An American-born Chinese teen coming to terms with her homosexuality and young love in 1950s’ San Francisco Chinatown.

This is one of the books I had pre-ordered in 2020 that inspired me to start this queer fiction trip and the setting and summary sparked intrigue the moment I heard about it. Lo has made a 15-minute introduction video to this, her 6th novel, as well as a Spotify playlist of music “in and inspired by” the book. She’s also blogging “Notes from the Telegraph Club”, a really interesting series diving into the research she put in for the novel. Also, We Need Diverse Books also has a great Q&A with Lo about the book and its origins.

It’s a lovely story — with an appendix of historical context and references for further reading, which was a really interesting thought that I don’think I’ve seen before in YA fiction. It has been nominated by American Library Association for the 2022 Best Fiction for Young Adults award.

Content notes: era-appropriate racism, homophobia and Red Scare.