willowdotcom 's review for:

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

2.0

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i was recommended this book by a friend and i will never be taking another recommendation from her again. single-handedly the worst thing i’ve read and finished recently. it could have done without the first 150 pages and still been the same story, but shorter. it drags so much and i never once found myself sympathizing with lily or kath or any of the characters. seriously, how is everyone unlikeable in this book. aside from that, little things that i personally didn’t like (doesn’t really have much to do with the book overall): the interracial relationship idk it just wasn’t doing it for me especially because kath was so one-dimensional. all that is known about kath is that she is white, she’s a butch lesbian and she likes planes. didn’t like the fact that lily had to lose shirley and her family, or lily wanting to partake in masculine things bc somehow that makes her more of a lesbian (?), ex. the nativity play, or overuse of the word Negro. the author explains that she tried to use historically accurate terminology but there is not a single prominent black character in the story nor were integrated schools even really a thing in california until years later. alongside that calvin’s school scandal being that he dated a black girl is so disgusting. it’s never brought up again and was only mentioned for, what, shock value? annoying and weird. i probably won’t read this author again.