Here, people play Scrabble as a game of probabilities and cunning strategies, a math problem to be solved. The tournament circuit is a different world. Most people probably barely even think of Scrabble at all, and the sets they do get wind up gathering dust in the very backs of shelves and cupboards, forsaken in favor of games like Snakes & Ladders or Monopoly or Clue or Twister. Most people play casual games of Scrabble in their living rooms, squabbling good-naturedly for points over sets their parents bought them in the hopes that it would be “educational.” ExcerptĬhapter One CHAPTER ONE Friday, NovemOne Year Later And maybe someone at the competition had something to do with it.Īs secrets are revealed and the true colors of her friends are shown, it’s up to Najwa to find out who’s behind these mysterious posts-not just to save Trina’s memory, but to save herself. All’s fair in love and Scrabble, but all bets are off when Trina’s formerly inactive Instagram starts posting again, with cryptic messages suggesting that maybe Trina’s death wasn’t as straightforward as everyone thought. With Trina, the Scrabble Queen herself, gone, the throne is empty, and her friends are eager to be the next reigning champion. It seems that even though Najwa is trying to change, she’s not ready to give up Trina just yet.īut the same can’t be said for all the other competitors. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to choose the very same competition where said best friend, Trina Low, died. When Najwa Bakri walks into her first Scrabble competition since her best friend’s death, it’s with the intention to heal and move on with her life. Noun: a substance that speeds up a reaction without itself changing

They Wish They Were Us meets The Queen’s Gambit in this “stunning…unforgettable” ( Publishers Weekly) thriller set in the world of competitive Scrabble, where a teen girl is forced to investigate the mysterious death of her best friend when her Instagram comes back to life with cryptic posts and messages.

Queen of the tiles hanna alkaf