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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
29 reviews
terrestrial_river's review
emotional
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Racial slurs, and Sexual content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
spark_879's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Outing, Police brutality, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, and War
jojo_'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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, and Deportation
bookwormbi's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
tw: discussion of racism, mention of sexual harassment, sexual assault, adult/minor relationship
How to say this?
When I was a kid, I loved fairytale retellings, and I read as many of them as I could find. This is how I stumbled across Malinda Lo's 2009 novel Ash, which was the first book I ever read featuring a queer woman protagonist. I cannot overstate the importance of that. I know Malinda Lo is someone with the power to change kids' lives, because she changed mine. I don't know where I would be without Ash.
This is why Last Night at the Telegraph Club is such a tremendous disappointment for me.
The entire time I was reading this book, I shuddered at the thought of teenage me--or any queer teenager, really--reading something like this. Like yay, lesbians, and even better, lesbians of color (at least one, at any rate), but the way so many of the white adult lesbians in the Telegraph Club casually call Lily slurs, and she's not even upset by it? I'm sorry that's weird. And I get that it was the 1950s and I appreciate that Lo didn't shy away from depicting the racism. My issue is the fact that she didn't appear to depict the racism with any sort of purpose. When Lily's Chinese friends and family members are homophobic, she either stands up to them, or has an internal monologue where she refutes what they're saying. No such thing for the white lesbians in the Telegraph Club. All she can talk about is how cool they are, how much she wants to be with them and be like them. Listen, as a qtpoc myself, I know what it's like to try to escape your homophobic family of color by surrounding yourself with white queers, but it's a false choice. The white queers don't give a shit about you. In this book, the white queers don't even PRETEND to give a shit about her--Tommy Andrews, an adult, sexually harasses Lily, a child, and nearly sexually assaults her, only stopping because she believes Lily and her love interest Kath are in love with each other . Like I'm sorry, that's FUCKED. And the worst part is, Lo seems to think nothing of it, because the scene immediately following that is the big kiss scene. Later on, we're meant to think it's silly and wrong that a newspaper would say that teenage girls are being groomed by adult lesbians and I'm sitting there like...is that not what happened?
Speaking of the big kiss scene, let's talk about Kath, and the romance plot in general. At first, I liked Kath. I thought she was sweet. The thing is, there really isn't much *to* Kath: she's quiet, she likes math and athletics, she's a lesbian, and she's half Italian. She doesn't really develop more than that. I would say most of the characters in this book are cardboard cutouts who are whatever they need to be for the plot, but Kath most of all. She just made zero impact, positive or negative. So without Kath actually doing things for me to pay attention to, I simply have to focus on what she does *not* do--that is, defend Lily against any of the racism she experiences at the Telegraph Club, make an effort to understand Lily's culture, or engage with Lily on any of their differences. While I'm always wary of white love interests, I understand that they can work. But in order for me to be invested in them, I need them to be aware of their privilege and using it for good. Lily spends the entire ending of the book putting her life on the line for Kath, and meanwhile Kath was doing NOTHING to protect Lily from the many many white adult women calling her slurs. I just can't fathom how I'm supposed to be invested in the love story of two underdeveloped characters, one of whom is a person of color and one of whom is a racist by proxy.
There are things I liked about this book. Shirley was such a great, complex character, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of her throughout the text. She was the only character who I thought had a consistent arc, and she stole every scene she was in. My favorite part of the whole book is when her and Lily leave Chinatown, and she talks to Lily about how she feels like she'll always stay there, while Lily will get the chance to leave. Granted, the ending completely robbed this character of any depth and nuance she may have had, but for a while there, she was one of the most interesting characters I've seen in a while.
But overall, this book lacked vision. I read the author's note to get a deeper understanding of Lo's historical sources, but also the way she interpreted and utilized those historical sources, and what I found was troubling. She mentions several times that she was not able to find a lot of information about Chinese lesbians in San Francisco in the 1950s, which is fair, but i do feel like part of the job of a historical fiction writer is to be able to use your imagination to synthesize your sources, and, if necessary, fill in the gaps that the research doesn't fill in for you. For example, she mentions that one of the women she spoke to said that she was often the only Chinese woman at the lesbian bar--ok, historical fact. She also mentions that she found some record of Chinese lesbians at clubs in Chinatown, like Forbidden City--ok, another historical fact. From those two things, one could imagine a version of this story in which Lily, put off by the racism she experiences at the Telegraph Club, begins sneaking into the Forbidden City to try to hang out with lesbians there. Lo also mentions finding records of Black and Filipina lesbians--so perhaps Lily finds interethnic/interracial solidarity with other lesbians of color. I just don't see how the only way to depict a Chinese lesbian was to give her a white love interest, plop her in a group of mostly white people, all of whom say racist things to her, and call it a day. When Malinda Lo asks herself the question, "What would it be like to be a teenage Chinese lesbian in 1954?" does she imagine that that girl would have fought against the homophobia in her family, but accepted the racism in the lesbian community? It feels inconsistent, and quite frankly, it's harmful. I can only imagine a queer teenager of color reading this and taking from it that they shouldn't be angry about racism in lesbian spaces, because that's just how things are. Or worse yet, a white queer teenager reading this and feeling empowered to hurt their queer friends or partners of color, because that's just how things are.
If you are one such teenager, I encourage you to read other things and learn differently. The Aristotle and Dante books, You Should See Me in a Crown, Meet Cute Diary, Like Other Girls, Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating, The Henna Wars, hell, even something like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. All of these books address race and other forms of bigotry in a far more coherent way than LNATC. And if you're a queer teen of color reading this, please know that you do not have to put up with white queer racists to find your community. Your qtpoc/queer white ally family is out there, waiting for you. I promise <3
How to say this?
When I was a kid, I loved fairytale retellings, and I read as many of them as I could find. This is how I stumbled across Malinda Lo's 2009 novel Ash, which was the first book I ever read featuring a queer woman protagonist. I cannot overstate the importance of that. I know Malinda Lo is someone with the power to change kids' lives, because she changed mine. I don't know where I would be without Ash.
This is why Last Night at the Telegraph Club is such a tremendous disappointment for me.
The entire time I was reading this book, I shuddered at the thought of teenage me--or any queer teenager, really--reading something like this. Like yay, lesbians, and even better, lesbians of color (at least one, at any rate), but the way so many of the white adult lesbians in the Telegraph Club casually call Lily slurs, and she's not even upset by it? I'm sorry that's weird. And I get that it was the 1950s and I appreciate that Lo didn't shy away from depicting the racism. My issue is the fact that she didn't appear to depict the racism with any sort of purpose. When Lily's Chinese friends and family members are homophobic, she either stands up to them, or has an internal monologue where she refutes what they're saying. No such thing for the white lesbians in the Telegraph Club. All she can talk about is how cool they are, how much she wants to be with them and be like them. Listen, as a qtpoc myself, I know what it's like to try to escape your homophobic family of color by surrounding yourself with white queers, but it's a false choice. The white queers don't give a shit about you. In this book, the white queers don't even PRETEND to give a shit about her--
Speaking of the big kiss scene, let's talk about Kath, and the romance plot in general. At first, I liked Kath. I thought she was sweet. The thing is, there really isn't much *to* Kath: she's quiet, she likes math and athletics, she's a lesbian, and she's half Italian. She doesn't really develop more than that. I would say most of the characters in this book are cardboard cutouts who are whatever they need to be for the plot, but Kath most of all. She just made zero impact, positive or negative. So without Kath actually doing things for me to pay attention to, I simply have to focus on what she does *not* do--that is, defend Lily against any of the racism she experiences at the Telegraph Club, make an effort to understand Lily's culture, or engage with Lily on any of their differences. While I'm always wary of white love interests, I understand that they can work. But in order for me to be invested in them, I need them to be aware of their privilege and using it for good. Lily spends the entire ending of the book putting her life on the line for Kath, and meanwhile Kath was doing NOTHING to protect Lily from the many many white adult women calling her slurs. I just can't fathom how I'm supposed to be invested in the love story of two underdeveloped characters, one of whom is a person of color and one of whom is a racist by proxy.
There are things I liked about this book. Shirley was such a great, complex character, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of her throughout the text. She was the only character who I thought had a consistent arc, and she stole every scene she was in. My favorite part of the whole book is when her and Lily leave Chinatown, and she talks to Lily about how she feels like she'll always stay there, while Lily will get the chance to leave. Granted, the ending completely robbed this character of any depth and nuance she may have had, but for a while there, she was one of the most interesting characters I've seen in a while.
But overall, this book lacked vision. I read the author's note to get a deeper understanding of Lo's historical sources, but also the way she interpreted and utilized those historical sources, and what I found was troubling. She mentions several times that she was not able to find a lot of information about Chinese lesbians in San Francisco in the 1950s, which is fair, but i do feel like part of the job of a historical fiction writer is to be able to use your imagination to synthesize your sources, and, if necessary, fill in the gaps that the research doesn't fill in for you. For example, she mentions that one of the women she spoke to said that she was often the only Chinese woman at the lesbian bar--ok, historical fact. She also mentions that she found some record of Chinese lesbians at clubs in Chinatown, like Forbidden City--ok, another historical fact. From those two things, one could imagine a version of this story in which Lily, put off by the racism she experiences at the Telegraph Club, begins sneaking into the Forbidden City to try to hang out with lesbians there. Lo also mentions finding records of Black and Filipina lesbians--so perhaps Lily finds interethnic/interracial solidarity with other lesbians of color. I just don't see how the only way to depict a Chinese lesbian was to give her a white love interest, plop her in a group of mostly white people, all of whom say racist things to her, and call it a day. When Malinda Lo asks herself the question, "What would it be like to be a teenage Chinese lesbian in 1954?" does she imagine that that girl would have fought against the homophobia in her family, but accepted the racism in the lesbian community? It feels inconsistent, and quite frankly, it's harmful. I can only imagine a queer teenager of color reading this and taking from it that they shouldn't be angry about racism in lesbian spaces, because that's just how things are. Or worse yet, a white queer teenager reading this and feeling empowered to hurt their queer friends or partners of color, because that's just how things are.
If you are one such teenager, I encourage you to read other things and learn differently. The Aristotle and Dante books, You Should See Me in a Crown, Meet Cute Diary, Like Other Girls, Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating, The Henna Wars, hell, even something like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. All of these books address race and other forms of bigotry in a far more coherent way than LNATC. And if you're a queer teen of color reading this, please know that you do not have to put up with white queer racists to find your community. Your qtpoc/queer white ally family is out there, waiting for you. I promise <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Racism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
tinyjude's review
emotional
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
The story mainly focuses on Lily a Chinese American on her last year of high school as she comes to terms with the fact that she is a lesbian. It also provides some insight into the situation of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in the United States during the 50s, as well as queer people. As a historical fiction, the characters and events of the plot are fictional, but there are also traces of realism that show the huge work Malinda Lo put into the book's research. I particularly liked the author's note and bibliography explaining how she documented all these important dates and how the story came to be. As a consequence, it should not be taken as book about history per se, but as a fictional story, one of the many there could be, and actually were, and if you are interested about learning more, to do proper research as POC writers always indicate.
The writing, especially the descriptions (like the kiss scenes) were gorgeous and made me feel in my bones the yearning Lily was feeling. (I love yearning lesbians. She is so real for those lingering silent glances towards gay women). Furthermore, I liked her acknowledgement of the difference between the male and the female gaze, as well as the telegraph's club atmosphere and their relationship. I became infatuated with Tommy and Kath the same way Lily was, which speaks volumes about (my gayness and) Malinda Lo's talent and hard work. I will definitely check her future work. The only thing that left me feeling a bit empty was the shortness of the epilogue, I needed more of Kath and Lily seeing each other again, some cozy/intimate scene of them living together or just being happy. I know it is not that essential and we got the idea they will be seeing each other a lot again, but after going through so much pain in the last chapters I needed something healing and seeing them happy :(.
Nonetheless, homophobia, forced outing, xenophobia, racism and toxic friendships are some of the triggering topics that you can encounter in this book, so beware.
The writing, especially the descriptions (like the kiss scenes) were gorgeous and made me feel in my bones the yearning Lily was feeling. (I love yearning lesbians. She is so real for those lingering silent glances towards gay women). Furthermore, I liked her acknowledgement of the difference between the male and the female gaze, as well as the telegraph's club atmosphere and their relationship. I became infatuated with Tommy and Kath the same way Lily was, which speaks volumes about (my gayness and) Malinda Lo's talent and hard work. I will definitely check her future work. The only thing that left me feeling a bit empty was the shortness of the epilogue
Nonetheless, homophobia, forced outing, xenophobia, racism and toxic friendships are some of the triggering topics that you can encounter in this book, so beware.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Drug use
Minor: War
mle11's review
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Racism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Cultural appropriation, Outing, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, and Sexual content
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, and Pedophilia
Minor: Police brutality and War
julesadventurezone's review
emotional
informative
reflective
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, Outing, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Miscarriage
onefineelephant's review
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
7/10. I've heard glowing reviews for this book and I don't really get the hype. I like the book well enough but I think it's far from being one of my favorites. One of my biggest criteria for if a book will get a 10/10 or be one of my favorites is if it makes me laugh and cry and this book unfortunately did neither for me.
The girls don't really get together/confess their feelings until more than half of the way through the book which is not my thing. Also, many of the flashback chapters seemed disjointed from the main story and it felt like they took away from the plot when I really wanted to know what was happening with Lily and Kath. I'm not sure if it was because of the historical fiction genre or the author's writing style, but it felt like all of the characters were at an emotional arm's length; there wasn't enough depth of emotion or communication as I personally am into. I enjoyed the exploration of queerness during this time period, especially with the added element of a person being in high school and being a non-white person.
The girls don't really get together/confess their feelings until more than half of the way through the book which is not my thing. Also, many of the flashback chapters seemed disjointed from the main story and it felt like they took away from the plot when I really wanted to know what was happening with Lily and Kath. I'm not sure if it was because of the historical fiction genre or the author's writing style, but it felt like all of the characters were at an emotional arm's length; there wasn't enough depth of emotion or communication as I personally am into. I enjoyed the exploration of queerness during this time period, especially with the added element of a person being in high school and being a non-white person.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Outing, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Cultural appropriation, War, Racism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Xenophobia
hannibanani29's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Outing, Racial slurs, Racism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Alcohol, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia
Minor: Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, and Miscarriage
andromeda_1998's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
Last night at the telegraph club took me by surprise. For school I had to read an historical fiction and as the raging queer that I am I chose this book to read. I wanted to read something that would mean more to me than just that one book I read for school and well…. The telegraph succeeded in that. Normally I’m not a big fan of this kind of book is just amazing.
Characters
The list of characters is really diverse and I loved it. I cannot speak for the Asian rep but I loved the sapphic love. I could really find myself in the panic that surrounds a baby gay and I wish with whole my heart that Lily’s story would have been easier. I felt a lot for her and she deserved better.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is done in a very fun way. The story is played oud in the real world and it shows. If you google the locations you are able to find them and I love this!
Story
This is one of those books that is very important but before you read this please check the triggerwarnings!
Writing
The writing was beautifully done and gripped me. I had to finish this book!
Characters
The list of characters is really diverse and I loved it. I cannot speak for the Asian rep but I loved the sapphic love. I could really find myself in the panic that surrounds a baby gay and I wish with whole my heart that Lily’s story would have been easier. I felt a lot for her and she deserved better.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is done in a very fun way. The story is played oud in the real world and it shows. If you google the locations you are able to find them and I love this!
Story
This is one of those books that is very important but before you read this please check the triggerwarnings!
Writing
The writing was beautifully done and gripped me. I had to finish this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Outing, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, and Forced institutionalization