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A review by silvae
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
4.0
TW: racism (period-typical), misogyny, homophobia, deportation, bullying, bad coming out
I think reviewing this book means reviewing both the book itself and the fact that this book does something that not a lot of books (in YA, but surely also across genres) has achieved: it allows us to discover 1950's San Francisco, specifically the lesbian scene and Chinatown, through the eyes of a young Chinese American girl named Lily.
As a few other reviewers have mentioned, the story told in grand detail, but sometimes fails to connect certain plot points or tie up lose ends. Conflicts that were brought up over the course of the book seemingly faded away once the final conflict loomed on the horizon. YA always seems to be less dense than its other fiction counterparts (which is, probably, why it's categorized as one and not the other), which is a pity - I would have loved to dive in even deeper into the story, learned more about the characters.
Nonetheless, the characters won me over completely, and each scene was lovingly crafted, so much so that all I needed was to have some jazz on in the background for me to truly feel that I was walking the streets of San Francisco, or sitting down at the Telegraph Club. I wish we could have seen more of Lily and Kath's interest in math and aeronautics, though I suppose that reading The Calculating Stars (and sequels) by Mary Robinette Kowal scratches that itch quite well.
All in all: What a great book that fully deserves the hype it has been getting!
I think reviewing this book means reviewing both the book itself and the fact that this book does something that not a lot of books (in YA, but surely also across genres) has achieved: it allows us to discover 1950's San Francisco, specifically the lesbian scene and Chinatown, through the eyes of a young Chinese American girl named Lily.
As a few other reviewers have mentioned, the story told in grand detail, but sometimes fails to connect certain plot points or tie up lose ends. Conflicts that were brought up over the course of the book seemingly faded away once the final conflict loomed on the horizon. YA always seems to be less dense than its other fiction counterparts (which is, probably, why it's categorized as one and not the other), which is a pity - I would have loved to dive in even deeper into the story, learned more about the characters.
Nonetheless, the characters won me over completely, and each scene was lovingly crafted, so much so that all I needed was to have some jazz on in the background for me to truly feel that I was walking the streets of San Francisco, or sitting down at the Telegraph Club. I wish we could have seen more of Lily and Kath's interest in math and aeronautics, though I suppose that reading The Calculating Stars (and sequels) by Mary Robinette Kowal scratches that itch quite well.
All in all: What a great book that fully deserves the hype it has been getting!