{"id":12987,"date":"2022-05-17T10:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=12987"},"modified":"2022-05-17T06:24:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T11:24:03","slug":"the-death-of-the-queen-of-the-tiles-was-no-accident-by-hanna-alkaf-ya-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=12987","title":{"rendered":"The death of the QUEEN OF THE TILES was no accident?! by Hanna Alkaf (YA book review)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"12995\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=12995\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?fit=596%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"596,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?fit=596%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?resize=298%2C450&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"book cover of Queen of the Tiles, by Hanna Alkaf. Published by Salaam Reads\/Simon &amp; Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com\" class=\"wp-image-12995\" width=\"298\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?w=596&amp;ssl=1 596w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/queen-of-the-tiles-9781534494558_xlg.jpg?resize=99%2C150&amp;ssl=1 99w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Same tournament, <br>same competitors, <br>who wished her dead? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe making her re-entry into the cutthroat world of teen <a href=\"https:\/\/scrabble.hasbro.com\/en-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Scrabble<\/a> competition at this venue was a mistake. But after a lonely year, coming to the last place that Najwa saw her best friend Trina alive seems fitting somehow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trina&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scrabbleplayers.org\/w\/Competitive_SCRABBLE_play\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gameplay was stunningly brilliant,<\/a> her popularity off the charts &#8211; why the wealthy girl befriended quiet Najwa when she changed schools was a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone (else) is here at the Malaysian hotel &#8211; Trina&#8217;s on-and-off boyfriend Mark, socially inept Josh, fidgety Emily (cheating scandal, yah), Singapore Ben and his hover-mother, Yasmin who knew Trina as a child\u2026 plus two annoying young players making a tribute documentary about Trina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Najwa&#8217;s roommate this weekend is Puteri,  Mark&#8217;s ex-girlfriend before Trina &#8211; no happy late-night chatfests with her fellow hijabi this weekend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Trina&#8217;s dormant Instagram account suddenly posts Scrabble tile photos that spell out clues, Najwa and companions begin wondering if Trina&#8217;s death during her final game with Josh was really accidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pushing past grief and panic attacks, Najwa wants to win the tournament in memory of her best friend and find answers, even if asking questions puts her in danger, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trina was &#8220;easy to love and easy to hate&#8221; &#8211; which emotion led to her demise? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peppered with high-scoring Scrabble words, definitions, and anagrams, Najwa&#8217;s journey to win this tournament as she recreates Trina&#8217;s last moments makes for a high-stakes mystery!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s your favorite word game? <br>**kmm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>: Queen of the Tiles \/ Hanna Alkaf. Salaam Reads\/Simon &amp; Schuster, 2022. [<a href=\"https:\/\/hannaalkaf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">author site<\/a>] [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Queen-of-the-Tiles\/Hanna-Alkaf\/9781534494558\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">publisher site<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Same tournament, same competitors, who wished her dead? Maybe making her re-entry into the cutthroat world of teen Scrabble competition at this venue was a mistake. But after a lonely year, coming to the last place that Najwa saw her best friend Trina alive seems fitting somehow. Trina&#8217;s gameplay was stunningly brilliant, her popularity off [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,19,51],"tags":[90,22,7,4,11,45,20,5,70,37,18,40,44,13,43,39,360,49,184,31,15,21,57,35],"class_list":["post-12987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diverse-books","category-fiction","category-mystery","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-communication","tag-competition","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-games","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-malaysia","tag-memories","tag-mothers","tag-non-us-author","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-sisters","tag-surprises"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12987"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13001,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12987\/revisions\/13001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}