Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

33 reviews

indeedithappens's review

emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Outing, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Xenophobia, Deportation, Drug use, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Bullying, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Colonisation, Violence, and War

bruhbruh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Lesbophobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Xenophobia, Outing, War, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Deportation

Minor: Religious bigotry

bookshelfhannah's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Toxic friendship, War, and Emotional abuse

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

This book is tender and beautiful. Lo writes about first love, in all of its glory, from a perspective that has not seen the spotlight too often. As an Asian American lesbian growing up in a family devoted to traditional Chinese values, Lily’s story pulls at your heart-strings and Lo’s storytelling puts you right back in 1950’s America. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Grief, Outing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, and Abandonment

rieviolet's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

I really really loved this book, it was such a compelling read. I flew through it and read the final 90 or so pages in a single day because I was so invested and wanted to see what would happen to the characters. 

I loved the mixing of the personal coming of age story with the wider historical and social context of the time. It was also so interesting to see how the author explored the different aspects of Lily's identity, how being both Asian-American and lesbian affected her. 

Above all, I was stunned by how the words on the page provoked so many emotions within me. There were so many passages that really struck a chord with me and left me on the floor, knocked out, completely destroyed. 
Lily and Kath's relationship was so beautifully developed, it felt raw and tender and hopeful, in spite of all adversities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, War, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Police brutality, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicide, Drug use, Sexual harassment, and Forced institutionalization

whatannikareads's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

3.75

v cute sapphic love story with some cool interracial queer asian representation. there are some really pretty sentences in here. i overall enjoyed it!

i just felt it was a bit dry the first 100-200 pages, but then it picked up after that. the ending was fine for me, not WOW but not bad. plus i didn’t really connect the flashbacks of the family members to the core plot of the story since they’re not really brought back to light in the present-day plot. also i just didn’t care for shirley as much as she was mentioned in the book lmao the chinatown pageant was just kinda miscellaneous for me. i think the author attempted to shed light on a lot of different social issues at the time: being asian american, being queer, communism, women in STEM, and i think if the plot was a little more focused it would’ve made it a lot stronger.

but i appreciate the research that went into making the fiction fairly accurate for the time period it’s presented in. also i love san francisco :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia

katherine_kelley's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative tense 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

4.5

I just loved it, ok?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Emotional abuse

marialenov's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Homophobia

Moderate: War, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

bibliocinephile's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

this definitely followed a rather classic gay storyline and in that sense was pretty predictable, but the style and the pacing made it so refreshing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Emotional abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

aly_young's review

emotional hopeful sad fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Bullying, and Emotional abuse