A review by sadys_shelves
Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

4.0

This was a phenomenal read. It isn’t often that I read a cozy mystery and think “man I’d like to reread that”- but that’s exactly what happened with Queen of the Tiles. Hanna Alkaf delivered a YA whodunit with an intriguing and diverse cast of characters. QotT kept you guessing til the end and working on the clues the whole way.

As a scrabble and mystery lover this book practically jumped into my hands. The setting of a YA scrabble tournament in Kuala Lumpur was too good to pass by. The well rounded cast of characters provided a lot of much needed representation to the YA world There was Malaysian rep, non-binary rep, Muslim rep and of course nerdy/geek rep.

I love a book that offers a vocabulary expansion and was delighted to find many new words and meanings woven seemlessly, an intentionally through the pages of each chapter.

Hanna Alkaf won extra points with Queen of the Tiles by also sensitively addressing and making use of topics of grief, anxiety, attachment and anger issues without overwhelming the plot OR the reader. The excitement of the tournament and the intrigue provided by the “texting ghost” and gave just the right amount of suspense. I honestly couldn’t put it down.