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julies_reading 's review for:
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Lily Hu is a Chinese American teenager in San Francisco during the 1950's who has started to realize she has complicated feelings towards women. Struggling to balance her cultural identity during the red scare, as well as to discover who she is and what she wants in her life, Lily meets Kath, who introduces her to the underground lesbian scene of the city.
I forgot how much historical queer fiction will hurt your heart. Malinda Lo clearly put great care into creating a historically accurate backdrop for this story, doing lots of research and including her sources in the author's note. I enjoyed the complex relationships that were touched upon in Lily's story, namely her fraught friendship with Shirley and her blooming, doomed relationship with Kath. The pining was top tier, and for good reason. The Telegraph Club itself felt like such a real and familiar place. Lo showed how quickly one can bond with those of the same identity. It was so hard to watch all these young women have to hide who they are in the light of day. I really appreciate the hard work and love that went into this book.
I did feel that there was not as much of a payoff as I was expecting. The inserts from other years, while interesting, are ultimately irrelevant to the plot. There is a specific plot line that ends up unresolved. The epilogue-style chapter was ridiculously short and didn't give an amount of closure that felt natural for the story. I wasn't exactly looking for a HEA for this book, but the brevity of that chapter made the ending of the book seem abrupt, as if at least 25 pages were just cut out of the book. I don't know how much to "fault" the book for it though, considering that these things make it seem a bit more realistic.
Overall, this book was very well crafted and I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of YA coming of age, historical fiction, queer fiction, first love stories, and any plethora of category. The author was going for realism, and she ultimately achieved that. I do wish that there was a bit more resolution to the end of this, with Lily herself or between Kath and Lily.
I forgot how much historical queer fiction will hurt your heart. Malinda Lo clearly put great care into creating a historically accurate backdrop for this story, doing lots of research and including her sources in the author's note. I enjoyed the complex relationships that were touched upon in Lily's story, namely her fraught friendship with Shirley and her blooming, doomed relationship with Kath. The pining was top tier, and for good reason. The Telegraph Club itself felt like such a real and familiar place. Lo showed how quickly one can bond with those of the same identity. It was so hard to watch all these young women have to hide who they are in the light of day. I really appreciate the hard work and love that went into this book.
I did feel that there was not as much of a payoff as I was expecting. The inserts from other years, while interesting, are ultimately irrelevant to the plot. There is a specific plot line that ends up unresolved. The epilogue-style chapter was ridiculously short and didn't give an amount of closure that felt natural for the story. I wasn't exactly looking for a HEA for this book, but the brevity of that chapter made the ending of the book seem abrupt, as if at least 25 pages were just cut out of the book. I don't know how much to "fault" the book for it though, considering that these things make it seem a bit more realistic.
Overall, this book was very well crafted and I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of YA coming of age, historical fiction, queer fiction, first love stories, and any plethora of category. The author was going for realism, and she ultimately achieved that. I do wish that there was a bit more resolution to the end of this, with Lily herself or between Kath and Lily.