Malinda Lo creates an impressive immersive experience in this well-researched novel. Lily is a Chinese-American teenager in 1950’s San Francisco, coming to terms with her sexuality with the help of the denizens of the Telegraph Club while the Red-Scare looms over her family. Last Stop at the Telegraph did show the realistic period-typical bigotry, but it was never gratuitous or shoe-horned in as some dramatic historical fiction can do just for the sake of drama. Lily’s worries and fears about her family are heartbreakingly real, and her burgeoning lesbian romance is wonderfully authentic. This was an engrossing and compelling novel, and I’m glad we have more stories like this in the world.

4.5 Stars

CWs: Some exploration of racism, deportation, xenophobia, homophobia, underage drinking, some graphic sex, brief mention of miscarriage, some use of outdated racial and social epithets (relevant to time period), some exploration of familial estrangement and disownment

I'll just say it: this is the queer historical YA of my dreams. It manages to capture an impeccable sense of place and time while also celebrating and reclaiming queer histories. That is 100% my jam, and I think Malinda Lo absolutely nailed it.

The story's intersectional lens is invaluable, especially considering the time period during which it is set. The 1950's in California were a very fraught time politically, racially, and socially. This was a time period where it was still considered unusual (and "unnecessary") for women to continue to their education. It was a time when interracial marriage was not yet legal, much less "same-sex" marriage or partnerships. It was when Red-Scare paranoia was reaching a fever pitch, and Chinese immigrants and Chinese-American citizens were being deported and discriminated against under the premise of being "Communist loyalists." As young, queer Chinese-American girl, Lily has to contend with all of these issues and figure out how to navigate a world that's very much against her.

What will inevitably stick with me from this book is the way it easily could've been about trauma, repression, and the internalization of homophobia—but instead, the overarching feeling that stems from this story if one of warmth, belonging, and self-discovery. Make no mistake, it is a historically accurate narrative that addresses the all-too-real obstacles and hardships that queer people of color, especially, had to deal with during this time period, but it's more so about Lily finding ways to work around those obstacles and fighting for those few-and-far-between moments where she is free to express herself. It's about how those hardships existed, yes, but for every hardship, there was a way around it—there was a vibrant counterculture of queer people existing and thriving and loving each other.

The story brilliantly captures that feeling of discovering where you belong, discovering safe spaces, and that surrender of allowing yourself to just take it all in. Those moments of Lily first entering the Telegraph Club and instinctually recognizing this dynamic, code-switching counterculture were intoxicating for me, because she's finally able to understand all the feelings she's been taught to deny and erase. More importantly, the Telegraph Club is a place that represents queer futurity and queer normalcy. For someone as young as Lily to see queer adults living their lives, forging relationships, holding everyday jobs, and celebrating their queerness out loud is life-changing. It gives her the confidence to stay true to herself, even if it would be easier to live out the "normal" life that's been laid out for her.

To that end, I think one of the most effective themes in the story is an exploration of performance. As a scientifically-minded Chinese-American young woman living through the Red-Scare, Lily is constantly confronted with need to cultivate a certain "image." She has to be "a good Chinese girl" to keep her family happy, she has to present herself as "American first" in order to distance herself from "Communist sympathizers" in her community, and she has to keep her interests appropriate for "what suits a young lady." And, of course, she has to hide her queerness, which would be deemed as scandalous, illegal, and shameful. So she is constantly having to perform the role of the "perfect Chinese daughter," while also being encouraged to pursue and emulate whiteness, while also suppressing her authentic desires and feelings.

Being able to "pass" in any given situation requires a certain performance, and because of that, performance is often a means of survival. As the story progresses, I think Lily is beginning to understand the tenuous relationship between "performing" and "masking," and she's learning where it's safe to drop that performance and just be herself. We also seen an aspect of literal performance at the Telegraph Club, with the headlining male impersonator known as "Tommy Andrews." This goes to show that while we may "perform" in order to hide or conceal, we also perform to lean into our authenticity and our differences, especially when our instinct to self-preserve tells us to pull back. Lily learns a great deal about living out loud, and how the most important parts of herself don't simply disappear when she occupies different spaces.

Overall, this such a beautiful story of self-discovery, queer desire, and carving out space for yourself in a world that could never anticipate you. It's about tender first love, queer community, found family, and staying true to yourself even in the most trying of times. This is, by far, one of the best historical fiction books I've ever read, and I know I'll be recommending it far and wide for years to come!

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is something of a revelation. A heart wrenching look into the world of a young Chinese girl realizing her sexuality in 1950's San Francisco. Lo's writing is stark and straightforward, but she is somehow able to evoke deep emotion and a sense of atmosphere.

As a typical SFF reader, I felt like the story moved slowly at times, but that falls on me, not the writing. As a historical fiction, this story isn't based on action and epic plot twists. The beauty of the story is in the slowly growing realizations of Lily and how her life is irrevocably altered.

Lo explores a lot of injustices that were present in the 1950s (and sadly still today) and I felt it was done well. I hope this book finds its way into high school classrooms.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is set in 1950s San Francisco and follows high school senior Lily Hu, a Chinese-American girl coming of age in the city’s Chinatown. This book is being billed as a romance, and there certainly is a romance at the forefront, but there is also a coming-of-age element as well; in fact, I felt as though the first 2/3 of Last Night at the Telegraph Club read more like a coming-of-age story than a YA romance. I actually love coming of age stories so this didn’t bother me, but as a book reviewer I feel legally obligated to point out when a book is different than I expected. Lo expertly combines the coming-of-age and romance elements, showing Lily questioning her sexuality as she also experience her first love.

This book is based on two interesting pieces of history: that of the women engineers who helped put men on the moon, and of the queer scene in San Francisco in the 1950s (per Lo’s author note). In Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lily meets aspiring pilot Kath Miller, who is first a promising ally as the only other girl in Lily’s advanced math classes with whom she bonds over a shared love of aircraft, but then something beyond friendship begins to blossom between them.

As this story is a bit more coming of age-y in voice and overall vibe, Lily and Kath’s romance is the slowest of slow burns, but it begins to ramp up in the last third of the book. It’s also a first love story, so Lily and Kath don’t get a happy ending, but it’s not messy or tragic which I liked (I’ve had enough messy breakups to last a lifetime, thank you very much). I also liked the cast of supporting characters in this story, made up of the women that Lily meets at the lesbian nightclub for which this book is named. It was an interesting foray into the 1950s queer scene in San Francisco, as well as a good story about identity.

DNF at 45%

I liked the characters in Last Night at the Telegraph Club and for the most part I was enjoying it. But the plot felt like it was going nowhere. To the point where any progress I was making in the book felt like I wasn't making progress at all.

I do think that a LOT of other people are going to absolutely love this. From what I read, the celebration of lesbian culture and what felt like the beginnings of lesbian found family will be a hit for many readers. I hope this book finds its way into their hands.

This was my first Malindo Lo book and will not be my last - I loved her writing, this story, and the diverse and queer themes throughout. I immediately pre-ordered this book after reading the e-ARC I received (because who could not have that beautiful cover on their shelves). Themes of identity - in terms of what it meant to be Chinese American and queer in this time period. It made me miss the importance of queer spaces when you're discovering yourself and your identity. I love this book and I cannot wait to have all of my friends read it and to read it again myself!

This is such an engaging book, I could barely put it down!
We follow a Chinese American girl named Lily who realizes that she likes girls, as she navigates not only the homophobia of that time period but also the assumptions made about Chinese people and queer people back then.
The book comes across as very well-researched, and it was interesting to see how ethnocentric the assumptions Americans made about Chinese people were, as well as how scared people were of communism to the point where if even one person is suspected of being a communist, people are warning each other about them.

Absolutely loved the cover and I may be 100% biased, but I love books set in my hometown.
It's 1954 in San Francisco (Chinatown and North Beach, specifically) and our main character is 17 year-old Lily Hu who falls in love with classmate Kathy Miller. Lily is obsessed with rockets and going to the moon, but her "best friend" Shirley sees her dream as infantile. However, Kathy, who wants to be a pilot, celebrates Lily's passion. This is a coming-of-age tale for a Chinese-American girl who is grappling with her sexual awakening, identity within her family and friends, and falling in love for the first time.
I love a good coming-of-age story with POC and LGBTQ characters (we need more!), especially one that is well-researched in the intersecting identities of the characters. Yes, there is triggering language, but--as mentioned in the Author's Note--it is a reflection of the reality of the time rather than a carte blanche for Lo to use racist and sexist language. Such a wonderful, tender, and heart-wrenching read.

I got the offer to review this book in an email, thanks to NetGalley and was excited that Malinda Lo had a new book coming out (well, it’s already out now). I’ve liked all of her previous books, despite the fact that we see things very differently, politically.

A warning for my conservative readers: this is a lesbian coming-of-age story. While it’s not particularly graphic or anything, there’s the usual stuff you’d expect of a young adult romance novel.

Anyway, this is the story of Lily Hu, a Chinese girl living in ’50s San Francisco. She lives in Chinatown with her parents and two brothers. She’s seventeen and in her senior year of high school, and after discovering male impersonator Tommy Andrews in a newspaper, she ends up seeing her schoolmate Kathleen Miller (‘Kath’ for short) in a whole new light. She realizes she’s gay, and soon discovers that Kath is gay too, but before that, they begin making clandestine nighttime trips to a lesbian club called The Telegraph Club, where Tommy Andrews performs.

When I started this novel, I knew the author had done a lot of research into the time period and the gay culture of San Francisco, and it all came alive for me. It was fascinating, since I’m from the Bay Area (further up north, in Solano county). Life for Lily and her community isn’t easy, because of the hysteria surrounding communism and the fact that these were the early years of the Cold War. The authorities were suspicious of Chinese immigrants due to the fact that in this timeframe, China fell to Mao Zedong’s Communist Party. Lily’s Shanghai-born father, Joseph, a doctor at the Chinese Hospital, has his papers confiscated once he refused to divulge the communist ties of one of his patients and Lily’s schoolmate Calvin. This happens even though he’s a veteran of World War 2.

Yes, things were tough for non-white people back then, even though it was San Francisco and not, say, Montgomery, Alabama. The author does not shy away from using the terms people used back then, such as “oriental” and “negro”. Lily and her friends also encounter casual racism, but it’s not as horrible as what blacks would encounter in the Deep South. Still, I find myself deeply grateful that the US isn’t like that anymore. Given how the media keeps whipping up hysteria about racism, I feel that teen readers of this book will not appreciate how much things have truly changed.

Being suspected of communist sympathies is bad enough – even her Chinese relatives and friends are completely disgusted by homosexuality. Lily ends up feeling like an outcast because of these two things, but navigates them with strength and grace.

I actually liked the scenes at the Telegraph Club, as the club was a safe haven for the women who could not be themselves out in public, could not express their love for each other the way heterosexual couples could. It also reminded me of another novel – Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, which also features a male impersonator.

The novel is mostly told in the third-person perspective, from Lily’s perspective, but there’s also several chapters in between the different parts of the novel, all told from the perspectives of her father, mother and aunt Judy when they were younger. It is through these chapters that we see how Lily’s parents got together, and we also see, through Judy’s eyes, Lily’s budding interest in aeronautics and sci-fi. I loved that aspect about Lily – I love sci-fi too, and I also love astronomy.

There’s also a lot about Chinese culture, from the dress to the food to the history and language, and there’s some lines of dialogue in Chinese characters, but they’re translated in footnotes. Some other terms are romanized, but translated in footnotes.

As noted, the novel is separated into several parts, and in between those parts are the chapters told from her parents and aunt’s point of view, and a timeline of important historical events from that time period. I was afraid the author would be sympathetic to communism and such, but it isn’t that big a part of the novel. Plenty of Lily’s family and friends are definitely not fond of communism, and some are resentful of being suspected of communist sympathies or ties due to their nationality and/or ethnicity, which is understandable.

The romance between Lily and Kath is a slow one, and the true romance happens much later in the novel. I kind of wish it had happened sooner, as the novel felt really long, but then we probably wouldn’t have those alternate chapters, which I also found fascinating.

Things go fine at the Telegraph Club until the police raid the place and arrest the owner and Tommy Andrews. Even though homosexuals were allowed to legally gather at the time, the club owner and patrons were suspected of luring underage teenagers to the club, where they supposedly plied them with alcohol and drugs. After that happens, Lily eventually comes out to her parents, and at the risk of offering spoilers, let’s just say it does not go well.

The end is kind of sad and bittersweet, although I’ll spoil it a little bit by saying that Lily and Kath do have a happy ending. It’s kind of anti-climactic, but they do have a happy ending.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this one, but I ended up enjoying it, especially getting a view into Chinese culture, which, like Japanese and Korean culture, fascinates me.

The very end of the book contains a lengthy author’s note adding context to the story by discussing the history of the era and the research she did. It’s also pretty fascinating, and the author even disclosed that certain people in her family were inspiration for elements of the story.

It’s pretty good, not only for learning about the Chinese immigrant community of the ’50s but also for the challenges lesbians faced at that time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC for review.

4.25☆

Characters-
The characters in this book were so adorable and real. Set mostly in the 1950s, I thought the author did a really great job keeping the characters and their relationships in this book accurate to the time. The struggles the main character Lily faced were not only realistic to the 50s, but realistic in present times. Many teens still aren't educated on different sexualities, so when they start questioning their own they feel a sense of isolation and wrongness. This shouldn't be the case, but I loved how the author explored this. The romance between Lily and Kath was also very adorable and cute. I felt it represented their ages well unlike other books I've read.

Plot-
The plot of this book was not as enjoyable as I wanted it to be. The pacing was definitely off, and this made the book hard to get through at some points. It started out good, got very slow and almost boring in the middle, and then 100 things started happening at once towards the very end. This was kind of jarring and took me out of the reading experience at various points in Last Night at the Telegraph Club.

Writing-
Although it wasn't extraordinary or anything super special, the author's writing style and skill is good. I specifically liked how she included Cantonese and Mandarin characters when characters spoke these languages and then had footnotes giving their English translations. I thought this was really cool and a great inclusion, so I applaud her for that.


Overall, I did really enjoy this book. The characters were great and the writing was good, but the pacing and the plot didn't click with me which is why I gave the book a little above 4 stars.

It seems apt to end 2020, a year of reflection and introspection for many, with a YA novel that feels fresh and timeless at the same time. Malinda Lo’s new novel, Last Night at the Telegraph Club echoes with the same beats as my favorite “baby gay” first lesbian novels (e.g. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel), but hold nuance and depth as an exploration of the limitations and restraints of the Eisenhower Era. Malindo Lo explores the role of the “other” in white picket fence McCarthyist America through the eyes of a young girl coming to terms with historical familial trauma, her identity as a Chinese lesbian in society, and future as a woman in a male-dominated field in San Francisco's post-war Chinatown.
Lily Hu is a “good Chinese girl.” Her father is a reputable family doctor, her mother by his side as a nurse, both parents well-respected members of their tight-knit Chinatown family. There is no room in their community’s embrace for error or deviation, as their neighborhood faces the tides of post- World War II racism and the initial waves of the Red Scare. When Lily discovers an intriguing advertisement for a male impersonator at a local nightclub, The Telegraph Club, she realizes she might not be quite like her boy-crazy best friend Shirley as she might think. As the novel progresses, Lily discovers the wonder of the gay underground in The Telegraph Club alongside her close friend, and first love, Kath. Lily must delicately maintain the balance her of double life between Chinatown and The Castro in order to protect her family as they face deportation for supposed Communist ties, and save her new friends, Kath, and herself from the prying eyes of the gay-bashing police.
Last Night at The Telegraph Club has beautiful writing full of detail and care; Lo rebuilds the glitz and glitter 1950’s era San Francisco before your eyes, situating the reader in the heart of Chinatown alongside the Hu family. The pacing was on the nose for a fast-paced, exciting coming of age novel and I could seldom put the novel down. Malinda Lo celebrates queer friendship and found families in Last Night at The Telegraph Club, one of my favroite themes that is very near and dear to my heart and seldom stressed in novels.
I loved the vignettes between chapters from Lily’s family’s point of view, as it regaled their journey to adulthood as immigrants and children of diaspora as they come to terms with their American surroundings as Chinese outsiders. Lily’s father’s fear of deportation and alienation from his American peers rings true in contemporary America. Personally, I related to Lily’s mother’s fear of being too “Americanized” and distance from her own culture as I am the daughter of Cuabn immigrants. However, sometimes these outside perspectives interrupted Lily’s narrative and felt that they needed some fleshing out in order to remain pertinent to the plot. I also would have preferred some fleshing out of the secondary characters, especially Shirley and Calvin, Lily’s friends who become involved in the Communist Party.
Malinda Lo’s works are already a bookshelf staple for any WLW; Ash and Huntress are any young gay person’s first book with lesbian characters. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a fitting addition to Lo’s acclaimed literature, a wonderful coming of age novel full of love and heart. I would highly recommend this new novel, in stores and online on January 19, 2021.

TW: Homophobia, racism, racial slurs
Thank you Penguin Teen for providing me with an e-arc of the book!

Historical fiction is a genre I don’t pick up much, but it is also a genre I want to start reading more of. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a sapphic historical fiction that takes place in San Fransisco in the 1950s and follows an Asian-American teen named Lily. I loved hearing Lily talk about space travel and just science in general. I’m a sucker for books that has or talks about space travel, so this book was right up my alley. I adored the main relationship of the story and just loved seeing the two characters slowly fall for one another. Last Night at the Telegraph Club was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new historical fiction to read!

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is a coming of age story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown and North Beach communities in the 1950s. Lily Hu is a “good Chinese girl”, who aspires to work with rockets and all things space. She and her best friend make up stories about the tourists who dine at her best friend’s family restaurant, she looks up to her Aunt Judy, who works at the Jet Propulsion lab. At the start of her senior year, she comes across a picture of Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator, and is instantly enamored. She also strikes up a friendship with Kath, a white girl in her math class that she’s always been aware of but never really talked to. Lily starts to branch out from her bubble in Chinatown and discovers feelings she doesn’t quite know how to deal with. Set against the backdrop of McCarthyism and the “red scare”, Lo weaves a story that at times is quite tender and poignant- wanting to know how you ‘know’ you are in love, the electric intensity of a first kiss- and at times devastating- family disappoint and lost love. (Pt.1) (Pt.2)I really appreciated the historical accuracy that Lo has brought to this story as evidenced by the extensive bibliography at the end. And while it isn’t an autobiography per se, it is clear the subject matter is near and dear to the author. I have to admit that I don’t have a lot of diversity in my reading as far as LGBTQ+ main characters go, and that is something that I wish to remedy. My biggest complaint about Last Night is that it feels like two novels smushed together. The storyline of Lily and her parents’ story of coming to States, told through timeline shifts. While I found both aspects interesting, they just didn’t seem to go together for me. I will definitely add this to my list of books for my classroom- there aren’t many contemporary novels that deal with the history of LGBTQ+ in every day situations and it is well done in that respect. Also, there are a couple of more ‘racy’ scenes so I wouldn’t recommend this for younger middle grades if that would be a concern. I did read this as an #ARC for @NetGalley, and the publication date was Jan. 19 I believe. Random rating system 3.5/5. #TeachersWhoRead #TeachAbroad #InternationalTeacher #TeachersOfIG #TeachersOfInsta #TeachersOfInstagram #TeachersFollowTeachers

I don't usually read historical fiction so I started this book feeling a bit neutral about the story and characters. The story is set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950's. The historical setting was well researched, the characters are genuine and engaging.

As the story begins, Lily is navigating high school as well as her curiosity and growing attraction to a classmate, Kath (Kathleen). At a time when the Red Scare was beginning and gay rights were almost non-existent, Lily's growing feelings, as well as her internal conflict with her parent's expectations, completely drew me in before I even knew it. Throughout the rest of the story, I was cheering on Lily and Kath, as well as all the other characters at the Telegraph Club. The author's note at the end should not be overlooked as it adds additional depth and information to the characters, culture, and historical context for San Francisco in the 1950's.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Malinda Lo for an advanced eBook copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book got my attention and kept me engaged. I have already purchased this for our Teen Library, and know that it will be a hit!

I’m so happy that Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is out now from @penguinteen! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it and wanting to share it and give it to people since I read the digital galley months ago. I’m a simple person - I see a book by Malinda Lo and I read it and love it. And this one is an especially powerful, page-turner, forever book. A queer coming of age love story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s. It’s just as good as all the praise from authors and reviews says. I can’t wait to booktalk and share it with young people who will love it, too. Go, now, buy it from your local indie. I’ll wait. (Also, Malinda will be doing a bunch of awesome virtual events you should attend!)

The context of everything is important. For an immigrant, a young woman, a minority woman to be a lesbian in the 1950’s was an uphill climb indeed. Lily is the daughter of Chinese American parents, immigrants, she’s first generation born in the U.S. Growing up in San Francisco her life is a contrast since she is expected to be a “good Chinese girl” and is in many ways she is. She helps with her younger siblings, does well in school and tries to be the daughter that her parents expect her to be. When she discovers the underground world of female performing as male, and her feelings grow into something more for a female classmate she is on a collision course. Being a lesbian in the 1950’s was illegal in every sense of the word. For a Chinese American young woman it put her into the crosshairs of so many taboos both within her home (Chinatown) and without in the wider society.

This was slow and poignant and very real. I felt like I was there in 1950s San Francisco, chafing at the bonds of being a "Good Chinese Girl" and slowly discovering myself. I really enjoyed it.

I do think that the (overly long) flashback sections about Lily's parents and aunt when they were younger were unnecessary. They kept wrenching me back out of Lily's story and I feel like they detracted from the story a bit.

I was afraid it would end tragically, but I'm satisfied with how it ended. It was fitting and believable and left room for hope.

A beautiful, richly woven historical fiction featuring a Chinese a American protagonist. The depiction of the realities of coming out during this time was expertly done, but also very frustrating because of the injustice of it all.

The intersectionality of the LGBTQ+ experience and the Chinese American experience during this time was told wonderfully and allowed the reader to understand the struggles Lily was facing as well as her friends and family around her. I really loved that before each section Lo included a timeline of world events that were happening before and during the timeframe of the book as it gave great context into the thoughts and actions of those around Lily. I also appreciated the sections written from the perspectives of her mom and aunt as they allowed us to see a more well-rounded viewpoint of the struggles faced by Chinese American women during this time. While there were a lot of characters that I disliked in this book (and you’re meant to!) I found it really interesting how Lo was able to show us why they did or said certain things.

Overall, I really loved this book and felt that the imagery really put you in 1950s San Francisco. I loved watching Lily grow into herself and learn how to navigate the various struggles in her life. This is a story that will definitely stick with you! Highly recommend y’all check it out!

Thank you so much to @penguinteen @netgalley and @malindalo for the #gifted ARC!