Since her death, Najwa has distanced herself from the Scrabble world, but she finds herself going back to claim Trina’s former title, that of the Queen of the Tiles.

Trina Low died during the previous year’s World Warrior Weekend. She is spectacular she attracts spectacle.” “Every player knows that words can be twisted to suit your purpose, if the board allows it, and Trina knows this better than most. Najwa Bakri, our narrator, is taking part in this tournament, the first one she’s done since the very sudden death of her best friend. The story definitely has some strong The Queen’s Gambit vibes and the author depicts the various Scrabble games in a really fun and dynamic way (so that they are anything but boring) and we can see just how devoted and ambitious some of the competitors are. Additionally, our lead is Muslim, and we also get a very casual non-binary rep with Shuba.

This tournament takes place in a hotel in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, a setting that, you must admit, we don’t get to see often in YA. Similarly to a lot of these books, Queen of the Tiles takes place in a ‘confined’ setting, but rather than going for the usual prep school/high school type of backdrop, Hanna Alkaf freshens things up by having her story take place during the World Warrior Weekend, an annual Scrabble competition. Queen of the Tiles is an entertaining mystery romp that belongs to that subgenre of YA books that combines a whodunnit type of storyline with the kind of teen dynamics at play in Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. “But life, like Scrabble, is like that-you get the rack you get, and you just have to figure out how to make do.”

Hanna alkaf queen of the tiles