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

Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

269 reviews

adalinemccormick's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative tense 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

4.5

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reike's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Loved (most of) tye characters. Slight pacing issues, especially towards the end. Weaves the broader historical and political context nicely into the personal lives of the characters. Very vivid writing in terms of the characters emotions. Wish the ending would've expanded on some things, but I enjoy the hopeful note it ends on.

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crazybookworm31's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

This book immerses you in the daily life of its characters, it truly feels like you are right there with them, their lives aren't bizarre or seen as different in some tantalizing way, they just are, they just exist, and I appreciate that greatly. The story can feel slow at times because it is about day to day life more than strong plot beats, but that isn't a bad thing, and the characters are all pretty strong and fleshed out. Books really have to stick the landing for me to enjoy them, and this did. I would 100% read it again.

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dangselena's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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hex_agon's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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brekaboujie's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense 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

4.5

I really loved this book, another one where I'm endless jealous of all the excellent queer fiction young people have access to now (though simultaneously extremely happy for them).
This was an interesting mix of a laid back, medium paced romance and a pretty tense exploration of lesbophobia, racism, and the intersectionality around that. I really liked Lily as a character and enjoyed viewing the world through her eyes - I knew literally nothing about the history of Chinese people immigrating to America and the view additional pages of historical context at the end of the book were very useful for expanding out the reality mixed with the fiction of Lily's story.
The romance side of things was very sweet, and I liked the characterisation overall - there ended up being loads of characters to keep track of but it was very easy to do so, everyone felt pretty individual to me. It was really interesting to see how the groups of people were separated, across race, sexuality, and age. And the little flashbacks gave nice context and helped to keep me empathetic to everyone (bar Shirley, who didnt have a flash back but I just need to emphasise how we hate Shirley in this house).

An interesting point on Shirley though, and late plot spoilers here -

the big reveal of Shirlwy coming to Lily's house at the end and saying people had seen Lily outside the club, I really loved how this forced me to realise my bias of how much on Lily's side i was. Obviously Shirley is being cruel here, but the mirror image of Lily's experience and Shirley's with Calvin was quite cool to reflect on in that point. I think Lily sees it at the end, and she tries to fix things with Shirley, but Shirley refuses. Obviously they are very different experiences, but both are dangerous for their families. It was just a point for me where I took a step back and stopped myself from being a hypocrite to Shirley on why she'd continue that relationship. Anyways, not a very clear thought there but still something worth noting !

Overall, really sweet, very interesting, and taught me something new!!

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llamallama527's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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paula357's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed the second half of the book so much more than the first, when the story finally picked up its speed. personally, I would have liked the book to be a little bit more hopeful, which is a common experience with queer books for me. still, I grew to love the characters throughout the book and would have loved to read more about their happiness (even though the tragedy is a central part of the story)

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ko_rax's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

Last Night at the Telegraph Club tells the story of Lily Hu, a seventeen-year old American-born with Chinese family and heritage, who discovers the truth surrounding her sexuality in a rather beautiful and emotional way amidst period-typical homophobia, racism and a tinge of misogyny. Through multiple lenses, the reader embarks on a journey throughout San Fransisco not only in the 50s and learns of the history of the gay and lesbian culture and of Chinese realities in America.

I must say, out of personal preference, that I liked the second half much more than the first.

The first half of the novel allows for the reader to explore family backgrounds and to accustom not only to the underlying racism, but also to the harsh homophobic tone of the 50s. Since my personal reality strays away from Lily's just far enough to forget the amount of privilege I enjoy (queer-friendly surroundings devoid of youthful peer pressure), I had a hard time staying focused whenever Lily described her day-to-day among peers at and outside of high school. However, the insights on Chinese culture in an immigrant family were pleasant. I really liked how well (racial) belonging was depicted.

Rather fond of fast-paced stories, it is no wonder then, that I enjoyed the quicker developments in the second half following Lily's

self-recognition as a sapphic

and especially loved the scene where

she seeked advice from Lana

. It warmed my heart at the sight of queer kinship.

Careful to those who have rather traumatic experiences with

coming out, lesbophobia and racial slurs

as these themes/triggers are quite graphic in this novel. Please look after yourselves.

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brethebookbean's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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