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visorforavisor's reviews
32 reviews
Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Oh, this was a good one.
Queen of the Tiles was just what I needed to get me back into mystery. A murder story set at a Scrabble tournament in Malaysia. Najwa was the perfect hero: unsure of her own memory, desperately devoted to deceased best friend Trina Low, and sharply intelligent. The narration’s opinions on Mark, Josh, Puteri, Yasmin, Shuba, Singapore Ben, and everyone else were fantastic fun to read, and the entire thing felt so real.
This was an absolute page-turning, couldn’t-put-it-down, heart-pounding book. Hanna Alkaf is a brilliant writer.
Queen of the Tiles was just what I needed to get me back into mystery. A murder story set at a Scrabble tournament in Malaysia. Najwa was the perfect hero: unsure of her own memory, desperately devoted to deceased best friend Trina Low, and sharply intelligent. The narration’s opinions on Mark, Josh, Puteri, Yasmin, Shuba, Singapore Ben, and everyone else were fantastic fun to read, and the entire thing felt so real.
This was an absolute page-turning, couldn’t-put-it-down, heart-pounding book. Hanna Alkaf is a brilliant writer.
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-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? No
5.0
I don’t know if I can ever adequately express how perfect this book is. I was diagnosed autistic at 16 and am now 18, well beyond the intended age range for A Kind of Spark.
The thing is, though, I was once an autistic 11-year-old. Even if I didn’t know it, I was that. And to see the bullying I received actually represented, and presented as bad, and to see the way that neurotypicals are just so totally unreasonable so much of the time, and… I cried.
Keedie saying that her and Addie’s autism is “mild because we make it so”, and that it’s not mild to them, is so powerful and true, especially for someone like me who has been masking for their entire life (as in, nobody has ever seen my base level, so my base level is assumed to be much more normal than it is). I loved the discussion of Keedie’s difficulties at university, and the way that comment sections tend to respons when online vloggers and the like put up a video with an autistic family member. I thought that the parallels the book posed between witch trials and the sectioning of autistic people were very poignant and accurate.
And unreasonable teachers. Oh yeah, I’ve had a few. They were like Ms Murphy.
Books like this will not only teach autistic and otherwise neurodivergent 11-year-olds that they are the heroes of stories, but will also teach neurotypical 11-year-olds that autistics are heroes. Elle McNicoll and all of the authors like her are doing wonderful things for the next generation of kids like me.
The thing is, though, I was once an autistic 11-year-old. Even if I didn’t know it, I was that. And to see the bullying I received actually represented, and presented as bad, and to see the way that neurotypicals are just so totally unreasonable so much of the time, and… I cried.
Keedie saying that her and Addie’s autism is “mild because we make it so”, and that it’s not mild to them, is so powerful and true, especially for someone like me who has been masking for their entire life (as in, nobody has ever seen my base level, so my base level is assumed to be much more normal than it is). I loved the discussion of Keedie’s difficulties at university, and the way that comment sections tend to respons when online vloggers and the like put up a video with an autistic family member. I thought that the parallels the book posed between witch trials and the sectioning of autistic people were very poignant and accurate.
And unreasonable teachers. Oh yeah, I’ve had a few. They were like Ms Murphy.
Books like this will not only teach autistic and otherwise neurodivergent 11-year-olds that they are the heroes of stories, but will also teach neurotypical 11-year-olds that autistics are heroes. Elle McNicoll and all of the authors like her are doing wonderful things for the next generation of kids like me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism
There is an ableist slur, uncensored, in the context of a bully using it.