High schooler Zara works at a projection movie theater in a tourist town. It's all but empty in winter; so when she meets carnival worker Zach, the fairgrounds are theirs alone to explore. As Zach’s behavior grows increasingly erratic and Zara’s work occupies all her energy, Zara has to make tough decisions whose reverberations touch beloved members of her community.
Zara and Zach’s love story begins with an endearing, if not unique, meet-cute that connects them through their mutual love of the weird. Their whirlwind romance is rooted in care for each other during challenging times: Zara has an intense work schedule as she prepares for a Godzilla festival, and Zach is dealing with a mental health crisis and housing insecurity. The narrative faithfully represents bipolar disorder and treats it with deserved seriousness, but eating disorders and alcoholism are handled with an offhandedness that minimizes their gravity.
The novel's dialogue exchanges are witty and sweet, making Zara’s relationships feel real and robust. Meanwhile, Zara narrates the story with a snarky, conversational voice. While that's not a problem in itself, she often follows up profound thoughts with phrases like “maybe” or “or something,” which undermine the poignancy of her observations. This includes when she says of her father, “since my mother’s death three years ago, something hasn’t been right with him. It’s hard to say what, really.”
With Zara and Zach working at off-season tourist traps, the book’s setting and mood give the impression of something worn that's ready to be renovated. Detailed descriptions convey both setting and character: Zara’s father's leather chair “holds his shape even when he’s not in it.” Apt analogies evoke the town and Zara’s inner life, like when she turns up the heat because the scent of the ocean at night “tricks your dreams into believing it’s always summer." She describes her mother’s absence as if “there’s a big hole in the floor and we just keep stepping around it.”
Moments of humor—her chess club’s team name is the Chessnuts, and the “F” light on a grocery store called "More For Less" is so burnt out that it reads "More or Less"—fill this world with life. However, minor inconsistencies momentarily distract: Zara and her dad visit her mother’s grave at a cemetery, but later she says they had spread her ashes at a pond; a Dollar General bag is a Family Dollar bag on the next page.
The setting, voice, and story nevertheless dovetail seamlessly into the book’s themes of loss and renewal. When Zara says “when there’s a death, you lose a lot more than just the thing that died,” she speaks of more than just her mother. The withdrawal of her father’s career, a favorite teacher, the liveliness of tourist season, and Zach himself teach Zara what is important to her. In the end, THE REEL LIFE OF ZARA KEGG is a sweet love story that should appeal to its readers.
With a jaded mood and a winter beach town waiting for spring restoration, Brad Barkley’s THE REEL LIFE OF ZARA KEGG is a young adult novel whose endearing leads’ believable whirlwind romance celebrates connection and compassion.
~ Aimée Jodoin for IndieReader