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Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a 2021 young adult historical fiction novel by bestselling author Malinda Lo. The story takes place in 1950's Chinatown, California and is told in third-person perspective. It focuses on seventeen-year-old Lily Hu as she navigates her relationships with her peers that she's known for most of her life, her dreams of being a computer for the space program, the societal expectations that have been thrust upon her, and her burgeoning relationship with Kathleen Miller, a girl whom she has class with and starts to grow closer to.

Lily is a loyal yet quiet friend, an excellent student who is taking higher-level math classes than most of the girls in her grade, and overall the perfect Chinese daughter that her parents want her to be. Then Lily starts to spend more time with Kathleen Miller, a girl she has been attending school with but has never really been more than acquaintances with before this year. Kath and Lily find they have more in common than just the one class. Kath dreams of being a pilot while Lily dreams of space exploration, and they both have a common interest in The Telegraph Club. As the girls grow closer, Lily starts growing into who she really is; she starts finding her voice when it comes to her friend group, she starts sneaking out late at night to visit The Telegraph Club with Kath. She finds herself doing something she couldn't have imagined before; she finds herself falling in love with Kath.


Last Night at the Telegraph Club contains examples of:

  • The '50s: The novel takes place between 1950-1956. The ‘50s we see in the novel is an example of the historical ‘50s.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Kath for Kathleen, which is what most of her friends and her girlfriend all call her.
  • All Gays Are Pedophiles: After the police raid on the Telegraph Club, a newspaper prints an article claiming teenage girls were "recruited" by the "sex deviates" there because some attendees had been teenagers like Lily and Kath, heavily reflecting this belief (unusually though about lesbians instead of gay men). It also claims they got them into drugs.
  • Beauty Contest: Lily’s best friend Shirley enters the Miss Chinatown contest and recruits Lily to help her prepare for the contest.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Lily reunites with Kath and it's indicated the two may rekindle their relationship. However, what will happen to both with their disapproving families isn't clear. We also never learn what happened with Joyce and Tommy, who faced charges over letting teenage lesbians into the club, nor if it will be closed for good.
  • Butch Lesbian: Lily is immediately drawn to a picture of the drag king Tommy Andrews, and later also sees many other lesbians dressed in masculine garb while visiting the Telegraph Club. It's made clear she finds them appealing and she'd noticed such women before. They're described as wearing men's clothing and having short hair. Jean, Kath's friend, has this style too. Lily soon meets many more and Kath herself adopts the butch style too in time. Rhonda pegged Kath for a "baby butch" a mile away earlier.
  • Closet Gay: Lily at first and also basically everyone LGBT+, since this is the 1950s with rampant homophobia, so they aren't able to be out except in their own spaces.
  • Closet Key: Lily has felt drawn to certain photos of women, and she found herself intrigued by the lesbian pulp novel Strange Season however she doesn't realize she's a lesbian until Kath’s feelings for her are pointed out and she realizes that she feels the same way.
  • Drag King: Theresa Scafani, better known as Tommy Andrews, is a male impersonator who does a lounge act at the Telegraph Club.
  • Everybody Smokes: Due to this being the 1950s, most adult characters and some teenagers too are described as smoking.
  • First Kiss: Lily has hers with Kath after confessing her feelings for her at last.
  • First Love: Kath is this for Lily who has never dated or felt this way for anyone before.
  • Heteronormative Crusader: The standard view people have of LGBT+ people in the 1950s is at best disapproval, if not revulsion. Sheila, Lily's friend at the beginning, warns her to not hang out with Kath, whose friend is Jean, a lesbian, like it's a contagious disease, as Lily notes. Both she and Lily's mom react badly when they find out Lily's a lesbian.
  • Innocently Insensitive: White people sometimes make assumptions about Lily due to her being of Chinese ancestry which are annoying, like questioning if she speaks English (she's a native born US citizen). They don't do it from malice though, just ignorance.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: Lily initially mistakes the Telegraph Club's bouncer for a short, stocky man on first seeing her, as she's a Butch Lesbian who has short hair and a suit on.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Lily and other lesbians she sees favor a feminine dress style with long hair, usually wearing very nice dresses when they're on the town.
  • Maybe Ever After: The ending indicates that Lily and Kath may get together again after they were forcibly separated.
  • Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Drag king Tommy Andrews and femme Lana Jackson live together, Lily finds out. She meets several other butch-femme couples too. Lily (femme) at the end is indicated to maybe get together again with Kath, who's by then become butch as well.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname:
    • Lily is only rarely called Lilian or Li Li, as the full version of her name is in English and Mandarin.
    • The same goes for Kath, full name Kathleen.
    • Drag king Tommy Andrews mostly goes by this instead of her legal name Theresa Scafani.
  • Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: Lily is outed when she's seen fleeing a lesbian nightclub during a police raid by a man from Chinatown who knows her, and finds the scarf that she lost in her flight as well. Her friend Shirley tells Lily, who knows there's no point denying it as a man is a gossip who will tell everyone. She refuses to say that she's confused or anyone forced this on her. As a result Shirley and her mom both react badly, with the latter slapping Lily. In response, Lily runs away and takes refuge at the home of a lesbian she's met named Lana, who offers support to her. When her Aunt Judy gets her back, her mom again tries persuading Lily to lie that it was just a mistake, guilt-tripping her that this could endanger her dad's citizenship. Lily still refuses though. As a result she's sent away to Pasadena with her aunt and uncle in hopes being away for a while can make people forget, far away from Kath, the girl she loves.
  • Red Scare: The novel is set in the 1950s when the Red Scare was in full swing. The FBI takes Lily's father's citizenship papers after he refuses to give information on a patient whom the FBI believes to have Communist ties.
  • Their First Time: Lily and Kath first have sex together alone in a dark classroom where they had been going to make out.
  • Tomboyish Name: The Telegraph Club's Butch Lesbian bouncer goes by Mickey. Its star singer goes by Tommy Andrews, both on stage and off, while also being called Terry (as her legal name is Theresa) by fellow butch lesbian Sal (another example herself).
  • Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: The Telegraph Club of the title is the lesbian nightclub which Lily sees an ad for, specifically a drag king act there. Kath has already visited herself with her lesbian friend Jean before.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Tommy Andrews is a lesbian drag king whom Lily grows interested in after seeing her ad in the paper, visiting the club where she performs. She's revealed to be a nice, friendly woman. The police, however, view her as a terrible deviant seducing girls into being lesbians like her, which she's arrested for along with the club owner toward the end of the book.

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