This book is a queer historical fiction and the coming-of-age story of the protagonist, Lily Hu. Lily is a 17-year-old high school student in 1950s San Francisco Chinatown. The story focuses heavily on 1950s politics and how those political events shaped the characters’ lives.
Lily is a Chinese-American girl. The story is essentially about her questioning and exploring her sexuality. When she finds a queer bar called the Telegraph Club, she finds a community where she can be herself. But the times are dangerous. Deportation looms over her family because of the “red scare.” Being queer in her Chinese-American community is also extremely frowned upon. Still, she and Kathleen take the risk for their love to see the light of day.

This is an extremely well-researched book. The historical events of 1950s America are accurately portrayed. The “red scare” was America’s fear of communism. And as China was a Communist country in the 1950s, the Chinese citizens living in America at that time came under the American government’s scrutiny. Chinese-Americans were being deported unfairly. The book also explores the racism that was rampant at that time and the homophobia, mysogyny, and patriarchy in 1950s society. It also explores Lily’s Chinese American community and her family’s heritage wonderfully. The queer bar raids of the 1950s play a big part in this story.
The writing is beautiful. The descriptions take the reader directly to 1950s San Francisco. The characterization is wonderfully done. The reader can truly experience Lily’s internal growth slowly. This is truly an important and intriguing book.

-Ariana