Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

9 reviews

gilnean's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Racism, Colonisation, Alcohol, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Sexism, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation, Miscarriage, and Blood

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Violence, Drug use, Classism, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Excrement, War, Gore, and Adult/minor relationship

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Outing, Hate crime, Grief, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Mental illness, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, War, Medical content, Violence, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, and Infertility

some_random_person_hi's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It's an important book due to how it tells the stories of people who previously only existed in the margins of history and gives them a voice but I personally did not enjoy it. It's probably due to how I usually don't read historical/romance, didn't ship the main couple and personally would not make some of the major decisions the main character did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, and Racism

Minor: Police brutality, War, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Confinement

Underage drinking & underage smoking. (Not explicitly condemned in text.)

kappafrog's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, Outing, Lesbophobia, War, Xenophobia, Sexism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Gaslighting, Deportation, Blood, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Bullying, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, and Mental illness

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, War, Xenophobia, Racism, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Outing, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Deportation, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Confinement

Minor: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

Pedophilia warning is just in case, for an adult woman behaving flirtatiously towards the teenage protagonist.

lolajh's review

emotional 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? No

5.0

FUCK. The last 100 pages of this book absolutely broke me, even though I knew going into this it would have to be intense when it’s about racism and lesbiphobia in the 50’s. Regardless, I loved this book. It has everything, lesbians and the usage of queer terminology such as lesbian, as well as butch and femme, which I absolutely loved to see.

Lily Hu. What a fantastic character. A Chinese American lesbian dealing with not just racism and lesbiphobia separately, but as overlapping things that create much more of an impact than one of these things by themselves. The portrayal of Lily’s lesbianism was portrayed a bit iffy in some parts, such as describing her intense focus on other girls’ bodies, but for the most part was described as more than skin-deep. 

Lily’s love for Kath, a butch lesbian, was so bittersweet, and a lovely depiction of lesbian love. Their relationship transitions so seamlessly from friends to lovers, and despite the context they are in, neither have internalised homophobia about their lesbianism, and there are never any moments of shame between them after they show affection, which is something quite prominent in a lot of queer books done even in present context. Seeing Lily’s love for butches in this book where the butch is the love interest and femme as the mc was lovely, because I got to see Lily’s admiration for butch lesbians and for Kath. I can clearly see Lily as a femme, whilst it isn’t stated as clearly as Kath being butch, because of how she expresses her femininity in no way for a man, and because of her true love for butch lesbians. They are clearly Lily’s type; her love for butches was just so beautiful to see, and so different from traditionally feminine (but not femme) lesbian stories. 

There are also sex scenes in this book, and the characters are both seventeen, which isn’t too young I guess, but because of how the scenes were portrayed in such a beautiful way, I still found them to be enjoyable. They’re my age, and it’s not unrealistic for people under the age of 18 to have sexual thoughts and interactions, so I do think it’s fine. I loved how intimate the scenes were portrayed; the consent and communication and them not at all being something directed for the male gaze was beautiful. It was less about lust and pleasure than just pure intimacy and love between the characters, something so pure I really admired.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Hate crime, Outing, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Deportation, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Gore, and Medical trauma

kashby's review

emotional fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Hate crime, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Blood, and Miscarriage

bectothebooks's review against another edition

emotional informative 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Racism, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Sexism, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage, War, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Misogyny, Outing, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Deportation and other immigration troubles, particularly relating to the post-WWII Red Scare. Setting-typical dated language. Mentions of teacher-student relationships in a film; brief suggestive advances on a teenager by an adult. Non-graphic sex between two seventeen-year-olds and short descriptions of sex scenes in pulp novels. Police raid on a gay bar. Underage drinking and smoking. Scene where a parent slaps a child. One scene featuring an air raid drill at school and discussion of atomic bombs.