Queen of Tiles: Scrabble, murder, and the complexities of grief

Queen of Tiles was first gifted to my sister, but after reading the first chapter, she deemed it to eerie and "scary". After a few months of sitting on the shelf, I decided to give the book a try. After all, it did seem somewhat interesting in it's concept. After reading the book in two nights, my thoughts were validated. Let's talk about Queen of Tiles!

Queen of Tiles by Hanna Alkaf is a book about a girl named Najwa, who is coping with the death of her best friend, Trina who was known as a powerful Scrabble player and deemed herself the Queen of Tiles. A year after Trina's death, Najwa goes back to Scrabble and competes in a weekend tournament to protect Trina's legacy, but ends up getting wrapped up in the mystery of her death when her Instagram starts posting clues that Trina's murder wasn't coincidental. 

The plot of Queen of Tiles drew me in immediately with the eerie first chapter told in the first person, recounting Trina's death. The plot further unfolds with the secrets of Trina's last day of life involving some familiar faces, the Tweedles and their documentary (which is definitely one of the highlights of this book along with the extensive Scrabble games), the stakes heightening as people start to get hurt and then at the end, when Najwa finds the culprit behind the Instagram posts and figures out that Trina's murder wasn't regicide, but the Instagram posts were very intentionally made by someone close to Trina. The plot twist at the end was completely unexpected, and the story of this book is very suspenseful and will surprise you at every turn. 

The characters are also the soul of this book. Najwa, the main character, is for sure a standout. Her feelings of grief were explored very much through the book and that made her more of a relatable and raw character. The impacts of Trina's loss on her were evident, and I loved how the author incorporated therapy into her memories. Her desire to protect her friend's legacy was realistic, and her realizing more about Trina and her own nature in the end was an important realization for her to make. 

The best friend of Najwa, Trina or the Queen of Tiles, was an interesting character to posthumously explore. A very interesting part of the book is when Puteri contrasts her relationship with Mark to Najwa's relationship with Trina, saying that it is easy to slip into the role of being "needed" by a person who seems to have it all. Trina was a complex person, and her dynamic with Najwa was interesting. Trina was the friend who was always in the spotlight and had the attention and allure of everyone while Najwa was her "sidekick" essentially. That passage begs the questions of: Did Trina's death influence how Najwa chose to view Trina? Was Najwa's complacency in their friendship what motivated Trina to continue to take advantage of others? 

Another friend of Trina is Yasmine, who is an interesting character to unpack the motivations of. Spoiler alert, Yasmine is behind the Instagram posts but not the murder of Trina (that was due to one to many pills to treat some stomach issues). Yasmine felt abandoned by Trina, so she had done all of the things that she believed would help her win the Scrabble tournament. I believe that I can understand Yasmine's betrayal by Trina and her spite towards Najwa, but her actions have consequences and she took her desire to win way too far. 

The other supporting characters like Ben, Emily and Shuba were all enjoyable to watch as it seems like everyone in this particular ensemble of side characters were suspected of Trina's murder and all of them played a teensy role in her ultimate demise. Puteri is also a gem. 

I would recommend Queen of Tiles to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries and suspenseful stories, with the perfect amount of word nerd vibes. This book is definitely a rollercoaster and personally, I enjoyed it a lot.

I hope you guys enjoyed  this post and were able to maybe take away something from this. If you are interested (or want to), make sure to share this post or follow me (if you have a blog). Sending everyone well wishes!

Ciao, 

Miki ✌🏾