all hail the queen
Starting on Queen of the Tiles was similar to reading The Weight of Our Sky for me - I really had to resist sending messages to Hanna every few pages. I think this might be what I liked about fanfic, being able to open up a conversation with the creator right then and there. But this isn't a fic, and so I had to resist, even though there were many times I wanted to just text, "ok how dare you make me tear up in the train."
This story is a mystery, and I don't read enough mysteries, nor do I generally like mysteries enough to really comment on whether or not it works as one. All I can say is, (1) I knew who did it from the moment they appeared on page, and (2) I enjoyed reading this book anyway, because the protagonist's journey towards understanding is more important. I found this book really difficult to put down, which is a good thing, right? So I'm just going to list down my nitpicks, as well as the things I liked.
maybe minor spoilers below? Nothing very significant, lah.
See, the thing is, this story is centered on this inter-school Scrabble tournament. At least, I imagined it's the inter-school tournament, although no school names are mentioned at all, and there don't seem to be teacher/chaperones for any of the away games, which didn't cross my mind at all when I was reading, but now that I think of it... hmm. Thing is, I was kind of pushed to enter a couple of these competitions back in high school. I don't remember if it's really called an interschool tournament, or if it was some kind of Youth Championship thing, it was that long ago. I do remember that my parents drove me to the competition, and our teacher registered us but left immediately. We wore school uniforms at the tournament.
In Queen of the Tiles, there didn't seem to be any teacher around, or mention of which kids went to which school (I assume that Najwa and Trina went to the same school). They didn't wear uniforms during the tournament, and Trina was known to wear very short skirts and very tight tops. Which isn't a bad thing, and works well visually - I can easily imagine Trina unnerving her opponents the way Beth Harmon does in The Queen's Gambit - but at the same time, made me wonder, boleh ke? After all, we live in a country where in a lot of official situations, even wearing jeans can be seen as inappropriate/against the dress code. (Also, Trina's coloured hair? Definitely against Malaysian school dress codes, so how old are these kids supposed to be again??)
Another thing that bugged me was the fact that Najwa made references to the Planeteers and Jejak Kasih in her narration, and I liked those references because they were from my childhood, but I'm pretty sure most kids these day don't know who the Planeteers or what Jejak Kasih is?
Like I said, little nitpicks. These things don't really matter that much, and probably won't bother the majority of readers, but they pull me out of the story, just a bit.
The fact that I was pulled out, though, meant that I was really into the story. And I wasn't so sure I would be, when I started out.
I enjoyed Scrabble as a kid, but the two days I had to play competitively managed to kill my love for the game. I hate games when they're too competitive - my favourite games tend to be stuff like Animal Crossing which is totally chill, or Dungeons and Dragons which is collaborative rather than competitive, or Cards Against Humanity where the points don't really matter because it's all about the laughs. Being forced to compete tainted the game for me, and now word games in general just don't bring me the same level of joy they used to. So, you can imagine my apprehension when I found out that this book is not only a mystery (a genre I'm not too keen on), but also a mystery with the very same Scrabble tournament (or something inspired by those tournaments) as the setting.
And yet, I resented every moment I had to put this book down, even for the short moment when I had to take off my mask to eat breakfast (while reading).
It wasn't the mystery that was so compelling to me - like I said, I figured it out pretty early. It was the characters. Najwa Bakri is depressed, still grieving the loss of her best friend Trina (not a spoiler; this is established very early on). And I guess this is what pulled me in - her grief. It took her over so completely, and though I didn't have the privilege of staying in bed for a year, I understood that so well. A year after Trina died, Najwa was still sending her best friend DMs on Instagram, the way I still occasionally posted updates and messages in the private tumblr that only my sister and me had access to. And because of this thing I shared with Najwa, I felt like I understood why winning this tournament mattered so much to her. And later on, when the mysterious messages started to appear, I understood her drive to seek the truth about what happened.
The treatment of her depression/anxiety was also spot-on, but this isn't surprising, since the way Hanna treated Melati's OCD in The Weight of Our Sky was as good. The cloud/cobwebs in Najwa's head begin to clear a little as she progressed through the tournament - because she was remembering the person she used to be, yes, but I think also because she was learning to be the person she is when she isn't in Trina's shadow. And this is the other thing about this book that I think was depicted so well - a kind of toxic friendship, where one person is too dependent on the other. I don't want to talk about it too much as that would be spoiling the story, but Najwa made some realisations that also made me rethink some of the friendships during my teenage years. I might make a spoiler post on Dreamwidth at some point, to think about this more. Or I might not. Ikut mood.
I loved how Najwa loved the game so much she thought in Scrabble words, and all the wordplay. I liked the cast of characters - the back stories, the idea of these word nerds who meet up every year for tournaments (having only competed for one year, I knew nobody. And I never bothered befriending anyone, lol.) I liked the inclusion of no-nonsense Shuba with their name tag that had "they/them" scribbled on it, never mind that that wouldn't be allowed in this country. Let us dream! I like the distinct personalities and voices of these kids - especially the girls. I could hear them so clearly in my head as I read, and this doesn't happen often for me. And, I loved the hopeful ending for a particular friendship that I was rooting for from the start.
If I were to talk to you about this book, I would probably go on and on about my nitpicks. But, to be honest? 9/10 would absolutely recommend, to any YA fan.
Stay safe!