“The beauty of the game lies in openness; the best players find ways to dance across the board like ballerinas.”
TW: Death, trauma/grief, anxiety, mentions of depression.
A brilliant murder mystery that centers around Scrabble with a local hijabi girl as a main character? A BIG FAT YES for me!
Queen of the Tiles follows the story of Najwa Bakri, who returns to her first Scrabble competition a year after losing her best friend. Competing in the Scrabble competition may not be the best idea for her, not when it was the same competition where the said best friend, Trina Low, died unexpectedly. With Trina no longer around to be crowned the Scrabble Queen, Najwa wants more than nothing to gain the title herself, only to honour her best friend.
What starts as a fierce competition filled with exceptional words and the thirst for the throne, immediately turns into a cruel game when Trina's inactive Instagram starts posting again. Cryptic messages and words are posted, hinting that Trina's death may not be an unfortunate circumstance after all. Perhaps there was a murderer, and the person is among the competitors.
I like the fact that each chapter in this book starts with a word and its meaning to describe the chapter—mind you, these words are difficult ones too and I have never heard of most of them. This element also directly reflects the main character, Najwa, who loves the meaning of the words she uses. It's safe to say that my vocabulary is very limited, and I had fun learning new words from this book.
This book reminds me of Pretty Little Liars, although almost the entire premise is different. It's a perfect example of obsessing over pretty people, toxic relationships and people you cannot trust. You cannot trust anyone in Queen of the Tiles, not even Najwa herself because her trauma caused her to forget the events happening on the day of Trina's death. With her memory of the day hazy, it was difficult to determine the truth.
“Our grief may have different symptoms, but deep down it's the same disease after all.”
Queen of the Tiles talks about grief of losing a person dear to you and learning to find your own worth. It exposes readers to toxic relationships as well, where one side overshadows the other, and how destructive this can be to someone. I find myself unable to put down this book, eager for Najwa to solve the mystery of Trina's death. I was awestruck by how brilliantly Najwa swims through this menacing game, how quick she is to figure out the clues and cryptic messages. Albeit the way the 'culprit' was captured felt rather cliche, I still think this book concludes itself pretty well.
If you are into murder mystery with a lot of drama, and a dash of nerdiness to it (in a good way!), please get yourself to pre-order Queen of the Tiles right now! Many thanks to Pansing for sending me the ARC of Queen of the Tiles. This book is set to be published on April 19th 2022, and you do not want to miss it.
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