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

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

cozyscones's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

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cemeterygay's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

5.0

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I adored this book as historical fiction is typically not my thing but I think I've learned that I just can't read historical fiction about white, cishet men.

To start with the setting and time period, I loved the exploration of queer and Chinese American culture at the time and specifically how Lily navigated both spaces and I really appreciated how both were given the same care and complexity. I loved how the Red Scare and Lavender Scare were explored and how much of a threat these scares could be. You can tell that so much time and research was spent really building up the setting and keeping to historical accuracy and context and getting that all across without compromising the actual storytelling. I do appreciate how much outside historical context we were given especially as the plot jumped in time.

The plot itself was fine, I had no issues with pacing and I really enjoyed seeing Lily grow as a character. The suspense and emotion and particularly the romantic storyline were well-balanced and incredibly well-paced.

Beyond the phenomenal handling of the setting and historical context, the characters are absolutely a standout in this book. Not only is Lily an absolutely phenomenal protagonist who you really want to see succeed and work through the problems she has been faced with. The wonderful thing is the vast majority of characters are also given this depth and it makes the character interactions so much more interesting.

This book is also just really well-suited for an older teenage audience and I think could be a very meaningful book for teens beginning to enter adulthood.

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hannibanani29's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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taelights's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

I was a bit nervous to give this one a try but I ended up really enjoying it. The book was obviously well researched based on the author's end notes which I found really interesting to read through and I really enjoyed the story itself. I do wish though that the book had been longer or more fast paced to explore more of the romance and give a slightly longer and more detailed conclusion.

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