Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Queen of the Tiles

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

9 reviews

piecesofamber's review against another edition

3.5

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

onegalonelife27's review against another edition

3.75

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The queen is dead, long live the queen.

Okay, I had to say that, it’s too hard to resist. Onto the review!

We start off with a third person point of view of the last scrabble match that Trina, the titular queen, ever played. She dropped dead right on the board. The story then switches to a first person point of view of Trina’s best friend Najwa who’s still coping with her death a year later. In hopes of closure, Najwa goes back to the Scrabble tournament and to earn her friend’s title. Yet, not long after the games start, someone starts posting on Trina’s Instagram account-playing some mind games with Najwa and the rest of the players.

Nadjwa’s point of view is perfect, dark and desperate yet still has some teenage snark to make her both a realistic character and one we can root for. While she is trying to move past the grief, she also falls back into some unhealthy habits. She tries to reconnect with friends and rivals but also can lash out, clinging onto her friendship with Trina. We also see how Trina and Nadjaw’s relationship was, how it started, and slowly see Nadjaw come to grips with her relationship with her old best friend once and for all by the end in a cathartic way, like the first deep breath you can take after panicking.

I do have some issues with the plot, like the fact that we have like thirty teenagers walking around yet not that many adults supervising them. Even without the mysterious death, I’m surprised there’s not at least one adult on each floor of this hotel, making sure there’s no teenage shenanigans going on. Of course, it would be hard for Najwa to investigate Trina’s death with so many adults around. Especially with some of the things Najwa discovers her fellow players are willing to do to win. Also never explained some Scrabble tournament rules like why some words are not allowed in Scrabble. I tried to google it and it seems like proper nouns are not allowed, but still not sure about the reason for other words. Yet still, I was eager to learn, along with Nadjwa, if Trina’s death was planned and see Nadjwa’s emotional journey hoping she’d find some closure, so these were relatively easy to overlook.

I certainly recommend this for readers who want to read a dark competition story but see an emotional journey about grief and relationships. On a lighter note, I’m rather tempted to get back to Words with Friends after reading this book.

Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

4.5

emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Loved this one! This book was unputdownable and it kept me guessing until the very end. I especially enjoyed all of the exploration of strategizing behind Scrabble.

Content Warnings

mycarefulcardinal's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

mizreads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'd give the first third of this 5 stars. Every chapter I was crying—the prose was so lovely and the way Alkaf writes really grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you face-first into a world of scrabble tiles and grief. It was such a fantastic read for me, dealing with mental health and trauma and grief, and the love of a seemingly simple, niche thing. I have a few issues with how some parts seem to have been flipped somehow, and I think the prose at the last third didn't drive into me the same way the first third did, but I still absolutely love and adore this book, especially as a SEAsian 💙 I'm so happy this took place in Malaysia itself—I could feel myself taking inspiration from the places I've been in SEAsia rather than the US, which isn't something I can say for a lot of the books I've read recently.

Content Warnings

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Another great book by Hanna Alkaf! I didn't love it as much as "the girl and the ghost" by the same author but still a solid read. I never would've thought I would enjoy a book about Scrabble but here we are!
Loved the diversity of characters and how it does represent Malaysia/ Singapore/Indonesia region super well.
It shows grief, how vulnerable/dependant people can be, and how one person can really affect a lot of people's lives both in life and in death.

Content Warnings