Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Last Night at the Telegraph Club

I’m very disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this book. It sounded right up my alley. The sapphic romance and historical 1950s alone was enough to make me very excited to read this book. So you can imagine my surprise when it didn’t hit me the way I initially assumed it would.

I felt that the first 3/4ths of the book were incredibly slow paced and there wasn’t much substance.

Whereas I thought that what occurred after lily’s parents found out about Kath and the Telegraph Club, was glossed over. Yes, we got the immediate fallout, but I wished that that part of the story came sooner in the book, and her experience in a new school and repairing herself after the incident wasn’t just left out of the book completely.

I also felt that Kath was a completely undeveloped character and her only character traits were planes and being Lily’s love interest. I felt like her character could have been more fleshed out and it would have caused me to root for their relationship more. I think the book would have been better if it was a duel perspective between Lily and Kath.

This is ESPECIALLY frustrating after the actual raid because Kath gets arrested, and we hear and see absolutely nothing about it. The only thing we get is the epilogue where it isn’t even even discussed.<\spoiler>

Speaking of perspectives, I felt that the flashbacks to Lily’s family members added nothing to the story. I often found myself skipping those completely and it took nothing away from the experience of reading the book.

There were many plot threads that never got resolved, specifically

Lily’s fathers papers getting taken away and the risk of deportation.

That was one of the main plot points at the beginning of the book and by the end of the book absolutely nothing happen with it.

My last big issue with the book was Shirley’s development. We spent all of this time in the book to develop her character, just for her to

cause the climax, and then be written out completely. I feel that, once again, if the raid at the Telegraph Club had occurred earlier in the story, we could have at least had a satisfying close to her story line.

Content Warnings

solaria's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

MY HEART HAS BEEN RIPPED TO SHREDS

Content Warnings

kshertz's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-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 give a lot of 5 star ratings. But I am obsessed with this book. It’s brilliant. The time in San Francisco when gay clubs were being closed. Communism rumors were everywhere with McCarthyism. The Chinese were under suspicion and they’re living in Chinatown. All of that setting the stage for a young girl coming of age and realizing she’s a lesbian. The feelings were so authentic and felt so real to me. The racism of the time. The wonder of finding people like you. The tug to feel authentic vs. being shunned by your family and your community. I just loved every page. Definitely one of my favorites this year!

Content Warnings

booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative medium-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? N/A

5.0

This book is an absolute masterpiece.

Following Lily, a young Asian American who is traversing figuring out her sexuality, the red scare, family, friends and much more during the 1950’s. Lo did a wonderful job writing Kath as well. You really feel for both of these characters.

I loved seeing young people during this time and the under ground queer clubs that they had to go to since homosexuality was so outlawed back then. It was also beyond heart breaking to see how Chinese Americans and immigrants were treated during the time communism was in the rise. Lo did her research on the history of the time period. Also after the epilogue you get to hear her story as well.

This book is a must read for everyone.

Cw
Xenophobia
Homophobia
Bullying
Toxic friendship
Violence
Immigration

Content Warnings

narbine's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

So much to relate to as a young queer kid figuring it out. Especially as a child of an immigrant who is not white.

Content Warnings

lisa_m's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This was an interesting book. It deals with important topics and I especially enjoyed the authors notes at the end of the book.
There she writes about lesbian culture and especially the role Asian-American and other marginalised groups played.

Sadly the story just didn't grip me. I really wanted to love this book but I didn't. I liked the story and I think it's a really important one to tell. It was just not a very enjoyable read for me.

I guess I just don't want to read about queer people being seen as abnormal and gross. I get that at the time that was normal but it still just made me uncomfortable and mad.
Also the author uses some words that made me uncomfortable because of their negative connotations. She also addresses this at the end of the book and that she used those words because it's what would have been used at the time.

I also didn't really connect to any of the characters. They all felt a bit shallow and like just a way to portrait the story. If I liked the characters more I might have been able to overlook the rest..

Edit:
For me it was probably a 2 star read. I did not enjoy it and the weird terms like calling the Asian protagonist 'china doll' multiple times just made me uncomfortable. I do think that this book is important though. It is not catered towards me and I cannot identify with the mc very much but maybe I'm just not meant to and that's okay. There are so many books written about girls I can identify with extremely well so I don't think that this is a bad book just because it's not for me. Actually I would maybe even recommend this to a very niche group of people. Queer people (of colour) with historical interests or interest in the LGBTQ movement.
For those reasons I have decided to give this book 3 stars instead of the 2 it was for me. it would just feel unfair and not do this book justice.

Content Warnings

anniereads221's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

keatynbergsten's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

More...