Julia at the Drive-In by Rainbow Rowell

Published by Amazon Original Stories on June 23, 2026

“Julia at the Drive-In” is one of six entries in the “Edge of Everything” series of Amazon Original Stories that focus on coming-of-age themes. It is a first kiss story. The story is mercifully short and ridiculously fluffy. I’ve read about young Japanese women who write stories on their cellphones while riding a bus to school or work. “Julia at the Drive-In” strikes me as the kind of story that might be composed on a cellphone.

Julia Kimball lives in Nebraska. Like other teenage girls throughout history, Julia has self-esteem issues. She worries that her peers don’t want her around. Her new (and perhaps only) friend Chloe suggested that she try a different haircut.

Julia’s new curly hair, with the addition of contact lenses and lip tint, has made boys notice her. The moral of the story seems to be that attractive but nerdy girls can get boys, not by impressing them with their intelligence or kindness or sense of humor, but by changing their hair and removing their glasses.

As the story begins, Julia is alone in the back seat at the drive-in. Most of the story’s early words are divided between detailed descriptions of the boys Julia regards as handsome and angst because those boys don’t realize she’s alive.

When Chloe and her friend Aiden begin canoodling in the front seat, Julia makes a popcorn trip. Wyatt Hardy (“His smile was the best”) catches her staring at him. Wyatt winks at her. Julia enters a state of shock and is still stumbling (“stumbling emotionally”) as she walks back to the car. She changes her destination when she notices that Aiden has his hand inside Chloe’s shirt (but only in the back of the shirt; this story isn’t even PG-13).

Wyatt engages Julia in conversation while leaving the impression that he doesn’t recognize her as a classmate. To the extent that the story has any dramatic tension, it lies in Julia’s fear that Wyatt will reject her if he realizes that she’s a classmate he never noticed before. That tension continues even as Julia gets her first kiss . . . and second and third.

Rainbow Rowell’s writing style is undistinguished. Perhaps she simplified it to tell a story that teenage girls coming of age before the dawn of feminism might have enjoyed.

I’m clearly the wrong audience for this story — I don’t identify with virginal teenage girls — but I have difficulty imagining that any audience would be entertained by Julia’s self-pity or her happy discovery that boys will kiss you if you curl your hair. Even as a pedestrian first kiss story, “Julia at the Drive-In” might have had merit if not for the message that insecure girls only need the right hairstyle and lip gloss to make boys notice them.

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