Do you often choose your reads based on the cover alone? I have to admit it was the case here. I long for some bookish adventure with an unknown plot and twist that will leave me thinking for days afterward. Before I tell you if that was the case here, I wanted to emphasize how I liked a protagonist who's so close to my age and struggles in the modern world. She's not a perfect being, and many times I wanted to shake her to her senses. But she also brought a lot of insight into modern feminism. Along with the social commentary, there is a little something for us, language lovers. The protagonist is a translator and when she finds this secret language-learning society she gets to learn in 10 days any language she desires. It smells like dark academia but for adults. I appreciate that. With all her wits she decides to uncover the secret behind the miracle method. This novel, being so strongly based on a first-person viewpoint, with its funny narration flows seamlessly into a thriller-like atmosphere of secrecy and danger. The solution didn't surprise me tho. The approach to it - yes. Strongly recommended!
I listen to it in audiobook and for me, it was an easy-to-follow experience. I like the narrator and with everything, it was hard to put down.

*3.75 stars*

This was consuming and insidious. A slow burn horror that simmers you in a strange dread.

If something seems to good to be true, it probably is. Anisa’s journey from learning about the center, to being immersed in its world is short but tense. The story is filled with really important commentary on sexism, class, and culture. Behind the tension, Anisa’s loneliness and uncertainty are deeply relatable. The gruesome twist is not shocking but the journey is compulsively readable. I really enjoyed the ending.

I would class this as more of a horror than thriller. It is a slow uncomfortable feeling not a heart racing ride. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

I was initially drawn to this debut title as I was intrigued by the premise which sounded really fresh and unique. And it certainly was! This is something really different - a quirky dystopia which is full of twisty intrigue. There's also a more serious side to 'The Centre' with it's themes of identity and responsibility running alongside an almost philosophical discussion about the role of language and how it shapes who we are.

I listened to the audio book of this novel, which is narrated by Balvinder Sopale. I really enjoyed her narration, and found it warm and playful - a tone that was wholly appropriate for this reading. A perfect choice!

Overall, this is is not your typical thriller, but I'd recommended it for anyone looking for a different kind of thriller which resonates on a deeper level. As a debut novel, I think that this points to a very promising start to Ayesah Manazir Siddiqui's literary career. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

3.5 stars rounded up! I'm not generally a literary fiction reader, which I think is why it isn't rated higher. I liked the dark academia/horror feels, but it didn't quite go there enough for my preferences.

The Centre is an elite and exclusive language school that promises fluency in any language in 10 days. It feels too good to be true and even sinister. The more time we spend at The Centre, the more I was intrigued to find out what was going on. I think this story was a great way to look at many of the issues surrounding, class, privilege, cultural appropriation, and misogyny. Much of the eerie feeling of this book occurs in the subtle moments surrounding these ideas. I enjoyed our MC. She felt real and relatable. She made mistakes and was always striving to make the best for herself. I think this book is going to work really well for a lot of readers! The atmosphere, character work, and themes make for an interesting and thought provoking story that many will relate to!

Also, I listened to the audiobook and thought it was really well done! The narration really brought the story alive.

This book is a master class in horrifying meta fiction that blurs the line between science fiction, horror, and literary fiction. The story is written in the classic storytelling fashion, this is the story of Anisa and how her dreams for something better led her down a dark and twisty path. Anisa is a Pakistani translator of Bollywood films, but she longs to be a translator of “great works of fiction”. When she learns about a super-secret, super-exclusive language school, known as the Centre, that promises fluency in any language in under two weeks, she jumps at the chance to take her career up a level. Despite her misgivings, she attends the school but feels constantly plagued by a nagging sensation that something is not right. She almost abandons her quest but is convinced to stay till the end, where just as promised she is suddenly fluent. Once home she achieves her dreams of fame through translating a book that wins her acclaim and publishing deals, but she still can’t let go of the feeling that something isn’t right. She attends the school a second time, this time knowing it will work, but driven by a curiosity to uncover how it works. Once she completes her second course, she finds herself wrapped up in the organization while still feeling like something dark and sinister is at play behind closed doors. Given a chance to peek behind these closed doors, she marches further and further into the unknown to discover the horrors that await her on the other side. This book is dark and humorous while still being able to tackle all the -isms, misogyny, and cultural appropriation, that threaten the fabric of our society. There is a subtle real-world brutality hidden in the pages of this book that will haunt you long after you finish reading it. The publisher’s synopsis says it best when its asks “what price would you be willing to pay for success?”

Thank you Net Galley for the Audiobook ARC! The audiobook narrator is fantastic. This novel is literary/gothic/ horror leaning and I absolutely loved it. The writing was great and the themes beautifully crafted.

I loved, loved, loved this book! It was such a delight to listen to the audiobook and I actually had goosebumps multiple times. The language, in which the author describes the happenings at The Centre is meticulously well crafted and made this read so much more enjoyable!
I loved the many different topics, that this novel touched upon in its very unique manner: identity, feminism, language, morals and belonging. At first I expected this book to be a horror novel, but it is so much more.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy thrillers and horror novels as much as to the people, who like to read sophisticated literature. What an outstanding debut!

A tense, thought-provoking literary novel that keeps the reader curious about the mysteries at the core of a school for translators, where they can become fluent in a new language in just 10 days. The answers touch on issues relation to colonialism and who is entitled to the knowledge and experience of others, and the too often devastating consequences of appropriation on those being mined for their knowledge and life force. I highly recommend reading trigger warnings while avoiding spoilers.

Fascinating experience. I think this book will polarize readers, but I really liked it. It was wild and original. The writing style was smart and felt very readable. I can happily recommend this.

3.5 stars
Reads very much like contemporary fiction, I enjoyed the themes they touched on and issues they explored and overall recommend it solely for that but I’ll be honest I was bored and pushing myself to finish. I didn’t feel it was dark or thrilling or mysterious as others have said. I’m underwhelmed both with the book and the ending. The narrator of the audiobook was great though so if you do pick this up I think you should go for audio! I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up another book from this author but this did not do it for me… but may for you! I really enjoyed the narrator and thought the Q&A in the end was a good touch!

This one just didn't do it for me. I found it difficult to pay attention and honestly even more difficult to care about the characters. I thought the concept was really interesting, I just felt like it was very drawn out and extraordinarily vague.

This is a hell of a book. I simultaneously had a bad feeling about where this was going and had no idea what would happen until the end. The end felt a little weird, but I feel like listening to it as an audiobook made it work.

If you're into unrealiable narrators, mysterious institutions, and creeping dread, this is the book for you.

The premise of the book had so much promise! I loved the idea of going to a secret center to learn a language in 10 days. The dark twist was a bit crazy. But I honestly found myself getting kind of bored throughout. It just didn't quite deliver like I thought it would.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, it had me hooked from the very first chapter. I was curious to see where the storyline would go and it had quite an intriguing twist. " what price would you pay to be more knowledgeable? or to learn any language fluently in 10 days? what price would you pay for success?" However, I found the ending to be abrupt and it didn't leave any closure. I kept rewinding my audiobook, wondering if missed a chapter. Felt as though it left the reader/ listener with more questions and no closure to the story or the relationships. It could have certainly been a five-star review otherwise.
Thank you NetGalley and DreamscapeMedia for the opportunity to review this ARC,
#TheCentre #NetGalley#DreamscapeMedia

Lots of potential but the twist enters territory that I prefer not to explore. Because of such a dark topic I would refrain from recommending this title. In light of recent titles success that share this taboo I do expect that The Cent will do well for us target audience.

Good lord, I loved this book. The beginning was very hard for me to get through, honestly. But the ideas behind this book were so strange and fascinating.

I think it’s pretty possible that when I started I wasn’t quite in the right headspace, or maybe just wasn’t clear on what I was getting into. I didn’t necessarily dislike anything, but I also found the pacing to be way too slow. The moves and foreshadowing building the plot and the driving mystery were there, but were overshadowed by tidbits that ultimately didn’t seem to matter too much and honestly weren’t that interesting. As it continues a flip switched though, and I began to realize very suddenly how important the narrators perspective and personality was to the telling of the story. It really was incredible to begin to realize how the story created a place to speculate on all sorts of concepts and ideas, while building and building towards the ending

I don’t want to go too deeply into the plot lines, looking back on it I think it was better just experiencing it. The basic premise follows a women being recommended into a secret language learning center with staggeringly impressive results. This book is thought provoking, there’s humor in taking the narration with a grain of salt, and overall I can’t recommend this book enough

Audio 4/5 This was very well performed, I don’t regret having gone with the audiobook, but I do almost wish I had tried to read the physical form. I very much feel like I’ll reread this at a later point and likely I’ll choose to read instead of listen. I just think there’s a lot to find and unpack in this story!

Dnf'ed this one - I didn't enjoy the narrator for the story, and this one may be one that I need to read the ebook instead of try to listen to the audio. Unfortunate, but it's my problem and not the authors!

The story idea is really original and intriguing. Unfortunately, however, the book failed to win me over. The writing style is fluent and the story reads smoothly, even though deeper themes are being addressed from time to time. Also, the mysterious vibe of this book keeps you intrigued, but I kept waiting for the big suspenseful scenes that never happened. The ending was also a bit of an anti-climax in my opinion. On the one hand I had definitely seen it coming, yet on the other hand it left me with too much questions and loose ends that were never worked out.
Listening to this book as an audiobook gave it an extra layer fitting to the story.
3,25/5 ⭐
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Described as a darkly comic, speculative debut, Set in a current timeline and world, the speculative piece is minor but critical to the story. I'm not sure I would describe it as comedic though. I would classify this as a slow burn suspense.

Overall I enjoyed the story and appreciated that it tackled some denser issues that a lot of other suspense novels avoid. However, I think it suffered a bit from trying to tackle too many at once. As a result, it felt like there were a couple of storylines that could have been more fully developed if more focus was given to them and a couple of others that could have been left out, as they didn't really go anywhere. I enjoyed the various characters and the exploration of the main character's relationship with them.

The narrator was fantastic, and I would highly recommend the audio version of the book.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Dreamscape Media for a free copy of #TheCentre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC to review!

3.25 stars!

(No spoilers but putting a warning just to be safe)

I had this book already on my radar and jumped at the chance to get an ARC of it (accidentally applied or both the audiobook and ebook) but the audiobook was superb!!

I really loved this new idea! Without giving away any spoilers, The Centre seems like something that is too good to be true, and that might be right. There’s a dark secret behind the centre that will be discovered. The story held my interest throughout, I just felt like the ending fell flat for me as, I’m not even sure what I wanted to happen, but I wanted something else.

Was I expecting that to be revealed? Nope, not really but I put the pieces together when some of the discussion during that part started. This book explores all sorts of other themes such as intelligence, race, racism, cultures all sorts.