Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Young Adult. Romance. Sapphic. Chinese Culture. Historical Fiction. 1950s.

Rating: 3/5

Started: 14 March 2022

Finished: 17 March 2022

Summary:

    Lily has lived her whole life in San Francisco's Chinatown, just down the block from her best friend, who lives above a restaurant. She does her best to be a good student and friend, and a better daughter. She feels out of place sometimes, though. Her best friend laughs at her dream to become an aeronautical engineer, and in the midst of a communist scare that's had her father's papers confiscated, she really, really doesn't want to date the boy her friend has attempted to set her up with. 

    Then her new friend, Kath, takes her to a lesbian bar to watch a "male impersonator," and her world widens. But it's the 1950s. Homosexuality is practically illegal, especially in Lily's traditional Chinese family, to whom one more count against their American-ness might result in deportation. Except Lily is falling for Kath. And she doesn't want to hide it.

Thoughts:

    The writing of this book was amazing, the Chinese culture in it was fascinating, and it was queer, so that's a plus, but aside from those things, this book was incredibly average. I think my main issues were the protagonist and the the time period. I'm really not a historical fiction fan in general, and I think the 50s might be one of the most boring eras to me, so that made this book, especially the more historical and timeline-ish parts difficult to get through. Lily, though, was my least favorite part of the book. She wasn't raw or real or broken or complicated, and she wasn't a badass. She was super normal and quite boring. 

    The book wasn't unpleasant to read or anything; I honestly enjoyed it. The chapters that went back to Lily's parents' time were super cool, and Lo's style of using parentheses as side-notes was kind of incredible. I've never seen parentheses used so nicely before. Because of this, I think I will try to read the companion novel to Telegraph, but I'm definitely not desperate to do so. 

Words:

    Gamine (ad) characteristic relating to a girl with mischievous or boyish charm

    Negligee (n) a woman's light dressing gown, typically made of a filmy, soft fabric

    Banal (adj) so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring

    Prurient (adj) having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters

    Inanely (adv) done with silliness or stupidity