departs from The Centre, she begins to unravel the dark and sinister consequences of its services. The author skillfully crafts characters with depth and intricate world-building, offering readers a vivid portrayal of the story's settings. Anisa, the protagonist, is portrayed as flawed yet complex, with a touch of dark humour that adds to her authenticity. The plot unfolds with a unique and original premise, although the conclusion left me wanting. The ending felt hurried and lacked the satisfying resolution the story deserved.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi is a very unique story about a mysterious language school where the students are completely proficient after just ten days of immersive learning. When Anisa attends the school to learn German, she becomes finely attuned to the narrator of her German language course. So after her ten days, she tries to figure out how exactly the course works. And I was quite surprised by the reveal. This story was very different and quite well done for a debut novel. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

What if you could become completely proficient in another language in just a few weeks? It seems too good to be true but it is possible at The Centre. Anisa's dispassionate relationship with her nice but not-quite-perfect boyfriend Adam does lead to one life changing outcome: he offers her his only invitation to The Centre, an exclusive language learning program. Sworn to secrecy, Anisa embarks on learning two languages and as a result becomes a successful translator. In the process she befriends Shiba, the manager of The Centre and through their growing friendship Anisa begins to learn more and starts to question the tactics used in this seemingly miraculous learning process. As Anisa is brought further and further into the fold the horrors of what she has been participating in become uncomfortably clear.

There were many powerful personal and societal themes the author was trying to explore in this book: the subjectivity of memory; ethics of how much we share and how much we hide when asked to keep secrets or are dealing with things that others may not agree with and what is acceptable with and without consent; how we come to terms with and carry (or combat) the legacy given to us by our ancestors and family; the place of women in society and the complexity (and trauma from) relationships with men; and maybe others I’m not remembering or noticing. And while I find all of these topics interesting and there were points in this book that provoked me to think, I didn’t end up having any profound or meaningful takeaways, which is usually what will tip a book from like to love. I felt it had the potential to tip in a lot of places but never really came together for me.

I will say that I didn’t guess the magic that made The Centre work until it was clearly revealed so that is either me being dense and not putting the clues together (which were definitely there) or a win for the author. I also had to suspend disbelief about the way things work as this just wasn’t something I could buy. I also found it a bit too long with too much going on. Overall I think it was an entertaining read and worth checking out if this sounds interesting to you. Thank you Zando Projects and Netgalley for eARC.

Original and wholly entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where genre bent titles are popular.

Thanks NetGalley and Zando Projects/Gillian Flynn Books for the e-ARC. All opinions my own.

Whew. I devoured this book in two days on a business trip in late summer, and it's a perfectly twisty, macabre look at language acquisition, the lengths we'll go to be successful, and the dynamic among linguistics, national/ethnic emotional traits, and appropriation. While you can see the twist coming, full speed ahead, I couldn't put this down until it was acknowledged and discussed within the plot.

The narrative style is quite nice and the first chapters in the book are easy to read but, as the story went on, I really found that it didn't flow because there was too much social criticism (patriarchy, colonialism, relationship between Pakistan and India etc) intertwined in the plot. I felt the author desperately tried to insert every sensitive topic she cares about in her fiction book, whereas in my opinion these important topics cannot really be delved into through fiction, it feels unnatural and it shines through in this book: entire paragraphs seem to be from a non fiction book or essay about modern society and what plagues it.
The story itself is weird but interesting and I didn't see the plot twist coming until it had been almost revealed. I particularly appreciated the ending: subtle and creative.

I genuinely do not even know how to write this review, because I have lots of thoughts but it’s not easy to get them into words. A few people I follow on Bookstagram have been talking about this one extensively (shout out especially to @jordanian.reads!) and I can absolutely see why; this was smart, complex, layered, and sometimes delightfully meta. I loved the extremely strong queer vibes, the nuanced and sympathetic (if sometimes frustrating and unlikeable!) narrator, the fascinating premise, and the clear but subtle literary horror aspect to the book. (While I was able to figure out The Central Mystery decently far in advance of its textual revelation, I thought it was very well crafted on the author’s part; I read a lot of mysteries, and it's always the hallmark of a good one when there are sufficient-but-subtle clues dropped in advance; this certainly qualifies.) The pacing and passage of time within the narrative sometimes felt odd or jarring, but it was a relatively minor concern.

Overall, definitely recommended, and I will be reading the author's next book with interest. Thanks so much to Zando Projects/Gillian Flynn Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

Oh no, this book was so weird! But in a bad way! I had high hopes for a creepy October read with this one, but it fell short despite it's incredible cover. Reading the book was not an enjoyable experience. The debut author, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, writes at a somewhat amateur level which took me out of the story plenty of times. It is also not as thrilling as advertised. "The Centre," the mysterious place the main character goes to fluently learn a language in 10 days, is actually a small part of the story. Yes, it has an interesting and strange twist at the end that helps to solve why they are able to learn languages to quickly, but the twist is somewhat laughable and the author can't quite sell it.

It is a shame because I haven't read a lot of literary fiction with a strong Pakistani point of view. I liked reading about the background of her family and her experience of being a bilingual Pakistani woman living in London. But along with that, we also have some truly strange mixing of Islamic and western religion that made me side-eye a bit, confusing plot lines and character reactions that aren't resolved or make total sense, and a thesis statement that falls pretty flat. I'm honestly just not sure how this book got published and certainly wouldn't recommend it.

I really struggled with this as the translation didn't seem to connect to the English language. Really hard to get through for me.

The Centre was a wonderfully written and thoroughly entertaining book. Loved the twist!! I liked the approach about translation and how to relate to others through language.

This book has a lot going for it. It is written in the first person and Anisa, the main character, has one of the strongest voices I’ve read. I can’t recall being taken out of the story or not feeling like a close friend was confiding a big, secret story in me. I really like the author’s writing style and the characters feel well developed to me. The essence of the book, the story of The Centre, was such a compelling, unique, engrossing read that I feel could have been supported by better material. The first half of the book felt like a strong beginning to an exciting adventure I couldn’t wait to go on and I loved the reveal at the end.

Despite the immense enjoyment I felt reading the first 75% of the book and how much I liked the reveal, there were huge issues for me. There are many things mentioned in what I assume to be Urdu with no explanation and I have no idea what they are. If you don’t have knowledge of the language or culture you will miss out on parts of the book. So I felt left out of several of the small details that gives this book its unique character. This, along with the parts of Anisa and her friends making fun of white people, makes it seem like the author doesn’t want white people to read this book. Cool.

I can’t quote from this book because I’m reviewing an advanced copy, but there are many conflicting thoughts or conversations that made Anisa (and the writing) unreliable. Not unusual for first person, but it made the story a little less clear to me. In one part Anisa and her friend talk about her boyfriend being too woke, or an insincere kind of woke, and the way they talk about it makes me think the author is being tongue-in-cheek about this particular political topic, but then there are pro-woke conversations in other parts. And the reveal is very controversial, but there’s a part where Anisa is trying to justify it to herself and it seems very convincing, which makes her even more unreliable to me. Also, Anisa and Naima, her best friend, talk a lot of talk about being strong, modern feminists throughout the book only for both of them to completely fall off that wagon by the end of the book. I don’t even consider myself a feminist and their actions repel me.

In short, I loved the overarching story about The Centre but the political, social, and personal-to-Anisa parts ruined an otherwise interesting and unique idea.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a thoughtful, enjoyable read, and I certainly was in suspense about WHAT the actual cause of the language acquisition would be. But I think it was a tad too meandering with a little bit of a perplexing resolution. But I still enjoyed the ride and would read more by this author.

This is such an interesting premise. As a literary translator myself, I was all in. I had to work to keep my interest in some places, but that might well be a personal issue and nothing to do with the storytelling. I did enjoy the twists and turns (which I won't give away), and I wish I'd had time to write a longer, more considered review of the book. It earns its place in a growing sub-genre of fiction about translators alongside other well-known works.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the premise, but it didn’t grab me in the way I hoped. It took me awhile to finish it.