Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

50 reviews

readinghavoc's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I really loved this book and was so inspired by Lily’s story. It was really interesting to experience the time period more intimately from her point of view.

My only hesitation about this book is the ending. It wasn’t bad, but I feel like the rest of the book had these really lovely and encouraging moments of queer joy, and the ending kind of felt defeated in comparison even though it was a relatively happy ending for the period. It’s realistic and I appreciate that, but also, I think I’m sad and tired of reading books where the gay people don’t get to be happy in the end. I would have loved to see her and Kath in their own apartment in that epilogue or spend more time with them and their letters  rather than being left off with the idea that maybe Lily and Katy can stay together in the closet. I get that the happy ending is also that she gets to keep her family but I don’t know, after how palpably miserable she is in the chapters once her family knows, I have a hard time swallowing that. Like I said, this also might just be about where I am with my feelings about queer content generally right now.  

Overall though, I’m so glad I read this, and want to give that ending a reread for sure! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Violence

Minor: Police brutality, Deportation

knockoffrainbow's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism

Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, War, Deportation

clever__username's review

4.0

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Excrement, Pregnancy

queerghstbuster's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Vomit

arrowsartsandbooks's review

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism

Moderate: Hate crime, Outing, Deportation

Minor: Violence, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, War

smithreads's review

5.0

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Deportation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Hate crime, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, War

indeedithappens's review

4.0

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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, Outing

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

Minor: Violence, Colonisation, War

d4rrrcy's review

4.0

challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, War, Deportation

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Outing

thekatreturns's review

4.25

emotional hopeful 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: Yes

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This was so lovely! Lily is a wonderful protagonist and her story is a beautifully written and very necessary addition to the lesbian YA canon. As a butch, I appreciated the portrayal of desire for butches; that’s extremely rare and it was very heartwarming here. This isn’t all romance, and the non-romance sections were really what made Lily jump off the page to me. My biggest issue is that there was so little information about what happened between the ending and the epilogue, when it could have been structured in a way that didn’t feel so rushed.

For example, some letters between Lily and Kath during the time when they were living apart would have been lovely.

I really appreciated the level of detail in the worldbuilding. It was meticulously researched and feels very real. I would heartily recommend this to any YA LGBTQ books fan! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Lesbophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Toxic friendship, Deportation

maya_venkatesh36's review

4.5

challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism

Moderate: Violence