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Ode to My First Car
By the critically praised author of A Million Quiet Revolutions, this 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.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
Audiobook
First published June 20, 2023
28 people are currently reading
2108 people want to read
About the author
Robin Gow
19 books216 followersGow grew up in rural Pennsylvania and lives in Allentown Pennsylvania with their two pugs, Eddie and Gertie and their queer family. He works at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center coordinating supportive services for the local LGBTQIA+ community.
Awarded the Jerry Cain and Scott James Creative Writing Fellow, Gow earned their MFA in Creative Writing from Adelphi University where they also taught writing courses as an adjunct professor.
Gow runs the trans & queer reading series Gender Reveal Party and co-edits the new magazine The Comments Section.
Robin is the author of the chapbook Honeysuckle by Finishing Line Press and the collection Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy by Tolsun Books.
Their first YA novel in verse, A Million Quiet Revolutions, is forthcoming March 2022 with FSG Books for Young readers and their first essay collection, Blue Blood, is forthcoming with Nasiona Publishing House.
They is a managing editor The Nasiona and the assistant editor at large at Doubleback Books. They served for four years as the production editor of the Lantern literary magazine and are Social Media Coordinator for Oyster River Pages. They has also worked to help produce several zines and taught creative writing workshops in a variety of community spaces, including online forms.
They are an out and proud autistic bisexual genderqueer man passionate about LGBTQIAA+ issues.
Awarded the Jerry Cain and Scott James Creative Writing Fellow, Gow earned their MFA in Creative Writing from Adelphi University where they also taught writing courses as an adjunct professor.
Gow runs the trans & queer reading series Gender Reveal Party and co-edits the new magazine The Comments Section.
Robin is the author of the chapbook Honeysuckle by Finishing Line Press and the collection Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy by Tolsun Books.
Their first YA novel in verse, A Million Quiet Revolutions, is forthcoming March 2022 with FSG Books for Young readers and their first essay collection, Blue Blood, is forthcoming with Nasiona Publishing House.
They is a managing editor The Nasiona and the assistant editor at large at Doubleback Books. They served for four years as the production editor of the Lantern literary magazine and are Social Media Coordinator for Oyster River Pages. They has also worked to help produce several zines and taught creative writing workshops in a variety of community spaces, including online forms.
They are an out and proud autistic bisexual genderqueer man passionate about LGBTQIAA+ issues.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
March 6, 2024
this was so real at its core. i didn’t enjoy it for the romance aspect because i found quite a few faults—both the characters hooking up with other people, having feelings for other people while being in love with each other—but that’s what made it messy and realistic in my opinion. i had so many moments where i went “no because same!!!” “god i relate so hard as a bisexual girl with many of these same doubts in my life.” this is more of a story of exploring who you are as a person, innately, of coming out and being scared of people’s reactions, of seeing so many queer people who existed before and understanding them. biphobia and bi-erasure is so real in today’s time and i’ve faced it myself—because apparently, bi people are “too gay” for straight people but “too straight” for gay people. we never can have a place to exist, a home for ourselves. but that is where people like lena and maria in this book come in. they help build a support system for us, a safe place where we can just exist and feel and be whoever we want to be and no one will say a damn fucking thing. because coming out can be so messy and people might not say exactly what you wanna hear, and it can hurt. but it’s ultimately the fact that they accept you and love you for you that matters.
i’ve experienced the same thing as what claire has been going through—being in love with a “straight” best friend, seeing lil gestures and thinking oh, what if they like me back, what if those lil touches and caresses mean something more, so i could truly understand her confusion and turmoil about her life. this book is written fully in verse but i loved the way it fit with the background of what this was supposed to be. sophia being trans was such a welcome addition because it wasn’t made too much of a deal of but it was just… there. however, i do feel like in some places, this was a bit too immature and even underdeveloped. i did love the concept of this though and i love how claire’s thoughts are presented in a manner that’s realistic and easy to relate with.
well, here is my ode to queerness.
i wish we could stop being so heteronormative and open ourselves up to the possibility of there being something “more” rather than thinking of everyone as being straight. it isn’t as cookie-cutter as that most of the time.
i hope we can all move towards a time where there doesn’t need to be any explanation about who we are, no need for “coming out.” because that means there’s something and somebody for who we have to come out to.
i dream of a place where we can all just exist and celebrate our uniqueness and differences and queerness with utmost joy.
(2nd read in the trans reading challenge 2024 by @readwithrhys 🏳️⚧️)
i wish stories about queer people weren’t always about coming out. but, maybe coming out isn’t always about coming out. i know that sounds crazy but hear me out. it’s a moment where you get to mark something—declare this part of yourself. the world moves so fast, it’s hard to find moments where you feel like your life is real—like the world is something you can touch. coming out is like saying, “i am a person.” maybe all stories are coming-out stories.
i’ve experienced the same thing as what claire has been going through—being in love with a “straight” best friend, seeing lil gestures and thinking oh, what if they like me back, what if those lil touches and caresses mean something more, so i could truly understand her confusion and turmoil about her life. this book is written fully in verse but i loved the way it fit with the background of what this was supposed to be. sophia being trans was such a welcome addition because it wasn’t made too much of a deal of but it was just… there. however, i do feel like in some places, this was a bit too immature and even underdeveloped. i did love the concept of this though and i love how claire’s thoughts are presented in a manner that’s realistic and easy to relate with.
i wish i could talk to my family about it.
i wish i could ask, “how do you know you like a girl?”
i wish i wasn’t afraid to say, “i know i’m bisexual.”
i wish i could talk to them about so many things right now.
well, here is my ode to queerness.
i wish we could stop being so heteronormative and open ourselves up to the possibility of there being something “more” rather than thinking of everyone as being straight. it isn’t as cookie-cutter as that most of the time.
i hope we can all move towards a time where there doesn’t need to be any explanation about who we are, no need for “coming out.” because that means there’s something and somebody for who we have to come out to.
i dream of a place where we can all just exist and celebrate our uniqueness and differences and queerness with utmost joy.
(2nd read in the trans reading challenge 2024 by @readwithrhys 🏳️⚧️)
December 4, 2023
i've come to believe that if a novel in verse is unrecognizable as poetry in audiobook form, there's no reason for it to have been written in verse. this book sounds like prose, not poetry, and the writing feels subpar overall.
but robin gow hits a lot of relatable points here. claire is lowkey in love with her best friend sophia. she tries to smother her feelings by dating another girl, pen. chaotic young bisexual vibes! she feels trapped in her small apartment with her emotionally distant parents, and wishes they had more money. claire and her brother both come out to each other as queer, and discuss at length how to come out to their parents. claire gets her first job at a nursing home and befriends an elderly lesbian, lena, who bestows gay wisdom.
objectively, these are all good things for a book to include. it just never really jives. claire's voice feels immature and inauthentic, trying too hard to be teenagery. it feels very off for older YA. and it's far too didactic, never missing the opportunity for a teachable moment within the story. i think gow's instructive storytelling style is more suited to middle grade than to YA.
i love that claire's bestie sophia is trans. i love a lot of the messages here about family, finding yourself, and taking the time to come out when you are ready. there's also a lot about the importance of queer legacies, and i love the scenes where lena talks about her sapphic past. good stuff!! the writing is just way too heavy handed.
but robin gow hits a lot of relatable points here. claire is lowkey in love with her best friend sophia. she tries to smother her feelings by dating another girl, pen. chaotic young bisexual vibes! she feels trapped in her small apartment with her emotionally distant parents, and wishes they had more money. claire and her brother both come out to each other as queer, and discuss at length how to come out to their parents. claire gets her first job at a nursing home and befriends an elderly lesbian, lena, who bestows gay wisdom.
objectively, these are all good things for a book to include. it just never really jives. claire's voice feels immature and inauthentic, trying too hard to be teenagery. it feels very off for older YA. and it's far too didactic, never missing the opportunity for a teachable moment within the story. i think gow's instructive storytelling style is more suited to middle grade than to YA.
i love that claire's bestie sophia is trans. i love a lot of the messages here about family, finding yourself, and taking the time to come out when you are ready. there's also a lot about the importance of queer legacies, and i love the scenes where lena talks about her sapphic past. good stuff!! the writing is just way too heavy handed.
January 12, 2023
4.5/5
Thank you to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This was lovely!
Ode to My First Car is a novel in verse that follows bisexual teen Claire Kemp. She's been in love with her best friend for as long as she can remember, but she's doesn't know if Sophia is queer too. After Claire crashes her car and it's totaled, the two make a pact to have sex in cars over the summer. But as they navigate dating and relationships with others, they find their friendship strained.
I liked this soft summer sapphic book so much. Claire was such an easy protagonist to like. I really enjoyed seeing her explore her sexuality and make friends with other queer women. I especially loved the platonic relationship between her and Lena. Lena is an octogenarian who lives in the nursing home Claire starts working at. These two get up to so much mischief and it brought a smile to my face every time. Can't wait to own this one!
Rep: white bisexual cis female MC, white cis female lesbian side character, lesbian-questioning trans female side character, older lesbian cis female with dementia side character, white gay cis male side character, various white side characters, various lesbian side characters.
CWs: Coming out (discussions and coming out to parents), toxic relationship (romantic, between two side characters), dementia, care of elderly patients in a nursing home. Moderate: internalized biphobia/bimisia, car accident, medical content, discussions of past queerphobia/queermisia, lesbophia, discussion of past parental estrangement and abandonment, sexual content.
Thank you to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This was lovely!
Ode to My First Car is a novel in verse that follows bisexual teen Claire Kemp. She's been in love with her best friend for as long as she can remember, but she's doesn't know if Sophia is queer too. After Claire crashes her car and it's totaled, the two make a pact to have sex in cars over the summer. But as they navigate dating and relationships with others, they find their friendship strained.
I liked this soft summer sapphic book so much. Claire was such an easy protagonist to like. I really enjoyed seeing her explore her sexuality and make friends with other queer women. I especially loved the platonic relationship between her and Lena. Lena is an octogenarian who lives in the nursing home Claire starts working at. These two get up to so much mischief and it brought a smile to my face every time. Can't wait to own this one!
Rep: white bisexual cis female MC, white cis female lesbian side character, lesbian-questioning trans female side character, older lesbian cis female with dementia side character, white gay cis male side character, various white side characters, various lesbian side characters.
CWs: Coming out (discussions and coming out to parents), toxic relationship (romantic, between two side characters), dementia, care of elderly patients in a nursing home. Moderate: internalized biphobia/bimisia, car accident, medical content, discussions of past queerphobia/queermisia, lesbophia, discussion of past parental estrangement and abandonment, sexual content.
January 3, 2023
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.
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.
Want to read
September 14, 202214.09.2022 always here for messy bisexual mcs
December 3, 2023
I do love a novel in verse. But something about this one completely missed the mark for me.
December 13, 2024
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the eARC of Ode to My First Car via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
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.
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.
Read
February 6, 2023An enjoyable queer YA contemporary in verse, but I didn't love this quite as much as Robin's previous book! I found myself quite distracted by the excessive use of the word "like" in just about every other sentence. I'm not sure if the intent was to emulate how teens speak, but it ultimately got a bit annoying and pulled me out of the story.
dnf
November 8, 2024i didn’t realise the book was told by her talking to her car… dnf
June 28, 2023
This felt like a sad, cute marshmellow trying to be happy. Loved it.
August 6, 2023
3.5? There were some parts of this that I enjoyed and reminded me why I love Robin Gow's writing, but unfortunately they were very few and far between and overall this fell very flat :/
October 17, 2023
CWs:
experienced homophobia; some descriptions of anxiety; some sexual content
Ode to My First Car is a tender coming-of-age verse novel that reckons with the pain of becoming—becoming aware of the responsibilities we gain as we shed childhood and move towards adulthood, becoming familiar with naming and experiencing queerness, becoming used to the fact that hope must be tempered more often than not, and most importantly becoming yourself.
This is a YA story that beautifully understands and depicts the growing pains of being a teenager. I love that this is a story that centers an unapologetically messy bisexual character who is constantly making mistakes and bumping up against the boundaries of her limited world in a desperate attempt to open it up. Claire doesn't always make the right choices, and I appreciate how the story offers her that freedom, especially considering that there isn't an existing framework to show Claire which choices she should make and that she can't well ask friends or family for advice when she's closeted and struggling with expressing/understanding her own queerness.
To that end, I think one of the most touching parts of the story is the family dynamic, especially the relationship Claire has with her brother (who's also queer and closeted). The connection they have together as each other's lifelines is incredibly tender and a source of great comfort, and to see how they struggle to navigate the false dichotomy of "queer visibility vs. invisibility" on their own terms is one of the strongest and most emotional parts of the story.
Overall, this is a beautiful story that's every bit as heart-wrenching as it is heart-warming. With the verse structure, it's easy to fly through this read, but the brevity and heightened awareness of language also makes the story feel incredibly raw and intimate. Obviously, with shorter-form stories, there's a risk of the characters or key scenes feeling underdeveloped, and while I did experience a bit of that with this story, overall I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
Ode to My First Car is a tender coming-of-age verse novel that reckons with the pain of becoming—becoming aware of the responsibilities we gain as we shed childhood and move towards adulthood, becoming familiar with naming and experiencing queerness, becoming used to the fact that hope must be tempered more often than not, and most importantly becoming yourself.
This is a YA story that beautifully understands and depicts the growing pains of being a teenager. I love that this is a story that centers an unapologetically messy bisexual character who is constantly making mistakes and bumping up against the boundaries of her limited world in a desperate attempt to open it up. Claire doesn't always make the right choices, and I appreciate how the story offers her that freedom, especially considering that there isn't an existing framework to show Claire which choices she should make and that she can't well ask friends or family for advice when she's closeted and struggling with expressing/understanding her own queerness.
To that end, I think one of the most touching parts of the story is the family dynamic, especially the relationship Claire has with her brother (who's also queer and closeted). The connection they have together as each other's lifelines is incredibly tender and a source of great comfort, and to see how they struggle to navigate the false dichotomy of "queer visibility vs. invisibility" on their own terms is one of the strongest and most emotional parts of the story.
Overall, this is a beautiful story that's every bit as heart-wrenching as it is heart-warming. With the verse structure, it's easy to fly through this read, but the brevity and heightened awareness of language also makes the story feel incredibly raw and intimate. Obviously, with shorter-form stories, there's a risk of the characters or key scenes feeling underdeveloped, and while I did experience a bit of that with this story, overall I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
July 1, 2023
I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: car accident, referenced transphobia, coming out themes
3.5
I enjoy a good messy, queer coming of age story, so there were definitely things in this that I liked a lot. It's always nice to see a character grapple with their place in the universe in small, domestic, relatable ways, and I think that's what we get here. It's mostly a story about sexuality, but it's also a story asking when you're allowed freedom, what you need to give up, what you mean to others and if that defines you, but also if you're the first of your kind, if that matters, if there's a road map to follow and if you need to follow it.
I really love the expansiveness of the queer experience here, while keeping that isolated feeling of a small town. Things feel both big and small, both connected and apart.
But while I liked the coming of age story, I was disappointed by the romance. I was definitely not team Sophia, and no aspect of the romantic plot rang true to me in a way that made me feel a relationship was a good, solid, happy ending.
I also saw a lot of interesting themes here, but wanted them to stick around for longer in more concrete ways. It feels like things are touched on and then, mostly, left behind as the day ends or the character leaves. Things don't feel as connected as I wanted them to be.
TW: car accident, referenced transphobia, coming out themes
3.5
I enjoy a good messy, queer coming of age story, so there were definitely things in this that I liked a lot. It's always nice to see a character grapple with their place in the universe in small, domestic, relatable ways, and I think that's what we get here. It's mostly a story about sexuality, but it's also a story asking when you're allowed freedom, what you need to give up, what you mean to others and if that defines you, but also if you're the first of your kind, if that matters, if there's a road map to follow and if you need to follow it.
I really love the expansiveness of the queer experience here, while keeping that isolated feeling of a small town. Things feel both big and small, both connected and apart.
But while I liked the coming of age story, I was disappointed by the romance. I was definitely not team Sophia, and no aspect of the romantic plot rang true to me in a way that made me feel a relationship was a good, solid, happy ending.
I also saw a lot of interesting themes here, but wanted them to stick around for longer in more concrete ways. It feels like things are touched on and then, mostly, left behind as the day ends or the character leaves. Things don't feel as connected as I wanted them to be.
August 15, 2023
this verse novel about a girl in a small town coming to terms with her queerness was so sweet and lovely. i related a lot to claire's struggles with her family and growing up in a small town. i also related to her intense attachment to her shitty first car; i miss you every day dorothy, my personal lars.
LOVED the queer elder claire befriends; that and the sibling relationship were the best parts of the book in my opinion. the rest of it just fell kind of flat for me, and besides a few good lines here and there, the writing didn't really stand out to me. 3.5!!!
LOVED the queer elder claire befriends; that and the sibling relationship were the best parts of the book in my opinion. the rest of it just fell kind of flat for me, and besides a few good lines here and there, the writing didn't really stand out to me. 3.5!!!
June 24, 2023
There were a few moments in this that I really loved, but it was generally underwhelming. I really wanted more of the focus to be on Claire's friendship with Lena. I also don't think that this being in verse really added anything to it.
CW: car accident (minor, no injuries), homophobia, dementia
I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
CW: car accident (minor, no injuries), homophobia, dementia
I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
March 21, 2025
An ode to the books that make you feel seen.
This was gorgeous, and I am infinitely sad I didn’t have books like this to carry me through those teen years. But eternally grateful that teens today do.
This was gorgeous, and I am infinitely sad I didn’t have books like this to carry me through those teen years. But eternally grateful that teens today do.
March 23, 2023
Received as an ARC.
Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow follows Claire as she has to come to terms with her bisexuality, her feelings for her best friend Sophia, and the lack of her beloved car whom she endearingly named Lars.
Claire’s journey of trying to navigate the world as a queer teenager in love with her best friend would relate to many people out there. I know as a bisexual individual who’s not out to my family, I related to some bits of her story. Especially as the daughter of two working class parents. More than her experience of her bisexuality, I found that her parents’ struggle to make ends meet and her constantly wishing that money wasn’t a problem was something I carry with me everyday. Why worry about coming out when your family was struggling to pay the dues on your wrecked car? You have more important things to worry about like finding a job and pulling your weight. Don’t get me wrong though, class is not the focus of this book, it’s identity, but I live by the fact that poverty is a state of mind just as much as it is a state of living.
The entire book is written in verse, which I think was detrimental to its storytelling. I found the result disappointing, as I was excited when I first found out this story was written in verse since I’ve seldom encountered a book written like that. I thought it was a unique and creative way to tell a story outside of the poetry genre.
The format of most of these sections contributed nothing to the content, and felt like it was just prose writing cut up into random bits. Rarely was there any clever formatting of a section that complimented the writing. In fact, as I read through this, a friend and I would take some of the “poems” and find ways to improve the spacing that also improved the impact and message of the piece (For example, “We Fill Our Mason Jars” absolutely did not need to be in three blocky columns. That piece is about finding love, peace, and freedom in the dark, and its structure instead reinforces a rigid and choppy rhythm). Poetry, or verse, is about many things and its rules are almost always being broken by writers. Yet it's also about combining the abstract with the concrete, what are you trying to say and how are you trying to say it—and often, these sections didn’t reveal anything that hasn’t already been said about queerness and identity.
I will say this: this would be a joy to read for anybody who’s queer, for anybody who’s fallen in love with their presumably straight best friend, for anybody who dreams of meeting an older queer person and having them say that everything will be alright in the end. Lena, the elderly lesbian that Claire befriends, didn’t have many scenes and wasn’t developed beyond “kind queer older mentor”, but she was a delight to read. The happy ending also didn’t hurt.
Regretfully, Ode to My First Car really would have been better if written in prose. It gets a 2½ stars from me.
Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow follows Claire as she has to come to terms with her bisexuality, her feelings for her best friend Sophia, and the lack of her beloved car whom she endearingly named Lars.
Claire’s journey of trying to navigate the world as a queer teenager in love with her best friend would relate to many people out there. I know as a bisexual individual who’s not out to my family, I related to some bits of her story. Especially as the daughter of two working class parents. More than her experience of her bisexuality, I found that her parents’ struggle to make ends meet and her constantly wishing that money wasn’t a problem was something I carry with me everyday. Why worry about coming out when your family was struggling to pay the dues on your wrecked car? You have more important things to worry about like finding a job and pulling your weight. Don’t get me wrong though, class is not the focus of this book, it’s identity, but I live by the fact that poverty is a state of mind just as much as it is a state of living.
The entire book is written in verse, which I think was detrimental to its storytelling. I found the result disappointing, as I was excited when I first found out this story was written in verse since I’ve seldom encountered a book written like that. I thought it was a unique and creative way to tell a story outside of the poetry genre.
The format of most of these sections contributed nothing to the content, and felt like it was just prose writing cut up into random bits. Rarely was there any clever formatting of a section that complimented the writing. In fact, as I read through this, a friend and I would take some of the “poems” and find ways to improve the spacing that also improved the impact and message of the piece (For example, “We Fill Our Mason Jars” absolutely did not need to be in three blocky columns. That piece is about finding love, peace, and freedom in the dark, and its structure instead reinforces a rigid and choppy rhythm). Poetry, or verse, is about many things and its rules are almost always being broken by writers. Yet it's also about combining the abstract with the concrete, what are you trying to say and how are you trying to say it—and often, these sections didn’t reveal anything that hasn’t already been said about queerness and identity.
I will say this: this would be a joy to read for anybody who’s queer, for anybody who’s fallen in love with their presumably straight best friend, for anybody who dreams of meeting an older queer person and having them say that everything will be alright in the end. Lena, the elderly lesbian that Claire befriends, didn’t have many scenes and wasn’t developed beyond “kind queer older mentor”, but she was a delight to read. The happy ending also didn’t hurt.
Regretfully, Ode to My First Car really would have been better if written in prose. It gets a 2½ stars from me.
January 15, 2023
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.
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.
June 28, 2023
Content warnings: minor car crash, discussions of homophobia, dementia
I didn't hugely vibe with this book, mostly because it wasn't quite what I was expecting, and as a result it was a bit underwhelming. If you want a lighthearted summer romance novel, this is not it. If you want an introspective look at what it means to be a queer teenage girl in America, then I would recommend you pick this one up. Full review on my blog.
It is the summer before senior year, and Claire has built up a list of all the things she can’t wait to do this summer; most of which involve spending time with her best friend and longtime secret crush, Sophia. But when she gets into a minor car accident from which her beloved car, Lars, does not survive, her plans are turned upside down. When she has to find a summer job to pay off the fine from the crash, she begins working at the nearby nursing home. However, she soon finds connection with Lena, a lesbian with dementia living at the nursing home. Over the course of the summer, she will also navigate her relationship with her family, her feelings for two girls, and her own future goals.
While Ode to my First Car is largely about navigating crushes and first love as a queer teenager, it is not a romance. It is much more about Claire’s feelings toward Sophia than the relationship between the two girls. However, I don’t think this is a bad thing, you just need to have the right expectations going in. I thought Gow did a great job of portraying the feelings of teenage crushes and confusion about love. It can be messy and complicated, because teenagers are feeling these things for the first time and don’t necessarily know how to navigate it; especially when they are queer and there are so few examples for them to follow.
In fact, I thought the strength of the book was really in how powerfully it conveyed Claire’s feelings and emotions. In addition to her romantic struggles, Claire has complicated feelings about her relationship with her parents. She feels she must perfectly meet their expectations all the time, and is mourning what feels to be a growing distance between her and them. And while she knows what she will be doing for the next year, she does not have any idea what she wants to do after high school, although she dreams of fostering queer communities. Gow’s verse really allowed me to feel Claire’s emotions as she navigates all of these things.
I also really enjoyed Claire’s relationship with Lena and the emphasis on the importance of queer elders. That being said, I do wish more of the book was dedicated to their friendship and Lena's story, and less of it had been spent just on Claire obsessing over Sophia, which began to feel repetitive. I think the book shined when it explored and emphasized platonic queer relationships, and it could have reveled in that more rather than shifting to the romantic ones.
Ode to my First Car is a subtle, thoughtful book about one girl’s experience of being a queer teenager in America. It is an ode to queerness, teenage girlhood, and the power of queer relationships of all kinds.
I didn't hugely vibe with this book, mostly because it wasn't quite what I was expecting, and as a result it was a bit underwhelming. If you want a lighthearted summer romance novel, this is not it. If you want an introspective look at what it means to be a queer teenage girl in America, then I would recommend you pick this one up. Full review on my blog.
It is the summer before senior year, and Claire has built up a list of all the things she can’t wait to do this summer; most of which involve spending time with her best friend and longtime secret crush, Sophia. But when she gets into a minor car accident from which her beloved car, Lars, does not survive, her plans are turned upside down. When she has to find a summer job to pay off the fine from the crash, she begins working at the nearby nursing home. However, she soon finds connection with Lena, a lesbian with dementia living at the nursing home. Over the course of the summer, she will also navigate her relationship with her family, her feelings for two girls, and her own future goals.
While Ode to my First Car is largely about navigating crushes and first love as a queer teenager, it is not a romance. It is much more about Claire’s feelings toward Sophia than the relationship between the two girls. However, I don’t think this is a bad thing, you just need to have the right expectations going in. I thought Gow did a great job of portraying the feelings of teenage crushes and confusion about love. It can be messy and complicated, because teenagers are feeling these things for the first time and don’t necessarily know how to navigate it; especially when they are queer and there are so few examples for them to follow.
In fact, I thought the strength of the book was really in how powerfully it conveyed Claire’s feelings and emotions. In addition to her romantic struggles, Claire has complicated feelings about her relationship with her parents. She feels she must perfectly meet their expectations all the time, and is mourning what feels to be a growing distance between her and them. And while she knows what she will be doing for the next year, she does not have any idea what she wants to do after high school, although she dreams of fostering queer communities. Gow’s verse really allowed me to feel Claire’s emotions as she navigates all of these things.
I also really enjoyed Claire’s relationship with Lena and the emphasis on the importance of queer elders. That being said, I do wish more of the book was dedicated to their friendship and Lena's story, and less of it had been spent just on Claire obsessing over Sophia, which began to feel repetitive. I think the book shined when it explored and emphasized platonic queer relationships, and it could have reveled in that more rather than shifting to the romantic ones.
Ode to my First Car is a subtle, thoughtful book about one girl’s experience of being a queer teenager in America. It is an ode to queerness, teenage girlhood, and the power of queer relationships of all kinds.
June 22, 2023
Trigger Warnings: car accident, internalized biphobia, coming out, church, toxic relationship, dementia, sex
Representation: Bisexual, Transgender, Gay, Lesbian
Ode to my First Car is a young adult contemporary romance told in verse about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four. Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
This finished copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review as part of the Colored Pages Blog tour.
I always forget how much I enjoy a book written in verse! The short snippets of the character’s story are perfect bite size chunks to digest and process, while still providing a full story and world for us to dive into. This book is soft and sweet, a perfect summer read and I’m so glad I read it now! I will always cheer for a book with older lesbians! I absolutely adored Lena and her adventures with Claire. This is a great coming of age story and incorporates coming out so well! Overall a fantastic read!
Representation: Bisexual, Transgender, Gay, Lesbian
Ode to my First Car is a young adult contemporary romance told in verse about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four. Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
This finished copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review as part of the Colored Pages Blog tour.
I always forget how much I enjoy a book written in verse! The short snippets of the character’s story are perfect bite size chunks to digest and process, while still providing a full story and world for us to dive into. This book is soft and sweet, a perfect summer read and I’m so glad I read it now! I will always cheer for a book with older lesbians! I absolutely adored Lena and her adventures with Claire. This is a great coming of age story and incorporates coming out so well! Overall a fantastic read!
June 20, 2023
A moving and original YA coming of age novel in verse story featuring Claire Kemp, a bisexual teen girl who writes poems or 'odes' to her car, "Lars."
Still not out to her parents, the car represents freedom and an escape from life at home and so when she crashes it her life gets turned upside down as she has to find alternative ways to get around and hang out with her best friend and secret crush, Sophie - a trans girl who only seems to be interested in boys.
I really, REALLY, loved this book. From the gorgeous cover and beautiful layout inside to the EXCELLENT narration by my absolute fav, Natalie Naudus.
This book was enjoyable in both formats and was full of a great cast of queer secondary characters. My favorite being Lena, an eighty-year old lesbian Claire meets when she starts working in an old age home.
I loved the intergenerational friendship, the strong sibling bond Claire has with her gay brother who is also not out to their parents. The two work together to figure out the best way they can come out and it was so heartwarming.
Highly, highly recommended. This is going to be a standout book of the year for me!
Still not out to her parents, the car represents freedom and an escape from life at home and so when she crashes it her life gets turned upside down as she has to find alternative ways to get around and hang out with her best friend and secret crush, Sophie - a trans girl who only seems to be interested in boys.
I really, REALLY, loved this book. From the gorgeous cover and beautiful layout inside to the EXCELLENT narration by my absolute fav, Natalie Naudus.
This book was enjoyable in both formats and was full of a great cast of queer secondary characters. My favorite being Lena, an eighty-year old lesbian Claire meets when she starts working in an old age home.
I loved the intergenerational friendship, the strong sibling bond Claire has with her gay brother who is also not out to their parents. The two work together to figure out the best way they can come out and it was so heartwarming.
Highly, highly recommended. This is going to be a standout book of the year for me!
February 28, 2025
4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ lost the half star because I started to reread it on my kindle (vs audiobook) and noticed there's a ton of typos????
If you didn't love this book then I'm happy for you and your well-adjusted teenagehood, but wow this one hit all the right notes for me.
This was such an incredibly beautiful ode to first cars, to first love, to being queer, to love, and so much more.
Early on I felt like the overusage of "like" as a filler word was annoying and a little forced but I either settled into it or it was just a rough bit at the beginning of the book.
Other than that, I honestly have no complaints about this book. It was poetic but not overly so. It captured so much of the pain of being 17. I've had my first car for over a decade now, and this made me cherish her more. I can't even imagine the pain I would've felt losing my first car after only a year. Getting your first car is truly the first taste you get of life, of freedom, of having your own place to be yourself.
I want to go on and on about all the things this book got right about being 17 and queer and scared and trying to learn how to be your own person. I just loved this so much.
If you didn't love this book then I'm happy for you and your well-adjusted teenagehood, but wow this one hit all the right notes for me.
This was such an incredibly beautiful ode to first cars, to first love, to being queer, to love, and so much more.
Early on I felt like the overusage of "like" as a filler word was annoying and a little forced but I either settled into it or it was just a rough bit at the beginning of the book.
Other than that, I honestly have no complaints about this book. It was poetic but not overly so. It captured so much of the pain of being 17. I've had my first car for over a decade now, and this made me cherish her more. I can't even imagine the pain I would've felt losing my first car after only a year. Getting your first car is truly the first taste you get of life, of freedom, of having your own place to be yourself.
I want to go on and on about all the things this book got right about being 17 and queer and scared and trying to learn how to be your own person. I just loved this so much.
April 24, 2024
3.5 stars for this messy, bisexual novel in verse.
Ode to my First Car is a novel in verse written from Claire's point of view to her car which she totals in the very beginning of the book. I thought this was an interesting premise! Unfortunately the execution fell a little flat. In what I assume was an attempt to sound more authentically teen and conversational, the poetry is often really simple and lyrically uninteresting. There's a lot of usage of "like" as a filler word that took me out of the flow of the verse. Claire is also a little frustrating because despite being 17, she seems a little younger/less mature. This might feel like splitting hairs but she reads more as a 14/15 year old than a 17 year old. The story is propelled by her crush on her best friend, Sophia. But all of her interactions with Sophia felt awkward and they're weirdly estranged for most of the story. All of that aside, I did enjoy the side characters Chris, Lena, and Pen. The inclusion of an elderly lesbian character was unique and cool! I was disappointed to not be a bigger fan of this one because I enjoyed the author's middle grade book Dear Mothman so much.
Ode to my First Car is a novel in verse written from Claire's point of view to her car which she totals in the very beginning of the book. I thought this was an interesting premise! Unfortunately the execution fell a little flat. In what I assume was an attempt to sound more authentically teen and conversational, the poetry is often really simple and lyrically uninteresting. There's a lot of usage of "like" as a filler word that took me out of the flow of the verse. Claire is also a little frustrating because despite being 17, she seems a little younger/less mature. This might feel like splitting hairs but she reads more as a 14/15 year old than a 17 year old. The story is propelled by her crush on her best friend, Sophia. But all of her interactions with Sophia felt awkward and they're weirdly estranged for most of the story. All of that aside, I did enjoy the side characters Chris, Lena, and Pen. The inclusion of an elderly lesbian character was unique and cool! I was disappointed to not be a bigger fan of this one because I enjoyed the author's middle grade book Dear Mothman so much.
March 11, 2024
lo empecé porque era corto, ligero y se leía rápido, pero la verdad es que eso y poco más tiene de bueno.
nuestra protagonista (que ni siquiera
recuerdo el nombre) le escribe directamente a su auto que queda destruido luego de chocarlo y tiene que despedirse de él. el auto es su lugar seguro, lo utilizaba para escapar del encierro de su casa, de los problemas económicos que tiene su familia y para dirigirse a la casa de su mejor amiga, quien le gusta. es un libro juvenil sobre el descubrimiento de la sexualidad, la aceptación, el salir del closet y el conocerse.
no está mal pero no hace nada destacable, el romance no me gustó/interesó, la protagonista era repetitiva y densa con ciertos temas.
se supone que es una novela en verso pero la escuché en audiolibro y esto no se aprecia.
nuestra protagonista (que ni siquiera
recuerdo el nombre) le escribe directamente a su auto que queda destruido luego de chocarlo y tiene que despedirse de él. el auto es su lugar seguro, lo utilizaba para escapar del encierro de su casa, de los problemas económicos que tiene su familia y para dirigirse a la casa de su mejor amiga, quien le gusta. es un libro juvenil sobre el descubrimiento de la sexualidad, la aceptación, el salir del closet y el conocerse.
no está mal pero no hace nada destacable, el romance no me gustó/interesó, la protagonista era repetitiva y densa con ciertos temas.
se supone que es una novela en verso pero la escuché en audiolibro y esto no se aprecia.
November 29, 2023
A unique and uplifting take on the coming of age/coming out novel. It took me a minute to get into the writing style and transition from Claire’s appreciation for her car and the story of her summer, but I loved all the messy characters in Claire’s life and was quickly invested in everyone’s happy endings. (Lots of positive queer rep. ☺️)
July 14, 2023
i really enjoyed that and i saw a lot of my own story in reading this, except i didn’t have the courage to speak up until it was too late. maybe i’ll be more honest about my feelings even if it makes me feel icky. i owe it to myself to try and i can do hard things
September 15, 2023
Loved this book! YA WLW romance with trans character whose transness is not her whole identity, with queer elder, with commentary on car based development, all written in microchapters with poetic elements.
Recommended!!!
Recommended!!!
Read
June 22, 2024This was so good! I'll share my thoughts and rating in my June Wrap Up. In the meantime, SUBSCRIBE and check out the books I read in May I Read the WEIRDEST Book Ever! 📚👀 May Reading Wrap Up
July 14, 2025
I did not vibe with Ode to My First Car.
The formatting did not work. I realize now that listening to this story on audiobook may not have been the right way to go, but this was unrecognizable as being in verse, or poetry.
I'm also not sure if the narrator made Claire more annoying than intended or if the character was simply insufferable, but having to listen to her go on and on, constantly overthinking everything, made the writing feel haphazardly executed (and came across as amateur).
The formatting did not work. I realize now that listening to this story on audiobook may not have been the right way to go, but this was unrecognizable as being in verse, or poetry.
I'm also not sure if the narrator made Claire more annoying than intended or if the character was simply insufferable, but having to listen to her go on and on, constantly overthinking everything, made the writing feel haphazardly executed (and came across as amateur).
July 6, 2023
Closer to 3.5 stars!
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