Robin Gow has a way of so perfectly capturing the *vibes* of what it’s like to be a teenager. In Ode to My First Car, they make you feel like you, too, are a seventeen year old girl who’s just crashed her car at the beginning of the summer and is in love with her best friend. I honestly felt transported back to that very specific time in my life.

Outside of the general vibes, I loved the relationship that the main character developed with an elderly queer woman in the nursing home she’s working in. It gave major Fried Green Tomatoes vibes which I was here for!

**ARC provided by NetGalley**

I received an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This is a great summer read that captures what is to be queer and falling in and out of love. I love the use of the verse narrative structure, especially as the protagonist, Claire, writes poetry. I love how it explores her experience being closeted and figuring out her feelings for different people. The LGBTQ+ rep was really great and varied, as in addition to Claire being bi, one of her love interests is a trans lesbian. There’s also a great subplot with Claire bonding with an elderly lesbian in her neighborhood, highlighting how far the LGBTQ+ community has progressed.

Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/NetGalley for a copy of Ode to My First Car in exchange for an honest review..

Non-traditional narrative structures
I love, love, love that we’re seeing more and more alternative storytelling structures in YA literature. Robin Gow‘s Ode to My First Car is told in verse. Though not the only form that would have been effective, it works exceptionally well.

Claire loses her freedom on the first page of the book: her car. Teenagers (and people in general) are dramatic, and writing poetry to one’s dead car is pretty dramatic. But mourning one’s car isn’t quirky; it’s totally understandable.

Our elders
One of the most complex parts of passing down queer history is lineage. Queer people aren’t usually born of others in the alphabet mafia. And because of bills like “Don’t Say Gay,” we don’t always learn our history in school. Then there’s ageism.

I love that Claire willingly spends time with an older person and realizes the value in that and that the older person values spending time with a younger one. I grew up in the theatre and am now part of the Jewish community. So, having friends along the age spectrum was always normalized for me. It’s great to see that reflected in YA.

Siblings FTW
The other relationship I loved in Ode to My First Car was between Claire and her brother Chris. I related so hard to it. My own brother and I had our ups and downs. But it was always us against our parents in the end. Even if it sometimes maybe didn’t have to be.

And, like Claire and Chris, we sometimes had to share a room.

Should you read it?
Without a doubt. Robin Gow’s Ode to My First Car is one of the most engaging, creative books I’ve read in 2023. It’s uplifting without being unrealistic. I found myself cued in the whole time. It’s also just funny and sweet, a great summer read.

Ode to My First Car is out on June 20, 2023. Pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library. 📚🚘👭

"I guess/ it just feels like queerness / is something that happens / other places/ and not here in my town"

ODE TO MY FIRST CAR is a bit of a divergence from Robin Gow's other novels; it's a quieter story, about a bisexual girl with a crush on her best friend. It doesn't handle the big topics of history or grief, but rather the small moments of coming of age, of yearning for independence, of wanting community but being unsure of how to find it. While a lot of narrative is devoted towards the main character's crushes, the sapphic relationships were actually less compelling to me than the sibling relationship, which I felt really drove the story, and the lovely queer elder Claire befriends.

While Gow has some amazing lines in this novel, I do feel the writing was lacking a bit compared to their other novels which is why I can only give this a four rather than a five. (Too many "like"s that didn't need to be included.) Still, you can expect Gow to deliver the same heart and earnestness as their other novels, as well as a character that is both queer and autistic-coded, which is always a joy to read. I definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a sapphic coming-of-age novel.

2.5 stars. I really enjoyed A Million Quiet Revolutions, also by Robin Gow, when I read it last year, so I was ecstatic to read their new sapphic YA early. Unfortunately, it did not hit.

Ode to My First Car follows Claire, a closeted bisexual helplessly in love with her best friend, Sophia. After Claire crashes her beloved car, Lars, she finds herself feeling like she missed her chance at true freedom. But when a new girl comes into the picture, Claire starts to question how much longer she can avoid her true feelings for Sophia — or if she should give up on her long-time crush.

My biggest criticism of this book was that it lacked the beauty in its poetry that I loved in Gow's debut. There were so many beautiful lines in AMQR that I had to stop and reread simply to absorb. However, in Ode to My First Car, the writing felt amateur — unedited even. There were a lot of unnecessary 'likes' added in, which ended up taking me out of the story many times. I found myself repeating sentences not to absorb its beauty, but to understand the grammar; many commas were misplaced or absent from where they should have been. This book felt messy — not in a complex-character way, but in an unplanned and not completely thought-out way.

I was not a huge fan of either of the romances presented in the book. Sophia annoyed me with her disregard for communication in her friendship with Claire. And while I liked Pen's presence and chemistry with Claire, I didn't feel like they had compatibility beyond attraction.

My favorite part of the story was learning about Lena's past. Lena is an 88-year-old woman Claire becomes friends with at her job at a local nursery home. I loved the sense of connection between the two women, especially when Lena told stories to Claire. I also really enjoyed Claire and her brother's relationship. Their process of opening up to each other was so endearing. I wish this book had focused more on non-romantic relationships and the coming of age aspects, rather than on sexuality.

Overall, this book really didn't hit how I'd wanted it to. I do think there are some parts that people may relate to, I just wish the plot had not been so romance heavy and/or that the writing had been more tactful.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Robin Gow, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was cute and sweet! I enjoy novels in verse, and I think the structure really helped to tell the story here. The queer representation was fantastic, and I especially loved Lena as a queer elder!! That is so rare to read in any book, much less a YA one, and it made my heart so happy to see her and Claire's friendship grow. I also loved to see the bonding between Claire and her brother because I am close to my brother, and I think it's rare to see a good sibling bond represented in books. However, this book overall was just a miss to me, which might be because I'm over the target age of reader. I felt like it was just too repetitive, especially at the beginning about the car. I get the importance of the car to Claire and what it represents to her, but too many of the poems I felt were focused on that instead of on the plot. Parts of the book dragged on with so much repetition, but others were way too fast. I didn't like the relationship between Claire and Sophia, and I would have liked to see more of a conclusion with Claire and Pen's relationship. This was a fine read overall, but one that just fell a bit too flat for me in many parts.

My first car was a Honda Odyssey van that was nearly as old as me. It had problems with heating, cooling and sometimes the windows got stuck. I don't drive anymore - I'm a public transit girlie thru and thru but this book had me missing it somehow.

A Ode to my First Car is a story in verse - after Claire, a closet bisexual crashes her car, she takes a job at the dementia center where she hears the stories of the youth of an elderly lesbian woman. These stories of growing up gay in the 40's was the perfect juxtaposition to her own coming out moments.

Between all this she struggles to come to terms with her crush on her childhood best friend. But that's not all - another girl starts to come into the picture - keeping her choosing between the friend that she knows better than anything and a new one that's full of excitement.

This entire novel is told in verse - but to HER CAR! I thought it was such a unique and fun take overall. I'm a sucker for anything queer and this book absolutely delivered for me!

Thank you to fierce reads, colored pages and robin gow for my copy!

This novel's sentences were broken up interestingly instead of put in paragraphs, but I thought it was only particularly lyrical or verse-like in a couple of chapters, countable on one hand.

I also found it difficult to follow. It wasn't clear to me from what point in time Claire, the narrator, is describing events—time contracts and expands in confusing ways. I read an ARC, so take this with a grain of salt, but due to inconsistencies of quotation punctuation and the aforementioned interestingly broken up sentences, it was frequently difficult to tell who was speaking in conversations. Also, Claire is often addressing things to her lost car, Lars, but then in the next sentence seems to forget that. She mentions grandparents who seem to be living but at other points says her grandparents are all deceased. For these reasons, and pickier ones (like, why is this teenager in what seems to be the current year only name dropping bands from the early 2000s?) it didn't really click with me.

Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow fun, relatable and endearing YA contemporary sapphic romance!

I’m pretty sure this is my first verse novel and I totally enjoyed it.
This wonderful YA contemporary sapphic romance told in verse is about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.
These characters are trying to find their place, where they belong, and trying to figure out love in the process.
I enjoyed the writing and our characters really stood out to me. They were engaging and interesting.
The story really caught my attention and kept me flipping the pages.
This was a fun, quick read that left me feeling satisfied.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

3.5 stars

It's the summer before senior year, and Claire is finally coming to terms with the fact that she might just be in love with her best friend. That she might actually be bisexual. But she doesn't really know how to deal with either of those things--and whether or not she should come out.

In order to pay her parents back for wrecking her first car, Claire gets a job at the local nursing home where she meets Lena, an eighty-eight year old lesbian who tells her stories about her own life. Through the help of Lena, and Claire's new friend--and love interest--Pen, she finds she might just have the courage to finally be herself. In front of everyone else.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's for an advanced copy of Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow to review! Robin Gow has a knack for writing emotionally packed novels in verse. Even though this is only their second YA book, I can tell that we can probably expect more to come from them. They have a knack for what they do!

Sometimes, character development can suffer in novels in verse, but that's not the case here. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the relationship between Claire and her brother, who is also coming to terms with his own sexuality. They both are so supportive of each other and hatch plans for the ways they think they can come out to their parents. It works well in this format, and good sibling relationships are just one of my favorite things to read about anyway.

I think the pacing overall was a little off, in that maybe it felt too long at moments? Even though it is a novel in verse. Claire is very much a messy bisexual, and this is reflected in the overall plot of the book. But outside of that, I was still engrossed in the story and there were so many endearing moments between all the characters. I can't wait to see what Robin Gow does next!

Oh my goodness, this was absolutely precious!

It was a coming-of-age, coming-out story of Claire, a teenage bisexual girl in a small town. She has been navigating complicated feelings towards her best friend Sophia, and at the beginning of their summer break, they make a pact to have sex in their cars. Claire gets into a car crash, and the entire book is told in prose, mostly as if she is speaking to her car, whom she affectionately calls Lars.

We follow Claire as she gets a part-time job, makes new queer connections there and figures out how to tell her parents about her bisexuality. We also see her discuss sexuality with her younger brother, and I thought that dynamic was lovely to see too!

Overall, this was an absolutely tender, relatable, and sweet story. The dialogue and texting were both cute and angsty, and it rang so true to my own teenage experience.

I appreciated the author's note touching on ageism a bit, and I will absolutely read more from Robin in the future!

I loved Robin Gow’s “A Million Quiet Revolutions,” so when I saw they had an upcoming book, I knew I had to read it. “Ode to my First Car” is such a perfect summer read full of messy feelings and romance and the complexity of coming out. So much of Claire’s feelings were extremely relatable to my own experiences as a (mostly) closeted queer person. I loved the way she was able to bond with her brother over their coming out and supporting one another. I loved, loved, loved Lena and the presence of queer elder because, gosh, it is so powerful to see older queer people living and thriving and loving when so many messaging tries to act like queerness is both new and only tragic. I also really adored the discussions about coming out and questioning its necessity and how different experiences are. Coming out is so deeply personal and it isn’t for everyone, and not coming out is just as valid as being loud and proud. And I love this was a story of love and family and acceptance - especially of oneself.

A sweet coming out story told in verse, Ode To My First Car explores teen freedom and the desire to be your authentic self.

Claire crashed her car in an accident, losing her primary method of freedom. Claire pretends to be addressing her car as she explores her crush on her best friend, her first job, and her idea of queerness.

Claire's brother is so sweet, and I love that she had Lena. Coming out can be really hard, and I think the author handled it with grace and beauty.

There is so much to recommend in this book--Claire is a terribly relatable protagonist whose preoccupation with her tenuous relationships with freedom and adulthood (not to mention her ever-confusing crushes on her friend Sophia & new girl Pen) ring absolutely true for a small-town girl in her late teens. With economy of form, Gow creates a vivid portrait of a small Pennsyvania town, in which the teens are acutely aware of class and conservatism and how people's capital-P politics don't always align with their on-the-ground treatment of queer and trans family members. Claire's coming-out-and-coming-of-age story is beautiful and complex, and her developing relationships with her brother Chris and pseudo-grandmother Lena are true high points of the novel. An important and timely addition to the coming out canon that reads so differently (& rightfully so!) from those published twenty years ago.

I'm just going to come out and say it. Ode To My First Car was boring.

Despite the considerable length of this book, the only moments that stuck out to me were the very beginning and the very end. The rest was repetitive and slow.

I don't think that the poetry added anything. At times, the spacing felt random. It lacked intention. And, at least on the digital version, the sometimes erratic spacing made the text difficult to follow. But, I did appreciate the more story-like prose. I found the verse easy to understand.

As for the MC...

I found Claire's narration frustrating. It felt as if we were going in circles. Claire was either upset about the loss of her car or concerned about the state of her various relationships. These two sentiments were constantly repeated. I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen. I wanted to see Claire take action instead of just dwelling on her problems.

That being said...

I loved the representation. There were so many moments in which I saw myself in Claire. It's comforting to know that I am not alone and that others in the LGBT+ community share my feelings, even if they are fictional characters.

Bottom line: I'm torn because the book was boring, but the message was so beautiful.

This book was fun! The format was different from what I was expecting but the story will stick with me for a long time. I have been craving a sapphic friends to lovers book that also has coming of age aspects to it because I did not have it growing up. Filled my middle school gay heart.

It's been a while since I've read a book in verse and I loved this! I loved reading through Claire's perspective and thought that the friendship that developed between Claire and Lena was so beautiful. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is having a difficult time with coming out!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an e arc of this one!

Ode to My First Car is a novel in verse that follows Claire, a closeted bisexual girl, the summer before her senior year after totally her first car.

This was so good! I love the poetry through and especially all the odes! I remember reading John Keats' Ode to the Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn in high school and absolutely falling in love with them, so sharing the love of Odes with Claire was so fun!

I love Claire's best friend Sophia! She is trans and Claire is secretly in love with her. She's messy and makes mistakes but I love the character arc at the end.

My other favorite is Claire's brother, Chris! He and Claire come out to each other toward the beginning of the book and spend a lot of it planning how to come out to their parents. Love this healthy queer sib relationship!

Then there is Lena!! Queer pseudo-grandma of my (and Claire's) dreams! So glad her fictional character exists!

The only complaint I have is that some of the dialogue felt kind of stilted or flat to me. Maybe a side effect of keeping it in verse?

The perfect summer read!

CW: biphobia/homophobia/transphobia, toxic relationship

TRAPPED IN TRAPPE PA?!

Wow. I was so surprised to find that this book was set in the town I grew up in. And all of the feelings Claire has about wanting to get out of her town and the love she has for her first car, Lars.

What I loved:
-Diverse set LGBTQ+ characters (main character bi, lesbian side characters, queer/questioning/trans).
-Told in verse! The writing flowed so well and made it want to keep turning the page.
-Claire’s friendship with Lena, an 88 year old lesbian woman, who resides at the nursing home Claire works at. This was such a special relationship and so important for queer individuals to connect with elders about their experiences.
-The complexity of Sophia and Claire’s friendship, and Claire falling for Sophia.
-Claire coming to terms with her sexuality was SO well done.
-Clare and her bro!!!
-I happened to have a very similar relationship with my first car, and it’s so hard to put in writing what happens when it’s gone. Thank you for putting this one of a kind bond in words!

“You were my own little home in this middle-of-nowhere town and outside of our freaking tiny apartment. You gave me a place I could go where I didn’t have to hide any part of myself.”


This is perfect for the summer. Solid 4⭐️

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-book ARC💛

Told through verse this is a story about a bisexual teen girl’s journey with coming out and falling in love. It’s a sapphic story about a girl named Claire who crashes her beloved car named Lars and how she deals with her growing feelings for her trans best friend and her own sexuality as a bisexual individual. Claire begins a summer job at a nursing home and befriends an elderly lesbian resident. Claire’s summer is about discovering her own sexuality and feelings as well as the complications of falling in love with your friend. Unfortunately this one fell flat for me, I normally really like stories told in verse, especially sapphic coming of age stories and romances, but this one felt so stream of conscious and felt like it dragged on and one that I constantly found myself wanting to just DNF this book but thankfully I made it to the end. I felt like this book could have been 200 pages less and would have worked better. If you are a fan of stories told in verse and of queer coming of age stories, definitely give it a try!

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*