A review by jcstokes95
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

 
YA historical fiction seems like a real challenge to pull off. You have to educate, build a distinct mood, make time-accurate characters that still relate to a modern teen and craft a coming of age narrative that is both engaging but realistic to the setting. In this particular bildungsroman, Lo is also weaving in the sweetness of young love without letting it overpower the self-discovery at the core of her story. In all, Lo is pulling off an impressive balancing act here. In the end, I felt I had learned so much about a period and perspective that I hadn’t previously imagined. 

We follow a teenage Lily, as she begins to put a name to her own sexuality and faces what that will mean for her. The regular homophobia threatening her existence is only compounded by virulent anti-Asian, anti-immigrant sentiment, which means her reputation extends to her family as well. Despite this, she continues to explore a delicately portrayed relationship with her classmate Kath and dips her toes into the grimy, yet exhilarating would of the Telegraph Club. 

Personally, I was much more invested in the parts where we were examining the relationship between Lily and her day-to-day counterparts, Kath, Shriley and her own family. I found a lot of the characters at the Telegraph Club grating, though I do think this is purposeful. And feel immensely accurate to that time in your life where you begin to realize the glamourous “adults” of the world are no wiser than you are. In this way, even the things that frustrated me, built a sense of realism. This was the biggest strength of Lo’s book. Every person seemed to act rationally within their own specific contexts. YA can sometimes be cursed with dei ex machina that create conflicts or resolve them. Lo instead keeps you grounded in Lily’s world. 

For this reason, I also vastly appreciated the choice to not give Lily’s family the normal warm, fuzzy traditional YA reaction to coming out. It’s a painful read, the small attempts at empathy are still cutting. Even the most sympathetic character, Lily’s aunt, is moralizing and prevents Lily from living authentically. But, this makes the novel that much more compelling in the end, though when we get the epilogue, I found myself wishing we had seen some of the growth that happened off page. It felt a bit like a missing piece. 

Similarly, while I appreciated the context around her parent’s journey, some of the flashbacks seemed awkwardly placed and didn’t always feel central or connected to the story. I’m not sure how I would have recut these to make a stronger impact, but it did sometimes create a bit of whiplash that took you out of Lily’s mind.  

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