Strengths of this book: The characters and dynamics were very well established; I felt myself cringing a lot at Claire's stream of consciousness gay panic moments, but because they reminded me of being 17 and having an all consuming crush. As a queer adult who loves coming of age and queer stories, I sadly could not get into this one. DNF'ed at 25%. I think the main reason is it leans too heavy on bi/pan discourse and labels, which feels very shallow and at this point of my adult life I do not identify heavily with that. I could definitely see questioning teens identifying with parts of Claire and her relationships with Sophia, her brother, her supportive yet not supportive family, etc. I also agree with other reviewers who said the verse format did not fit the story; I thought it would make more sense to have it as a diary format, as a big part of the story is Claire sharing her feelings and overthinking.

This was truly very good. This is a coming out / coming of age novel told in verse about a bisexual teen girl. The whole thing starts after she crashes her beloved car, Lars, and she starts writing to him / speaking to him. She misses him and all the adventures they had and so she starts throwing all of her emotions into this void. She struggles with coming out, being in love with her best friend, some family struggles, finding a new job, and starting up a friendship with a lesbian octogenarian named Lena.

This is a pretty wholesome read. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Claire and her brother and Claire and Lena. I really loved Sophia too but the brother/sister dynamic and the platonic friends with the queer elder dynamic are some of my favorites.

White bisexual MC, trans queer questioning SC, lesbian SCs, gay SC.

I really wanted to adore this book but I only found it okay. This was a good book and it definitely handled subject like sexuality and love and grief beautifully. I just found this this book tended to drag in places. I was getting extremely frustrated with the main character going back and forth constantly. I just found the middle of this book to be very frustrating. The ending especially was solid and I just wanted the whole book to have that energy but it just didn't. Still this was a solid book and I definitely enjoyed it.

I truly love novels in verse, and I was super excited to read Robin Gow's latest work. However, I don't think writing this story in verse did anything for the narrative. The idea of a book largely surrounding a first car is both unique and delightful and brings a level of nostalgia to this story that really holds everything together. Overall, I didn't hate this book, but I definitely felt that the format didn't help the story at all and left me wanting more.

This was my second Robin Gow book, and I think I can safely add them to my list of favourite authors. I'm a huge fan of verse novels in general, but this is an especially gorgeous one.

This book is one of those examples to illustrate how we really do still need coming out novels, but it's also so much more. It's about coming of age and wanting freedom, but also wanting people to keep you close and struggling with changes. All of the main character's emotions are so palpable, so much so that I cried at the coming out moment.

It's a sapphic story with a bisexual main character and a questioning lesbian trans love interest. One of my favourite storylines is how, when she starts a summer job at a nursing home, the main character meets an elderly lesbian resident, and they become fast friends. Another favourite storyline of mine is how the main character and her brother find each other again in both being queer, and decide to come out to their parents together. It was so amazing to see them grow closer again, and support each other.

Thank you, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), for allowing me to read Ode to My First Car early.

Robin Gow's debut ended up being my favorite read of this year. Ode to My First Car was very beautiful as well.

I ended up not finishing this. I never fully got into it and couldn’t get past the conversations with her car…