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

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Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

158 reviews

touchegiantsquid's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful 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: Complicated

I loved this one. The coming-of-age romance is heart achingly sweet, tentative, and slow. The writing craft is so good in this book, deftly weaving the external with the internal. I highly recommend this. I had previously read Lo's Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. That was good, but at times the story lost its grounding -- which worked for a fairy tale. In this book Lo is relentless in grounding all the action, so even though so much of the story is internal as Lily discovers her sexuality and navigates her intersectional out-of-placeness in white lesbian and hetero Chinese American communities, nothing floats - every beat hits.

Content Warnings

taroroot's review against another edition

2.0

emotional reflective 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

this was a highly anticipated read for me and i'm disappointed to say it did not live to my expectations. while it is technically YA, i would only recommend this book to readers aged 16+ as it deals with a lot of heavy themes and is more explicit than most YA books. firstly, i enjoyed all of the vivid descriptions of Chinatown and San Francisco. it was very enjoyable to read about places i am familiar with in a completely different time. however, i was very disappointed by the casual and constant use of racial slurs. i understand the time period the author is writing in but i do think these things should be included in a trigger warning section at the beginning of the book, especially if the author felt the need to have a whole historical discussion at the end of the book. why include that but not have a simple trigger warning section? additionally, i think the ending of the novel left a lot of loose ends and problems that we didn't get to see be resolved or even a hint as to what the resolution was. i liked how the author wove in stories from Grace, Joseph, and Judy as it gave us a greater understand of their characters and inter-generational issues that Lily faces. finally, while i understand that this is primarily Lily's story, i think it would have been nice to see more scenes with her and Kath together.

Content Warnings

kaii's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

obsessed with this book! the setting truly comes alive and everything feels so real and it made me cry in an airport

Content Warnings

marialenov's review

4.0

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

Content Warnings

sarahrosea's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

corriejn's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

ana1s's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative 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: N/A

The romance is amazing, really stuck on t ime but also modern. I love the pov that we get on the 50's with Lily and she is a really interesting protagonist. Also, this book stimulates reflexions on intersectionnality and i tought that it was ambitious and well done. Really looking forward to read "A scatter of light"!

Content Warnings

storykath's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful 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: No

Lily is an Asian American teen living in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s. Last Night at the Telegraph Club follows her as she discovers her sexuality, navigates racism, and deals with the widespread fear of communism in her community.

I loved practically everything about this book. Coming-of-age stories are hit or miss for me, but Lily's narration was charming, realistic, and immersive. She's a believably flawed teenager who's discovering herself and the world around her in a way that makes everything she describes seem fresh and interesting. I was totally invested in Lily's worldview while also being aware of the fact that there were bigger things she wasn't seeing or registering. Very skillfully written!

The flashback chapters in different characters' perspectives took me by surprise, and overall they didn't add much to my enjoyment of the book. I would often put the book down when I got to these chapters, partly because it was a natural stopping point and partly because I was disappointed not to be continuing Lily's story. These chapters did provide a helpful look into Lily's family's backgrounds and perspectives, but I wonder if these could have been incorporated in a different way that didn't pull me out of Lily's narrative so starkly.

Altogether, the writing style, the characters, the subject matter...they all worked together so well and created a story that drew me in and got a grip on my heart. I'm incredibly excited to reread this one and relive Lily's journey.

Content Warnings

miyothecat's review

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

Content Warnings

fayfaybleugh's review

3.5

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I wish I had this book to read when I was in middle school- it reminds me of the historical fiction I read in school back then &it feels like a classic. That said, the pace was much slower than I usually like and the

time skips in the pov of aunt judy and lily’s mom didn’t make sense to me. They provided some historical context sure, but didn’t contribute to the story and slowed down the pace even more.

. I do appreciate how realistic this feels, without

displaying violence or a sad ending,

and you can see the amount of historical research Lo did which contributed to that.

Content Warnings

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