A review by zdoublea
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i rlly liked this book! i LOVED the protag and how she was an older woman still figuring things out and i loved that she was messy and unsatisfied! i loved the theming around feminism and language and colonialism and immigration! i liked the relationship between the characters also and how it was a journey through parts of her life as well.

i def feel this book got a jump in my eyes bc im pakistani so when she spoke in urdu or mentioned the culture in pakistan or the culture between the west and pakistan i Felt it.

idk esp when she talked abt how she sometimes felt disconnected from her culture or how she was forgetting urdu even tho it was her mother tongue... like i felt that!

in the end tho i don't think it rlly stuck the landing? like i feel all the juicy ideas they were building up around language rlly fizzled out at the end?

we don't hear abt it after she goes to india at all. i feel like the cannibalism stuff didn't have enough time to breathe. the big idea of the novel kinda shifted just to men in power etc at the end and dropped everything else it was building up.