Last Night at the Telegraph Club
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What 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.
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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
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