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LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB

by Malinda Lo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2021

Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love.

Finally, the intersectional, lesbian, historical teen novel so many readers have been waiting for.

Lily Hu has spent all her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, keeping mostly to her Chinese American community both in and out of school. As she makes her way through her teen years in the 1950s, she starts growing apart from her childhood friends as her passion for rockets and space exploration grows—along with her curiosity about a few blocks in the city that her parents have warned her to avoid. A budding relationship develops with her first White friend, Kathleen, and together they sneak out to the Telegraph Club lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality as well as their relationship to each other. Lo’s lovely, realistic, and queer-positive tale is a slow burn, following Lily’s own gradual realization of her sexuality while she learns how to code-switch between being ostensibly heterosexual Chinatown Lily and lesbian Telegraph Bar Lily. In this meticulously researched title, Lo skillfully layers rich details, such as how Lily has to deal with microaggressions from gay and straight women alike and how all of Chinatown has to be careful of the insidious threat of McCarthyism. Actual events, such as Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 visit to San Francisco, form a backdrop to this story of a journey toward finding one’s authentic self.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-525-55525-4

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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by Malinda Lo

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PERSPECTIVES

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

More by Laura Nowlin

by Laura Nowlin

IF HE HAD BEEN WITH ME

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2013

There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.

The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.

Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.

Pub Date: April 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5

Page Count: 336

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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Last night at the telegraph club, common sense media reviewers.

Unforgettable queer love story set in 1950s San Francisco.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

A lengthy Author's Note about the 1950s touches on

It's important to be who you are, not what someone

While Lily and Kath don't always make good decisio

Lily is Chinese American and Kath is White. Lily's

There's a police raid on The Telegraph Club, but n

There are several brief but graphic sexual images

In the Author's Note, Lo explains that she used th

Characters mention the movie Bambi, shop at Macy's

Adults drink and smoke. The underage Kath and Lily

Parents need to know that Malinda Lo's Last Night at The Telegraph Club , won the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, It's is a gentle and altogether captivating queer love story set in 1950s San Francisco. High school senior Lily Hu lives with her family in Chinatown and is expected to be…

Educational Value

A lengthy Author's Note about the 1950s touches on everything from Elvis and the Beat culture to a history of San Francisco's Chinatown and its Chinese community, and how the city became an early refuge for queer men and women. The note also tackles serious subjects: how the government and FBI hunted not just for suspected Communists but forced queer people out of jobs because of the belief that homosexuality was somehow linked to Communism.There's also an excellent bibliography of books, articles, and documentary films

Positive Messages

It's important to be who you are, not what someone else thinks you should be.

Positive Role Models

While Lily and Kath don't always make good decisions (sneaking out at night, using fake IDs, and getting drunk), they are courageous; refusing to deny their identities as lesbians and seeing futures for themselves as a pilot or rocket scientist rather than following the stereotypical 1950s path for girls and becoming wives and mothers. At a time when careers in math or science were rarely open to women, Lily's Aunt Judy works as a "computer" (in the 1950s, before computers were widely used, gifted human mathematicians were called "computers") at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Judy is a powerful role model for Lily and never stops encouraging her to pursue her dreams.

Diverse Representations

Lily is Chinese American and Kath is White. Lily's mother was born in the United States while her father was born in China. The family is Christian and active in their church. While it's important to both parent that they're looked upon as a "typical American family," her mother worries about losing their Chinese identity. People make assumptions about Lily because she's Chinese American. She's asked several times "if she speaks English," and someone comments that she's surprised Lily doesn't speak with an accent.

Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator, is a prominent supporting character in the novel. The queer women Kath and Lily get to know at The Telegraph Club are college students, artists, and sales clerks. Some wear cocktail dresses to the club while other trousers, vests, and ties. Lily and Kath's high school has a diverse student body ("Chinese, Italians, Negroes and Caucasians"). Students mingle freely at a school dance but when dancing begins, they never cross racial lines to find a partner. Students are still talking about the scandal that erupted when a Chinese boy began dating a Negro girl.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

There's a police raid on The Telegraph Club, but no one is physically assaulted (the story says police "wielded flashlights" and women were handcuffed). Still. it's an emotionally traumatizing experience for many of the women.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

There are several brief but graphic sexual images and encounters. Reading a book about two women having a love affair, Lily "tugged up the hem of her nightgown and pressed her fingers between her thighs and pressed, and pressed." A kiss between Kath and Lily turns into "an indescribable ache" between Lily's legs and "when Kath's fingers touched her, they both gasped."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

In the Author's Note, Lo explains that she used the terms "Oriental" and "Negro" because they were widely used in the 1950s, but cautions readers that these terms are considered offensive today and should never be used.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Characters mention the movie Bambi , shop at Macy's and drink 7-Up.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink and smoke. The underage Kath and Lily drink (sometimes to excess) beer, martinis, and sangria and sometimes smoke cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Malinda Lo's Last Night at The Telegraph Club , won the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, It's is a gentle and altogether captivating queer love story set in 1950s San Francisco. High school senior Lily Hu lives with her family in Chinatown and is expected to be a dutiful Chinese daughter and an All-American girl. What Lily wants to do is work with rockets and try to sort through the confusing feelings she has about her sexuality. Kath Miller is the only other girl in their Advanced Math class and dreams of being a pilot. It's Kath who invites Lily to a lesbian bar called The Telegraph Club, where the girls soon become regulars. Lily and Kath's relationship evolves slowly from handholding to kisses that become "an indescribable ache" between Lily's legs and Kath's fingers touching her in a way that made them both gasp. The girls' love story is set against a backdrop of McCarthyism and the "Red Scare," as the FBI hunts for suspected Communists in San Francisco's Chinatown. The author uses the terms "Oriental" and "Negro" as they were widely used in the 1950s, but cautions readers that these terms are considered offensive today. Last Night at The Telgraph Club also won a 2022 Michael J. Printz Honor Award, ang among the American Library Association's 2022 Youth Media Awards, it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in the youth category, and the 2020 Stonewall Award.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Read this with your teenagers

Historical fiction with a queer-positive spin, what's the story.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB is set in 1950s San Francisco. Lily Hu lives with her parents and two brothers in Chinatown. About to start her senior year, Lily is trying (not always successfully) to juggle identities as a dutiful Chinese American daughter, typical American teenager, budding mathematician and scientist, and one that still mystifies her. That one is all about the feeling she gets whenever she looks at a newspaper photo of a male impersonator who headlines at The Telegraph Club. One day she picks up a book about two women in a sexual relationship. She doesn't dare buy it, but the story "Cracked the last part of the code she had been puzzling over for so long ..." Lily may have cracked the code, but she has no idea what to do next. Until she begins a friendship with Kath Miller, the only other girl in their Advanced Math class. First they bond over unlikely dreams, Kath of becoming a pilot and Lily of working with rockets. When Kath tells Lily she's been to the Telegraph Club and asks if she'd like to go, Lily agrees, even if it means sneaking out of her house. The Telegraph Club opens a whole new world for Lily. It's the first time she meets and gets to know queer women. The feelings Lily and Kath have for each other unfold slowly and tentatively, from being unsure how the other will respond to something a simple as the touch of a hand to finally beginning a sexual relationship. But Lily lives in dangerous times, and not just for queer people. The FBI is hunting for suspected Communists and the Chinese American community is one of their targets.

Is It Any Good?

This unforgettable queer romance is not simply about first love, but about discovering and embracing your many identities and standing up against fear and prejudice. Readers looking only for a love story may sometimes find Last Night at The Telegraph Club tough going. Kath and Lily's story is interrupted by lengthy storylines that follow the lives of Lily's parents and Aunt Judy and by short lists of events and dates (repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the end of the Korean War) from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how frightened Lily and Kath were in Last Night at The Telegraph Club that someone would discover they were lesbians. How do your school and community treat LGBTQ+ teens?

Lily and her best friend Shirley have a falling out because of Lily's friendship with Kath. Have you ever lost a friend over a disagreement? Were you able to mend the friendship?

Lily's Aunt Judy encourages her to literally reach for the stars and pursue her dream of working with rockets. Is there someone in your life who encourages you to reach for the stars?

Book Details

• Author : Malinda Lo
• Genre : Coming of Age
• Topics : Friendship , Great Girl Role Models , High School , History
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date : January 19, 2021
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
• Number of pages : 416
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Award : ALA Best and Notable Books
• Last updated : January 24, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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A life amidst books.

Book Review: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Title: Last Night at the Telegraph Club Author: Malinda Lo Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers Publication date: January 19, 2021 Length: 416 pages Genre: Young adult / historical fiction Source: Purchased Rating:

A story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare. “That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a beautiful, sensitively told story of a young woman in 1950s San Francisco, discovering her sexuality, finding first love, and navigating her place in the world of Chinatown and beyond.

Lily Hu is a high school senior who loves math, science, and reading Arthur C. Clarke. She’s fascinated by the idea of rockets and space, and dreams of one day working alongside her aunt at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Lily is the oldest child of a Chinese-American family living in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and her world revolves around the neighborhood and its community. While she attends a nearby high school, her friends and her activities are all based in Chinatown too — until she starts to get to know Kathleen, a girl in her advanced math classes.

Lily and Kathleen — or Kath, as she prefers to be called — begin to form a tentative friendship after Kath accidentally picks up a newspaper ad that Lily had saved, a promo for a male impersonator’s appearance at a nightclub. Kath mentions that she’s been to the Telegraph Club once, and the two girls agree to sneak out late one night and go together.

Meanwhile, Lily is unsure what to make of the feelings stirred in her when she reads about Tommy Andrews, the nightclub performer, or when she spies a pulp novel at the local drugstore that features two scantily clad women on the cover. When she and Kath finally make it to the Telegraph Club, Lily’s eyes are opened, seeing women together in clearly romantic relationships.

As Lily’s story progresses, she and Kath explore their feelings and learn more about the secret underworld of gay life in San Francisco. At the same time, the “red scare” is bringing fear to Chinatown, as even naturalized or American-born Chinese people are threatened with deportation and pressured to inform on others. When Lily’s father’s naturalization papers are confiscated during questioning about communist activity in Chinatown, the danger strikes home, and Lily is confronted by the potential consequences her own actions could have on her family.

Last Night the Telegraph Club is a moving coming of age and coming out story, and also a well-researched and eye-opening look at a particular time and place in 20th century history. The author shares a great deal of information at the end of the book about her research, her intentions, who she interviewed, and even provides a wide-ranging bibliography for those who want to learn more.

As she points out, there isn’t a lot written about Asian lesbians in historical fiction. The topics covered within this book are a unique blend of LGBTQ+, Asian American, and San Francisco history, and they work together spectacularly.

Lily is a fabulous main character. She’s not flashy or outrageous by any means. A studious, smart girl devoted to her family, she’s really never stepped foot out of line prior to this point in her life. She struggles with the conflict between her identity, her emotions and desires, and her family duty. Lily is portrayed as a sensitive girl who might have truly thrived in the modern era, but because of the time and culture in which she’s born, there is no easy answer for her.

As a non-native San Franciscan myself, I’m always interested in learning more about the history of my adopted city, and Last Night at the Telegraph Club delivers. While many of the places and neighborhoods are the same, the city has changed in dramatic ways since then. I loved seeing all the familiar streets and landmarks mentioned as Lily and Kath and others explore the city, and appreciate that they venture beyond the areas often covered in popular media to include lesser known spots too, such as one of my own favorite places:

Judy had fallen in love with Ocean Beach the first time she saw it almost four years ago, right after she first arrived in San Francisco.

Although as Lily herself later reflects, you can’t always count on the weather:

She suspected it would be freezing out by Ocean Beach

On a more serious note, the response of Lily’s family to learning about her orientation is sadly typical of the time, but still incredibly painful to read:

“There are no homosexuals in this family,” she said, the words thick with disgust.

… and …

“There are studies,” her father said. “You’re too young for this. This is a phase.”

My only quibble with this book is that I wished for a little more at the end, between the last full chapter and the book’s epilogue. I can’t say much without entering spoiler territory, but I wish the events of the last chapter had been carried forward longer to show what happened in the ensuing months. The epilogue wraps the story up very well, but it’s almost too abrupt in its resolution. Still, overall, I’m happy with how things were resolved for the various characters, and felt so invested in Lily’s well-being that I wish I could check back in with her to see how her life turned out 10, 20, and 30 years down the road.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is engrossing, moving, and sensitive, with memorable characters and a fast-moving plot that manages to convey so much, so well. Highly recommended.

Share this:

4 thoughts on “ book review: last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo ”.

This sounds fantastic. I love that it’s set in the 1950s 😁

Such a lovely book! I hope you check it out!

Thank you for reviewing Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lisa. This does indeed sound moving and I think I’d like to read it!

So highly recommended! I hope you get a chance to check it out.

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Last Night At The Telegraph Club: A Book Review

It was only in January 2021, Malinda Lo published her latest young adult historical fiction novel, Last Night At The Telegraph Club . Yet, it’s already on track to be a classic in LGBTQ+ literature. But Last Night At The Telegraph Club is not Malinda Lo’s first queer romance or WLW book. Ash , another one of Lo’s novels, reimagines the Cinderella fairy tale with the main character as a lesbian teenager. A Line in the Dark is another young adult mystery novel with a lesbian main character. However, the historical nature and intersectional lens of Last Night At The Telegraph Club makes it a must-read of Lo’s.

Last Night At The Telegraph Club presents the story of a Chinese American protagonist

Last Night At The Telegraph Club follows the journey of seventeen-year-old Chinese American, Lily Hu as she falls in love and discovers herself. Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950’s, Lily begins to question herself and her future as she enters her senior year of high school.

Lily’s senior year is a time marked by curiosity, exploration, and change. Her passion for rockets, outer space, and STEM continues to grow, conflicting with rigid familial, societal, and cultural expectations. She becomes friends with Kathleen Miller, her first white friend, distancing herself from her childhood Chinese American friends. Together, they secretly attend the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar in San Francisco, gradually exploring and realizing their sexualities. However, this isn’t simply a novel with LGBTQ+ representation; Lily Hu’s journey unfolds amidst the Red Scare , homophobia and sexism running rampant.

The book narrates Lily’s point of view alongside a historically accurate timeline of the 1950’s

Lily Hu is an easy main character to emphasize with, follow, and understand in Last Night At The Telegraph Club . Her narration is introspective and attentive. She maintains a perfect balance between courage and naivety, which is challenging to find in many main characters. Her perspective reveals a ravenous desire to see the otherness in people that she feels in herself. On some level, she understands she is different from what others think and expect of her. Event then, she refuses to be swallowed by confusion and isolation any longer. After attending the Telegraph Club, Lily recognizes and perceives the potential otherness in other people that she craves:

“She realized, with a jolt, that the city must be peppered with women who frequented the Telegraph or similar clubs; women who watched performers like Tommy Andrews, made friends with each other, made girlfriends with each other. At each intersection she cast skittish glances at the women waiting for the light to change, wondering if she was one of them too, or her, or her.” – Excerpt from Last Night At The Telegraph Club

Beyond Lily’s narration, readers notice the thorough research Malinda Lo conducted to create a historically accurate novel. The timelines scattered throughout the book, including historical and fictional events relating to the characters, added to the novel’s authenticity. I found it fascinating to read about this intersectional history largely left unexplored in fictional literature. The timeline helped guide me as a reader through the experiences and environments of each character.

Malinda Lo’s intersectional approach towards identity

The novel’s intersectional lens is invaluable. What makes Last Night At The Telegraph Club so compelling is Lily’s journey to unearth her intersectional identities—as a lesbian, a woman, and Chinese American—during a time when the world held little respect for these identities. Lily fights to understand herself and her growing identities in this unsupportive environment. When Lily finds a queer romance novel in a convenience store that she reads later on, she “decodes” herself:

“She felt as if she had finally cracked the last part of a code she had been puzzling over for so long that she couldn’t remember when she had started deciphering it.” – Excerpt from Last Night At The Telegraph Club

Not only does Lily struggle to understand herself but she also wrestles with choosing between her developing identities, especially considering the impact they have on one another. As a Chinese American, Lily and her family are under constant scrutiny for communist tendencies. Evidence of having these beliefs, even if unfounded, often resulted in deportation. This made Lily’s queer identity even more of a threat to her and her family’s lives.

At the same time, Lily craves a future in STEM, specifically exploring space travel. STEM is a male-dominated career field, unusual not only for women but also for Chinese Americans at the time. Lily’s status as a woman and a Chinese American restricts and limits her in this field. Being a Chinese American also forces Lily under the spotlight with unwanted attention for being queer. But the bright lights and spotlight of the Telegraph Club end up showing Lily the very answers she needs. 

Going beyond a queer romance

By the end of the novel, Lily comes to embrace and discover all of her identities by not giving any up. She claims her place in the world; she dares for more than what’s expected of her from cultural, familial, and societal obligations and restrictions.

What the cover might not show is this book is about more than finding one’s queer identity or queer romance. It’s a story about dreaming of things much bigger than you or the world (like outer space). It’s about experiencing your first love, understanding familial cultures, trauma, and conflict. It’s about growing up in Chinatown during the Red Scare, living in San Francisco, being a teenager, and childhood friendships that fade.

Regardless of the darker tones and moments of the narrative, Last Night At The Telegraph Club manages to imbue an aura of comfort and warmth consistently. The intersecting themes of internalized homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, trauma, and repression could have dominated the novel. Yet, the broad takeaway is one of belonging and self-discovery. Despite the existence and persistence of these hardships, there is a vibrant counter-culture of warmth, belonging, identity, love, and found family.

Minimal critiques of Last Night At The Telegraph Club

One of my only critiques of Last Night At The Telegraph Club pertains to the flashbacks from Lily’s relatives. Though these chapters expand the cultural context and give depth to the characters, I felt they halted the story’s flow. These chapters disrupted the novel’s chronological progression since some of the timelines overlap with each other. However, the journeys explored in these chapters unveil the heartfelt stories and perspectives of immigrants and children of diaspora in a personal, informative way that Lily’s perspective could not reveal. I only wish Malinda Lo organized or formatted these chapters differently.

One critique other readers might have of Last Night At The Telegraph Club is the story’s pacing. The book isn’t as fast-paced or action-packed, which might discourage many readers. But I realized this historical fiction novel is not about thrilling, action-filled, suspenseful moments. Rather, this book excels in its detailed, beautiful depiction of the minor details from discovering your authentic self to your first love from the 1950’s to Chinese American culture. 

Overall, the well-researched nature of the story, along with its skillful presentation of intersectionality, cements this novel as one of my favorite reads of the year. Not only is this novel a beautiful, heart-wrenching read, it also educates readers on relatively unknown perspectives of historical events. It’s a genuine representation novel, illustrating how it’s possible to live as a woman, a lesbian, and a Chinese American in a world that denies these coexisting identities. Last Night At The Telegraph Club encourages its readers to find their place in the world, to dare for more, to uncover and embrace their true selves without fear or hesitation.

The next time you find yourself at your local library or bookstore, take the time to make this novel your next read. That being said, this novel may be triggering for some with its mentions of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny/sexism, and miscarriage. Therefore, caution is necessary before reading.

My rating of Last Night At The Telegraph Club :

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January 21, 2021 by Amanda MacGregor

Book Review: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

January 21, 2021 by Amanda MacGregor   Leave a Comment

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Publisher’s description

Acclaimed author of  Ash  Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s.

“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. 

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America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Amanda’s thoughts

This will be an illuminating read for modern teens who may not know much about what it was really like to be a queer teen in the 1950s.

It’s 1954 and Lily Hu lives in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She’s heading into her senior year alongside her lifelong best friend, Shirley, who is also Chinese American. One day in a class, Lily is put in a group with Kathleen Miller, a white girl she’s known for years but never really been friends with. Something sparks between them—maybe just a new friendship, maybe a bond over being the only two girls left in their upper-level math class, maybe something more, something Lily doesn’t really understand or have the words for. It takes reading a surreptitiously reading a lesbian pulp novel in the back corner of a store for it all to finally click into place for Lily. But now what?

For Lily, there is so much more going on in her life than just beginning to understand what she may feel for Kath. The FBI takes her father’s citizenship papers when he refuses to give information on one of his patients who’s being investigated for Communist ties. Lily’s friendship with Shirley is under pressure, too. Shirley doesn’t like Lily being friends with Kath (and “warns” her about Kath) and freezes her out until she needs her help for the Miss Chinatown pageant. Lily feels the push and pull between her various identities, always feeling singled out for all the ways she is “other.”

Through repeated clandestine trips to the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar, to see a “male impersonator,” Lily and Kath come to understand more about their identity and the nearby lesbian community, especially when they are befriended by some of the older lesbians who frequent the club. But that hardly makes anything simpler—in fact, it just complicates things. How can Lily possibly live her truth in this era? And even if she and Kath feel the same way about each other, now what? More sneaking, hiding, being afraid of being seen?

This layered story also offers brief chapters about Lily’s mom, dad, and aunt from various points in time, helping flesh out more of what was going on, historically, at this time in the United States and specifically in Chinese American relations. Extensive back matter on the era and culture at the time provide additional insight. As can be expected of a historical fiction story set in the 1950s, there are plenty of racist and outdated terms used and the story is built on a foundation of the homophobia of the time (this is also discussed in the back matter.)

The way the story ultimately unfolds may be kind of predictable in the sense that it’s probably easy to guess how things may go for Kath and Lily—it’s hardly going to be an easy road for them. Though I would have liked to see some scenes or threads of the story fleshed out more and followed through with better, this was ultimately an enjoyable and thoughtful, personal look at one girl’s journey to self and identity. Pair with Robin Talley’s Pulp (set in 1955 Washington D.C.) for an even more comprehensive look at what it meant to be a queer teen in the 50s.

Review copy (digital ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780525555254 Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group Publication date: 01/19/2021 Age Range: 14 – 17 Years

Filed under: Uncategorized

About Amanda MacGregor

Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.

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Rainbow Round Table Book and Media Reviews

Book and media reviews from the american library association’s rainbow round table, book review: last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo.

Lo, Malinda. Last Night at the Telegraph Club . Dutton Books. 2021. $18.99. 416p. HC. 9780525555254.

It starts as a few clippings from magazines and newspapers: Katharine Hepburn in trousers, three female pilots sitting casually close to one another, and an ad to see the male impersonator Tommy Andrews perform at the Telegraph Club. She doesn’t know why she feels so compelled to look at these clippings, but in looking she hopes to understand. When a classmate, Kathleen Miller, accidentally sees the clipping of Tommy Andrews, she offers to take Lily to the Telegraph Club to see her in person. With equal measures dread and excitement, Lily steps into a forbidden world.

What follows is a brilliant imagining of what it might have been like to come of age in the 1950s as a Chinese-American and as a lesbian. Malinda Lo did an immense amount of research to ground this book in its setting and flesh out the type of story missing from our archives. The oppressive context of the era looms over Lily’s every decision. It is impossible not to feel the exquisite tension compelling Lily to explore, knowing as we do that she won’t be granted the conventionally happy ending we find in so many modern stories. Yet Lo refuses to sacrifice her heroine to any of the damaging tropes that posit suffering as an inevitability for queers of that era. From beginning to end, this novel is a triumph of possibility in queer storytelling.

Malinda Lo has been a proponent of diversity in books for years, so it’s no surprise that this book is a shining example of representation done well. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is immersive historical fiction that brings to life several diverse threads of the American experience that are often overlooked and oversimplified. The 1950s in particular is a decade that experiences so much whitewashing and heteronormativity in the popular imagination that it feels radical to read about a queer girl in San Francisco’s thriving Chinatown in 1954, all of the details firmly rooted in historical records. It is a gift fashioned from the whispers of our forebears. Fittingly, Lo dedicates the book to butches and femmes of the past, present, and future.

Highly recommended for adults and teens who like their historical fiction queer and accurate, readers looking for stories featuring queer people of color, anyone wanting insight into the Chinese-American experience in San Francisco from the 1930s to the fifties in particular, those who like stories with romance where there’s a lot more going on than just a relationship, and, of course, butches and femmes.

Review by Ashley Dunne

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Reviews of Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

by Malinda Lo

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' Opinion:

• Historical Fiction
• Young Adults
• 1940s & '50s
• Coming of Age
• Asian Authors
• Strong Women

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About this Book

• Reading Guide

Book Summary

Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s.

"That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other." And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: "Have you ever heard of such a thing?" Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

Excerpt Last Night at the Telegraph Club

The first time Lily had gone to Thrifty had been sometime last year. She had ducked in to buy a box of Kotex, because she hadn't wanted to get them at the pharmacy in Chinatown, where she'd risk running into people she knew. Thrifty was just outside the neighborhood, so her friends didn't usually go there. She had soon discovered that Thrifty had another advantage over the Chinatown pharmacy: it had a very good selection of paperback novels. There were several rotating racks of them in a sheltered alcove beyond the sanitary napkin aisle. One was full of thrillers with lurid covers depicting scantily clad women in the embrace of swarthy men. Lily normally bypassed that rack but today she paused, drawn in by The Castle of Blood , on which the blonde's red gown seemed about to slip off her substantial bosom, nipples straining against the thin fabric. The book rack alcove was normally deserted, but even so, Lily spun the rack self-­consciously,...

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National Book Awards 2021

Media Reviews

Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

Lo's extensive research makes this a YA novel with real historical teeth, grounded in the time period, geography, culture and history it is representing, offering a new window into an underrepresented intersection of identities. She does not sugarcoat reality, but still leaves readers with a sense of hope and appreciation for the power of young love and the true freedom of knowing oneself. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a powerful coming-of-age story that expands on hidden histories of a particular period of the United States from several angles, in beautiful, moving prose... continued

Full Review (487 words) This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today .

(Reviewed by Michelle Anya Anjirbag ).

Beyond the Book

Anti-chinese sentiment past and present.

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Joanna Ho, New York Times bestselling author of Eyes That Kiss in the Corners , has written an exquisite, heart-rending debut young adult novel that will inspire all to speak truth to power.

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Author Interviews

Lo makes national book award history with 'last night at the telegraph club'.

NPR's A Martinez speaks with author Malinda Lo about winning the National Book Award for her novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club , and unconventional characters in storytelling.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Malinda Lo was stunned when she won a National Book Award for her novel "Last Night At The Telegraph Club."

MALINDA LO: I was at home, obviously, because it was on Zoom. And my wife was in the corner, so she wasn't going to be on camera. And she was, like, silently screaming.

LO: She had her hand over her mouth. And I was like, oh, my God. I have to do this now.

MARTIN: It's the first time that a young adult book with an LGBT female lead character won the prestigious award. Lo talked with our co-host, A Martinez, about the book, parts of which are in Chinese - a detail which won over a special audience of one.

LO: I'm very proud to report that this is the first book of mine that my mother has read.

A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Oh, wow.

LO: This is my sixth novel. And my mother is - speaks English as a second language. So I know it was a challenge for her. And she really loved it. And I'm so grateful for that. I did reach out to historians who work in the period. And they put me in touch with a couple of Chinese American queer women who lived in San Francisco in the 1950s and '60s.

MARTÍNEZ: OK, so set the scene for us, if you would - 1950s San Francisco - height of the Red Scare. Your protagonist is Lily Hu. Tell us about her.

LO: She's a 17-year-old Chinese American girl. She goes to high school at Galileo High School in San Francisco, which exists today. She's super into rocket science. And this is also the Atomic Age, you know? This is before Sputnik was launched, but America was certainly in a Cold War space race with the USSR. These kinds of stories about rocket ships are all over the place. So that's Lily and her science love.

But she's also starting to realize that she might be a lesbian. She finds this ad in the San Francisco Chronicle for a club - the Telegraph Club - where a male impersonator is performing. Male impersonators were what we might call drag kings today. And they were very popular in San Francisco. People would go to these clubs to see both female and male impersonators. I saw ads in the Chronicle from this time that very openly reported this - that was advertising this. So that's where I got the idea for the club.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, Lily you describe as stepping outside of the bounds of being a good Chinese daughter. Malinda, I don't know if you would describe yourself as a good Chinese daughter. I'm the son of immigrants. I consider myself a good son of immigrant parents. What does it mean to be a good Chinese daughter?

LO: I think it means being respectful of your parents. I came to this country when I was about 3 1/2 years old. And I grew up very much aware of the sacrifices they made in China and in the U.S. to provide for me. And Lily knows this as well. Her mother was born in America, so her mother was a Chinese American - American citizen. But her father was an immigrant who gained his citizenship by enlisting in the U.S. military during World War II. She's very aware of the status of Chinese Americans in the United States in 1954. The Korean War just ended. It's Red China time, you know? People are not big fans (laughter) of China in 1954. So she knows that she has a duty to kind of represent her community in certain ways, and that really comes up against her interior desires to be who she really is.

MARTÍNEZ: But the self-discovery that she's going through independently, I think if her parents knew about it, would maybe not cast her as a good Chinese daughter.

LO: Absolutely. They love her, certainly. But being gay (laughter) in 1954 and in the Chinese American community at that time was not acceptable. It was not acceptable in America at large.

MARTÍNEZ: How much of Lily's discovery in "Last Night At The Telegraph Club" - how much of that is a reflection of maybe the self-discovery that you went through?

LO: I would say that my experiences were quite different than Lily's. First, I was born in 1974. So I grew up in the '80s and '90s. And being gay was not nearly as bad then. I mean, it was still not acceptable the way it is today, but it was a very different experience. I grew up in Colorado, not in San Francisco at all. I went to a women's college, which is where I started to discover my own identity. It was a very open and accepting environment in that place. But I did have my own issues around internalized homophobia to deal with because, you know, I grew up in this society where - right after the AIDS crisis, the height of it, you know, being gay was very scary to a lot of people still. So I did have some of those feelings, but the details were quite different, I have to say (laughter).

MARTÍNEZ: So how valuable would you say bookstores and books are for kids who have no other way, maybe, to find answers about uncomfortable things, such as sexuality?

LO: I know how much I connected with the books I read, even though they weren't about Asian American lesbians. You know, I loved, absolutely loved "Anne Of Green Gables," "Little Women." I absolutely identified with Anne Shirley and Jo March, you know? And they really became heroines of mine growing up. And their desires to be writers in those novels was something I so - I totally connected with. So I think that books are a really important way for kids to see outside their own little local world. I think it's very important.

MARTÍNEZ: 'Cause Lily has a bookstore in your book that helps her there.

LO: Yeah. She goes to a drugstore. So the 1950s and '60s - there were a lot of pulp novels published. And there were a lot of lesbian pulp novels published. And they were sold in corner drugstores. And she does find a book that is a lesbian pulp novel. And it kind of opens her world a bit. Even though it's not the best book to be reading (laughter), she certainly finds some possibilities in it.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, when you won the National Book Award, you urged people to pay attention to their school boards and vote in local elections. How concerned are you about rising cases of book censorship in schools? - because, I mean, this goes to everything we've been talking about - about how books and bookstores and libraries that have a very wide selection of books can help people, and specifically kids, figure out who they are in this world.

LO: Yeah, I am concerned about it. I think there's been a huge spike this year. And while I am concerned about the overt banning of books in schools - you know, several of my books are on some of these lists, too. Like, that definitely concerns me. But what concerns me even more is the fact that this atmosphere has a chilling effect on school librarians and teachers and may prevent them from buying any of these books in the first place. This kind of self-censorship is something that is very hard to fight, because if we don't know that books are simply not being put on shelves - if they're silently never being ordered, that's something that is very difficult to organize against. And so that's really what concerns me.

MARTÍNEZ: That's Malinda Lo, winner of the National Book Award for her young adult novel "Last Night At The Telegraph Club."

Malinda, thanks a lot.

LO: Thank you so much.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOKIMONSTA'S "LOVE THAT NEVER")

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Review – Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Jun 14, 2021 | Reviews

Release Date:  January 19th, 2021

Genre(s):  Young Adult, Historical Fiction, LGBT+

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Pages:  416

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Content Warnings:

Emotional abuse, homophobia, miscarriage, police brutality, racism, transphobia, violence

Last Night at the Telegraph Club  takes place in 1950’s San Francisco, where Lily Hu and Kathleen Miller meet under the sign of the lesbian bar called The Telegraph Club. Despite Red-Scare paranoia and the threat of Lily’s father’s deportation, Lily and Kath risk everything for their love.

This is a book that I’ve been seeing quite a bit on several blogs and Bookstagram lately, which ultimately influenced me to pick up this book while I was browsing at the bookstore. And while this was a bit of a random purchase, I am so glad I picked this one up. 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club  manages to capture so many topics at once. To name a few, it showcases the LGBTQ+ history and the social life at the time, as well as the crackdowns on bars like the Telegraph Club and the right to assembly. This book also shows the discovery of one’s identity through Lily’s perspective, as well as the perspectives and perceptions of many other characters. Finally, this story covers life as an immigrant in America, especially a Chinese immigrant, and the histories of China and America at the time as well as the impacts of the Red Scare on Asian Americans. 

While there were certain aspects of history that the synopsis led me to believe would be covered more than others, I’m surprised at how many topics this book covered in such detail. And from the beginning,  Last Night at the Telegraph Club  had me hooked by all of these details. I absolutely loved Lo’s writing style in this book and look forward to reading more of her work. This was the kind of book where I wanted to keep reading, but I also didn’t want the book to end. And while I can see wanting more of certain scenes regarding the influences of the Red Scare as described in the synopsis, a book that reads like this one and has me this immersed is an automatic five-star from me. 

And although I don’t relate to the main character’s identity as a Chinese American woman, there was so much I could relate to when Lily was exploring and coming to terms with her identity. And while things are different now compared to what they were then, being so close to Lily’s thoughts and the process of finding her identity felt so incredibly familiar, and I think a lot of readers will be able to identify with so many aspects of this book as well despite the time difference. 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club  was an incredible book that I highly recommend. Lo captures so much in this book and it is truly an engaging read from start to finish. I’d especially recommend this book to those that don’t read historical fiction as often – definitely give this one a try!

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“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo: A Review

June 11, 2022 by Jared Richards

Home » Blog » “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo: A Review

by Savannah Winkler, Library Assistant

In the opening pages of “ Last Night at the Telegraph Club ,” 17-year-old Lily Hu’s life is suddenly changed by a newspaper advertisement. The year is 1954, and Lily lives in San Francisco’s Chinatown with her family. The ad promotes a male impersonator named Tommy Andrews and her performances at the local Telegraph Club. Lily quickly hides the ad, and it becomes her secret, but it isn’t her only one. On trips to the pharmacy, she flips through pages of pulp romance novels, particularly one about two women. As she begins to understand her sexuality, Lily becomes even more determined to hide her growing feelings—that is, until fellow classmate Kath Miller discovers her secret. But instead of the shame and humiliation she was anticipating, Lily realizes Kath may share her feelings.

As their friendship grows, Kath and Lily sneak out and visit the Telegraph Club. They meet women who openly flirt with one another and share kisses in the club’s shadows. They watch Tommy Andrews’s electrifying performance, and Lily is captivated by her. But Tommy isn’t the only person Lily crushes on. Lily’s feelings for Kath grow into love, but outside forces continue to complicate their relationship. McCarthyism and the fear of communism threatens the livelihoods of Chinese-Americans. When her father’s citizenship papers are taken by the FBI, Lily realizes her actions affect not just her, but her entire family. She faces an impossible choice: her family or being true to herself.

Malinda Lo’s book has become one of my favorite historical fiction novels. I will never get to truly experience 1950s San Francisco, but while reading this book, I felt like I stood under the glow of the neon signs and smelled the smoke inside the club. This book provides the opportunity to learn more about LGBTQ+ history, including lesbian clubs and male impersonators (better known today as drag kings). A timeline of real historical events that coincide with the book’s happenings is included throughout the chapters. The amount of historical detail brings the book alive.

I enjoyed the historical setting, but the characters are truly what make the story. The romance between Lily and Kath is tender and honest. Readers easily root for them, and I found myself unable to stop reading because I needed to know if their relationship survived. I often hesitated while turning the pages and became increasingly nervous about the fallout if their relationship was discovered. “ Telegraph Club ” is a realistic novel, and it does not gloss over the discrimination that gay and lesbian couples faced in the 1950s. Despite this, Lo’s story remains unwaveringly hopeful.

This past March, Lo gave a talk to K-State affiliates and community members over Zoom. During her presentation, she explained her motivation behind writing this story. She wanted to bring people—specifically gay Chinese-Americans—out from the shadows and into the spotlight. These Americans were forced to live in secrecy for so long, and their stories were at risk of being lost forever. Authors like Malinda Lo have thankfully assured that will not happen. Without question, “ Last Night at the Telegraph Club ” succeeds at giving a voice to those who were once voiceless.

“ Last Night at the Telegraph Club ” is a great read for those who enjoy young adult literature, historical fiction, or romance. The novel has been widely recognized, winning the Stonewall Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Youth Literature, and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Lo has authored numerous other YA books, including the thriller “ A Line in the Dark ” and the fantasy “ Ash .”

June is Pride Month, and the library will have numerous displays highlighting LGTBQ+ voices. If you can’t stop by in person or are looking for more recommendations, check out the booklists featured on our catalog page .

Vandegrift Voice

“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” book review

malindalo.com

Published in January of 2021, “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” is a historical fiction romance novel in 1954 America.

Abby Lincks , Editor February 10, 2022

Red Scare paranoia is rising, and deportation is a threat to everyone around. After Lily’s father is accused of defending and hiding the identity of a communist, his citizenship papers are taken away. Even Chinese Americans like Lily are at risk, leaving her family in a standstill of fear. America in 1954 is not kind to many, but Last Night At The Telegraph Club highlights the individuals who dare to keep dreaming. 

Author Malinda Lo includes a helpful timeline, interspersed through four different sections of the book. Including actual events like, Japan invades Manchuria (1931) and the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed (1943) with fictional events pertaining to the plot. This makes Last Night at the Telegraph Club an excellent introduction to Chinatown in 1954 San Francisco, especially to inexperienced readers. 

In the back of this community’s mind, Red Scare paranoia, deportation and prejudice are a major threat. But they go forward with their lives as American citizens and support each other through a strong sense of community. In descriptions of food prepared and passed around the Hu family table, like nien-kao (New Year sweet rice cake), lo-han chai (vegetarian dish), hsün yü (Shanghai smoked fish) and pa pao fan (steamed sticky rice filled with sweet bean paste), readers can learn more about Chinese culture through the Hu family.

In addition, short flashback chapters between Lily’s parents, Grace and Joseph Hu, are present throughout the novel. This introduces a new lens different from the main perspective of Lily. Inclusion of decades past perspectives captures the generational effects Lily’s parents have had on her own life, but also for their own careers and futures amidst the end of a war, connecting the parallels and differences between parent and child. 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club tackles popular perceptions of the 1950’s from stereotypes about Chinese Americans to the LGBTQ scene. Lo doesn’t shy away from terms and ideas to shield the reality of the times. 

In an interview on the blog We Need Diverse Books , Lo said, “The vast majority of fiction about queer women is contemporary because until very recently, most people denied the fact that queer people even existed before modern times.”

Later, Lily befriends fellow classmate Kathleen ‘Kath’ Miller, and as the two begin to learn more about each other, a strong, special bond is formed. Both Hu and Miller find a safeplace in each other to confide over self-identity and dreams they both secretly want to obtain. Their dynamic, interesting personalities and backgrounds left me intrigued throughout, always wanting more dialogue that I wish Lo included more of. 

I absolutely adored this book. It was compelling, educational and a lot of the time, it was heartwarming to read. Malinda Lo’s writing was superb and I will definitely be looking for more published works of hers. Before, I hesitated to reach for historical fiction due to the complexity of world-building within; but Last Night at the Telegraph Club has completely flipped my perspective. 

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Book Review: Last Night at the Telegraph Club

When a friend recommended Last Night at the Telegraph Club , I had high expectations.  Last Night at the Telegraph Club, written by Malinda Lo, is a young adult historical novel that takes place in the 1950s in San Francisco. Initially, I was excited to read a sapphic novel with a POC main character set in a local city, and although the story was beautiful, I was left disappointed.  

The novel follows the life of Lily Hu, a Chinese-American girl, as she develops a romantic relationship with another girl at her school. Lily is a straight-A student with dreams of traveling to space. However, Lily feels as if her dreams are just dreams due to the responsibilities of being the eldest child. As she gets closer to graduating, her friendship with her childhood best friend, Shirley, starts to deteriorate. Their friendship falls apart even faster when Lily befriends Kat, a girl who many assume to be a lesbian. Shirley doesn’t like Kat because she’s concerned about the repercussions of being associated with an assumed lesbian. 

When Kat invites Lily to the Telegraph Club, a hidden gay bar in SF, Lily is overwhelmed. Lo does an amazing job of describing the ease and freedom clubgoers feel as they are finally allowed to be themselves. Even though it’s a very loved space, we can understand why Lily feels so overwhelmed. She wants to love the club, but she hasn’t accepted herself yet so the club is hard to adjust to. Although the Telegraph Club is a safe space, there are times when racist remarks targeted at Lily make her feel like an outsider. The racism is just Lo using time-period appropriate language, but the lack of confrontation makes it uncomfortable. I wished Lo had done something in those scenes, like having a character telling another to not call Lily “China Doll.” Additionally, the way Lo set up scenes with Lily being called “China Doll” and Lily calling African-Americans “Negroes” made me believe the plot was going to be focused on race, but it wasn’t. The lack of action when it came to these racial comments and Lily’s dismissal of them seems like something that could’ve been confronted more directly. Lo also leaves some details unexplained in the book. For instance, one of the characters is worried that their father may be deported because of an FBI investigation. However, it was never mentioned again. This is also done with Kat’s character. I cannot tell you ten things I know about Kat because there is not much written about her. It doesn’t take away from the overall experience of the book, but it does seem weird in retrospect. It’s as if Lo didn’t fully develop one of the main characters. 

When Shirley confronts Lily about her secret life at the Telegraph Club, Lily becomes emotionally distraught. Even though I saw it coming, that was the most hurtful scene in the book. When Lily ends their friendship, rumor spreads about Lily and the Telegraph Club. Lily’s mother tries to get Lily to deny the rumors for the sake of the family reputation and to also save  Lily from “that” life. Refusing to lie about herself, Lily runs away to find Kat. Although my favorite chapter follows that scene, at that point, it felt as if Lo couldn’t wait for the book to end. The ending was dull and fast-forwarded into the future, where there is no mention of the past. Overall, the ending was out of tune with the previous writing and completely unsatisfactory. 

After having read the novel, I would give it an 8.5 out of 10. I was hesitant to give this book an 8.5 instead of a 7, but I think I was too critical. My high expectations of a revolutionary tale may have kept me from truly enjoying the story, but I also think that in the moment of reading, I did enjoy the story. It’s not until I reflect on it that I realize its shortcomings. The novel is less of a beautifully written sapphic love story and more of a series of glimpses into the lives of people Lily loves. My favorite chapter is the one containing the scene in which Lily’s father takes her mother out and falls in love with her all over again. I think it’s telling of the story that the best-written love scene is between a heterosexual couple. Still, I liked this book and would read it again. Malinda Lo has written a stirring tale and it provides comfort for those who prioritize upholding family expectations over being themselves.

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Ep 642 - Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo

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• April 8, 2024 (United Kingdom)
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