According to Wikipedia, Dark Academia hit the scene sometime in 2015 and continued to grow through the late 2010s and early 2020s. I was never really on Tumblr, so apparently this trend didn’t hit my radar until 2021, probably somewhat before my review of A Deadly Education. Since then, it’s been a trend I’ve been interested in, but aside from Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, never really explored. I’ve mostly just been saving lists I find online of Dark Academia books, and thinking to myself, someday I’ll dig into this trend (and finally be cool lol).

I’m nearly certain that it was through one of these lists that I found The Centre and while the hordes of other examples of this genre are all appealing, this particular book’s premise — a secret academy which will grant you fluency in any language in just ten days time — really caught my eye. After all, I have somewhere just over a 950 day streak on Duolingo and I’d not even consider myself intermediate at any of the languages I’ve tried to study with that weirdly psychotic little green owl.

So when I had a brief gap in my Libby queue, and found The Centre suspiciously unrequested, I felt it was the perfect time to sate my curiosity about the book and take a small step towards fluency in the larger world of Dark Academia.

To that end, I think The Centre might be something of a bad example of the genre, or perhaps a good example of the limits of the genre classification. It did not seem to trade much in the tropes and cliches my — admittedly limited — knowledge of the genre led me to expect. After all, the main character, Anisa, only spends a sum total of twenty days at the school (she learns German, then later Russian), and she only speaks with one other person (her mentor) while she’s there. So we’ve immediately wiped away all of the Mean Girls style “lunchroom” politics which seem to drive the plot in really any book with a school (magic or otherwise).

Where I think this book actually does resemble other books in its genre is in its thematic focus on wealth and privilege. Anisa comes from a wealthy Pakistani family, but lives in London where any inherited (and earned) social or real capital is essentially zero because of her race and gender. She lives comfortably but not extravagantly, is somewhat underemployed, and is looking for an edge which will catapult her into a more prominent place in society.

How the school actually works is obviously the main draw of the book, but as we slowly get closer and closer to that big reveal, we confront a myriad situations which highlight conflicting identities, some of which I didn’t always feel Anisa took the right way forward, and other times I could recognize that there really was no “right way forward”. And let me be clear, that the protagonist did not always behave in the way I felt they should is a feature of the book and not a bug. Everyone brings their own history and viewpoint to a situation, in The Centre I felt I truly got to experience things from another point of view, and it brought up a good many things I never thought to question.

Towards the end of the novel, Anisa travels to Dheli with her mentor and friend (and possibly more than friend?) Shiba. Here again we’re plunged into a whole other culture with different traditions and history. I had basically zero knowledge of the historical relationship between India and Pakistan so I took a little time while reading to google some of the historical figures and events mentioned and while I feel it enriched my experience of the book, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary. Siddiqi’s prose are nuanced and subtle when it makes sense to be, but blessedly direct during parts when it matters.

My only real critique of the novel was the end (this seems to be happening a lot lately). Without spoiling things too much, the book felt like it ended with the character resolute to take some action, but it was not really clear what that action would be. I’m all for ambiguous endings, but I think this was somehow the wrong kind of ambiguity to end with.

Give The Centre a Read?

I would say yes. The main premise — unraveling the secret of a language school that will teach fluency in ten days — is incredibly compelling and I felt the storytelling on that front was executed more or less flawlessly. But where I really felt myself enjoying the book was in its exploration of themes surrounding identity, and how the book was able to highlight that supposedly “flawed” choices may not be flawed at all when looked at from a different point of view.

I always enjoy learning a little history and was happy I got — but was not required — to do so here. My only real critique was with the ending which succeeded in providing an ambiguous conclusion, but for my money was the wrong kind of ambiguity.

That’s all I have for this week. Has anyone read this one before? What were your thoughts? Which languages would you try to learn in ten days?

Leave your thoughts in the comments! I look forward to talking about this one!

Until next time . . .