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samsbookworld 's review for:
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I'm soooo devastated about the fact that this didn't end up being a new favorite. I truly thought it would be, but I was just kinda let down by everything.
Since there's barely any plot in this book, in addition to it being very slow, it's crucial to love the characters in order to love this book. And I wanted to love Lily. I truly did. However, there's not much else to her than the fact that she's a Chinese lesbian who likes math. We spent 400 pages with her and yet I know nothing about her. She doesn't feel like a real person. She barely feels like a character. She's just some shallow concept of some queer girl.
Additionally, I was unable to root for the romance since we got to see so little of the love interest that there was no build-up, no tension whatsoever. They might just be in love just because they didn't know any other lesbians.
What truly ruined this book for me was the ending. It's so abrupt. Something major in Lily's life happens and instead of going through this experience with her, we skip forward one year and get an epilog who doesn't even touch up on what happened.
I will give it to the book that its writing is very readable and it touches upon important political issues of the time, but that's about it. I didn't enjoy a single thing about the actual story this was focused on.
Since there's barely any plot in this book, in addition to it being very slow, it's crucial to love the characters in order to love this book. And I wanted to love Lily. I truly did. However, there's not much else to her than the fact that she's a Chinese lesbian who likes math. We spent 400 pages with her and yet I know nothing about her. She doesn't feel like a real person. She barely feels like a character. She's just some shallow concept of some queer girl.
Additionally, I was unable to root for the romance since we got to see so little of the love interest that there was no build-up, no tension whatsoever. They might just be in love just because they didn't know any other lesbians.
What truly ruined this book for me was the ending. It's so abrupt. Something major in Lily's life happens and instead of going through this experience with her, we skip forward one year and get an epilog who doesn't even touch up on what happened.
I will give it to the book that its writing is very readable and it touches upon important political issues of the time, but that's about it. I didn't enjoy a single thing about the actual story this was focused on.