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Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.) HTML:Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s. "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 fatherâ??despite his hard-won citizenshipâ??Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. *This audiobook includes a PDF of the bibliography and acknowledgments from the book… (more)
User reviews
Enter Katherine (Kath) Miller a girl who has been in her class since elementary school, a girl with a 'reputation'. Never close friends, all of the sudden in senior year, befriend each other. Kath has been to the Telegraph Club and the two make plans to go. Lily has to sneak out of her apartment to go, but she does...several times.
Malinda Lo has written an engrossing book combining a history of the San Francisco lesbian community, lesbian Asian Americans, the Communist scare and more. It almost has the feel of the 1950s pulp novels that she references in her book.
If you're a fan of the lesbian pulps and Robin Talley's book Pulp, then you'll be a fan of this.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book a lot. It’s set in the 1950’s in San Francisco and there are a ton of interesting historical events in the background here. Lily is affected by Red-Scare
Watching Lily and Kathleen attempt to navigate this changing world is fascinating. Aside from that this ends up being a very sweet love story between the two. The turmoil and acceptance (or not) of their families is intriguing, heartwarming, and heartbreaking all at once.
This story is incredibly well written with amazing description, a wonderfully intriguing setting, and very human characters. This book was incredibly hard to put down and I really loved it. Previous to reading this book I had also enjoyed “Ash” and “Huntress” by Lo; I was not a huge fan of her “Adaptation” series.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this book. It blended together so many amazing elements. I loved the historical setting, the complex characters, and the amazing writing. This was one of the best books by Lo I have read in some time and I look forward to seeing what Lo comes up with next.
It starts with a newspaper ad--Lily doesn't know at first why she is so drawn to the photo of male impersonator "Tommy Andrews" but she slyly tears it out and keeps it; the events that unfold afterward make for an interesting queer bildungsroman story. Lily's story is interspersed briefly with those of her parents' generation (less compelling but adds to the background, I guess). The author (known for her queer teen fantasy fiction) researched the period thoroughly while writing this story.
Bildungsroman centered around 17-year old Lily and her coming to terms with her sexuality.
The story also has flashbacks to the lives of her parents and aunt as well.
The ending is very uplifting.
San Francisco in the 1950s is not a
Lily Hu is your average Chinese American girl from San Francisco’s Chinatown. The only difference is she can’t really remember when she realized she wasn’t crushing on boys… but that girls were more
But in 1954, being gay and in love is not safe, especially in a place like Chinatown where everyone has known Lily since she was born. The Red-Scare also threatens everyone and with deportation looming over her father for not lying about who’s a Communist, Lily risks everything to be with Kath.
I’ll admit, I slept on this book for too long. There was a ton of hype around it and I knew I wanted to read it, but my TBR list is out the door, around the corner, and halfway to the next town at this point. But, even if it took me so long to read it… the hype is real! What a well written, historical fiction with sapphic love and women in STEM! I deeply enjoyed this novel.
I loved the exploration of Lily and Kath’s relationship. Lily was so obviously to her own queerness, or rather, she tried to be, she would deny it or persuade herself the feeling weren’t real. But once Kath and Lily really started to talk to each other, especially after being the only two girls left in advanced math class, Lily began to embrace her feelings. Though the book was a bit slow at times, I never felt like it was unnecessary; Lily was figuring out her entire world and what she wanted to be when she grew up and who she wanted to be with. That stuff doesn’t happen overnight, and sometimes you only get through small pieces at a time. That’s all good!
I also really loved the mention of women in STEM and what people thought about space and exploration and such at that time. I just kept thinking, “You all are so close!”.
I do wish there was more to the epilogue though - more about what happened between Lily and her family and Kath’s story after the Telegraph Club. There were a lot of loose ends that were only briefly touched on and then not spoken about again.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It’s interesting, well researched and informative on lesbian/gay culture and history that’s not always mentioned in the history books.
This book is well-researched and well-written, and the characters are complex and believable. For me, it didn't have the particular sparkle that it seems to have for other readers. It's good, but for me it didn't live up to all the hype.
I loved the attention to detail throughout this book, it’s very descriptive and not in an exhaustive info-dumping sort of way, but in a way where it’s woven in so well to the narrative, where you’re given this tremendous sense of place and time, and you can totally picture the clothing which is an essential element of Lily’s story. We’re all accustomed to books waxing poetic about pretty dresses but what’s special here is that the “traditionally masculine” styles some female characters wear in this book are just as celebrated, they’re described just as sensuously and glamorously, as they should be.
The segments focused on Lily’s parents and her aunt held my interest, however, I didn’t feel like there were enough of them nor did they delve deep enough to feel like they added as much to the story as maybe they could have. But that’s really the only very minor quibble I had here, overall this a fantastic read, the historical context of Lily’s Chinese heritage and sexuality and America, it’s touching, it’s infuriating, and every so often the drama of Lily’s situation gives way to some sweetly tentative romance.
From the book jacket 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.
My reaction
I really liked this YA work of historical fiction that focuses on the Chinese-American experience during the McCarthy Red-Scare period. Lily is a fairly typical teen of the era, especially one growing up in an insular culture and a protective family. She is pretty naïve about relationships, but then she has focused her energies to this point on science and being a good student. When she meets Kathleen it’s through their school work, and Kathleen is cautious about approaching Lily in any romantic way.
But Lily stumbles across a book that depicts a lesbian relationship and it puzzles her, though she is also intrigued and excited. And slowly she begins to realize that there is an entire community of women who share these feelings. Coming out in this time period was not easy and fraught with danger. Lily risked, at least, being ostracized by her family, and at worst being arrested and/or committed to an asylum to “cure her” of her “aberrant behavior.” Though she starts out naïve and unsure, she shows herself to be principled, compassionate, and willing to stand up for herself.
I really appreciated the historical setting for this coming-out story. It provided Lo with an opportunity to educate her readers about the realities of this era, especially on Chinese and other Asian Americans. She also detailed how San Francisco, a city now famously welcoming and open to its LBGTQ residents, was not so long ago a dangerous place for gays. I liked how she included an historical timeline every few chapters, detailing now only what is happening with the characters in the book, but the actual events of the period. And I loved the Author’s Note at the end, in which Lo provided much more information about the history depicted in the novel. When you read this book, do NOT skip this section.
The audiobook was narrated by Emily Woo Zeller who did a marvelous job. There are many female characters, and she was able to differentiate them sufficiently so I was never confused about who was speaking.
After coming across an advertisement for a male
Once she enters the club, Lily's world is never the same. She experiences what it is like to begin to understand who she is and who she loves. Once she has realized all of this, her whole worlds fall apart when her secret is no longer a secret and she must face those whose opinion matters the most.
The narrator, Emily Woo Zeller, was phenomenal. She truly brought each character to life and made you feel the pain of falling in love with someone unexpectedly. Her ability to bring each character, whether masculine or feminine, to life surpassed anything I would have expected.
Malinda Lo tells a beautiful, poignant story of a young girl coming of age and accepting that you are different than the people around you. I am so glad that I took the time to truly enjoy this story and learn all I could about Chinatown in the 1950s when the government was deporting people just on suspicion of being Communist. It truly reminds you how far we have come to love those we do and how much further we have yet to go.
This is an excellent historical fiction/coming-of-age novel set in San Francisco in the early 1950s. It tells the story of Lily Hu, a high school student who is coming to terms with her sexual identity in a place and time that made the decisions she faced not only difficult, but
It is a shame that many school libraries will not stock this National Book Award winning title for fear that many young people might learn that they are not alone out there.
A fantastic read. The chilly, damp setting of San Francisco in January seeks into your bones, much like Lily's anxiety over her growing awareness of her sexuality. It's not the sunshiny-est book out there, but it's also not without hope and love, and in fact, it balances the two nicely. Definitely recommended.
I borrowed it from the library without realizing it is a YA title, but it is for older teens and held my interest. I felt the mother was a very interesting character when her story was told, but she became somewhat 2-dimensional after she had children. It was interesting to read