Anisa dreams of being a translator for "real" literature, and when her boyfriend tells her about this secret language centre where you can learn any language in 10 days, it is her dream come true. It is after her visits at the Centre that she wonders what is going on. Maybe her dream is turning into a nightmare.

Less than a week before publication I saw The Centre being offered as an Audiobook on Netgalley. I applied and surprisingly got approved basically the same day.
I know it is not mandatory but I always try to have an ARC finished by the publication date, so I was feeling a little stressed about the short amount of time. Which was unnecessary because as soon as I started the book I couldn't stop. Finished it in 2 days. I was invested! Partly because the narrator was incredible.
This was 100% my cup of tea. The slow change into creepy, the pointed observation on all sorts of topics. One of the best books I've read so far this year!

Not going to lie, I was completely drawn to this debut psychological thriller solely based on the creepy cover alone! The premise of a translator getting lured into some kind of strange cult-ish secret language school though definitely was original and kept me enthralled to the very end.

Great on audio narrated by Balvinder Sopal with lots of dark twists. Highly recommended and I'm excited to see what this Muslim, Pakistani British based writer comes up with next! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I so wanted to LOVE this book! The book was described as being "by turns dark, funny, and surreal, and with twists page-turning and shocking," which I found it to be none of these!

What I enjoyed: the connection between language and how your interpretation of the world changes as you learn a different language. I also enjoyed some of the themes the author touches upon, such as privilege, appropriation, and mysogyny, through an Arab's point of view. Also, it was an easy read. That was all.

I wish some of the themes had been explored more. I think part of the point of reading from diverse authors is to see their point of view of what their culture and their people have gone through/experience and to learn from it, and I think this story could've had more of that. I didn't like any of the characters and though it started strong, I felt like it slowed down significantly and the only reason why I finished it was because I wanted to know what was going on with the center. The "twist" was somewhat bizarre and creepy, but I didn't find it to be shocking though. Also didn't find it funny at all.

Overall I think the blurb ended up hurting this book but I would definitely like to see what other books this writer comes up with, as this idea was way different from anything I've seen come out in a very long time, so I'm sure they have other innovative ideas.

I received this book from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media as an advanced listener's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

One of the best books I've read in a long while!

This is one of my favorite books of 2023 so far. While I cannot say whether or not our narrator is unreliable, the story is incredibly enthralling. I had to know what was happening and could barely put it down. This is one I will be recommending constantly. Smart, funny, and poignant.

I thought the concept of this book was so interesting. The premise was rather dark. I enjoyed the writing and was surprised by the twist at the around 75% point. I loved the narration. I found it to be soothing and engaging.

As a reader who loves to experience books in translation, I was interested in picking up this hilarious debut, but since I didn't read the description carefully, was surprised at its content. Not to say that I didn't find it enjoyable, I did. Being billed as a satiric horror fest, it deals with the incorporation of language as an attraction worthy of desire and ethnic identity as a tool. Don't know if I'd have chosen it had I been more careful with my choice, but I had a good time.

If Babel and The Last Tale of the Flower Bride had a 30-something lit fic baby with a dark side, this book would be it. The Centre blends gothic horror and modern dark academia in a slow-burn, character-driven literary novel with a dark sense of humor.

This book tackles some of the same issues that Babel did, but with much more skillful character work and nuance that trusts the reader to put some of the pieces together for themselves. It's a book interested in language, translation, misogyny, colonization, class privilege, and cultural appropriation. But it's much more subtle. There is also a darkly obsessive female friendship with strong erotic undertones and this gothic vibe that reminds me of The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. The more I think about it, the more I like it and there are layers that can be unpacked.

Anisa is a Pakistani woman living in London, mostly supported by her wealthy parents and trying to find her way in her 30's. Then her boyfriend tells her about The Centre- a highly confidential and mysterious language school that promises fluency in a language of your choice in only 10 days. Anisa is intrigued and dreams of learning German so that she can translate real literature and find success. But there is a cost to learning that might be higher than she expects...

I really enjoyed this book and loved how skillfully it wove together complex themes while creating a main character who feels very real and very flawed. Savvier readers might put things together earlier than I did, but it was a great experience getting to some revelations and then looking back to see all the clues pointing in that direction. I think it's really well-executed and not trying to trick the reader. It gets weird and dark, but I also understood why the characters made the choices they did. Really fun book. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of The Center by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi in exchange for an honest review. This was a very unique book. I have a problem classifying it. I enjoyed it and the narrator. It felt kinda like a lifestyle/horror and I found I couldn't stop listening.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced copy of this audiobook.


The Centre follows the story of Anisa as she has dreams of being a literature translator.  Her boyfriend, Adam, shares his knowledge of a secret, invite only language school called The Centre where you can become fluent in a language in just 10 days.  Little does she know how dark this process will be.


This book is touted as a being a mystery/thriller and humor/satire.  To be honest, neither of those are true.  I believe the premise of this novel could very well have been horror, if it hadn't fallen so flat.  It is very heavy on Anisa's life and her thoughts on social justice issues and very little on The Centre and the mystery surrounding it.  It could have been a 5 star read, just based on the premise alone.  Sadly, it felt more like I was back in 9th grade reading a required book that had a dark element hidden within a scant few pages while the rest was critical thinking questions.  I wasn't necessarily bored, but I was disappointed.  It was not what I expected.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to The Centre as an audio arc! I requested this title based on a review I saw online, and I was excited to listen to it myself- I feel like this book covered a wide range of topics for being a dark-academia-esque genre. This book is about a translator in London who is introduced to an elite language-learning program that guarantees fluency within 10 days. As our main character gets deeper into the program, she uncovers the madness behind their method, and explores topics ranging from culture, identity, sexuality, and appropriation, tied together with (in my opinion), a slightly unreliable narrator. Fans of dark academia would likely enjoy this book. The Centre releases on July 11th, so be sure to look into it then!

Something is amiss in this suspenseful and strange novel about language and identity. When Anisa learns of a secret language learning organization, her quiet life is changed forever. Without spoiling anything, this book says a little about a lot of topics but left me disappointed at the end.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this ALC!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

I was excited to see Gillian Flynn attached to this title, and the premise felt interesting, but the build up fell flat for the payoff to me. I saw the twist coming from far off (but maybe I read too much horror, who knows) and it landed a little too late into the book for me. Still an interesting story!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, Gillian Flynn Books, for the free audio book in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this expecting something unusual, and it did deliver. Anisa has a talent for translating books into other languages and does so with much care for the prose that her poetry goes beyond correct translation. When she learns of a language school that will have you fluent in any language in 2 weeks time, she embarks on this dark, funny and surreal journey that will have you questioning what the catch is and whether the success is worth the journey.

The story is richly written, delving into the Pakistani culture and even touches on the lingering difficulties and hard feelings of the Partition of India and Pakistan. Be prepared to take a journey into a different culture. You will find yourself immersed in the sights, smells and perspectives of Pakistani and Indian women, all the while traveling through London, Karachi and New Delhi.

Publishes July 11th.

Rating: 4/5 stars

As the dark-academia-craze of the 2020’s has taken the bookish community by storm, I’ve been struggling to find my “subgenre” within it that I truly enjoy. After 3 years of searching, I think I’ve finally figured out my niche, which I like to call “weird dark academia”. Including Vita Nostra, Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang, the works of Mona Awad and Suzanna Clarke, these focus not on the romantic aesthetic of academia, but rather on its strange microcosm, elitism and privilege and the feelings of displacement that come when you don’t feel you belong. The Centre captures many of these same themes within a deliciously dark tale of a mysterious invite-only language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret cost.

Anisa Ellahi, a second generation Pakistani immigrant, dreams of being a translator of “literatures Greats”. Instead, she’s mostly making due with subtitling mediocre Bollywood movies and having to rely on her parents financial support to get by. When her new boyfriend Adam, a man with an extraordinary aptitude for learning new languages, introduces her to The Centre; a secretive language course that promises to teach anyone to speak a language in just a 10-day course, Anisa decides she has little to lose. Skeptical but intrigued, she applies and surrenders herself to The Centre’s unusual methods, immerging 10 days later, fully fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within The Centre, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the true cost of its services.

Although the plot and sinister mystery are interesting enough, The Centre truly shines in its thematic discussion of language and the nature of translation, colonialism, privilege and preservation through storytelling at its core. As someone who engages in translation heavily to the point where I barely read any fiction in my native tongue anymore, all of these topics are fascinating to me. Like Anisa, I love the multi-facetted process of translating, and I really related to the following passage in which she describes her view on it.

“It’s not that translation is a subjective process exactly. In fact, in a way it’s highly mathematical. It’s about retaining the feeling, the thing underneath. It’s as if you go underground and there are all these shapes and colors, and there you see that, oh; “died” in this language is closest in color and shape, consistency and texture, to “passed away” in this other language. And it feels like a personal accomplishment when you make the match and haul the pair back up to the surface.”

The Centre isn’t solely celebration of translation though; it also points out the inherent duality of it. More than just words alone, we share, we take, and we change through the processing of experience from different people in this way. With every translation we make, we change minute things about the narrative, whether consciously or unintended. We not only take away something from the original narrative, but also absorb some of it into our own life-experiences, thereby changing ourselves. This all brings up discussions on the morality of this all: who is entitled to change, to interpret, and even to understand? How does it change our own identities?
Many of these questions are similar to the ones R.F. Kuang raised in Babel: An Arcane History last year, and although they’re very different in style and genre, I feel like they would make for good complimentary reads if you’re looking for more on this topic. Where Babel is far more heavy-handed and lecturing on its subject matter, I liked Siddiqi's more satirical, contemporary take. That being said, the twist might be more of a marmite one…

Due to the role that storytelling (especially through literal “voices”) plays in this novel, I highly recommend the audiobook for this one, as it truly adds to the experience. The narrator does a fantastic job and it truly added a layer of immersion for me.

On a separate note: it always intrigues me to no end when books have vastly different covers from different publishers. Especially so when one is among my favourite covers of 2023, and the other is one I absolutely detest. Safe to say: Gillian Flynn Press/Zando Publishing knocked it out of the park with this edition. Picador’s alternate cover is best forgotten…

Many thanks to Gillian Flynn Books and Dreamscape Audio for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I requested this audiobook because I like some dark humor, the premise sounded entertaining, and I have not read enough stories about Pakistani people (to counter the often racist images from US film and TV). The character development, especially of the lead is solid. You love and hate her from the beginning, the opportunities that she squanders, the feeling of being trapped in a repetitive and unfulfilling career path, the dreams of grandeur, the boring relationship she just can’t seem to get out of… yet you feel akin to her.

Maybe it’s my American ear, but I didn’t get the lol others are stating in their reviews. There are definitely some funny-ish moments, but I didn’t get the humor. The premise is also a twist on a classic – Someone joins a secret society hoping to change their lives for, often, selfish means and ends up shocked by the corruption and fuckery of the secret society. This time with a translator twist because translators are so hot right now. The author could have done more, the setting change from London to Karachi to New Delhi, but the reader doesn’t get a real feel for any of the locations, but we do see the people. The twist at the end was also so foreshadowed (starting from the cover) that it wasn’t really a reveal.

This is still a fun read, just not earth shattering. The narrator is solid, and the characters are fun enough to keep you interested even when the plot becomes predictable.

So. I don't even know where to start. This was laugh-out-loud funny, with an excellent narrator. And then it takes this super-dark, super-weird twist. And I'm not sure how to feel about that. But I think I could recommend this for book groups because it's definitely one of those "I need to talk to someone about this" books.


Review copy provided by publisher.

Anasah loves languages and wants to be a top notch translator of classic and serious books but she is stuck transcribing Bollywood movies. Her boyfriend Adam on the other hand is fluent in many languages and that is what drew her to him and to begin with. When she tries to teach him her native language, he cannot remember it to save his life so six months later when they’re catching a flight so she can go home and he can meet her family she is shocked and angry when he speaks in her native language. At first she thinks he lied to her about knowing it and when he asked her if he tells her how he learned it will she stop in angry she is dubious in her response but ultimately he does tell her. Histórias he learned at a place called The Center and proceeds to tell her when you go there you can only tell one of the person and he is telling her. Eventually she also decides to go because she wants to learn the German language when she arrives she finds out about their strange rules show me some nice people but eventually she will stumble upon a mystery that puts her in danger she’ll be in even more danger however when she tries to find out the truth. I didn’t want to put in my review what wasn’t in the summary but I do want to say I think this was a very smart intelligently written funny an interesting read. There was a point when I thought the book may be going down the deep end when explaining things about language but I got through it and I’m glad I did I loved Anasah and her best friend I thought they were funny together and this is all in all a really good book by very talented writer I also liked the narrator she made it feel like she was telling you her own personal story and thought she did a stellar job. I want to thank the publisher and net galley for my free arc copy, please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Have you ever read a book that tries to be too much, tackling too many things to the point that it seems a weird potpourri of genres with an unhealthy dose of social justice sprinkled on top? The Center could have been that, but it isn’t. It’s a mystery, and it’s a thriller, and when you get to the end - things are a bit horrifying, but at its core, it’s a story about colonialism, language, and story-telling.

The book follows Anisa Ellahi, a Pakistani translator born in privilege but with a very unsatisfying professional life. She meets Adam who is the total opposite - successful, a self-made man, and he speaks over ten languages. Interestingly, Adam goes on a quick trip to Berlin and comes back speaking perfect Urdu, in just ten days. How? Well, he’s signed an NDA so he can’t really say, but here’s the thing - there’s this place called The Centre and they have this language program…

This book was such a trip. It has very different tones throughout the book - you first get to know who Anisa is and how her life works, then you get to Adam, then The Centre, and then, well, everything that comes during and after that first visit. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting how dark the whole thing became, but it’s crazy how it made me go ‘what the frick’ (out loud, and a few times). And the ending? So good. Honestly, this was so good.

It’s a pity I can’t really talk much about what really made me go from “ah” to “ooooh” without spoiling massive parts of the story. But yeah, it’s fair enough to say, this was just a trip. And if The Centre really exists, there are a few languages I’d like to learn, even though… well, yeah.

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir, an audiobook narrated by Balvinder Sopal, was just something... I hope I found the correct narrator's name as it wasn't listed. In my case, the narrator saved this book. I would really struggle if I would read it. Definitely not a page-turner for me. I would say many parts were too long and not necessary. You could easily take them out and it would not change the storyline.
I am happy that I choose the audiobook. This let me finish this book and in general, I really enjoyed it. The narrator was so suitable and made me enjoy even the boring parts of the book.

I liked the storyline - absolutely crazy! And absolutely original. I think halfway through I was wondering if there is a real purpose to this story. I could not understand where all this was going but by the end of the book, things fall into place.
For me, there weren't enough thrilling moments. Storyline itself definitely gives a good background to create a proper creepy atmosphere and heart-pounding moments. I definitely would never guess the main twist, it didn't cross my mind and left me with an open mouth.

As you know from the blurb this story is about Anisa who dreams to translate “great works of literature,” but so far she managing just small works. When Adam, her short-term boyfriend, shares the secret about The Centre where she could become fluent in any language in just 10 days, Anisa is on her way. Strange things happen in the center and Anisa tries to work out what exactly happening. The things that she discovers completely shock her and she is in front of the dilemma of what to do with the information.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advance copy!
#TheCentre #NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia