Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

263 reviews

vael's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75


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rainbeauregard's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

It was eye opening to see how much has changed in the last 70 years, and how much has stayed the same. This was a thoughtful and emotional queer coming of age story that felt painfully real. 

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literarypenguin's review against another edition

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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

This novel was a genre that I love, Historical Fiction. It also talked brought up LGBTQ  history and how it was handled back in that time period. In this story we follow a girl named Lily who comes from a Chinese American family in the 1950's in San Francisco. When she starts to hang out with a girl named Kathleen and both of the girls hear about a club called the Telegraph Club, Lily finds herself questioning more about who she is more then every before. 

I loved the character of Lily and how we saw this story from her perspective mainly. She is Chinese, has many expectations placed upon her by her parents yet she has dreams of getting a career in space and mathematics. She also helps take care of her two little brothers who she is very close with. She also has a friend that she grew up with in the same city she live in named Shirley, the daughter of restaurant owners. This friendship with Shirley is tested throughout this book with Lily questioning their friendship and how Shirley has treated her in the years they have been friends. Not only does she rethink her friendships but she thinks about her sexuality. How she has always felt different then others and never had an attraction to the boys in her school. When she starts up a friendship with Kath, those questions come at full force as she starts to realize what these feelings might be. One thing I loved about Lily was her interest in space, sci fi, and mathematics. Her bond with her aunt and uncle is also very sweet that she had someone she could relate to. 

The history weaved through this story about actual LGBTQ events, places, and history. I loved how the author brought up LGBTQ reading material that was available in those times. How the Telegraph Club was based on actual clubs that were around at those times. The facts put in to the story made this story so much better to me! 

The romance between Kath & Lily was super sweet, very well developed, and a beautiful relationship. It was bittersweet especially at the end but thankfully it gave me hope that they would be alright. Their bond was and buildup of the romance was wonderful and showing a positive female female love.

I enjoyed this book and I may pick up the follow up of this story. Maybe even pick up more books from this author as well!  

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adalinemccormick's review

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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