Review By: Stephanie Kenific
School: Solvay High School
Published: 2025
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Novel-in-Verse
Audience: Grades 9–12
Number of Stars: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Goodreads Link: When We Ride
Content Warnings: Strong language, graphic violence, drug and alcohol use (including pills and narcotics), and depictions of alcoholic relapse.
Publisher’s Summary
Rex Ogle explores bonds of loyalty and friendship and how they’re tested by drugs and violence in this propulsive novel-in-verse.
Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That’s why she gave him her car. Diego’s best friend, Lawson, needs a ride—because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego’s not carrying, not selling, it’s cool. It’s just weed.
But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened. As the lines between dealer and driver blur, everything Diego has worked for is jeopardized, and he faces a deadly reckoning with the choices he and his best friend have made. Award-winning memoirist and poet Rex Ogle’s searing first novel-in-verse is an unforgettable story of the power and price of loyalty.
Full Review
When We Ride is Rex Ogle’s debut young adult fiction novel–he’s previously written several noteworthy and award-winning titles like Free Lunch that are about his own life. This novel focuses on the friendship between the protagonist, Diego, and his lifelong friend Lawson during their senior year of high school. Neither Diego and Lawson have it easy; both are growing up in relative poverty with absent fathers. Diego’s mother is a recovering alcoholic who experiences a significant lapse throughout the course of the book.
Diego and Lawson, while extremely close, have grown up to be very different. Diego works hard in school and holds down a steady, minimum-wage job. Lawson, who has come to greatly dislike school, sells marijuana around town and makes a killing doing it. While Diego does not approve of Lawson’s business, he does drive Lawson around and helps him sell the product. As the story progresses, their friendship is put to the test as Lawson is obligated to sell not just marijuana but pills and narcotics. Diego tries to create boundaries so that Lawson’s selling won’t impact his own life, but the boys’ lives are so enmeshed that unless he cuts Lawson off completely, Diego will be further drawn into a life he never intended to lead.
I was first considering this book for a summer reading option, though it quickly became apparent that that wouldn’t work out. I think students should absolutely read this book, but the content is too edgy to put out there to current 8th through 11th grade students without any guidance over the summer. There is a great deal of graphic language and violence, and of course a lot of drug use. I do plan to promote the book to students, though, because the relationship between Diego and Lawson is so relevant and could be instructive for young people in my district.
It’s an easy read as far as accessibility goes–the book is written in verse and can be read fairly quickly. It’s one of those books that will haunt you after you finish it, though…
🏫 Classroom Connection: Ethics & Boundaries
This book is a powerhouse for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) discussions in upper high school:
- The Sunk Cost of Loyalty: At what point does being a “good friend” become self-destruction?
- The Poverty Trap: Discuss how Diego’s environment limits his choices compared to students in more affluent districts.
- Addiction and Relapse: Analyze the portrayal of Diego’s mother to understand the non-linear path of recovery.
