coming of age – The Library Cryptid

Release Date	January 19, 2021
Publisher	Dutton Books for Young Readers
Content Warnings	Anti-Asian racism, xenophobia, homophobia, dated language & slurs, depictions of war, deportation, graphic sex, familial rejection
Did I receive an ARC?	No
Links	Indiebound \| Bookshop \| Kobo \| Libro.fm \| Goodreads

She knew that what she had read in Strange Season was not only scandalous, it was perverse. She should feel dirtied by reading it; she should feel guilty for being thrilled by it.
The problem was, she didn’t. She felt as if she had finally cracked the last part of a code she had been puzzling over for so long that she couldn’t remember when she had started deciphering it.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, pg. 42

It’s Lily’s last year of high school and she’s not quite sure where she fits in. Her best friend Shirley is doing her best to drag Lily in her wake, encouraging her to join the homecoming dance committee and help run Shirley’s campaign for Miss Chinatown. Lily, however, is more inclined toward math and science—and Kath, a girl in her advanced math class who wants to be a pilot. In this wonderful coming-of-age novel, Lily navigates emerging feelings about gender and sexuality all while dealing with what it means to be a child of Chinese immigrants in the 1950’s.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is about a romance, but it is not a romance novel; which, since I am not a romance reader, was great for me, but may not be what someone else is looking for. This book was about Lily growing up and growing into her own skin, and figuring out her place in her relationships with her childhood friend, her new friend (maybe something more), and her family.

There were some aspects of this book that felt like they were left as loose threads and never tied up. In the beginning of the book, a fair amount is dedicated to the threat of Communist uprisings—or, more precisely, the threat to Chinese immigrants who are suspected of having Communist ties during McCarthyism. However, this plot point falls by the wayside as Lily finds more important things to occupy herself with. As a reader, this feels a little annoying, because we enjoy it when everything is tied up nicely and nothing is left hanging, but I found it to be reflective of life. Being gay is a huge part of Lily’s life, and it’s one that she has thus far kept locked away in a deep part of herself; in a way, letting early plot points fade away helps highlight Lily’s inner conflicts and priorities.

This book has layers and Malinda Lo has done an excellent job of making Lily’s story feel personal. It is a little predictable but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t pull at your heart strings. It’s not often that the written word can make me cry, but it happened here. The feelings on the page are so raw and I was really with Lily all the way through.

If you are a fan of LGBTQ+ stories, this is one to pick up. It is tough to read in some parts, especially if you are queer, but I really loved it and would highly recommend it.

Content Warnings: Racism, homophobia, sibling death, lynching/race-based murder, child abuse

I don’t remember when or how I heard of this book—at first I thought it was a recommendation from the All The Books podcast, but that’s not it. And then I thought, maybe I’d just seen it on Netgalley? But it looks like it was never on Netgalley either…

However I heard of it, this book was the first sign the universe sent that I should be reading Kacen Callender’s books. Since adding King and the Dragonflies to my TBR, I’ve seen tons of lists that recommend their books, from Felix Ever After to Hurricane Child to Queen of the Conquered. Now, I don’t know how any of those books stack up, but I can confidently report to you that Callender nailed it with this one.

King and the Dragonflies is a coming-of-age middle grade story about Kingston James, who is struggling with grief after his older brother, Khalid, dies unexpectedly. On top of that, King is dealing with a whole host of other problems in his life—namely, his complicated relationship with his ex-best friend. Shortly before he died, Khalid overheard Sandy tell King that he was gay, and Khalid told his brother that they couldn’t be friends anymore. “You don’t want people to think you’re gay, too.”

Somehow, in this short book, Callender has managed to fit a whole host of issues: racism, homophobia (both as a whole and specifically within black communities), child abuse, grief, bullying, parent-child relationships, and sibling relationships. Normally squeezing so much into a 272-page book would be “trying too hard,” but Callender manages to make it work.

I think a really interesting aspect of this book is that even though we only have King’s first-person narrative, we still get glimpses of how other characters see the same problems. We see issues of racism from King’s point of view, but we also see it from Sandy’s point of view (who is white), as well as from King’s family’s perspectives. King is an extremely empathetic character, and that goes a long way in creating a well-rounded reading experience.

On top of that, King feels like a very authentic character. He and the other characters feel very real, and most of the events in the book don’t seem particularly far-fetched or unrealistic, which went a long ways toward making this a relatable story.

Also, maybe it’s just because I listened to it on audiobook, but this is a very emotional book and it definitely tugs at your heartstrings (aka, I cried). By the end of the story, you really care about King, his friends, and his family. This aspect is really what brought this from a 4 star to a 5 star for me.

There was only really one aspect that I wasn’t completely satisfied with, and that was with Sandy’s older brother, Mikey. Early in the book (page 3, which is why I’m not really considering this spoilers), King reveals that “the older Sanders boy helped three other murderers beat a Black man to death and then drag him all around the bayou…Everyone knows it was Mikey Sanders’s white pickup truck that did the dragging.” And that’s some heavy stuff to bring up in the opening pages of a middle grade novel, but I mostly take issue with the fact that this is never resolved. Sandy denies that his brother would do such a thing, and although we clearly see that Mikey is racist, this feels like a gun that doesn’t manage to go off by the third act. I just question Callender’s choice to include this aspect of Mikey without exploring it fully, when they could’ve left it at him being violently racist.

Besides that small complaint, though, I really don’t have complaints about this book. It was a real treat to listen to, and I’m glad that this was my first introduction to Callender. I’m looking forward to reading more of their books.