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A review by lilifane
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
4.0
I basically didn't do anything today but reading this book until I finished it.
It's a queer coming of age story from the perspective of Lily Hu, a Chinese American girl in 1950s San Francisco. The books not only shows the life of Chinese people in the US at that time but also what it meant to be queer, and in Lily's case what it meant to be both. Lily has been a good Chinese daughter all her life until she discovers her fascination for the male impersonator Tommy Andrews and the queer night club, the "Telegraph Club". Through her classmate Kath she gets the chance to explore this new fascination but she has to keep it a secret from everyone else in her life.
I absolutely loved Lily's and Kath's story, it developed so slowly and delicately and shyly and was just so nice to follow. A warning though, you spend so much time in Lily's head with her thoughts and feelings, that the last quarter of the book or so is just painfully emotional. I cried non stop while reading because of the all the things that were happening.
What I didn't enjoy much was Lily's Chinese friends group, they were the worst. And although I like the idea of inserting a few chapters from different points of view to show more of Lily's family, these chapters were kind of boring and weren't relevant to the main story at all. I wish they had helped me to understand the family members and their relationship with Lily a bit more. (Aunt Judy's chapters were going in that direction but I wish there was still more.)
It's a queer coming of age story from the perspective of Lily Hu, a Chinese American girl in 1950s San Francisco. The books not only shows the life of Chinese people in the US at that time but also what it meant to be queer, and in Lily's case what it meant to be both. Lily has been a good Chinese daughter all her life until she discovers her fascination for the male impersonator Tommy Andrews and the queer night club, the "Telegraph Club". Through her classmate Kath she gets the chance to explore this new fascination but she has to keep it a secret from everyone else in her life.
I absolutely loved Lily's and Kath's story, it developed so slowly and delicately and shyly and was just so nice to follow. A warning though, you spend so much time in Lily's head with her thoughts and feelings, that the last quarter of the book or so is just painfully emotional. I cried non stop while reading because of the all the things that were happening.
What I didn't enjoy much was Lily's Chinese friends group, they were the worst. And although I like the idea of inserting a few chapters from different points of view to show more of Lily's family, these chapters were kind of boring and weren't relevant to the main story at all. I wish they had helped me to understand the family members and their relationship with Lily a bit more. (Aunt Judy's chapters were going in that direction but I wish there was still more.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Xenophobia