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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
"Rockets to the moon didn’t seem so far-fetched when Kath listened to her. She made previously unimaginable things seem possible."
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a fascinating coming of age historical fiction showing the intersectionality of so many nuances, from immigrant experience, the convergence of culture, the threat of war and deportation, the fight for acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community, and the feelings associated to understanding your sexuality. Judy is second generation Chinese American in 1954, the threat of communism within China and the USSR, as well as factions in the US, is ever present, and she's dealing with all of the trials that come with being a teenager who is evolving into a young adult, falling in love, falling out of friendships, rebelling against parents etc. I thought this book was beautifully written, it gave me an insight into Chinese immigrant culture in the US, and the way it described the difficulties that come along with realising your sexuality, espeically when it deviates from the "norm", and especially in a time when homosexuality was at best tolerated and at worst illegal, was both heart breaking and heart warming. I truly felt for Lily, and all of the women in this story, even the straight ones.
This books involves a number of trigger warnings, so it's definitely important to check those before reading it, such as homophobia, misogyny, racism and xenophobia. It really was a very realistic slice of life from that time period, and it didn't hold back on showing just how cruel life was in the 50s and not just to gay people, but also to women and to immigrants. A lot of the themes in this story can also be compared to how people are treated in modern times too, especially in the US where a lot of the progress made in the 70 years since the time period in this book has started regressing with the rise in right-wing and sexist ideology. Lily was a fantastic main character, I was rooting for her throughout this book and my heart broke for her multiple times. The way she tries to balance her friendships with the people she's grown up with like Shirley who has been her best friend since they were very young, and Will who has started to develop a crush on her, as well as balancing the expectations of her family with the dreams she has for herself, them wanting her to find a husband, have a child and be a good Chinese girl, whereas she's excited by the nightlife and rougher sides to life despite her innocence and wants to design rockets to the moon or Mars, and then on top of that the realisation that she's attracted to women, especially masc presenting women, and wanting to explore that side of her too, and finding people who understand her journey. It was a wonderfully complex story juxtaposed against a very simple way of telling that story.
The simplicity of the way the story was told did sometimes slow me down a bit and I found some of the mundane aspects really dragged. There were a lot of scenes showing Lily's friendship with Shirley and I felt a lot of them were unneccessary to the plot and could've been shortened or cut completely. I wanted to see more of Lily and Kath, I wanted to know Kath on a deeper level but unfortunately felt like this book gave a bit of a shallow representation the love interest. I also wanted to experience more of that glitzy yet grimy feeling of going out to a club for the first time, the story touched on it a bit and I really enjoyed the scenes at the Telegraph Club and at Lana and Tommy's house because they bridged that difference between the innocence of childhood and the messiness of becoming an adult and being in your late teens into your early 20s. I think the pacing and the balance of the story was just slightly off to me. The flashbacks to Lily's family members was also interesting but slightly odd. The timeline of these flashbacks confused me a bit, and I didn't really feel like they added much to the story, especially the scenes like where we follow Lily's parents going on a date together. The little glimpses of history were great though, and I loved the actual timeline that was shown in between the parts.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and especially flew through the last third when things really started to ramp up in tension and action. I think, as a bi girl, that I got some of it but also feel like maybe this story was entirely for me but I do think it was beautifully written in many ways, I just couldn't get entirely on board with the some of the formatting, in the way which certain scenes were given more page time than others, and the pacing. I think the book ended very abruptly too, the epilogue was sweet but I think that tension of their long distance relationship told through letters and phone calls would've been more interesting to the overall plot than what was included, and I felt the open endedness of this story didn't feel quite a poignant as I think the author was hoping it would. I would love to know more of what happened with the communism angle of this story too, some of the thread that were picked up regarding this were never really mentioned again
“My mother said there are no homosexuals in our family.”
“Maybe there aren’t, but there might be a lesbian.”
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
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
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
lowkey think it tried to connect too many separate ideas
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
that was so good wtf
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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:
Complicated
almost wanted more BG on Lily’s parents and aunt, also sometimes the descriptions of the scenery or the streets got a little wordy
emotional
funny
reflective
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:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
I am usually not one of teen books but Lo transcends the genre with something much deeper. Lo does a great job showing the different neighborhoods of SF, from the Richmond district to Chinatown. There were also lots of interesting supporting characters. My only complaint was the ending felt rushed. While overall I liked the direction the ending took, I felt the storyline with Shirley and fears about communism were not addressed. I felt the rushed ending did not match the slow pace of the majority of the book. I also really enjoyed the chapters from Grace and Judy’s perspectives and wished that was a bigger part of the book.
This was actually really cute. It got a bit boring at some stages but for the most I really liked it. I want to go the Telegraph Club
