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A review by brekaboujie
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
I really loved this book, another one where I'm endless jealous of all the excellent queer fiction young people have access to now (though simultaneously extremely happy for them).
This was an interesting mix of a laid back, medium paced romance and a pretty tense exploration of lesbophobia, racism, and the intersectionality around that. I really liked Lily as a character and enjoyed viewing the world through her eyes - I knew literally nothing about the history of Chinese people immigrating to America and the view additional pages of historical context at the end of the book were very useful for expanding out the reality mixed with the fiction of Lily's story.
The romance side of things was very sweet, and I liked the characterisation overall - there ended up being loads of characters to keep track of but it was very easy to do so, everyone felt pretty individual to me. It was really interesting to see how the groups of people were separated, across race, sexuality, and age. And the little flashbacks gave nice context and helped to keep me empathetic to everyone (bar Shirley, who didnt have a flash back but I just need to emphasise how we hate Shirley in this house).
An interesting point on Shirley though, and late plot spoilers here - the big reveal of Shirlwy coming to Lily's house at the end and saying people had seen Lily outside the club, I really loved how this forced me to realise my bias of how much on Lily's side i was. Obviously Shirley is being cruel here, but the mirror image of Lily's experience and Shirley's with Calvin was quite cool to reflect on in that point. I think Lily sees it at the end, and she tries to fix things with Shirley, but Shirley refuses. Obviously they are very different experiences, but both are dangerous for their families. It was just a point for me where I took a step back and stopped myself from being a hypocrite to Shirley on why she'd continue that relationship. Anyways, not a very clear thought there but still something worth noting !
Overall, really sweet, very interesting, and taught me something new!!
This was an interesting mix of a laid back, medium paced romance and a pretty tense exploration of lesbophobia, racism, and the intersectionality around that. I really liked Lily as a character and enjoyed viewing the world through her eyes - I knew literally nothing about the history of Chinese people immigrating to America and the view additional pages of historical context at the end of the book were very useful for expanding out the reality mixed with the fiction of Lily's story.
The romance side of things was very sweet, and I liked the characterisation overall - there ended up being loads of characters to keep track of but it was very easy to do so, everyone felt pretty individual to me. It was really interesting to see how the groups of people were separated, across race, sexuality, and age. And the little flashbacks gave nice context and helped to keep me empathetic to everyone (bar Shirley, who didnt have a flash back but I just need to emphasise how we hate Shirley in this house).
An interesting point on Shirley though, and late plot spoilers here -
Overall, really sweet, very interesting, and taught me something new!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Miscarriage