I had been excited for this one ever since I found it while scrolling on Goodreads last year. It sounded very unique since it was based around a scrabble tournament. I can’t say I have ever read a book with scrabble in it. It definitely brought back memories as my grandma would play with me and beat me, haha. She always knew the best words to play. Although there were aspects of this book I liked, there were also times I just needed more from different parts of the book.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Najwa Bakri. She has been playing in scrabble competitions for awhile now and even got her friend Trina into it too. Things didn’t go so well at the last competition a year ago when her friend mysteriously died and now someone is sending messages from her Instagram. Najwa has her work cut out to solve what is going on as well as keep her head in the game. I liked reading about how she coped with her friend’s death . Najwa is a very strong character even if she doesn’t give herself enough credit.

Because the plot deals with a mystery, there are a lot of suspects. I will say that I didn’t feel much for the other characters because there just wasn’t enough information about them. I didn’t ever really get to know them besides through small conversations which mostly had to do with Trina and the day she died. Najwa definitely had the most development with Trina right behind.

The pacing of the book is what really got to me and had me putting down the book more than picking it up. It does get faster as the book progresses but it’s hard to hang on when the beginning is slow.

Overall, this was good. There are a lot of unique qualities about it like the scrabble competition and the words throughout the book with definitions included. The mystery wasn’t a favorite but I didn’t guess the person until around the reveal so it wasn’t all bad. I think the characters could have used more development but maybe that’s just me. I would definitely give this one a try if you enjoy scrabble or are looking for a light YA mystery.

4 Stars

Queen of the Tiles takes place a year after Najwa’s best friend’s death, and centers around Najwa’s first scrabble competition since then. Najwa goes so she can move on from the past, but when cryptic social media messages start posting from Trina’s account, she wants to find out what truly happened that faithful day. I can happily say that even though 2022 just happened, this book will be one of the best books for this reading year.

I’m not an avid mystery reader, but I’ve read enough of them to know when they are predictable. You can easily guess who the killer was. You can piece the clues together with no struggles at all. I can say this happily wasn’t the case here. We get hints and clues, nothing too obvious that gives the mystery away. There were times where I kept questioning who did it.

Even if you have a good mystery, tension has to be present. Without this crucial element, the mystery falls flat, and quickly the reader loses interest. In Queen of the Tiles, we don’t encounter this problem. Tension oozes off the pages and captives my attention. In every chapter, the stakes escalate, creating more suspense for the reader, compelling them to read more.

As you can tell by the synopsis and tile, this story focuses on the game of Scrabble. I found this to be a fresh and original concept. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never read a book that takes place in the middle of a scrabble competition. I love scrabble and found this to be a nice touch. In the story, scrabble words pop up innovatively besides just the tournament.

For example, all the chapters contained a scrabble word and its meaning. I’ll show down below in a quote:

PROLEGOMENON

seventeen points

noun

a preliminary discussion; introductory essay, as prefatory matter in a book; a prologue

– QUEEN OF THE TILES, HANNA ALKAF

These entries occur at the beginning of every chapter, foreshadowing what’s to come in that chapter. The one I have quoted above starts in chapter one, and of course, it reflects that it’s the beginning of the story since it’s the first chapter.

I found these little details to be nice touches helping to bring more personality to the story. There are several other instances where scrabble words play into the overarching story, and it’s such a creative way to involve something as simple as scrabble to invoke deeper meanings besides just the basic definition.

I won’t say any more about that because I don’t want to spoil anything! Now, I’ll talk about our main character, Najwa. Najwa is a Muslim MC, which isn’t seen much in the mystery genre. I’m so happy that we got this representation! It’s important to see diverse characters in not just the mystery genre but in all genres!

We follow Najwa in this story as she grapples with the grief of losing her best friend and is forced to confront all the problems revealing themselves head-on. We see how she makes rash decisions and how she is just trying to move on from Trina’s death. We can travel along with her as she reaches her peaks and downfalls. Najwa is a likable protagonist, that is just trying to move on and focus on the scrabble tournament but questions whether or not her friends are who she thought they were.

The portrayal of grief in this story is written so well. You could not only see how Najwa was dealing with Trina’s passing. We also see how the side characters were taking it. As humans, we all grieve differently, and the author captured this perfectly.

Not only did I enjoy Najwa, but the side characters were also entertaining. They each had their quirks giving them more of a personality. Many books tend to toss side characters to the backburner. Here I didn’t feel this wasn’t the case.

Overall, The Queen of Tiles created a suspenseful mystery that had me on the edge of my set. It took basic premises and enhanced them in fresh, innovative ways. The characters were enjoyable, the mystery was well crafted, and the scrabble elements added personality to the story.

Review will be up closer to release week! I adore this- Hanna Alkaf is a phenomenal writer. This book is perfect for fans of The Queen’s Gambit except it has to do with scrabble and not chess.

Najwa Bakri is attending her first competitive Scrabble Tournament since her best friend, Trina Low, died at the same tournament a year earlier. As Najwa participates in the tournament, she realizes her life is in danger and she needs to speak with those who knew and interacted with Trina a year earlier to save herself. While this was an engaging #YAMystery, when deciding what to add to our library media center collection, we avoid niche titles that our student population may have difficulty relating to at this time. Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&SchusterBooksforYoungReaders for providing the opportunity to preview this title.

I picked this e-arc up because I wanted a light, middle grade novel with relatable characters and scrabble. What I got was a mystery set amongst anger, grief, and whether you can stay true to who you are or become something else entirely (for better or worse) when tragedy strikes.

10/10, would buy for a friend.

LOVED this one so much!!! Scrabble is my absolute favorite, the mystery was fun and page-turning, all the mental health talk and rep was so great (Najwa has anxiety, PTSD, depression, and panic attacks, and she's in therapy), and it was full of wordplay, all the GENIUS wordplay. It's been awhile since I've been this engrossed in a book, gah.