Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

418 reviews

zackarinareads's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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

4.5

Here are some thoughts I wrote down for the Heartstopper Discord Book Club (April2024):
 

1. What did you think about the book? How did it make you feel? I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long and finally got around to it in late February. I am always interested in lesbian history and I liked that this was a big part of the book. The characters all felt like a real part of their surrounding world and time. The timelines that were included in the book helped with my understanding. I also liked that other people from Lily’s family had little chapters to detail their personal journeys.
2. Was there any moment that stood out as your favorite or felt most impactful? I’m always a fan of the first kiss but in this book I also liked the slow build-up to the characters’ relationship. The first time Lily saw the newspaper ad for Tommy’s show was also iconic with all the mixed and unexplainable emotions and feeling of recognition she experienced.
3. Share your favorite quote! Why do you like it? ” “What’s what supposed to be like?” Lily slumped back against the sofa, feeling boneless and muddled. “Falling in love, I guess.” “You’ll know,” Claire said. “It’s unmistakable.” (How she could recognize Kath at the other end of a crowded Galileo hallway by the way she walked.) “It’s like . . . well, it’s like falling,” Lana said. “Falling, or floating, or sinking.” (Every time they kissed.) “You won’t know which way is up.” “It’s like having a fever.” (The way the world seemed to narrow down to the tips of Kath’s fingers.) “It’s like being drunk—drunk for days.”” I love the interjections to show what the conversation is making her think about.
4. Is there anything specific you’d like to discuss during the meeting? I’d love to discuss the butch representation in the book. Overall, I don’t know if remember everything quite well enough to have a good discussion, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Deportation, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol and War

reike's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Homophobia

Moderate: Xenophobia, War, Racism, and Miscarriage

Minor: Misogyny

amoonymess's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Outing, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Racial slurs, Deportation, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Misogyny

imoglien's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Racial slurs

livreittoashley's review

emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Outing

Minor: War, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

carrot2025's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

I absolutely adore this book. It was the perfect capture of the time period and being a lesbian. The sweet, forbidden teenage love story is always a great plot in my opinion but to add the amazing historical accuracy of homophobia and racism just makes it even better. It almost feels like I'm reading a diary of someone during that time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Racism, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

This book handles so many of these important themes in an amazing way. As much as we have made progress in this world it's really important to keep telling these stories of the truth of the past. The author chosing to use period accurate words for minorities is just amazing. It really puts you into these characters feelings and what it was like to live during this time.

The bar raid made me absolutely sob. It was the great representation of it and I can tell the author really put a lot of research into it.

The common and prevalent topics of this book, is something many could argue is wrong but it is all done with so much respect and care that I can tell the author genuinely wants to tell the true story of the time.

paula357's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Outing, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Racism

ko_rax's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Racial slurs, Racism, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Miscarriage and War

mariethelibrarian's review

challenging emotional inspiring 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

Oh I loved this so much. I also learned a lot. Its such an important story and I love the ending with actual facts and how real events inspired the book. It also made me angry to learn about and I hate that we still have to fight the same shit. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

literary_waffle's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.5

Loved 🫶
• Having a main character who is exploring her sexualit and sexual expression as well as a love interest who is a masculine presenting lesbian and other character  who are also butches and femmes is very powerful 

• The author knew who her target audience was and the effort and research put into this books about Chinese and queer history is something to be appreciated 


Did not like 
• The flashbacks, even thought I understand why they are necessary (I get it it gives me information about relationship dynamics and the history of Lily's family) I felt like, as a reader, they were just kinda boring and I was always hoping to get through them so I could get to the interesting story

• It has a lot of triggers, especially for someone queer or who is a minority 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Abandonment, and Deportation

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Xenophobia, and Outing