Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by luluwoohoo
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? No
4.0
Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
☀️☀️☀️☀️
This queer historical YA explores important issues of gender, sexuality and being true to yourself effortlessly, managing to keep things light and hopeful instead of falling into despair.
Lo evokes a beautiful sense of place and time with her writing, particularly in highlighting the intersectionality of Lily's life. It is simple and uncomplicated, but this lends itself to Lily's innocence and the coming-of-age theme throughout.
Lily as a character is completely relatable and believable as a young and naive woman. Her struggle to perform each of her assigned roles in life (as a good Chinese girl, straight-passing, uninterested in further education) are so perfectly balanced with her earnest and simple desires - to learn, and love in plain sight. The sub-plots mirror this in really fantastic ways without feeling reductive too.
I appreciated the exploration of time appropriate socially unacceptable concepts beyond sexuality too - the cultural/racial concerns of Shirley and the criticism for women in STEM were nice touches that highlighted how narrow an acceptable life was, and certainly still can be, for a woman of colour. The context of the flashbacks from other POVs was helpful in this way but distracted from the main narrative for me, particularly towards the end.
This is a wonderful book that embodies young love and self exploration in an authentic, beautiful way.
☀️☀️☀️☀️
This queer historical YA explores important issues of gender, sexuality and being true to yourself effortlessly, managing to keep things light and hopeful instead of falling into despair.
Lo evokes a beautiful sense of place and time with her writing, particularly in highlighting the intersectionality of Lily's life. It is simple and uncomplicated, but this lends itself to Lily's innocence and the coming-of-age theme throughout.
Lily as a character is completely relatable and believable as a young and naive woman. Her struggle to perform each of her assigned roles in life (as a good Chinese girl, straight-passing, uninterested in further education) are so perfectly balanced with her earnest and simple desires - to learn, and love in plain sight. The sub-plots mirror this in really fantastic ways without feeling reductive too.
I appreciated the exploration of time appropriate socially unacceptable concepts beyond sexuality too - the cultural/racial concerns of Shirley and the criticism for women in STEM were nice touches that highlighted how narrow an acceptable life was, and certainly still can be, for a woman of colour. The context of the flashbacks from other POVs was helpful in this way but distracted from the main narrative for me, particularly towards the end.
This is a wonderful book that embodies young love and self exploration in an authentic, beautiful way.
"An unfamiliar emotion swirled inside her at this image. A strangely sharp pang for a place she had never visited. For a people she resembled but did not know."