Reviews with content warning for Grief - Queen of the Tiles

We start off with a third person point of view of the last scrabble match that Trina, the titular queen, ever played. She dropped dead right on the board. The story then switches to a first person point of view of Trina’s best friend Najwa who’s still coping with her death a year later. In hopes of closure, Najwa goes back to the Scrabble tournament and to earn her friend’s title. Yet, not long after the games start, someone starts posting on Trina’s Instagram account-playing some mind games with Najwa and the rest of the players.

Nadjwa’s point of view is perfect, dark and desperate yet still has some teenage snark to make her both a realistic character and one we can root for. While she is trying to move past the grief, she also falls back into some unhealthy habits. She tries to reconnect with friends and rivals but also can lash out, clinging onto her friendship with Trina. We also see how Trina and Nadjaw’s relationship was, how it started, and slowly see Nadjaw come to grips with her relationship with her old best friend once and for all by the end in a cathartic way, like the first deep breath you can take after panicking.

I do have some issues with the plot, like the fact that we have like thirty teenagers walking around yet not that many adults supervising them. Even without the mysterious death, I’m surprised there’s not at least one adult on each floor of this hotel, making sure there’s no teenage shenanigans going on. Of course, it would be hard for Najwa to investigate Trina’s death with so many adults around. Especially with some of the things Najwa discovers her fellow players are willing to do to win. Also never explained some Scrabble tournament rules like why some words are not allowed in Scrabble. I tried to google it and it seems like proper nouns are not allowed, but still not sure about the reason for other words. Yet still, I was eager to learn, along with Nadjwa, if Trina’s death was planned and see Nadjwa’s emotional journey hoping she’d find some closure, so these were relatively easy to overlook.

I certainly recommend this for readers who want to read a dark competition story but see an emotional journey about grief and relationships. On a lighter note, I’m rather tempted to get back to Words with Friends after reading this book.

Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Loved this one! This book was unputdownable and it kept me guessing until the very end. I especially enjoyed all of the exploration of strategizing behind Scrabble.

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notapenguin's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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hue's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I've never been a fan of mysteries that have a social media twist to them. It just sort of makes it meh for me. It also read a bit "too YA" at times to such degree I wanted to roll my eyes. It was slightly overwritten, and I didn't find the characters interesting enough to follow along.

But really it isn't a bad book by any means. It's just not for me.

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mycarefulcardinal's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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mizreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I'd give the first third of this 5 stars. Every chapter I was crying—the prose was so lovely and the way Alkaf writes really grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you face-first into a world of scrabble tiles and grief. It was such a fantastic read for me, dealing with mental health and trauma and grief, and the love of a seemingly simple, niche thing. I have a few issues with how some parts seem to have been flipped somehow, and I think the prose at the last third didn't drive into me the same way the first third did, but I still absolutely love and adore this book, especially as a SEAsian 💙 I'm so happy this took place in Malaysia itself—I could feel myself taking inspiration from the places I've been in SEAsia rather than the US, which isn't something I can say for a lot of the books I've read recently.

Content Warnings

olive_lol's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A weekend Scrabble tournament is a unique yet effective setting for a mystery novel. The main thing that stood out to me with this book was the way Scrabble was intertwined with every aspect of it, even the narration.

I thought Najwa was an interesting character and detective in the way she interacts with both her past and her grief. However, I wish we had gotten to know the other characters better before the mystery really kicked off, which would have helped me get more invested. Most characters have another side that slowly (or quickly, for some) gets revealed over the course of the story.

As for the ending,

I found it surprisingly satisfying for a muder mystery with no real killer. I liked that the idea of Trina’s death being an accident was presented as a real option from the beginning and not swept to the side for the sake of shocking the reader.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Scrabble, explorations of grief, and mysteries with unique settings.

Content Warnings

rinyy's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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