1950s San Francisco is not the safest place for seventeen-year-old Lily Hu to realize she’s a lesbian, and the danger is only amplified by the anti-Chinese sentiment of the Red Scare. It starts with Lily’s infatuation over the male impersonator Tommy Andrews, and the companionship and understanding of Kathleen Miller, a friend from her math class. It coalesces with love found under the neon sign of the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar that is equally as threatened by the paranoia of the Cold War. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is beautifully written and utterly transcendent, and serves as a testament to the power and necessity of queer love even in times of danger and intolerance.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, (List Price: $11.99, Dutton Books for Young Readers, 9780525555278, December 2021)
Reviewed by Jordan April, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina