notnicolebrewer 's review for:

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

4.5

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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: No

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I listened to this book and was completely invested and entirely charmed. Actually, as I type this review, I'm listening to the author's note, which is making me love it even more: notes on the authors references, inspirations, and context for some of the terms and language used (for historical accuracy).

Something about this story just felt very true, and it felt like Lo did a wonderful job pacing the story to give space and time to all of its dimensions. While it's primarily Lily's coming-of-age story, a teenage girl realizing she's attracted to women, Lo perfectly weaves in all the other things that make a life: being the eldest daughter of a respected Chinese family in America, being an American-born Chinese girl in 1950s America, being queer in 1950s America. Were Lily a real person, her experience would have been achingly multidimensional, and this novel captures that ache, those dimensions. It feels like so many readers have the potential of seeing themselves in this book, whether they share an identity with Lily or not, and I think that's kind of magical.