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jaanusbooktalk · 2 years

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

8/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW: homophobia, racism (slurs), miscarriage, misogyny, sex (non graphic), underage drinking

(TWs are ranked in order of severity, please take them seriously!)

Last Night At The Telegraph Club had been sitting in my virtual TBR for months, and my bookshelf even longer. I’m so glad I finally got around to it this pride month!

I will say right off the bat that after reading I don’t necessarily agree with how it was marketed; the back of the book labeled it a thriller, whereas I felt like it was way less thriller and more historical fiction (I like both so this wasn’t a problem, just a heads up)

I fell in love with the characters, and even though it was a pretty slow-paced read I liked that I could enjoy it leisurely, put-it-down-and-pick-it-back-up-later type of vibe.

The story is set in California during what’s known as the “Red Scare” - when the U.S. government was firing employees and detaining anyone suspected of communist ties. Because of this national suspicion, Chinese Americans were especially at risk of discrimination and sudden deportation. In the midst of this, there’s teenage girl - Lily Hu - coming to terms with her sexuality and falling in love for the first time.

The book is incredibly well researched, and it was cool to get the stories of other members of Lily’s family. It really rounded them out as characters, as people instead of plot devices.

I think this book is a great read for anyone coming to terms with their sexuality or people who enjoy reading coming of age. I’ve also always been really interested in the history of queer nightclubs during the 50s, as “safe spaces” and this book taught me a lot! (Not to mention the aesthetic is just gorgeous)

Summary:

“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.”

TL;DR Two girls (one Chinese American, one white) fall in love at a gay nightclub in San Francisco during the 1950s amidst the Red Scare and fight to stay together despite their circumstances.

^lots of smoking & drinking in this book bc.. it was the 50s

So on to representation:

(Not really an own voices review, just saying what I noticed)

A good portion of the book takes place in Chinatown, either in Lily’s home or the greater community. Lily’s family celebrates the Chinese New Year while her best friend Shirley takes part in the Miss Chinatown Beauty pageant. The edge of Chinatown is located close to a gay nightclub called The Telegraph Club, and these are all historically accurate- the beauty pageant actually happened as an effort for the Chinese American community to better assimilate during the Red Scare.

There are moments when Lily is in predominantly white spaces that she has uncomfortable encounters with white queer people - they call her things like “China doll” as if it’s a compliment. Today this is definitely not okay to call someone, and even back then it made Lily uncomfortable, despite her wanting to fit in with those queer spaces. I think Malinda Lo did a really good job of showing this reality - the difficulty queer POC face when entering white queer spaces.

Kath, Lily’s love interest, is Italian. This isn’t touched on too much aside from sharing food from their respective cultures.

One thing I appreciated about the lgbtq+ rep in this book was it really addressed how difficult it is fight comphet, or compulsory heterosexuality. Even when someone isn’t in the closet, your family, friends, and community can try to force you back inside for their comfortability. What Lily and Kath go through is far from easy and reflects situations still faced by LGBTQ+ people today.

Finally, here’s a pic of some actual Ms. Chinatown contestants that was in the author’s bibliography/after notes (always read those!)

What I Loved:

For this book, I loved that it told more than one story. Sure, there’s the obvious storyline of Kath and Lily’s romance. But there’s also the story of Shirley and Lily’s tumultuous friendship, the story of Lily’s aunt and her life in a new country, the flashbacks to the story of Lily’s mother and father. There’s the story of Tommy Andrews, male impersonator and performer at The Telegraph Club, the story of queer women who boldly went out at night to an illegal establishment to watch those performances.

There’s the story of love in there because of this. All these people are tied together in such different ways, all just trying to love the best they can. I think that’s beautiful.

I also liked how the book didn’t idealize romance. There were times when Kath and Lily fought, when they made up, when they made out in janitor’s closets and it wasn’t at all like in the movies. They had to be vigilant with how they loved eachother, aware of every brush of their hands, and as a queer girl myself I felt really seen. It’s hard loving in a way that your world condemns as “wrong” or “sinful”. Especially as teenagers, when the LGBTQ+ scene is so dominated by adults, it’s difficult to find a place for us.

Back then, and now, it’s challenging to find spaces to celebrate queerness that aren’t also populated by mature themes (drinking, smoking, s*x, etc).

Note: Gay relationships are so taboo that society has dubbed them “mature content” to the point where a simple gesture like holding hands or a peck on the cheek can be labeled Rated R, making it hard for queer youth to preserve the innocent part of themselves and their relationships. Ex. People losing their minds over the lesbian grandmas from Lightyear.

The imagery was raw and there were definitely some scenes that left me emotional, especially when it came to Lily and her family/friends. Reconciling queer identity within communities of color is difficult because two kinds of love appear almost opposed to each other. Lily’s struggle with this hit close to home for me.

^my face during every scene where Shirley was talking (ily Lan Wangji😭)

Why I couldn’t give it a 10:

Honesty it came down to pacing. There were some parts where I felt the story was moving too slowly, or that certain copious amounts of detail were unnecessary and detracted from figuring out what was going on. At times I simply felt bored, because a page or two read like a history textbook or article. I understand needing to set the scene with historical fiction, but placing that in the middle of something happening took me out of the moment. I felt like it could have been better done if a character had given that background in dialogue (shorter) or if it was at the beginning of the scene. Putting it in the middle made it feel abrupt, and having a mini history lesson as one character’s thoughts (?) read more like the author trying to give me all of this (admittedly interesting) information about the event and political environment of the time.

I appreciate it, but here there’s a time and a place and I felt like it could have been done separately. That being said, I am in awe of how much effort was put into researching. This is by far one of the best researched historical fiction books I’ve ever read - I enjoyed reading the author’s note a lot!

I sincerely recommend to:

History buffs (especially if you’re curious about Chinese American/queer history)🔎

Fans of historical fiction novels (ex. Number the Stars, Promises to the Dead)📕

Fans of Luck of the Titanic/The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee 🚢

Closeted gay people (get a false cover if you need to!)🚪

Anyone looking to diversify their LGBTQ+ reading selection (y’all can’t all just be reading The Ones We Burn 🤢)

In hindsight, it could be that the background felt abrupt because I haven’t read historical fiction in a while - can’t even think of a time when I’ve read queer historical fiction before! Grateful to Lo for bringing this much needed representation ❤️

Overall, it was a good book and I enjoyed it! It definitely reinforced by desire to move to California (rip to my wallet) 🕊 Lily is a space nerd like me so that was awesome too 🪐

I also made a Pinterest board for this book since I kept thinking about it, here are some of my favorite additions:

“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. Historical fiction in America and in the West is certainly very white-centric - just like all fiction - and I’d definitely love to read more historical fiction about queer people of color.”

- Malinda Lo, author of Last Night At the Telegraph Club

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hear-the-ocean · 2 years

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The Downstairs Girl book review

Slightly spoiler-y review of The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Summary (pulled from goodreads) :

From the founding member of We Need Diverse Books comes a powerful novel about identity, betrayal, and the meaning of family.

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.

Review:

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee is a humorous, witty, and heart-wrenching novel. The writing is delightful and fun to read, with imaginative metaphors and imagery. Some of the philosophy and metaphors remind me of some Chinese novels I’ve read in the past. The characters are real and complex that brings forth complicated feelings for them.

We follow Jo, who is smart, witty, and strong. She is constantly being dealt hardship, but manages to get through it. It’s not that she’s perfect but rather that she learns from the people around her. When faced with despair, she thinks of her parental figure Old Gin and what he would do; when she needs to get the upper hand, she think about her cunning ex-boss Mrs. English. She’s a very satisfying character to have as our point of view.

There are many other characters we meet, each with their own good and bad. We are given a slight glimpse of them and as the story progresses, as Jo learns more and sees more, we learn more about those characters as well. This helps introduce characters and develop them for us in the sense that we get to understand more about them; the characters themselves (other than a select few like Jo and Caroline) don’t really change and I don’t think that was the point either.

The story is set during the Gilded Age. We are shown the elite having the time of their lives and more importantly we are shown how the marginalized suffer. The characters of colour are treated terribly and the slurs are thrown around so casually that it enrages you. Lee writes the racism realistically which makes the reader feel every emotion the characters are feeling. The fury, the helplessness, the humiliation, it’s so vivid I genuinely teared up multiple times. I was terrified for the safety of some of the characters multiple times.

The relationships between the characters were written very well. I loved the relationship between Caroline and Jo, seeing it develop and change. I loved the relationship between the Bells and Jo and I was so happy she finally got the family she wanted. The friendship between Jo, Robby, and Neomi was my absolute favourite. The romance was very sweet and I was rooting for Jo and Nathan to get together but there was the unease of “how can they get together? Is it possible?” It’s depressing but realistic how race was woven into everything. Every moment of happiness was accompanied with racism, it was inevitable and inescapable.

The mystery of the novel was something that I pretty much guessed early on but that was because the author did an excellent job of writing those hints. It was enough to clue you in and build up the anxiety and heartbreak you would feel by the time Jo figures everything out. There was one twist I did not see coming but everything else was set up for the reader to figure out before Jo. I think it worked well because Lee didn’t want everything to be a twist, or a shock factor. Although shock factors work great at evoking emotion, a story where the reader has the knowledge and the character doesn’t, builds emotions and suspense, waiting for the moment the character figures everything out.

There are moments of tension and moments where Jo is doing some dangerous things that made me anxious and scared for her. Whenever she was dealing with Billy Riggs, when she finds out someone knows about her secret advice columnist side gig, times when her and Old Gin face intense racism, all had me at the edge of my seat, heart beating wildly, hoping for her safety (and Old Gin). Things do get resolved for her with regards to some things but I never had any issue with it because she already faces so many other hardships, she deserves some happiness; some help and support from others and from the universe. Despite her being the main character, I never relaxed in any of the tense and dangerous situations. Basically everything felt so real, it felt like things could go bad and stay that way so when it went good, I would marginally relax. Not all the way, this is still a novel set during a time when people of colour couldn’t win. Everything comes at a cost and of course this is set right before full on segregation becomes law.

Overall I think the novel was beautifully written with multidimensional characters, themes that were explored well, and emotional and realistic depictions of life for people of colour. It makes me interested to pick up another book by this author in the future.

#my reviews #book review #my writing #writing portfolio #books and reading #books #bookblr #booklr #the downstairs girl #stacey lee #historical fiction #novel review #chinese american mc #diverse cast #author of color #writers #review

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the-sums-not-counted · 2 years

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The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

RATING: 5/5 SYNOPSIS: There is not much opportunity for women in Gilded Age Atlanta and even less for a Chinese girl like Jo, but when she’s given an opportunity to write anonymously for a local newspaper under the name of Miss Sweetie, she discovers her voice and causes a stir. Every book by Stacey Lee that I have read I ended up loving. Jo is a fantastic narrator and I loved her voice. She…

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#april 2022 #book review #Books #historical fiction #read 2022 #the downstairs girl #the gilded age #ya historical fiction

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spray10101 · 1 year

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The Downstairs Girl Review

3/5 stars

The Downstairs Girl is about a Chinese girl named Jo living in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1890s. She loses her job as a hat maker but she gets a job as a lady’s maid for the Payne’s eldest daughter. She also moonlights as an anonymous advice columnist to save the newspaper shop that she lives below.

This book is a historical fiction book that is very good. It’s very slow in the beginning but as you get to the end a lot of drama shows up, then it gets interesting. The book I’d say is appropriate for high schoolers and above. It does talk about some intense topics like racism, and affairs but other than that it’s good.

TW’s for the book: Racism, Affair (mentioned once), Violence (brief only one chapter), Classism (only slight), Misogyny (only slight).

I did learn about Chinese Americans in the 1890s on the east coast. I do recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction.

#book review #books #book reccs #the downstairs girl #stacy lee #historical fiction

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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 4 months

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No time to play. You are being sent away.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #yu ziyuan #jiang yanli #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #Do you know how hard it was to *not* do a 'Sold To One Direction' spoof comic? It took nearly all my will power.#Mostly because it misaligns a little too far off from the canon events and vibes.#But sit with me for a moment. Consider it:#“BEEP BEEP BEEP. I threw my pillow at my alarm clock. ”Wei Wuxian get your lazy ass downstairs!“ Yu Ziyuan yelled.#I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see my grey orbs staring back at me.#I put my long straight black hair in a ponytail with a red ribbon.#I went downstairs to see my adoptive mother holding a bottle of vodka and a cigarette.#'Listen up whore! I need money to pay the bills so I sold you. Your new owners will be here any minute so go pack!'#I stormed upstairs. There was no way I was going to let her sell me to a creepy old man!#I decided to run away. Since I'm not like other girls I don't have very many friends.#My gay friend Lan Zhan was mean but he lived like a block away.#As I opened the door I saw Wen Chao blocking the door. 'Ello Love. We're your new owners!'#I rolled my eyes and pushed him. 'Aren't you from that stupid Wen Sect? There's no way in hell I'm going with you!'#Hey again. It's me the OP of this blog taking a pause. I haven't actually read this story before aside from the memes #and I am honestly reeling from how this watpad fic chapter ends. What do you mean one of the one direction boys chloroforms her???#Chapter 2 is so much worse #Why is there such a strong focus on the *eyes* of every boy!!!#This fanfic is a horror story actually. I came into it trying to make a funny parody but I got in over my head. Dear God.#It's me again. Several minutes have passed and I'm on chapter 4. What the FUCK is going on here?#I feel like I opened up pandora's box hoping for a fun little treat and got the plauge upon me. Dont read this fic.

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myhikari21things · 2 years

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Read of The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee (2019) (366pgs)

#the downstairs girl #stacey lee #fiction #paperback #2010s #first time read

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doomedlemur · 6 months

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Does Crowley actually destroy the "bad" plants?

I think not!

Neil Gaiman notably suggested once that he makes the shredder noise to frighten the plants, then sneaks the plant with leaf spots out and gives it to the old lady downstairs.

However, this was just in response to a question asking what could be told to a child who was upset by the scene, and so could not be considered canon. It does seem in character, but trying to be mindful of not headcanonning Crowley into too much of a meow-meow, I was prepared to believe either possibility.

But then, I was reading the book. And though much of the scene in the show was taken line for line, in the book it doesn't say he shreds the plants, or that the sound of a shredder is heard, or anything like that. It says he leaves the flat with the offending plant, and returns an hour or so later with an empty pot.

About the right amount of time to pop downstairs, have a chat and a cup of tea, and re-pot a plant, wouldn't you say? Hmmmmmmm.

#a cupperty if you will #it wouldn't be the first time something was “suggested” that later turned out to be canon: see Greasy Johnson #I need more content of Crowley and his wholesome friendship with the old lady downstairs #remember this is the same Crowley who canonically watches the Golden Girls #Tangent: much has been discussed on the subject of Crowley treating his plants as a mirror to the way Hell treats him:#This is also in the book: “It was the way they talked to you. As if you were a houseplant who had started shedding leaves on the carpet.”#good omens #crowley #anthony j crowley #good omens book #good omens meta

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eddie4bat-president · 10 months

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I'm not a writer but i had this thought so- bear with me, yeah?

For months Eddie hears all about how cool and badass Steve Harrington is, yeah, but you know what he also hears about? How Steve and Robin are made for each other and how cool and pretty Robin is and how stupid it is that they're not a couple for some dumb reason, like Steve not wanting to be with a band geek and still clinging to high school hierarchy. And in all of the things Dustin says about Steeeve Harrington, that last part is the only thing that fits into the Munson Doctrine, so obviously everything else Henderson is saying is what's skewed in his little shrimp world view.

Steve Harrington thinks he's better than a band geek and that's why we won't look twice at a girl that would be perfect for him (according to Dustin Henderson, so... still questionably trustworthy information). Eddie probably assumes Dustin is talking up how close Steve and Robin actually are, just how he's exaggerating how close Dustin himself is to Harrington (like that would impress Eddie and the rest of Hellfire??? He really doesn't know how to get through to the little sheep that his worship of Hawkins' most notorious square is a detriment to his character and not something Eddie would find impressive. If it was real. Which it obviously isn't. Anyway-)

Turns out? Steve Harrington? Actually a cool dude. Not cool as in popular but cool as in "holy shit did he just bite that thing's head off???? Oh and he's not even gonna brag about that, it's just nbd, yeah sure, cool cool cool be fucking cool Eddie, oh god he's talking to me why is he talking to me" and just, chill to hang out with. After the whole shit show went down. Who would have fucking thought, huh? (except for Dustin Henderson, yeah yeah yeah, shut up)

So now Eddie has to reevaluate some other assumptions he made. Maybe Dustin was right and Steve actually is cool and badass, and he and Buckley actually are as close as he had said (and they really fucking are! He has seen them give Keith eerily matching bitchy looks for trying to schedule them on opposing shifts and basically bully the guy into changing the schedule around so they can spend as much time as possible in each other's presence. It's enough to make a guy question his own friendships when sometimes a few hours of band practice are enough to make him want to never see any of those chucklefucks again. Of course, that feeling abates but seriously, how are those two never sick of each other??)

So if they're as close as advertised but not a couple (and after meeting everyone Steve cares about and they're basically all nerds so the "Harrington thinks he's too good for a band geek" thing can't actually hold true-) what is the hold-up? Why aren't they a couple? And somehow, somehow Eddie comes to the conclusion that Steve is in love with Robin. Steve is a serial romantic (emphasis on romantic) and while his love life isn't the talk of the town post-earthquakes as it would have been before, people do still talk about the fact that he hasn't taken out a girl since it happened.

Which brings us to a day in summer, maybe fall, after Eddie has seen Steve look wistfully at a young couple with a baby, that he shows up at Robin's door step.

"Eddie? Hey what's up?"

"Good, good, how are you? Uhh can I... can I come in?" There's a nervous energy around him that is immediately infectious and she leads him to the living room where he immediately starts walking back and forth in front of the couch. She watches him for a moment, hands fluttering through different motions trying to find one that might calm him down before giving up on that. Instead Robin swerves around him, clambering onto the couch and wrapping her arms around her right leg, putting her head on her knee. She follows Eddie's path with her eyes and decides to wait before quickly realizing that she can't, actually.

"As riveting as it is watching you walk a groove into my parents' rug, do you maybe want to say something? I mean I can definitely talk enough for the both if us if that's what you want it's just that I have the slight suspicion you've got something you need to get off your chest" Eddie stopped walking halfway through her monologue and starts nodding.

"Yeah. Yeah yeah yes you're right it's just- I haven't a hundred percent made up my mind about saying something", Eddie has one arm wrapped around himself and uses the other to alternately play with his hair and gesticulate at her, "because on the one hand it's a little bit driving me crazy, maybe, but on the other hand this is none of my fucking business" And Robin who was worried at first just because Eddie is nervous, then for a second because she was scared he was going to confess to a very ill-advised crush on her, is stumped. What the fuck is this about and why did it bring him to her of all people?

"Just say it you weirdo", is what decides to comes out of her mouth but it doesn't even matter because half of her sentence is layered with his "Are you aware Steve is in love with you?"

[here we're facing the issue of me not actually being a writer and pretty much running out of steam but we also haven't reached the part that sparked this whole thing yet, which is wild - let's just pretend I wrote a very funny dialogue between those two in which Eddie confronts Robin for stringing poor Steve along ]

There's a moment when they're both silent and there's a moment when they're both talking and then there are steps coming down the stairs. They make a smirk grow on Robin's face that is starting to worry Eddie when not a parental figure but Steve Harrington steps through the doorway. He's wearing sweatpants and a shirt that might be Robin's and there's a headband pushing his hair away from his face.

"Don't yell at me for coming downstairs, you took forever and the first layer... is... dry....", he stops in his tracks the moment he looks up from his bare toes and sees Eddie. Then he very quickly rips off the headband and slings it somewhere to his right into the unknown of the hallway.

"Hi Eddie. What's... up" Eddie is going to sink into the floor and never come up for air again.

In the meantime Robin stood up on the couch to sit cross-legged on the back of it for a better vantage point and is steepling her fingers in front of her face. Eddie is getting the distinct impression he's missing some crucial information here.

"Stevie, babe, platonic love of my life-", Steve nods for her to go on, "you know how we decided I get a veto on your romantic life because we realized droves of suboptimal dates actually make you miserable so we're going for quality over quanity for the first time in your small-town Casanova life?" Steve has that cute little crease between his eyebrows while he's looking back and forth between Eddie and Robin, trying to figure out what's going on but he rolls his eyes at the end of her sentence, back in familiar territory. "Yes, Robin-"

She interrupts: "And you know how I also reserved the right to give a shovel slash molotov cocktail talk to anyone we deemed worthy of being a potential future partner?" Steve's face somehow shows an emotion that can only be encapsulated by "?!" as he glances to Eddie before shifting back to Robin with just the "?" remaining.

"First I have to say I'm personally very pro, I loved this experience; Eddie here really made a fool of himself, very worried for your delicate sensibilities and how I'm breaking your sweet little heart." "...what...?"

"So: what's the verdict on a potential future partner giving me the shovel talk?"

#Robin had painted 7 of Steve toes when Eddie rang the doorbell btw #they're a dark blue because Steve didn't want to jump into the deep end with too feminine a color #but black felt too edgy #but while they were drying and on the way down he kept looking at them and thinking #''i don't think this is my color... maybe a light blue? no too baby boy. yellow? nah that's ugly. orange? wait maybe with a stripe?#can nails be striped...?'' so when he arrived downstairs he was starting to worry he had never looked at a girl's nails because he didn't #know and whether that was sexist somehow #he had to shift gears very quickly when he arrived downstairs is what i'm saying #anyway i cannot stress enough how much i am not a writer #but the thing with the reverse shovel talk came to me and it wanted out #platonic stobin #steddie fic #steddie #hey i'm talkin' here #robin buckley #steve harrington #eddie munson #not beta read #top posts

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