A review by lolajh
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

FUCK. The last 100 pages of this book absolutely broke me, even though I knew going into this it would have to be intense when it’s about racism and lesbiphobia in the 50’s. Regardless, I loved this book. It has everything, lesbians and the usage of queer terminology such as lesbian, as well as butch and femme, which I absolutely loved to see.

Lily Hu. What a fantastic character. A Chinese American lesbian dealing with not just racism and lesbiphobia separately, but as overlapping things that create much more of an impact than one of these things by themselves. The portrayal of Lily’s lesbianism was portrayed a bit iffy in some parts, such as describing her intense focus on other girls’ bodies, but for the most part was described as more than skin-deep. 

Lily’s love for Kath, a butch lesbian, was so bittersweet, and a lovely depiction of lesbian love. Their relationship transitions so seamlessly from friends to lovers, and despite the context they are in, neither have internalised homophobia about their lesbianism, and there are never any moments of shame between them after they show affection, which is something quite prominent in a lot of queer books done even in present context. Seeing Lily’s love for butches in this book where the butch is the love interest and femme as the mc was lovely, because I got to see Lily’s admiration for butch lesbians and for Kath. I can clearly see Lily as a femme, whilst it isn’t stated as clearly as Kath being butch, because of how she expresses her femininity in no way for a man, and because of her true love for butch lesbians. They are clearly Lily’s type; her love for butches was just so beautiful to see, and so different from traditionally feminine (but not femme) lesbian stories. 

There are also sex scenes in this book, and the characters are both seventeen, which isn’t too young I guess, but because of how the scenes were portrayed in such a beautiful way, I still found them to be enjoyable. They’re my age, and it’s not unrealistic for people under the age of 18 to have sexual thoughts and interactions, so I do think it’s fine. I loved how intimate the scenes were portrayed; the consent and communication and them not at all being something directed for the male gaze was beautiful. It was less about lust and pleasure than just pure intimacy and love between the characters, something so pure I really admired.
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