I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on 4/19/22
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 301
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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CATALYST
13 points
noun: a substance that speeds up a reaction without itself changing

When Najwa Bakri walks into her first Scrabble competition since her best friend’s death, it’s with the intention to heal and move on with her life. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to choose the very same competition where said best friend, Trina Low, died. It might be even though Najwa’s trying to change, she’s not ready to give up Trina just yet.

But the same can’t be said for all the other competitors. With Trina, the Scrabble Queen herself, gone, the throne is empty, and her friends are eager to be the next reigning champion. All’s fair in love and Scrabble, but all bets are off when Trina’s formerly inactive Instagram starts posting again, with cryptic messages suggesting that maybe Trina’s death wasn’t as straightforward as everyone thought. And maybe someone at the competition had something to do with it.

As secrets are revealed and the true colors of her friends are shown, it’s up to Najwa to find out who’s behind these mysterious posts—not just to save Trina’s memory, but to save herself.

Short and Sweet Review

Trina was great at scrabble, she was Queen of the Tiles, until she dies during a competition. Now Najwa is back to the world of scrabble competitions, she’s been staying away since her best friends death. Everyone at the competition is trying to become the new king or queen, but things start to get strange when Trina’s instagram page starts to post mysterious messages that may indicate that Trina was murdered. Najwa wants to find out who could be behind Trina’s death and its not easy when the other competitors either loved or hated Trina.

This book takes place at a scrabble competition over the course of three days. Najwa is back and so are the memories of Trina. There’s a lot of competitors that Najwa is familiar with especially Mark, Trina’s ex. After seeing all of the mysterious posts on instagram Najwa and Mark team up to try to figure out who is behind everything. They even think back to the last competition where Trina died and interview everyone there.

There were moments I liked in the book especially seeing Najwa compete, there’s a lot I didn’t know about scrabble the book almost makes me want to go out and buy it. I also learned a lot of new words. I love mysteries and this was a good one I didn’t know who the culprit could be, but my problem was Najwa’s detective skills she was quick to hop on a lead and then go accusing people and that’s one thing I can’t stand, accusations without proof. Najwa was a relatable character she struggles with anxiety but she gets through it. Najwa is smart and in the end she did a good job of figuring out what was going on.

This was a good book it kind of fell short in the aspects of detective work, but I did like the whole scrabble competition and seeing Najwa work through most of the things she’s been avoiding since Trina died.