I Am Z(arah)

By: Kate W Shea

Narrated by: Jaimee Moore

Twenty-four-year-old Zarah likes three things: comics, cake, and solitude. She wasn’t always like this. Two years ago, she barricaded herself in a closet during a mass shooting. Now, she keeps flashbacks and panic attacks at bay by imagining she becomes her alter-ego Z, a masked superhero who walks confidently on stilettos and pulls lightning bolts from the frizz in her hair.

Enter Greg, a heart patient and local comic store clerk. With the promise of signed comics, sprinkles, and a mean grilled cheese, Greg helps pull Zarah out of her head and into the real world. But as they grow closer, Zarah faces a choice: Confront her past, or remain divided as two selves.

This timely and personal debut novel combines elements of women’s fiction, romance, and speculative fiction to give listeners a glimpse into Zarah’s world that is at once quirky, heartbreaking, and empowering. Ideal for fans of Eleanor Oliphant and The Fault in our Stars.

Trigger warnings: gun violence, blood, death, traumatic memory

©2020 Inkpuddle Press (P)2021 Inkpuddle Press

This is one of my favorite books

Few stories have made me empathize with the characters enough to laugh and cry with them, but this story did.