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Girls in Boys' Cars
A complicated friendship.
A roadtrip in a stolen car.
The stories that define us.
And two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
Rosa was never really trying to hurt anyone, no matter what they said in court.
But she's ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared.
A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
A roadtrip in a stolen car.
The stories that define us.
And two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
Rosa was never really trying to hurt anyone, no matter what they said in court.
But she's ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared.
A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer.
296 pages, Paperback
First published July 27, 2021
19 people are currently reading
507 people want to read
About the author
Felicity Castagna
11 books15 followersFelicity Castagna won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction for her novel, The Incredible Here and Now, which was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and adapted for the stage by the National Theatre of Parramatta. Her collection of short stories, Small Indiscretions, was named an Australian Book Review Book of the Year. Her most recent novel, No More Boats, was shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2018 Voss Literary Prize and the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Multicultural Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
July 4, 2022
The girl in this book gets convicted of Reckless Indifference. Unfortunately she then tells this story with reckless indifference.
I think this was supposed to be a book about how girls are treated in 21st century Australia. How they get treated by boys and parents and society in general. But honestly, I couldn't really tell what she was trying to tell us. There was no feeling in this book, they just did stuff and kind of said they were annoyed but acted indifferent. Any potential messages were so soft and bland that I think I mostly missed them.
I was bored, little was said that meant anything, I didn't care about anybody and I didn't feel what they were going through. This is the first time a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) shortlisted book has let me down. Sadly I wouldn't recommend.
I think this was supposed to be a book about how girls are treated in 21st century Australia. How they get treated by boys and parents and society in general. But honestly, I couldn't really tell what she was trying to tell us. There was no feeling in this book, they just did stuff and kind of said they were annoyed but acted indifferent. Any potential messages were so soft and bland that I think I mostly missed them.
I was bored, little was said that meant anything, I didn't care about anybody and I didn't feel what they were going through. This is the first time a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) shortlisted book has let me down. Sadly I wouldn't recommend.
January 22, 2022
So many beautiful moments of truth and wisdom in this complex, female buddy road trip, crime caper, story-within-a-story novel. It's fuelled by a powerful rage against the way womens' and girls' stories are endlessly written and told for them, and reminds readers of a truth universally acknowledged, taken as a given, for men and boys - that each individual is a complicated, undefinable story. A story that is constantly being re-written, from the outside, but also from the inside.
It's a call to arms to stop putting people in boxes, bitches.
My copy will forever be completely dog-eared, signposting instances of Castagna's powerful writing like these -
At page 86: 'Girls' anger is a different type of thing from boys'. You have to cram that anger into your body every day. It's large and it's loud and it stretches and swells and cracks until it leaks out of your pores. People are always surprised. Girls can have so much anger.'
At page 150: 'Like, maybe we are all guilty of reckless indifference; reckless indifference is a semi-naked photograph of a girl on the internet, it's the boy who refuses to look at you, it's what I did to my mum, it's everything and every person that got all these girls here in the first place.'
At page 169: 'Look,' Asheeka said, followed by that phrase that I still toss around and around in my head. 'She's completely alone but completely all right with it.'
At pages 194 - 195: 'being out there on the road made me realise that people are always playing with your story, inventing you, changing who you are to suit them .... This is all part of my story. I was alive out there for a while in the real world and it was like a series of earthquakes everywhere and I know I don't fit right altogether, as a character inside other people's heads or whatever, but I'm still trying to work it all out.'
At page 221: 'This is what we do to each other, all us girls, all us women. Doing things that make us feel ashamed: putting naked photos on the internet, turning away when we know we should listen, telling each other that we don't look good enough, don't say the right things. Running. Running. Running when people need us to stay.'
At page 290: 'A woman I met told me something that made me think of you, she said when you tell a story you are trying to walk with someone else to understand who they are while listening to your own heartbeat.'
A particularly Australian, feminist response, across seven decades, to Kerouac's 'On the Road.' Loved it.
It's a call to arms to stop putting people in boxes, bitches.
My copy will forever be completely dog-eared, signposting instances of Castagna's powerful writing like these -
At page 86: 'Girls' anger is a different type of thing from boys'. You have to cram that anger into your body every day. It's large and it's loud and it stretches and swells and cracks until it leaks out of your pores. People are always surprised. Girls can have so much anger.'
At page 150: 'Like, maybe we are all guilty of reckless indifference; reckless indifference is a semi-naked photograph of a girl on the internet, it's the boy who refuses to look at you, it's what I did to my mum, it's everything and every person that got all these girls here in the first place.'
At page 169: 'Look,' Asheeka said, followed by that phrase that I still toss around and around in my head. 'She's completely alone but completely all right with it.'
At pages 194 - 195: 'being out there on the road made me realise that people are always playing with your story, inventing you, changing who you are to suit them .... This is all part of my story. I was alive out there for a while in the real world and it was like a series of earthquakes everywhere and I know I don't fit right altogether, as a character inside other people's heads or whatever, but I'm still trying to work it all out.'
At page 221: 'This is what we do to each other, all us girls, all us women. Doing things that make us feel ashamed: putting naked photos on the internet, turning away when we know we should listen, telling each other that we don't look good enough, don't say the right things. Running. Running. Running when people need us to stay.'
At page 290: 'A woman I met told me something that made me think of you, she said when you tell a story you are trying to walk with someone else to understand who they are while listening to your own heartbeat.'
A particularly Australian, feminist response, across seven decades, to Kerouac's 'On the Road.' Loved it.
August 13, 2021
An awesome Aussie novel that just happens to be YA as well.
Rosa and Asheeka are brilliant female characters. Their issues are so real; their predicaments felt honest and believable. The complexities of life for younger people today, the peer pressure, identity struggles, and the need not only to fit in but where that place may be is authentic in this novel.
This is similar but uniquely different to Castagna's first novel, 'The Incredible Here and Now'; this read keeps some core details to the end. Overcoming adversity, friendship, and self-discovery in a uniquely Australian context made this a fantastic read.
I listened to the Audible version, and the narrator, Louise Giavas, is brilliant.
Rosa and Asheeka are brilliant female characters. Their issues are so real; their predicaments felt honest and believable. The complexities of life for younger people today, the peer pressure, identity struggles, and the need not only to fit in but where that place may be is authentic in this novel.
This is similar but uniquely different to Castagna's first novel, 'The Incredible Here and Now'; this read keeps some core details to the end. Overcoming adversity, friendship, and self-discovery in a uniquely Australian context made this a fantastic read.
I listened to the Audible version, and the narrator, Louise Giavas, is brilliant.
September 17, 2021
This is astonishing.
It very effectively balances social issues and a really well told story.
Nothing too dark, but the anger is there.
Nothing too preachy but the lessons to be learned are visible.
Nothing too cliched, but the discussions of novel writing are familiar and thoughtful.
I really love it.
It very effectively balances social issues and a really well told story.
Nothing too dark, but the anger is there.
Nothing too preachy but the lessons to be learned are visible.
Nothing too cliched, but the discussions of novel writing are familiar and thoughtful.
I really love it.
April 30, 2022
"Being out there on the road made me realise that people are always playing with your story, inventing you, changing who you are to suit them."
I love this. It's heartbreaking and clever and full of the teen angst of growing up female. There's a road trip, make-overs, a drowned town and more crimes than should be able to fit in one book. It's on the Shortlist for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year - Older Readers award. I wrote this for the CBCA WA Shortlist talk this week, but I caught covid (of course I did) and handed in my words for someone else to say.
Rosa is in juvenile detention as she writes her story. She talks to her counsellor, makes friends with the other girls, and remembers her court case. Bit by bit she reveals why she's there and why her partner in crime Asheeka is MIA.
"Most stories don't really go ahead in straight lines. They get jumbled up and you have to untangle them again (just like life, I suppose)."
In between recounting their crimes, Rosa has a hilarious way with words. There's a line early on, about why did the court show the CCTV of them shoplifting? When there were so many worse things they did.
"What kind of a real-life plot ever truly gets resolved? As if people's lives don't keep rolling on when the page is finished."
Rosa comes up against all the complications of writing your story.
"It's hard managing the past and the present and putting them all into the same story."
She's got foreshadowing covered.
"No one can really escape all that backstory, I guess. We never could."
And literary allusion is helped along by Rosa reading some books in juvie and finding them wanting. The only girls or women in The Catcher in the Rye and On the Road are there for sex. Rosa wants to write her story centering the girls. The only boy in their story is the owner of the car they stole.*
"Then Asheeka just turned those keys hanging there in the ignition and the car started to buzz beneath us and then Arnold started to pay attention."
Of course, Thelma and Louise comes up (mentioned by an old person). Rosa says her and Asheeka's road trip was nothing like the movie because Thelma and Louise were driving away from everything; Asheeka and Rosa were driving toward what they wanted. Early on Rosa says,
"I think that was the moment when we both really started to come alive."
There's a point when the two realise they're not going anywhere good. About when they drive into the fires of Summer 2020. Early on Rosa mentions hazy red sunsets and smoke in Canberra, but they were oblivious to the cause. Someone tells them most of Australia is burning** and Rosa thinks,
"Was that even true? Asheeka and I hadn't been paying attention. We were from the land of apartment blocks, not these thousands of acres of flammable browns and greens."
Luckily, they squeeze in a New Year's Eve party before they land back in the real (if apocalyptic) world.
"It seems crazy, thinking about it now, that we were even worried about dress codes when the world around us was about to explode on so many literal and metaphorical levels."
The two girl's friendship changes as they drive. When they’re standing beside the drowned town at Jindabyne, as it slowly rises from the mud of drought, and a fire rages down the mountain, it could have been a good time to go home.
"We were standing in the middle of the apocalypse. It made something feel bent and broken inside of me."
Unfortunately, they’re only half way through the book. Soon after Asheeka goes missing for the second time, the road trip from hell becomes a metaphor for their toxic relationship, or as the blurb calls it: complicated. Asheeka explains what she tries to do for Rosa.
"The thing is, I don't think you really look like yourself or at least the kind of person you want to be, and you know, if you don't look like yourself you'll end up getting the wrong boyfriend, the wrong friends, the wrong life. You could just end up being someone entirely different from you."
The wrong friends like you, Asheeka? Rosa almost gets what’s going on.
"Sometimes, at times like this, I lost track of where the me I wanted to be began and where it hit up against the me that Asheeka thought I should want to be."
Rosa says she doesn't want to tell Asheeka's story. Despite this she almost does tell the story of Asheeka, or rather Asheeka overshadowing Rosa's story. But it very much is Rosa’s story. Asheeka is the side-kick.
This is my favourite of the Older Readers list. Rosa's very meta story within a story, within how do you tell your own story, is the kind of thing that sucks in judges every which way. Add this to how well the book could be used in English classes. Incorporating the books Rosa reads into class discussion, all the literary devices Rosa uses, her constant hum of the conundrums of storytelling. How do you tell the truth of a story, when it's a retelling of your memories of what happened? And can that much pathetic fallacy really overcome this reader's suspension of disbelief? My disbelief was bruised and battered towards the end. How many times can two girls really outwit the cops?
Back to those judges, shades of The End of the World Is Bigger than Love winning last year. I could see exactly why the judges chose that as a winner, all the while I hated it. This time round, I agree with the judges (doesn't happen often). Do I agree enough for me to think it will win? I want it to, but I think The Boy from the Mish is more likely (if I'm thinking like a judge).
"What I'm really trying to say, I guess, in a metaphorical way, or maybe I'm just being literal, I'm not sure, is that people fight really hard to have control over their stories and sometimes we lose that control, sometimes we let ourselves be invisible and sometimes we try to be visible again and we accidently fall down a rabbit hole."
See you on the other side...
*There may be another two guys just for the sex.
**Hello girls, NSW isn't most of Australia, but whatever.
This is from my blog https://ofceilingwax.wordpress.com/20...
*************
First thoughts
I love this. It's heartbreaking and clever and full of the teen angst of growing up female. There's a road trip, make-overs, a drowned town and more crimes than should be able to fit in one book. I wrote about it for the CBCA WA Shortlist talk last night and just realised what's saved to my phone is different to what's on my computer which is now fast asleep. Come back later for the full version. But know I love Rosa's tale and I wanted to slap Asheeka many times.
"I got stuck forever on that same highway, forever turning in circles, forever turning backwards, coming back."
September 16, 2021
3.5 stars “My dad always said to me that things happen twice, once in real time and then again when you’re remembering them.”
I really wanted to like this book. The way the timeline was structured was so intriguing and Rosa was a captivating narrator but the end felt rushed and unfinished. I understand if it’s meant to be an open ending but it didn’t feel satisfying. It was really cool to actually know most of the places characters were for once since I’ve never read a book set in NSW before. The Australian representation I would say is almost 100% spot on except for one line where Rosa says she’s driving 75 miles per hour, no one here uses miles, I don’t even know how fast that is. It was an enjoyable read but it left me wanting more.
I really wanted to like this book. The way the timeline was structured was so intriguing and Rosa was a captivating narrator but the end felt rushed and unfinished. I understand if it’s meant to be an open ending but it didn’t feel satisfying. It was really cool to actually know most of the places characters were for once since I’ve never read a book set in NSW before. The Australian representation I would say is almost 100% spot on except for one line where Rosa says she’s driving 75 miles per hour, no one here uses miles, I don’t even know how fast that is. It was an enjoyable read but it left me wanting more.
April 20, 2022
Trigger warnings: incarceration, revenge porn, bushfire, fatphobia, theft, assault
2.5 stars
I..........genuinely do not know who this book is for but I can solidly say that it's not for me. This is a kind of Thelma and Louise type story with two teenage girls from Western Sydney who steal a car and drive somewhat aimlessly around the southern half of the state during the 2020 bushfire crisis. Along the way, they cry and argue and support themselves by stealing credit cards. The chapters alternate between their journey and Rosa's subsequent incarceration, in which she tries to tell her story from juvie.
And, like, it was FINE but I also just did not relate to ANY of it and I didn't particularly like any of the characters, so it was something of a hard slog for me. Sigh.
2.5 stars
I..........genuinely do not know who this book is for but I can solidly say that it's not for me. This is a kind of Thelma and Louise type story with two teenage girls from Western Sydney who steal a car and drive somewhat aimlessly around the southern half of the state during the 2020 bushfire crisis. Along the way, they cry and argue and support themselves by stealing credit cards. The chapters alternate between their journey and Rosa's subsequent incarceration, in which she tries to tell her story from juvie.
And, like, it was FINE but I also just did not relate to ANY of it and I didn't particularly like any of the characters, so it was something of a hard slog for me. Sigh.
October 6, 2024
this book was so fucking weird
August 17, 2021
Rosa is in a correctional facility. Her partner in crime has vanished.
There wasn’t supposed to be a crime, let alone the string of them Rosa has been imprisoned for. Left to deal with the fallout alone, her counsellor suggests she write about it, maybe explain what really happened?
Rosa begins her story, speaking directly to the reader with a flick back to when she was in Year 7 and her life unravelled. Her grandparents had lived with them forever but when Pop passed away and Nan went into a home, her parents realised there wasn’t much holding them together anymore.
Rosa went from happy with friends to a girl who just wanted to be invisible.
It was Akeesha who saw her, sorting out a bully in her brash, fiery, confident way.
Ever since, they’ve been friends, Rosa still quiet and more tag-a-long than equal, but feeling better about herself now in high school.
One night Rosa and Akeesha are hanging out with Akeesha’s boyfriend and his ‘boys’. It’s never fun for Rosa, as usual just going along with what’s happening.
This includes getting in Arnold’s car with Akeesha as she steals it from under his nose. It is supposed to be payback for his treatment of her lately, but quickly turns into a road trip of crime, violence, freedom, self expression, and release from expectation of parents, teachers and boys.
Girls in Boys Cars isn’t an adventure / road trip story, it’s more than that. Rosa is telling you her story, with all the little side trips a real tale takes. She’s not sure where to start and is concerned about keeping your interest, eg. whether she should add the sex bits.
She does mention this but as with the rest of her story, she’s disillusioned by it. She reveals her slow metamorphoses from invisible nobody to friend of popular girl, Akeesha. This is an unequal friendship but still one she is moulded by.
The road trip emboldens Rosa, helping her discover her true self, all the while as Australian bushfires redden the sun and smoke drifts closer.
Written for all the girls who aren’t ‘seen’, this is a thought-provoking novel about pressures and expectations put on girls by many who surround them. Friends, boyfriends, peers and even family.
Author – Felicity Castagna
Age – 15+
There wasn’t supposed to be a crime, let alone the string of them Rosa has been imprisoned for. Left to deal with the fallout alone, her counsellor suggests she write about it, maybe explain what really happened?
Rosa begins her story, speaking directly to the reader with a flick back to when she was in Year 7 and her life unravelled. Her grandparents had lived with them forever but when Pop passed away and Nan went into a home, her parents realised there wasn’t much holding them together anymore.
Rosa went from happy with friends to a girl who just wanted to be invisible.
It was Akeesha who saw her, sorting out a bully in her brash, fiery, confident way.
Ever since, they’ve been friends, Rosa still quiet and more tag-a-long than equal, but feeling better about herself now in high school.
One night Rosa and Akeesha are hanging out with Akeesha’s boyfriend and his ‘boys’. It’s never fun for Rosa, as usual just going along with what’s happening.
This includes getting in Arnold’s car with Akeesha as she steals it from under his nose. It is supposed to be payback for his treatment of her lately, but quickly turns into a road trip of crime, violence, freedom, self expression, and release from expectation of parents, teachers and boys.
Girls in Boys Cars isn’t an adventure / road trip story, it’s more than that. Rosa is telling you her story, with all the little side trips a real tale takes. She’s not sure where to start and is concerned about keeping your interest, eg. whether she should add the sex bits.
She does mention this but as with the rest of her story, she’s disillusioned by it. She reveals her slow metamorphoses from invisible nobody to friend of popular girl, Akeesha. This is an unequal friendship but still one she is moulded by.
The road trip emboldens Rosa, helping her discover her true self, all the while as Australian bushfires redden the sun and smoke drifts closer.
Written for all the girls who aren’t ‘seen’, this is a thought-provoking novel about pressures and expectations put on girls by many who surround them. Friends, boyfriends, peers and even family.
Author – Felicity Castagna
Age – 15+
September 21, 2022
A "feminist" homage to road trips. Anything from Kerouac's "On The Road" to the Italian film "Il Sorpasso" and everything else in between. The cars Rosa and Asheeka inhabit aren't about journey, but symbolically about getting relief from the mundane world of suburbia, particularly Western Sydney and the streets of Paramatta and Harris Park, as well as the socio-cultural norms placed on them because of their gender.
April 28, 2022
I picked up this book due to the cool cover and the fact that I'm trying to read more of this year's CBCA shortlisted books.
I almost DNFed it when it looks like this book is just going to be another Thelma and Louise. While it started by following the movie's tropes, it eventually found its own path.
The strong ending nudged it from 3 to 4 stars.
I almost DNFed it when it looks like this book is just going to be another Thelma and Louise. While it started by following the movie's tropes, it eventually found its own path.
The strong ending nudged it from 3 to 4 stars.
June 12, 2023
2.5 ⭐️!
The idea of this ya book was good, but I felt it was lacking something.. it felt like teenagers running away and doing not so great things purely just for the fun of it.
.
The idea of this ya book was good, but I felt it was lacking something.. it felt like teenagers running away and doing not so great things purely just for the fun of it.
.
October 24, 2022
If I was 16-17 reading this, it woulda changed my LIFE. Very surface level, black/white feminism, which I want to excuse because of the unreliable narrator, but I think I’m honestly just a bit too old for this book. Didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it though! Loved the fact it was set so close to home, except for when the audiobook pronounced Bulli and Thirroul wrong.
September 12, 2022
This book thinks it’s more profound than it actually is. Also makes a very simplistic and annoying binary out of ‘things boys do’ and ‘things girls do’.
Can see missed/lost potential here.
Can see missed/lost potential here.
September 13, 2021
Yeah... So unfortunately this one was not for me. I read this book for my local book club's chosen book and sadly I could not get into it at all.
It's a short YA Aussie story about two teenage girls on the run and end up road tripping around NSW Australia. It was nice to have a familiar suburban setting but I could not for the life of me stay interested in any of the characters or the plot...
I didn't find either girls particular likeable and it was quite frustrating at times to read about them breaking the law and doing things that they probably shouldn't do. I usually like to relate or 'connect' to the characters in a book I'm reading and I could not do that with Rosa or Asheeka.
If you want a short Young Adult quick read about two carefree Aussie teens, breaking rules and stealing cars and going where the road takes them, you might enjoy this.
It's a short YA Aussie story about two teenage girls on the run and end up road tripping around NSW Australia. It was nice to have a familiar suburban setting but I could not for the life of me stay interested in any of the characters or the plot...
I didn't find either girls particular likeable and it was quite frustrating at times to read about them breaking the law and doing things that they probably shouldn't do. I usually like to relate or 'connect' to the characters in a book I'm reading and I could not do that with Rosa or Asheeka.
If you want a short Young Adult quick read about two carefree Aussie teens, breaking rules and stealing cars and going where the road takes them, you might enjoy this.
August 4, 2021
I love how this book introduces so many different bits of classic lit without feeling preachy or overdoing it. There was just the right amount of absurdity, and it felt very real. In fact, I was quite alarmed by how real the whole thing felt. I've daydreamed about running away or just driving until I don't know where I am so many times, so it made perfect sense to me. I have to find the porn shop/book shop if it's real or inspired!! I loved this book, and highly recommend it!
August 21, 2021
I've got quite a bit to say, so how do I say it concisely? This book is worth reading and worth buying for your library.
How do you hear the voice of a teenage girl who has never even thought she could make choices for herself? Castagna has given us an in-road with this thoughtful look at what happens when teenage girls try to take a stand.
Highly recommended to 13+ (Y9 and older).
How do you hear the voice of a teenage girl who has never even thought she could make choices for herself? Castagna has given us an in-road with this thoughtful look at what happens when teenage girls try to take a stand.
Highly recommended to 13+ (Y9 and older).
January 10, 2022
I read it quite quickly. But this was amazing. Amazing in every aspect. I love the characters and overall I love this book. It actually made me think, it’s very girl powering. I- I’m basically speechless!!
October 8, 2022
When I first started reading Felicity Castagna’s 2021 novel 'Girls in Boys Cars', I thought it was going to be just another cliché teen angst coming of age tale. I was so wrong - it is much more than that. This novel is written in a way that gives such great insight into the complexities of being a teenager in modern Australian society. Rosa and Asheeka are teen girls living in Parramatta in Western Sydney. Rosa is a good student, smart and bookish, but struggling after the demise of her parents’ marriage and the death of her grandfather. Asheeka is not as invested in school, misses her deceased father and is struggling under the burden of the cultural expectations of her mother. After a tense incident with Asheeka’s dropkick boyfriend, the girls steal his precious car and escape on a road trip.
The story is told in first person from the perspective of Rosa. Rosa is now in juvenile detention after all that happened and tells the story in flashbacks of what took place on their road trip to land her in such trouble with the law. The novel explores the complexities of female friendship, child and parent relationships, and the massive pressure on young women who, despite recent progress, are still not entirely free to be themselves. As Rosa reflects from her cell, “Girls’ anger is a different type of thing from boys’. You have to cram that anger into your body every day. It’s large and it’s loud and it stretches and swells and cracks until it leaks out of your pores. People are always surprised. Girls can have so much anger.”
I really enjoyed this book, both the setting, and the excellent character development. You don’t always empathise with the girls, but you do understand their actions and motivations. Their perspectives are captured so beautifully.
The story is told in first person from the perspective of Rosa. Rosa is now in juvenile detention after all that happened and tells the story in flashbacks of what took place on their road trip to land her in such trouble with the law. The novel explores the complexities of female friendship, child and parent relationships, and the massive pressure on young women who, despite recent progress, are still not entirely free to be themselves. As Rosa reflects from her cell, “Girls’ anger is a different type of thing from boys’. You have to cram that anger into your body every day. It’s large and it’s loud and it stretches and swells and cracks until it leaks out of your pores. People are always surprised. Girls can have so much anger.”
I really enjoyed this book, both the setting, and the excellent character development. You don’t always empathise with the girls, but you do understand their actions and motivations. Their perspectives are captured so beautifully.
September 2, 2025
“The thing about books is they leave out all that quiet space where nothing happens, but it's hard to explain how life is if you don't try to explain how not much and everything happens all at the same time.”
“You've got to tell a story until it becomes a solid thing, until it becomes human.”
Actual Rating: 3.5
Girls In Boys’ Cars reminded me of Not Like Other Girls in a way. It wasn’t exactly “feminist” but more “teenage girls gaining independence and writing their own story”. I admit, I did skim some parts but it didn’t change the impact of the story.
Any book with an Australian backdrop will always have automatic appeal to me. The culture references really brought the book to life and helped me connect deeper to this book. The setting, however, wasn’t the only thing that made this book feel more personal. The characters were depicted in such a human way.
The friendship between Asheeka and Rosa was such a real, honest one; not only did they laugh and have fun together, but they also screamed, cried, abandoned and hurt each other. Asheeka was a girl who had been taken advantage of too much, she hurt because no one ever really saw her if it wasn’t superficially. Rosa was the nobody who wanted to be more than that. She spent too long wanting to be seen until she began to. She was sick of reading stories full of false hope and fairytales. She wanted to write her own: honest and tailored to let the readers know what she allowed them to. And that’s exactly what she did.
“You've got to tell a story until it becomes a solid thing, until it becomes human.”
Actual Rating: 3.5
Girls In Boys’ Cars reminded me of Not Like Other Girls in a way. It wasn’t exactly “feminist” but more “teenage girls gaining independence and writing their own story”. I admit, I did skim some parts but it didn’t change the impact of the story.
Any book with an Australian backdrop will always have automatic appeal to me. The culture references really brought the book to life and helped me connect deeper to this book. The setting, however, wasn’t the only thing that made this book feel more personal. The characters were depicted in such a human way.
The friendship between Asheeka and Rosa was such a real, honest one; not only did they laugh and have fun together, but they also screamed, cried, abandoned and hurt each other. Asheeka was a girl who had been taken advantage of too much, she hurt because no one ever really saw her if it wasn’t superficially. Rosa was the nobody who wanted to be more than that. She spent too long wanting to be seen until she began to. She was sick of reading stories full of false hope and fairytales. She wanted to write her own: honest and tailored to let the readers know what she allowed them to. And that’s exactly what she did.
September 11, 2022
This was a good book to read. I love the references of the Snowy Mountains and the Central West NSW.
The thing that annoyed me was when they were trying to describe travelling in and around the Snowy Mountains and travelling to Canberra. It sounded like they were taking the long way through Tumut to get to Jindabyne. The way they located towns like Jindabyne and around Lake Eucumbene were confusing cos it didn't seem like they were placed right. Also when they were travelling to Canberra and Yass. The describing of the surroundings were like not sounding right of where they were.
The thing that annoyed me was when they were trying to describe travelling in and around the Snowy Mountains and travelling to Canberra. It sounded like they were taking the long way through Tumut to get to Jindabyne. The way they located towns like Jindabyne and around Lake Eucumbene were confusing cos it didn't seem like they were placed right. Also when they were travelling to Canberra and Yass. The describing of the surroundings were like not sounding right of where they were.
July 12, 2022
I abandoned this at 90 pages, just couldn’t engage with plot or characters. I really wanted to like it…
July 18, 2022
I thought the book was okay. Like it had some really cool key elements like them riding away and having those cool cars like Arnold’s and the pink one and all of that self discovery but I just found it not very engaging. From the title I was very excited about the book, girls and boys cars, just honestly radiates large feminist vibes to me but there wasn’t a whole lot of that on and at the start I found it a bit confusing with Rosa being in the Institute and then flashbacks to the past. And I’m not gonna lie I was a little disappointed, I had a high hopes for this book but overall it is okay but hard to get into but overall not horrible.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2024
was forced to read 🤧
April 4, 2022
I honestly loved this so much. The way the story was told was interesting and the whole premise of just leaving everything on a whim is kinda intoxicating. I wish there had been more at the end but I'll take what I can get.
March 27, 2022
This book is amazing, I love the ending. Akeesha and Rosa are inspiring characters and I felt like I was watching a movie while reading this, the attention to detail in this book is great. I love the stories this book tells and all of the characters.
November 10, 2022
In the time between when we left and when we returned there was just this infinite space where we were anyone.
Felicity Castagna takes us on a tumultuous road trip, from the Western Sydney suburbs throughout southern NSW, with no shortage of precarious and perilous moments. Perspectives switch between the road trip and Rosa later on at a correctional centre recounting it all.
Rosa is timid and bookish girl who wants what the popular girls have. She knows they have power; there's even a hierarchy just getting to the bathroom mirrors at school. Rosa wants 'what they made for themselves when they walked down those halls like nothing was ever going to trip them up.' This is one of the first inklings of this desire for agency that Rosa has in the novel. Her counterpart, Asheeka, is a popular girl who befriends Rosa despite the divide in their school "ranking".
Angered and spurred on by Asheeka's possessive boyfriend Arnold and his equally objectionable, misogynistic friends, the duo steal his car and head off. Accidentally smashing Arnold's prized possession during this cursory trip round the block, the pair hightail it out of town. This is where their road trip to wherever begins.
Girls in Boys' Cars is the best type of go-your-own-way story, one where protagonists Rosa and Asheeka flee and act with reckless abandon, letting their impulses run wild. It answers the questions of our urges, the what-ifs: what if we stole that car, what if we just ran away. Their growing resentment of expectations, social order and conventions, and desire to never go back causes them to leave a path of destruction in their wake. It's this realistic setting and characterisation but also the uncertain threat of consequences that makes this adventure so engaging.
On page 93, TikTok is unfortunately mentioned, simply to make a point of it being something relevant (for the time being). Considering the prevalence of this reference in current YA books, it's almost as if it's a written demand in the contracts of every YA and contemporary fiction author; yet, we know anyone with the patience to read a book isn't looking to be engaged by a simple reference. For sure, Married at First Sight is the best reference, being the dumb thing on TV that Rosa was watching.
This story is about self-discovery and agency, being away from family, friends, and lovers. Rosa does a lot of thinking, but mostly she feels, feeling in the moment, seeing the stars, the smoke, the fire, bodies spinning, feet walking onward. Through all of this feeling and impulsive doing, Rosa and Asheeka's flaws are front and centre. Yes, the duo are aimless, and frivolous, and clueless. They aren't perfect and they aren't trying to be either; and maybe it takes chaos for them to find themselves.
Negotiating the unexplored territory of the countryside, Rosa reflects on dark and challenging moments, whether of past memories at school and home, or memories of on-the-run committing sometimes exhilarating petty crimes. What's repeated throughout the story are the themes of longing and growing: longing for answers, longing for belonging, and longing to understand the world around them. With Asheeka and Rosa alone, they are free to express how they see the world, for example, when Asheeka says this:
They’re always expecting things. Boys. Girls don’t expect so much.
And through these statements, these "universal truths", they express their own needs and desires. Yet, just like the dialogue between the two teenagers, the messages presented in this book are often quite vague and simplified. While the lines do make sense, this limited expression demonstrates a low expectation of a reader's ability to comprehend anything more insightful to come from the young characters. On a related note, the story lulls in the middle of the book, and this is partly due to the narration seeming to allude to something more, to some profundity, but never more than an allusion. Perhaps this is also the fault of opting to end most chapters by describing a little vignette, or an unbroken action like walking and walking, or driving and driving; it's a rest stop of sorts for the reader. Though after a few of these chapter endings, the imagery starts to take on the visual equivalent of empty platitudes.
The story includes the depressing reality of the devastating 2020 fires. Amidst the tumult and chaos of their running away and their own fractured relationship, from the background the raging fires push their way to the foreground. Likewise, to this foreboding, creeping inferno, every few pages is the terror of being a girl out in the world. Abuse and mistreatment isn't hidden. The boys are proud of it, in fact. And this unavoidable malevolent eye is not just in the Sydney suburbs, it's out in the bush too, it seems, even if more covertly. Castagna portrays very real fears. Those animalistic stares, always a danger ready to present itself, to curtail the hunger of barely repressed violence. But this is no paranoia. It's not even subtext or a few small hints; 'the look' is bold and unabashed, and written with a startling casualness and frequency. The scenes creep up on you, and by the end you expect it. Every time the pair enter a new place, every person they meet, you don't trust. This line in particular illustrates the seedy environment:
He took us in with his eyes, running them all along our bodies. He gave me a kind of half-smile that said, Yeah, and I’ll take you, I’ll take you both.
There are always some creeps watching these girls. You begin to wonder, can they ever catch a break?? There's no shortage of odious onlookers, but fortunately most don't receive much more than a vague passing description.
Castagna doesn't tie her story up with a nice red bow. There are consequences, and everything changes. From their purgatorial trip, they return to reality, changed. Well, Asheeka is unchained, but Rosa is less so.
Girls in Boys' Cars may not resonate with everyone's experience of teen-hood, but it shows the messy side, the frustrations, the lack of control and agency that we desperately crave and just as soon wish we hadn't received it, and wonder why we even wanted it so much. But the story also demonstrates that a little chaos can be good, and maybe it will take some tumultuous times for you to find yourself.
Also, I think there's an error on page 246, where the word is spelled alter instead of altar?
September 3, 2021
⭐⭐⭐✨
The more I read, the more I vibed with this book.
It felt so familiar but I can't figure out why? It kind of reminded me of Alison from Pretty Little Liars and how she was kinda an enigma, or a source of fascination.
Two girls in high school decide 'fk the patriarchy' and steal a boy's car (who leaked one of their nudes) and embark of a trip of NSW during fire season, completely free of any restraints or expectations. What follows is an interesting examination of identity and what it is to be a young woman. It's told in a series of short stories written by Rosa after she's been arrested (for what??? We find out)
It reminded me of all the times I wanted to run away when I was younger but could never go through with it.
This is one of those no plot, just vibes books, and I really loved the vibes - they kept me engaged.
Also, it was so nice to read a book set in Australia with a clear Aussie voice and references that were familiar!
Did end really suddenly - I could've read about Rosa and Asheeka's travels for far longer.
Thankyou to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book 🥰
The more I read, the more I vibed with this book.
It felt so familiar but I can't figure out why? It kind of reminded me of Alison from Pretty Little Liars and how she was kinda an enigma, or a source of fascination.
Two girls in high school decide 'fk the patriarchy' and steal a boy's car (who leaked one of their nudes) and embark of a trip of NSW during fire season, completely free of any restraints or expectations. What follows is an interesting examination of identity and what it is to be a young woman. It's told in a series of short stories written by Rosa after she's been arrested (for what??? We find out)
It reminded me of all the times I wanted to run away when I was younger but could never go through with it.
This is one of those no plot, just vibes books, and I really loved the vibes - they kept me engaged.
Also, it was so nice to read a book set in Australia with a clear Aussie voice and references that were familiar!
Did end really suddenly - I could've read about Rosa and Asheeka's travels for far longer.
Thankyou to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book 🥰
January 11, 2022
I really like this book. It was nice to have a break from fantasy. I adored the road trip element to it, since I haven't read any books center it. The start was a bit slow, and the book is a character focused book, so keep that in mind before you read it (I liked it). The writing style is similar to that of Tomorrow when the war began, where the author has a character telling the story and it jumps from the past to present. I enjoy that writing style because you are anticipating something throughout the book. I love how the characters are girly and have to go out and brave Australia. I would adore if the author wrote a sequel following Asheeka and what happens after the end of the book.
February 14, 2022
Rosa tells her story from juvenile jail and goes back in time to narrate how she ended up there. It began when Asheeka, her best friend, takes her boyfriend’s car and it spirals out of control as they resort to desperate measures to survive on the road. They evaluate their place in the world, with peers and family, and learn about female empowerment. It contains an important message while being funny, moving and thoroughly enjoyable.
“you were meant to either be one of those girls who wears too much makeup or someone who reads books. You couldn’t be both, so I was confusing.” Rose on p.19
“you were meant to either be one of those girls who wears too much makeup or someone who reads books. You couldn’t be both, so I was confusing.” Rose on p.19
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