Poignant, nostalgic, and emotionally devastating
This book was emotionally devastating. That's the best word I can think of to describe it. I turned the last page and read the author's note through my tears, and then I ugly cried for a while. It's poignant and nostalgic and gorgeously written so that you feel everything Aria feels and live breathlessly in the moment with her. Every time I opened the book I was sucked in and forgot about everything else.
Malinda Lo is exceptionally good at capturing a moment in time, especially a moment where the character is right on the cusp of something. I don't remember Last Night at the Telegraph Club being quite so devastating, but I think part of that is my own emotional resonance with this story.
For most of the book, it's like she captured one perfect golden late-summer Northern California afternoon. The kind the stretches on and on, where the light showers everything in gold and you could believe that the moment could last forever. It meshes so well with that last endless summer between high school and college, when you're just beginning to discover yourself.
Aria is on the cusp of adulthood, the cusp of realization that she's maybe not as straight as she once thought. Her crush on Steph simmers just beneath the surface, warring with the impossibility of it all and the electric novelty of her newfound queerness opens up a previously unseen world to her.
At the same time she's having her ideas of her grandmother, her parents, her friends, and her past reshaped as she grows out of her childhood assumptions about them.
The ending circles back to the beginning in a wholly satisfying way that makes everything seem more profound and gives every moment, every gesture weight and meaning.
I love the exploration of time and memories and grief and art, and how they interconnect and weave together. The characters leap off the page, so full of life and well-rounded are they, and I felt them tugging at my heart more insistently than many.
This is a book that everyone should read and that I will probably never read again, because I don't think it would have the same breathless impact the second time through and I'm not sure my heart could take it.
The cover is stunning and complements the story SO well. The cover artist captured the essence of the story perfectly.
*Thanks to Bookishfirst and Penguin Teen for providing an ARC for review.
Malinda Lo is exceptionally good at capturing a moment in time, especially a moment where the character is right on the cusp of something. I don't remember Last Night at the Telegraph Club being quite so devastating, but I think part of that is my own emotional resonance with this story.
For most of the book, it's like she captured one perfect golden late-summer Northern California afternoon. The kind the stretches on and on, where the light showers everything in gold and you could believe that the moment could last forever. It meshes so well with that last endless summer between high school and college, when you're just beginning to discover yourself.
Aria is on the cusp of adulthood, the cusp of realization that she's maybe not as straight as she once thought. Her crush on Steph simmers just beneath the surface, warring with the impossibility of it all and the electric novelty of her newfound queerness opens up a previously unseen world to her.
At the same time she's having her ideas of her grandmother, her parents, her friends, and her past reshaped as she grows out of her childhood assumptions about them.
The ending circles back to the beginning in a wholly satisfying way that makes everything seem more profound and gives every moment, every gesture weight and meaning.
I love the exploration of time and memories and grief and art, and how they interconnect and weave together. The characters leap off the page, so full of life and well-rounded are they, and I felt them tugging at my heart more insistently than many.
This is a book that everyone should read and that I will probably never read again, because I don't think it would have the same breathless impact the second time through and I'm not sure my heart could take it.
The cover is stunning and complements the story SO well. The cover artist captured the essence of the story perfectly.
*Thanks to Bookishfirst and Penguin Teen for providing an ARC for review.