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Reviewed by Robert A. Groves for Readers' Favorite
The Reel Life of Zara Kegg by Brad Barkley is a coming-of-age love story. Father and daughter, Jack and Zara Kegg, relocate to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, following the death of the family matriarch, Tania Kegg. It is off-season, with much of the town boarded up for the winter. Zara works at The Palace, an old-fashioned movie theater that shows only monster movies. Jack, a celebrated sportswriter, loses his journalistic grip while grieving Tania's death. The quality of his work is so dismal that he is almost fired. His fondness for alcohol does not help his situation. In the meantime, a teen boy named Zachary Taylor, who looks like a tornado hit him, consistently shows up to watch the movies. Eventually, he gains the courage to go up to the projection booth to meet Zara. From there, a relationship filled with light and dark moments is born. But the secrets he carries constantly reframe his choices and impact those around him. Will their relationship flourish as each battles their own internal monsters? Get the popcorn ready and settle in for an adolescent adventure you will not soon forget.
The novel is narrated in Zara’s first-person voice. If you read The Reel Life of Zara Kegg looking for plot alone, you will move fast. If you read it for what Zara notices and deflects, you will find the real story. At the heart of this story is what we do with our monsters. Do we hold them close? Do we hide them? Or do we let them go and walk away? The projection booth becomes a metaphor for Zara’s life. It is a confining wooden box. There she feels both her safest and her loneliest. The narrative keeps trying to pry her out of it. None of the places used in the setting are backdrops. They are physical symbols of Zara’s perpetual mood. But against all the gray and gloom, two moments of bright light occur. Zachary’s grand gesture of taking Zara on the Ferris wheel lit at night, and the roof full of inflated Godzillas released at dawn. If you read deliberately, you will come to your own conclusion about whether it is better to hold on or to let go. Brad Barkley has provided a magnificent story to help each of us decide.
