Zara's Gothic is a gothic horror novel by Karina McRoberts. Zara Wilander lost her job as an EMT after a terrible accident for which she is riddled with guilt. After losing a place to live, too, all she has left is her van. When real estate agent Jenner Reid offers Zara a place to park her van near the wooden shed of an old, decrepit mansion, she isn't in a position to say no, despite her misgivings. But soon, she discovers that the mansion is haunted. Zara's nightmares get increasingly worse, and she starts hearing voices in her head. Somehow, the house convinces her to renovate it, and Zara continues working on it while experiencing memory lapses. Reid, who has a history with the house, wants to save her. But can he?

I love Southern Gothic horror, and Zara's Gothic offers everything you want in a novel as a fan of the genre. Karina McRoberts has a clear talent for creating tension and intrigue in a scene. The atmosphere surrounding the Jewel Mansion is one of dread and suspense, and it makes the book really immersive for the reader. It offers thrills and chills galore. I was also pleasantly surprised by the humor. Zara and Reid have very different personalities. While Zara is lost and depressed, Reid seems confident and, at times, even a bit obnoxious, a real oddball of a character. I found their interactions really entertaining. The twists and turns of the plot will keep you on the edge of your seat. Highly recommended.

In Zara’s Gothic by Karina McRoberts, Zara is involved in an accident where she kills a dog. The experience haunts her every waking moment and stalks her nightmares. She quits her job, refuses counseling, and takes a campervan into the countryside to find herself. Jenner Reid, an estate agent, shows her a rundown house she could clean up for him and use rent-free until she settles down somewhere. As she immerses herself in the job, she hears howling, strange groaning in the house, and the front door always opens for her without her touching it. Imagination, she tells herself. The house begins to take over her will, and she neglects herself. Then she finds a body in the front yard. Jenner Reid visits her and is concerned about her unkempt, unwashed, thin appearance. She keeps telling him that she must work on the house and urges him to help her. That’s when the real nightmare starts for both of them.

With Zara’s Gothic, Karina McRoberts’ compelling writing will lure readers into what is at first glance a seemingly simple story that gradually, but with creeping intensity, turns into a deep psychological drama and personal turmoil. Zara not only seeks to overcome her accident nightmares, but also battle a growing realization that the old house she is renovating is slowly driving her insane. Or was that her feverish imagination working? In the weeks that follow, reality and fantasy blur until there is only the house and her work. Driven by whatever spirits occupy the old mansion, she cannot stop her work, trapped in the horror of her mind that the house helped create. Jenner Reid observes her slow degeneration, until he is also trapped by the house. Zara’s Gothic is a dramatic novel that will leave readers restless and shaken, helped by the fluid prose and deep soul-searching. Written in an unusual style, this is a novel not meant for the timid.

In Karina McRoberts's Zara's Gothic, after an ambulance accident forces Zara Wilander out of EMT work, she loses her rented room and moves into the handmade van linked to her late father’s carpentry lessons. Estate agent Jenner Reid lets her park at Jewel House, an abandoned upstate New York property managed by the Simmons real estate firm. Zara accepts paid cleaning work there because she has no steady shelter. The arrangement gives her a place to stay, yet the house soon starts directing her through missing time, sudden visions, and memories that do not belong to her. As Jenner sees Zara’s health changing, he tries to keep her connected to life beyond the property, while Jewel House draws her toward the history hidden inside its walls.

Karina McRoberts’s Zara’s Gothic is excellent paranormal fiction, and the author leans into the supernatural elements wonderfully. A chair appears in a cleaned room, doors do their own thing, and taps answer Zara’s hammering beneath the porch, making the house seem aware of her. This is somewhat addressed by one of the many fully fleshed-out ancillary characters, loyal shopkeeper Mrs. Jardine, who sees something different in Zara and the house. Zara herself is likeable, but no more so than when she makes a memorial for a dog, then marks it with music. Where the narrative shines brightest is in the visual prose, from an upstairs room with boarded-up windows with one strange patch of light on the floor, to an old porch that gives the house a watchful face. Well written and immersive, this is the perfect fit for readers who enjoy haunted mansions, isolated settings, and Gothic fiction centered on trauma.

Zara's Gothic by Karina McRoberts is a beautifully written modern Gothic novel. After Zara, a dedicated first responder, is involved in a traumatic accident, she is unable to return to active duty. Through a mutual friend, she meets Jenner Reid, a well-off real estate agent with an old-fashioned charm. Reid offers her a place to park her van rent-free, on the condition that she stays out of the dilapidated Jewel House on his property. Zara soon becomes captivated by the mysterious house and persuades Reid to let her renovate it. However, Jewel House has secrets of its own and seems to develop an unusual attachment to Zara. As she spends more time around the house, it begins to take a toll on her. When Zara’s connection to the house reaches its peak, an accident brings her a moment of clarity and healing. Yet, questions remain—can she save Reid in time, and what will become of Jewel House and the strange experiences she endured there?

Karina McRoberts' novel is set in the years after COVID. Jewel House, at the center of the story, feels like a sentient and menacing character. The haunting, frightening atmosphere is filled with secrets and unknown forces. Zara becomes an unsuspecting victim of the house, a true damsel in distress. Staying true to Gothic style, she is emotionally vulnerable and in real danger. Her intense dreams leave her with scars and bruises, highlighting the threat the house holds. Through Zara’s dreams, the themes of slavery and racial tension after the Civil War are brought to light. The trauma that Zara has to deal with mirrors the novel’s central themes of trauma, the search for healing, and the impact of the past. Zara’s Gothic is a clean, suspenseful book with supernatural elements that will keep readers hooked.