Check and Mate: Book Review

“In the Fyre Festival reenactment that is my life, I should probably not find anything surprising. But even I cannot believe—simply cannot believe, that I began playing chess three weeks ago, and I’m already involved in drama.”

Pg. 107

Chess is Cool Now

So the premise of the story is that Mallory Greenleaf was a high school student and a rising chess player. Then, one day, she just stopped playing completely. Refused to check the king.

Fast forward four years, Mallory has graduated high school is working at a auto garage, and is trying to keep her family afloat. Her chronically ill mother can’t work at the moment, and her two younger sisters Darcy and Sabrina are in their dramatic tween/teen years and they keep Mallory plenty busy.

She thinks she’s on the fast track for a monotonous life for the never-ending pile of bills and roller derby club fees, until one day, her best friend Easton has her play in a chess tournament (it’s for charity!!). That day changes her life forever, for the first player she plays in the tournament is none other than Nolan Sawyer, the world’s best chess player at only 20 years old. And even after years of not playing, Mallory beats him. Nolan Sawyer. The best chess player in the world.

Naturally, after she does, she flees.

What happens next is 320 pages of chess lingo, will they/won’t they, and behind the scenes drama of Mallory’s teetering life.

My Million Dollar Thoughts

Two things you should know about me is that I’m a pretty forgiving rater and that I only rate in whole stars (because Goodreads won’t do half stars and even though StoryGraphs does it’s too late too much data is just in whole stars and there’s no going back). With that out of the way…

TLDR Rating: 5/5 stars! Definitely would recommend to others.

I just found it to be a refreshing young adult novel. Were there tons of Gen Z lingo and references? Yes. Were the characters acting in a way that I as a freshly seasoned adult found cringe and childish? Of course! Were there moments where I was like “Child pls call your mom or your guardian or an actual adult”? Absolutely.

But it’s all part of the genre! Hard to hate the book for writing for its target audience.

I found Mallory’s character to be lovable and her flaws were reasonable. So much has happened in her life that made her actions understandable. Were they the right moves? Probably not, but she’s only 18, which is an age not exactly known for making wise decisions. I liked her growth over the course of the story and the inner monologues to hear her conflicted feelings only gave me more reasons to like her and feel for her.

Nolan was a quiet and brooding character for most of the story, but as the layers were peeled back, he started to open up and I couldn’t help but find him lovable and cute. He’s got this interesting characterization where he tries to be very direct in his communication, and then there are times where his what he does and the reason he does it seem… hidden? Very much like chess strategy, to be honest. The moves he plays out don’t appear until he’s about to say check mate. His intentions are always good (in my opinion), but it does create conflict throughout the story.

Mallory’s family had their lovable moments, but in typical teen/tween fashion, they were also brats. I found myself frustrated on Mallory’s behalf and grew tired of their behavior.

Obviously, since this is YA, there wasn’t any smut, all fade to black. But, Hazelwood does mention sex and a teenager’s perspective on it, which I found refreshing. YA tends to gloss over something that is very prevalent in a teenager’s life, and so this was something that I hadn’t read before in a YA novel and, like I said, I enjoyed the change. It didn’t feel “taboo” or strange that it was implied in the story, it was just… a part of their life.

What took control of the book was the plot regarding chess. Which, I didn’t mind. While I had no clue what they were talking about half the time, Hazelwood made the chess play engaging and intriguing, something that I wouldn’t expect since I don’t play chess at all. I think the romance took the backseat because of this, but it was in the soft moments, the focus that Nolan and Mallory had when they spoke or talked about chess that made you feel the sparks fly.

My main gripes for this book were that it was short, only about 340 pages, and that a lot of the conflict revealed itself quickly and then resolved itself even faster than it appeared. Not a huge fan of that or for sit-down conversations where suddenly, now that everyone is communicating, things are peachy. To me, that sort of makes the conflict feel pointless, and it just made me wish the book was longer so we could get more time for the issues to boil and simmer.

But, I don’t think these issues deterred me enough to give this book a worse rating. I really did enjoy it while reading and feel that the positives outweighed the negatives.

Once I Make My Move, Then You’re Free to Like and Follow

Overall, I had fun reading this book. It’s a quick read that didn’t take up much brainpower, and I found myself wanting to sit and read the whole thing so that I could find out what happens next. Ali Hazelwood’s books never fail to capture my attention, and this was no exception. An added plus, I thought the cover art was adorable.

But! Those are my thoughts on the young adult novel, Check and Mate. Best place to buy it is at your local bookstore, but if you can’t do that, then I’m pretty sure it’s sold in most big box stores (just… don’t buy it off Amazon. LOL).

That’s all I have for today! Thanks for reading, and if you’re interested in more content made by me, please show your support on this post, or check out my YouTube channel. Thanks again, and hope y’all have a great day! 😀 🫰

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