កូនអុកសម្ងាត់ (The Secret Chess Piece): A Mystery Novel with Chess Reference
Book information:
Khmer Title: កូនអុកសម្ងាត់ (there’s no English translation, so I just called it “The Secret Chess Piece” in English even though it sounds lame 😒)
Author: ម៉ូលីនណា (Molinna) and រ៉េត សុដាវណ្ណ (Reth Sodavann)
Page: 310
Language: Khmer
(English) Translated version: not available
(I) bought from: International Book Center (iBC) in Phnom Penh
Genre: Mystery, romance, young adult
Mood: mysterious, emotional, funny
Pace: fast
Plot driven> Character driven
Trigger warning (minor): murder, death, gun violence, infidelity, violence, confinement
Why I read it: I was interested in the chess reference in the book
Mood while I read: 😮😲🤣😮😧😌
Who I will recommend to: Enemy-to-lover romance fan and mystery fiction lovers
Rating
Plot: 3.75/5⭐️
Character: 3.5/5⭐️
Ease of reading: Easy
Overall (not just from the above three): 3.75/5 ⭐️
Synopsis
Aida was one of the lucky people who got scholarship from Chatrang High School. However, because of the strange rules and the disappearance of her friend, she realized that it wasn’t a normal school.
Knowing that she was just one of their chess pieces in the game, Aida tried to save the students’ lives, as well as her own, while finding the truth behind the fame of this school.
“The Secret Chess Piece” (I can’t help but laugh at the English translation I gave to this book) is a mystery fiction novel. I’m a person who love mystery novel, but for some reason, I didn’t really want to buy it at first. However, when I read one of the author’s note by Molinna, I was intrigued by the phrase “… the plot, the places, the characters’ name, and their personality are based on a Cambodian game named ‘chess’”. So, I bought it immediately.
The setting
The story is set in modern day in a famous high school named “វិទ្យាល័យចត្រង្គ” (Chatrang High School). This school always provided scholarship to the poor to study. The students were divided into three classes. The highest one was ខុន (King), the middle one was ឈ្នាង (Queen), and the lowest one was គោល (Bishop). In fact, there was another lowest class called servant class (or more correctly, slave). Just like what the author said, the three classes are based on chess. As a result, I gain knowledge about chess 0.01% more (added to the 0.001% I’ve already had).
The problem I have with this setting is that it seemed like there was only one grade in the high school and it wasn’t even specified what grade it was. Was it grade 10? Or 11? Or 12? Still a big unsolved mystery in the story. It didn’t look like a real high school to me. But because this problem isn’t really related to the story that much, I don’t really mind it. At the same time, I also want to see the division. If it had been done, we would have seen the dynamic not only between the classes, but also between seniors and juniors.
The characters
In the story, there are a lot of characters, so some of whom aren’t well written. But it’s okay for the main characters (ខុនតូច Khon Tauch and អៃដា Aida) because their personality is flesh out. The story is written from Aida’s perspective, so we know a lot about her. Aida had her own clear motive and kept doing things she believed was right. Sometimes she seemed careless and stupidly brave, but it’s because she didn’t understand about the world she was thrown into yet. Once she knew what she had to do, her cleverness shined. Moreover, she is such an interesting female character. I’ve read many Khmer novels where female characters are either too polite or too attention seeking from male characters (and some are too ignorant to even care about romantic relationship). Not saying that they’re bad characters because they’re suitable for the stories they’re in. The point I’m trying to make is that Aida isn’t one of them. She’s in-between. She wasn’t too polite and she focused on her own mission, not wanting any attention from anyone. Nonetheless, sometimes she couldn’t help but got excited when seeing a handsome man right in front of her. There’re some moments in the story where I ended up thought “These teenagers are full of hormone, aren’t they?” Just to be clear, they didn’t do anything wrong. But the gaze! Aida and Khon Tauch kept staring at each other because of the aesthetic attraction even though one of them was almost killed by one another just a moment ago. Besides, Aida’s monologue was hilarious! I found myself choke so many times when she just complained about bothersome stuff alone in her head.
As for Khon Tauch, he is the embodiment of chaos. Whatever he did was to show that he was powerful, while he tried to hide his weakness. I don’t like his action, of course. But I love the fact that his character has layers and developed over time.
On the other hand, the characters whom I think weren’t written well enough are កានុ (Kanu, Khon Tauch’s friend) and the antagonists. From the beginning to the end, Kanu was a good guy and that’s it! He was polite and handsome, and he always helped Aida. If he existed in the real world, it would be more peaceful. But when I read mystery novel, my brain always works to figure out who is the real villain. This time, I suspected Kanu was the one because he was too generous. No, “too generous” isn’t the right phrase. What I mean is that “kind” is his only personality. I thought he would have more depth, but nope! Now that I think about it, Kanu, as a character, was used to make the story go smoothly - helping Aida sometimes so that she could complete her mission.
Furthermore, same goes for the antagonists. They did bad things because they’re greedy and that’s it. (Well, one of them had other reasons.) Sometimes, they were shown to have compassion for their relatives, but it wasn’t to the point I wanted.
The plot
The mysteries in this book are interesting enough to hook me to keep reading. Why was this high school created? Why did people disappear? Why did Khon Tauch become this kind of person? I also like Aida’s adventure in this cruel world. Her journey wasn’t really a smooth one. She was pushed into a pond (literally), climbed to the top of the mountain, fell into the bottom of the sea, and was almost killed. It was painful, but captivating to read. The plot itself wasn’t that difficult to predict, but also not so predictable that I became bored.
While the novel is a mystery fiction, it’s also in romance genre. I like how romantic feeling of the characters developed. Khon Tauch and Aida didn’t have any romantic attraction for each other in the first half and I think it was done right. If Aida had fell in love with him from the beginning where there was only chaos, I would have scolded her (in my head) “Why do you love this aggressive man who almost killed you several times?” However, they developed feeling for each other after things between them cooled down and when they started to learn about each other and helped each other. Thanks to this, I can save my scolding words for another book.
Furthermore, I was moved by the final scene of the novel. There are two reasons behind this. One is that I’m also in similar situation to the characters - the waiting. I can understand the characters’ feeling to some degree. Another reason is the writing. It’s kind of strange because the description isn’t that compelling. It’s simple, but lively, making me be able to imagine the scene clearly. Then, the feeling just came out all by itself.
Things I’m not satisfied with
There are some problems I have with the story. Firstly, why was there not a guard protecting the high status people’s villa? Well, there were in Khon Tauch’s mother’s, but what about Khon Tauch himself? Did I miss something or what? Secondly, I wanted to see the reaction or the relationship between characters after everything was revealed, especially Khon Tauch and his father. We didn’t get enough Khon Tauch’s father’s scene. He just came out for a moment and then disappeared. I really wanted to know how he felt or reacted. Did he regret? Did he feel the pain? He would be more flesh out as a character if there was more information about him.
Chess, Cambodian musical instrument, and plant reference
As I have little to zero knowledge about chess, I can’t evaluate the accuracy of the reference in this book. Also, the author said that even the characters’s personality is based on chess, but I don’t understand how they’re related to each other. (If anyone knows, please tell me in the comment section below.) In addition, the book also mentions about a Cambodian musical instrument remaining from the ancient time called ខ្សែឯកឬសាដៀវ (khsae ek or saadiev), the instrument Aida was good at. All of Cambodian musical instruments, the authors chose the lesser known and difficult one. So, it shows how much they are proud and fond of Cambodian culture.
Source: Facebook
Moreover, there is a plant whose name I’ve never heard before was mentioned, too. It was called “កេសរកូលមេអំបៅ” (kesor kol meambaw). I searched about the plant to see if it exists or not, but I couldn’t find the one with this specific name. After searching for a while, I came to a conclusion that it’s in orchid plant. Now that I think about it, this book taught me a lot!
Conclusion
Finally, it was a fun read for me. It didn’t make me feel like “I love this book!” like when I finished reading “Bloom into you: regarding Saeki Sayaka” or “Adachi and Shimamura” (click the titles to reading my review of the books), but it didn’t disappoint me either.
