Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a touchingly
bittersweet novel about young, forbidden love in the 1950s. Lily Hu is a
Chinese American teenager living in San Francisco in the midst of the Red-
Scare panic of 1954. One day, she starts talking with her classmate, Kath
Miller, and feels a spark of true connection between them. Their
relationship starts to blossom through the course of the novel as they
start attending the lesbian bar “The Telegraph Club”, even as society
attempts to tear them apart.
I loved this book. Last Night at the Telegraph Club shines
light on to both issues of racial, cultural, and sexual identity, all
while portraying a realistic and heartwarming relationship. The only
noteworthy annoyance was the continuous flashbacks to far less interesting
characters, but this is a personal preference rather than a genuine
complaint. Overall, I would rate this book five out of five stars, and I
would recommend Lovely War by Julie Berry for its love story and vintage
timeline, or Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler for a contemporary look
on young LGBTQIA+ love for fans of this book.