Queen of the Tiles

by Hanna Alkaf

This novel is set during the course of a weekend at a Scrabble tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Most of the competitors play a game of probabilities where words are just points to be scored, but 16 year old Najwa is fascinated by the words themselves. The author does a wonderful job of exploring Najwa’s way of thinking, her love of words and their definitions. Najwa has spent the last year trying to come to terms with the sudden death of her best friend, Trina, at the previous year’s tournament. This time she encounters an unsettling mystery: who is posting from Trina’s instagram account, and could she have been murdered? A thoughtful novel about the many ways we cope with loss and grief.