The Centre
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Balvinder Sopal
About this listen
A darkly comic, speculative debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost.
Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies, living off her parents’ generous allowance, and discussing the “underside of life” with her best friend, Naima. Anisa’s mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, only adds to her growing sense of inadequacy with his savant-level aptitude for languages, successfully leveraging his expansive knowledge into an enviable career.
But when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam begrudgingly tells Anisa about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees near-instant fluency in any language. Skeptical but intrigued, Anisa enrolls—stripped of her belongings, contact with the outside world, and bodily autonomy—and emerges ten days later 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.
By turns dark, funny, and surreal, and with twists thrilling and shocking, The Centre takes the listener on a journey through Karachi, London, and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation, and appropriation with biting specificity, and ultimately asking: what is success really worth?
©2023 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi (P)2023 ZandoListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
"Pray they are hungry." Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle's house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker - only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts...and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
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This could have been a great suspense novel.
- By Graham KUNISCH on 10-28-20
By: T. Kingfisher
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Exhalation
- Stories
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory. Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
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Masterful and singular
- By Brian on 05-15-19
By: Ted Chiang
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Tender Is the Flesh
- By: Agustina Bazterrica
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition". Now, eating human meat - "special meat" - is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
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Uhhhhhhh....
- By Josh E. on 12-05-20
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Little Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of in Sierra Leone, town squares in Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. They're everywhere. They're here. They're us. They're not pets, or ghosts, or robots. They're real people, but how can a person living in Berlin walk freely through the living room of someone in Sydney? How can someone in Bangkok have breakfast with your children in Buenos Aires, without your knowing? Especially when these people are completely anonymous, unknown, unfindable.
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it's interesting.
- By Nancy E. Griffin on 12-04-20
By: Samanta Schweblin, and others
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Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
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A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
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The Swarm
- A Novel
- By: Frank Schatzing
- Narrated by: George Weightman
- Length: 37 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic eyeless crabs poison Long Island’s water supply. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean’s revenge. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals in order to wreak havoc on man for his abuses.
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Borderline Boring
- By Allan on 10-05-23
By: Frank Schatzing
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The Hollow Places
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"Pray they are hungry." Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle's house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker - only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts...and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
-
-
This could have been a great suspense novel.
- By Graham KUNISCH on 10-28-20
By: T. Kingfisher
-
Exhalation
- Stories
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory. Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
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-
Masterful and singular
- By Brian on 05-15-19
By: Ted Chiang
-
Tender Is the Flesh
- By: Agustina Bazterrica
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition". Now, eating human meat - "special meat" - is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
-
-
Uhhhhhhh....
- By Josh E. on 12-05-20
-
Little Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of in Sierra Leone, town squares in Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. They're everywhere. They're here. They're us. They're not pets, or ghosts, or robots. They're real people, but how can a person living in Berlin walk freely through the living room of someone in Sydney? How can someone in Bangkok have breakfast with your children in Buenos Aires, without your knowing? Especially when these people are completely anonymous, unknown, unfindable.
-
-
it's interesting.
- By Nancy E. Griffin on 12-04-20
By: Samanta Schweblin, and others
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
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A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
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Tell Me an Ending
- A Novel
- By: Jo Harkin
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Across the world, thousands of people are shocked by a notification that they once chose to have a memory removed. Now they are being given an opportunity to get that memory back. Four individuals are filled with new doubts, grappling with the unexpected question of whether to remember unknown events, or to leave them buried forever.
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So disappointed
- By Housepants97 on 03-08-22
By: Jo Harkin
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Killingly
- By: Katharine Beutner
- Narrated by: Rachel Botchan
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped.
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Enjoyed the narrator
- By JScha on 08-15-23
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The Anniversary
- By: Stephanie Bishop
- Narrated by: Fiona Hampton
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, film director, and cult figure, Patrick is much older than J.B. When they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. But now his success is starting to wane, and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his.
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Precise and cinematic.
- By april on 07-21-23
By: Stephanie Bishop
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I Didn't Do It
- By: Jaime Lynn Hendricks
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith, Catherine Ho, Kyle Burrow
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Murderpalooza, the premier thriller writers conference, is meant to be an exciting celebration of the genre and its preeminent writers. But when bestselling author and industry favorite Kristin Bailey is found dead in her hotel room, four rival authors—a midlister, an egomaniac, a has-been, and a newbie—also get targeted by an anonymous social media account and wonder if they're next.
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Interesting premise
- By Heather Young on 06-19-23
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Shiver
- By: Allie Reynolds
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition. Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong.
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Same words Diff book.
- By Nikki G on 03-29-21
By: Allie Reynolds
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Natural Beauty
- A Novel
- By: Ling Ling Huang
- Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
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Absolutely wild
- By Laura on 10-31-24
By: Ling Ling Huang
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Unboxed
- A Play
- By: Briana Morgan
- Narrated by: Jeremy Reid
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Greg Zipper is a paranormal vlogger whose livelihood relies on his online popularity. When a fight between him and his girlfriend goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Greg purchases a dark-web mystery box in hopes of restoring his audience's faith in him and hitting one million subscribers. But when Greg opens the box, he gets much more than he bargained for, including a Boxer who’s determined to stop him from taking his loved ones for granted. Now Greg must do all he can to stop the Boxer, or else he'll lose his livelihood - along with the woman he loves.
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Baskerville Book Reviews
- By Korra II Baskerville on 03-15-22
By: Briana Morgan
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The Harpy
- By: Megan Hunter
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lucy and Jake live in a house by a field where the sun burns like a ball of fire. Lucy has set her career aside in order to devote her life to the children, to their finely tuned routine, and to the house itself, which comforts her like an old, sly friend. But then a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: His wife has been having an affair with Lucy's husband, Jake. The revelation marks a turning point: Lucy and Jake decide to stay together but make a special arrangement designed to even the score and save their marriage - she will hurt him three times.
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So accurate.
- By Franki on 01-30-21
By: Megan Hunter
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I Who Have Never Known Men
- By: Jacqueline Harpman
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Deep underground, 39 women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the 40th prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.
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Outstanding
- By katherine on 09-18-23
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Jawbone
- By: Mónica Ojeda, Sarah Booker - translator
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality.
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Nooooooo! What did I just listen to?
- By S. Hebberd on 12-04-23
By: Mónica Ojeda, and others
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Our Wives Under the Sea
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.
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Entertainingly Weird Fiction
- By Maryanne T. on 10-05-22
By: Julia Armfield
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Untethered Sky
- By: Fonda Lee
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ester’s family was torn apart when a manticore killed her mother and baby brother, leaving her with nothing but her father’s painful silence and a single overwhelming need to kill the monsters that took her family. Ester’s path leads her to the king’s Royal Mews, where the giant rocs of legend are flown to hunt manticores by their brave and dedicated ruhkers. Paired with a fledgling roc named Zahra, Ester finds purpose and acclaim by devoting herself to a calling that demands absolute sacrifice and a creature that will never return her love.
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Worth It
- By LinseyLoo on 05-02-23
By: Fonda Lee
What listeners say about The Centre
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Douglas Arthur
- 02-27-24
The personal insights were fascinating
The ending was very abrupt and seemed unfinished, I felt like the story ended at least some more
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- Anonymous User
- 04-18-24
Great story! Could be so much more!
I loved this book, but I’d give a pinky, if not my life story, to have the learning mechanisms explained more thoroughly!
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- Jo Jo
- 10-18-23
Listen to this! If JUST for the narrator
Book is very good if a little repetitive (time at the Centre-I'm looking at you) but the narrator is amazing!! I hope she narrates more.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 11-08-23
If Secret history had a book baby with The vegetarian
This book is an icredible exploration of class, race and priviledge while being an incredibly tense literarry thriller (and language nerd porn). Outstanding and well paced narrative.
Without spoiling anything, I found the ending very well done, though if you like neatly packaged ends, it might not be for you.
I would say if you enjoy Yellowface, The subtweet, The vegetarian or if you just need to fill a dark academia shaped hole in your life, look no further.
Also the experence of listening to the story in audio format gives this book an added layer in my opinion.
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- S. Olson
- 01-28-24
Unique and provoking
The plot was timely and sci- fi in the way of Babel, etc. but really explored themes of class, morality, sexuality in a brown girl world that was impactful for a white, middle aged reader who grew up with such girls. Really enjoyed and appreciated the authors approach to all themes and a solid, good story!
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- Stacy L. Daniels
- 01-15-24
Mediocre book – Phenomenal Narrator!
I liked the premise of the book, it had great potential, but fell flat. If I had read it, I’m not sure I would have even finished it. What saved this book for me was the narration. The narrator’s voice was very emotive, pleasant to listen to, and each character was so distinct I could tell who was speaking just by the voice. Strange story, disappointing ending, but loved the narrator!
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- Ashera Buhite
- 06-19-24
Deeply Unsettling & Absolutely Fantastic
I absolutely loved this book. It's a fantastic work of speculative fiction and horror. The ending is unsettling and leaves the reader wanting more. Personally, I'm glad the author doesn't tie everything up neatly.
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- Ann E. Mullaney
- 11-10-23
One of the very best
A captivating plot, well-crafted sentences, good dialogue and the whole of it read perfectly. I have listened to several hundred of books and this is one of the very best. Thank you!
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- Jan M. Reber
- 11-19-23
Started out ok but not a fan by the end
Story started out slowly but had great narration, so I stuck with it. LOTS of telling and very little showing. Long minutes with no dialogue at all, and then mainly short bursts. Story got more exciting about 2/3 of the way, but the ending was totally unsatisfying. A huge letdown.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-26-24
Impressive first book
I didn’t want it to end! I feel a sequel might be in the air.
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