Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Last Night at the Telegraph Club

This book is absolutely amazing! The dynamic between Lily and Kath is amazing and I love them so much!!! I want their life to be happy and filled with joy. I loved this book so much!

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parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

this book was SO GOOD but made me quite sad, even if it was almost hopeful at the same time??? definitely a cocktail of emotions! the characters were all so well-written and developed (even though i hate shirley; understanding her motives doesnt make what she does okay) and they felt so real. this is one ill think about for a long time. wishing the best for lily and kath :')

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bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I wanted to like this more than I did. The historical detail is incredibly impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's note, but I struggled to invest in the characters and found the ending a bit of a disappointment. I'm bummed I didn't dig it more because the ingredients—coming-of-age, untold histories, first love, etc., etc.—are all there!

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spookily's review against another edition

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emotional tense 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? Yes

4.0

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

A beautiful story of a young Chinese American girl coming to terms with her sexuality during the 1950s. Gorgeous writing that tugs at the heart strings, woven together with artfully crafted descriptions of 50s San Fransisco, the communist panic and unlawful deportation of many Chinese Americans. A little slow, but purposeful. I envy the bravery and confidence that Lily shows in the face of adversity from both her family and the world.

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clemrain's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Lo has a distinct style of writing. I enjoy her attention to detail. Her dialogues are realistic, but a lot of conversation happens in the thoughts and how they are read and how Lo describes those interactions. Which I think is key for the types of family and time period Lo is writing.

I think the most dynamic and understandable character in this book was Shirley Lum. Would I want a friend like her? No. But she was an interesting character. She had a reputation to uphold and held secrets. She understood the repercussions. She, to me, was the daughter of an Asian immigrant. She found her best friend in a similar situation and the first thing she did was try to dig her out of it. Unfortunately,

she was very homophobic in her approach.

Shirley Lum was a lot more realistic and easy to relate to.

Lily’s jealousy of Shirley was a huge catalyst for much of her actions. However, those actions of sticking to truth over consequence presented her as above it all. This childishness in her to hold on to something so new yet so innate, caused a lot of anger in me. I couldn’t understand how she could be so reckless. Though the actions are incredible and something to strive for. I just couldn’t see Lily making those choices. She just wasn’t developed enough. All I’ve seen of her is her relishing in the community at the telegraph club. Her falling in love with someone she only knows on a surface level. How could these things persuade her to so easily stand up and loose the love of her family? It just isn’t realistic. I don’t understand how Lily went from point A to point B.

Kath just seemed like a love interest and nothing was interesting about her past her conversations with Lily about science. The meat of the historical moments sat with Kath.

What happened to her during her raid? How did her family react?

Still, even as a romantic interest, I kept thinking what were her feelings for Lily past the romantic? Flat character.

I didn’t understand what the point of the timeline was. As much as I liked reading about Lily’s family, I could’ve also done without having whole chapters dedicated to them. What I was told in those little chapters could’ve been condensed and delivered more efficiently.

All that to say, I can imagine this novel as a movie or even as a short story (which it was at one point). I think it didn’t effectively make use of its length. There was a lot of redundancy in scenes and much of the story could’ve been reduced.

I wish the raid had happened earlier so we could’ve gotten more of what happened after instead of having multiple bar scenes that ultimately showed the same point.

The ambition of talking about Chinese immigrants as well as the butch/queer scene of America as well as communism and America all in one novel was high. These three big ideas can coexist but in this novel they were not fully realized. There was too much going on and majority of it had no time to truly be resolved.

The ending was too rushed. The first half of the book took a while to ramp up. But I enjoyed it. It was so deeply researched and written. The intimate and realistic depiction of Lily learning about her queerness accompanied by the harsh reality of being Asian was gorgeous and relatable. But what was set up so carefully in the first part of the book did not pay off with such detail and satisfaction in the last part of the book.

For what it was, it was beautiful. It was well written. Ambitious. And at the core of it, it really was just a story about a girl whose identity was much bigger than she could begin to understand and live at such a young age. I wish we just could’ve seen her fight against it and learn from it a bit more.

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