Ode to My First Car

Ode to My First Car

Robin Gow

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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.

Publication Year: 2023


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  • booksgamesvinyl
    Jan 03, 2025
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  • fragilelunar
    Mar 11, 2025
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  • queerlybeloved
    May 29, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    “maybe coming out isn’t always about coming 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 or something you can touch. coming out is like saying, ‘i am a person.’”

    🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

    this book felt like it captured everything i feel as a queer girl with real, messy, complicated feelings about so many things.

    and i love books in verse!! it’s such a special, impactful way of writing.

    i felt so seen!! liking your friends!! needing an escape!! older queer people feeling familial!! having hard sibling relationships!! being afraid to relate to your parents!! overthinking every single little thing!! 

    i found so much of myself in this book. 
    i am a person.

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