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Model Home
Welcome to Rivers Solomon's dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?
Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?
Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2024
827 people are currently reading
46667 people want to read
About the author
Rivers Solomon
19 books3,899 followersRivers Solomon writes about life in the margins, where they are much at home. They live on a small isle off the coast of the Eurasian continent.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,448 reviews
September 3, 2024
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3.5 Stars
I really liked this book, it was very intelligently written and I so appreciate the LGBTQ representation as I am an ally. The writing was lovely but not wordy and it was a very unique take on the Haunted House trope. This one is not for the faint of heart as there are a lot of triggers here but I'm not going to go into them so I don't go into spoilers territory. There are so many social issues in this story abuse, racism and classism to name but a few.
The bond of the siblings, especially towards the end, really made this book about family and ultimately that's what the book is about. Mental illness and suicide issues were written realistically and respectfully, I liked how the author did that.
I loved the ending, it was haunting but not in the way you might think. I admit that the book isn't for everyone but I loved the writing style, characters and ending very much. What or who is the real monster in this house? It's literary fiction at its finest, I will be thinking about this one for a long time.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
The Book Review Crew Blog
3.5 Stars
I really liked this book, it was very intelligently written and I so appreciate the LGBTQ representation as I am an ally. The writing was lovely but not wordy and it was a very unique take on the Haunted House trope. This one is not for the faint of heart as there are a lot of triggers here but I'm not going to go into them so I don't go into spoilers territory. There are so many social issues in this story abuse, racism and classism to name but a few.
The bond of the siblings, especially towards the end, really made this book about family and ultimately that's what the book is about. Mental illness and suicide issues were written realistically and respectfully, I liked how the author did that.
I loved the ending, it was haunting but not in the way you might think. I admit that the book isn't for everyone but I loved the writing style, characters and ending very much. What or who is the real monster in this house? It's literary fiction at its finest, I will be thinking about this one for a long time.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
February 21, 2025
Beautifully written, haunting, depressing, dark- Model Home packs a punch. It’s an allegorical haunted house story with a very cerebral, stream of consciousness writing style. My first by Solomon but definitely won’t be my last!
“She’s going places. I’m going to die.”
“I can't really live because I can't let things die.”
“Even when you fight with everything you have to escape the house, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because outside the house, is just as bad as inside the house.”
“She’s going places. I’m going to die.”
“I can't really live because I can't let things die.”
“Even when you fight with everything you have to escape the house, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because outside the house, is just as bad as inside the house.”
September 15, 2025
Creepy, eerie, heart-wrenching, bleak, dark, and extremely thought-provoking! These are the first adjectives that come to mind after finishing the final page of the book and exhaling after holding my breath for so long. The last chapters are definitely a punch to the face, and the situations the characters go through are almost impossible to digest.
The story revolves around Ezri (they/them pronouns) and sisters Eve and Emmanuelle, the Maxwell siblings, who have grown estranged from their parents. They lived in a lily-white, gated enclave in Dallas, running away from a tragic childhood that affected them in different ways.
Ezri, raising their fourteen-year-old daughter Elijah alone, suffers from depression, haunted by ghosts from the past that won’t let them live in peace. Meanwhile, their disciplined, controlled, high-achiever sister Eve is raising her twins alone in Texas, and their youngest sister Emmanuelle is shining as a rising star on social media.
The unexplainable events from their childhood home left both invisible and physically painful scars. They thought the house was haunted, but no one believed them when they tried to speak up. As the only Black family in a wealthy, white, privileged neighborhood, they always felt like outsiders.
Now, as they approach middle age, the siblings are forced to return to their nightmare home after their parents die under suspicious circumstances, presumed to be a suicide pact. But why did they take their lives when there were no signs of mental health issues or any other concrete reason—besides the house itself?
The Maxwell siblings must confront decades-long secrets buried within the house. Were they haunted by something supernatural that damaged their psychological well-being, or was it something more sinister, like monsters in human clothing?
Ezri has been dealing with guilt for years, struggling with their gender identity, being on the spectrum, and expressing their emotions through art. But they also wonder if something is wrong with them. Have they been carrying the ghosts of the house as vessels, harming their own family? Was the faceless lady just a figment of their imagination, or was she real and responsible for harming their sisters? Most importantly, who killed their parents? Could Ezri have had something to do with their deaths? Is that why they keep their daughter at a distance, afraid of what they’re capable of?
Overall, this is a dark, bleak, and highly thought-provoking thriller, intertwined with a dysfunctional family drama that touches on triggering subjects like rape, emotional and physical abuse, and mental health issues. It’s a story that may divide readers into two camps—those who love it and those who don’t. I’m definitely in the camp of likers! I found this intense, emotionally exhausting, and smartly twisted story about siblings deeply gripping. It’s one of the most attention-grabbing books of the year, and I highly recommend you don’t miss it!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sharing this mind-blowing digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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The story revolves around Ezri (they/them pronouns) and sisters Eve and Emmanuelle, the Maxwell siblings, who have grown estranged from their parents. They lived in a lily-white, gated enclave in Dallas, running away from a tragic childhood that affected them in different ways.
Ezri, raising their fourteen-year-old daughter Elijah alone, suffers from depression, haunted by ghosts from the past that won’t let them live in peace. Meanwhile, their disciplined, controlled, high-achiever sister Eve is raising her twins alone in Texas, and their youngest sister Emmanuelle is shining as a rising star on social media.
The unexplainable events from their childhood home left both invisible and physically painful scars. They thought the house was haunted, but no one believed them when they tried to speak up. As the only Black family in a wealthy, white, privileged neighborhood, they always felt like outsiders.
Now, as they approach middle age, the siblings are forced to return to their nightmare home after their parents die under suspicious circumstances, presumed to be a suicide pact. But why did they take their lives when there were no signs of mental health issues or any other concrete reason—besides the house itself?
The Maxwell siblings must confront decades-long secrets buried within the house. Were they haunted by something supernatural that damaged their psychological well-being, or was it something more sinister, like monsters in human clothing?
Ezri has been dealing with guilt for years, struggling with their gender identity, being on the spectrum, and expressing their emotions through art. But they also wonder if something is wrong with them. Have they been carrying the ghosts of the house as vessels, harming their own family? Was the faceless lady just a figment of their imagination, or was she real and responsible for harming their sisters? Most importantly, who killed their parents? Could Ezri have had something to do with their deaths? Is that why they keep their daughter at a distance, afraid of what they’re capable of?
Overall, this is a dark, bleak, and highly thought-provoking thriller, intertwined with a dysfunctional family drama that touches on triggering subjects like rape, emotional and physical abuse, and mental health issues. It’s a story that may divide readers into two camps—those who love it and those who don’t. I’m definitely in the camp of likers! I found this intense, emotionally exhausting, and smartly twisted story about siblings deeply gripping. It’s one of the most attention-grabbing books of the year, and I highly recommend you don’t miss it!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sharing this mind-blowing digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
blog
September 26, 2024
What if the spookiest ghost is the HOA
December 29, 2024
I can see why some people love this book. I am not some people. I found it to be overly rhetorical and metaphorical, and I had no idea what was happening in the story at any given moment. Sometimes beautiful language doesn’t make for a good story, and this was one of those times for me.
March 16, 2025
Phenomenal. No notes. I won’t be accepting any criticism of this book. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2gLDHWn/
November 27, 2024
This book came highly recommended, and I really wanted to love it but the style felt so whiny, self-indulgent and tedious even when legitimately terrible things happened or things that should have been powerful were said the impact was lost to it so that by the time the twist at the end came I really didn't care.
I came for horror but there was so much toxic, but understandable, family dynamics stuff, I'm not a fan of that so yeah.
Neutral 2.5 rounded up.
I came for horror but there was so much toxic, but understandable, family dynamics stuff, I'm not a fan of that so yeah.
Neutral 2.5 rounded up.
August 25, 2024
All my horror evaluations now are about vibes/plot balance. More and more it feels like getting the balance right matters. There is no one correct balance, it varies by book, but it has to be balanced. I was totally on board with the vibes/plot balance of this book, which definitely leans more towards vibes. That was its strength, the looseness of it. And I was so ready to have this different approach to a haunted house novel, one that actually seemed to bring a smart social horror eye to boot. Aaaaand then the plot had to go and ruin it.
I know that horror stories totally collapsing in the final act is so common it's cliche, but rarely have I seen it collapse this much. Took everything I liked about the book and threw it out in favor of explanations. The best horror, imo, does not explain everything! The mystery of it, the lack of an explanation is part of what makes the really scary stuff scary. But if you're going to explain it, please don't do it like this.
I think I get what Solomon is going for. They are very interested in trauma and horror is a great genre to explore that. But I actually felt like we already had plenty of trauma thank you without having to throw in the additional traumas of the ending. Solomon is such an interesting writer but they also can feel like a maximalist. I was starting to feel like this was really the one where they were going to take it up a level so I was extra disappointed.
Piles of content warnings for this one.
I know that horror stories totally collapsing in the final act is so common it's cliche, but rarely have I seen it collapse this much. Took everything I liked about the book and threw it out in favor of explanations. The best horror, imo, does not explain everything! The mystery of it, the lack of an explanation is part of what makes the really scary stuff scary. But if you're going to explain it, please don't do it like this.
I think I get what Solomon is going for. They are very interested in trauma and horror is a great genre to explore that. But I actually felt like we already had plenty of trauma thank you without having to throw in the additional traumas of the ending. Solomon is such an interesting writer but they also can feel like a maximalist. I was starting to feel like this was really the one where they were going to take it up a level so I was extra disappointed.
Piles of content warnings for this one.
November 18, 2024
Christ on a bicycle if I had to spend an extended period of time around any of these characters I’d drown myself in the backyard pool, too.
July 21, 2024
How cruel that our parents, unexorcisable, go on inside of us. How cruel that we cannot disimbricate their ghosts from our being.
I think this is one of those stories where the less you know the better so I’ll keep this review short and sweet.
When Ezri gets a text from her younger sister telling her that she needs to come home immediately—back to her parents Texas estate—she enters back in to a house of horrors that she hoped to never return to. This is literary horror at its finest. It provides an enticing, fresh new twist on the haunted house trope, using the house as a vehicle to explore deeply buried trauma.
Luscious, lyrical prose brings this intense, gritty story to life. Beautifully haunting, the dread and tension palpable—nothing ever feels quite right—it’s a highbrow, fever dream of a story that is guaranteed to knock readers off of their feet.
Meditations on racism, mental illness, complex familial relationships and generational trauma, and queerness—specifically transness and gender fluidity. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Is it me who haunts, me who is the ghost?
Thank you Farrah, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Available 10/01/2024! *Quotes are pulled from an advanced reader copy and are subject to change prior to publication*
I think this is one of those stories where the less you know the better so I’ll keep this review short and sweet.
When Ezri gets a text from her younger sister telling her that she needs to come home immediately—back to her parents Texas estate—she enters back in to a house of horrors that she hoped to never return to. This is literary horror at its finest. It provides an enticing, fresh new twist on the haunted house trope, using the house as a vehicle to explore deeply buried trauma.
Luscious, lyrical prose brings this intense, gritty story to life. Beautifully haunting, the dread and tension palpable—nothing ever feels quite right—it’s a highbrow, fever dream of a story that is guaranteed to knock readers off of their feet.
Meditations on racism, mental illness, complex familial relationships and generational trauma, and queerness—specifically transness and gender fluidity. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Is it me who haunts, me who is the ghost?
Thank you Farrah, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Available 10/01/2024! *Quotes are pulled from an advanced reader copy and are subject to change prior to publication*
October 25, 2024
4.0 Stars
Video Review https://youtu.be/y9h_dc_MtCo
This novel started our slow but quickly grew into a suspenseful read that I didn't want to stop. I'm not someone who normally likes haunted house stories but this one worked because the focus really wasn't about this house.
This novel also leans heavily into social commentary and representation for black, queer neurodiverse individuals. The author does not shy away from those aspects but instead weaves them into the narrative. The story was also surprisingly adult with plenty of “adult situations”. I find it refreshing when author's don't sensor themselves.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
Video Review https://youtu.be/y9h_dc_MtCo
This novel started our slow but quickly grew into a suspenseful read that I didn't want to stop. I'm not someone who normally likes haunted house stories but this one worked because the focus really wasn't about this house.
This novel also leans heavily into social commentary and representation for black, queer neurodiverse individuals. The author does not shy away from those aspects but instead weaves them into the narrative. The story was also surprisingly adult with plenty of “adult situations”. I find it refreshing when author's don't sensor themselves.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
November 20, 2025
Rivers Solomon is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. Their ability to explore some of the darkest facets of the human condition with vulnerability and sharp critique, communicated through gorgeous prose that flits effortlessly from profound and poetic to casual and natural, has never failed to leave me devastated and moved. Solomon's characters are always layered and complex and flawed and deeply human, their identities often setting them apart, explorations of gender and sexuality and belonging as they reckon with abuse and oppression, sometimes fighting against it and others simply finding a way to survive.
Solomon's work is not for the faint of heart - they explore dark, disturbing themes and don't pull punches. But unfortunately, the world we live in is full of people hurting each other in many exceptionally distressing ways, and art exists to tease apart the intricacies of our experiences - good and evil and all the muddy amorphous grey spaces in between. It is this ambiguity in which Solomon shines; there is no easy answer, no perfectly wrapped up happily ever after tied with a bow. Their work is deeply nuanced, and that is the most compelling thing about it.
Model Home is a haunted-house story and a continuation of a tradition in my own personal reading lately of haunted houses as metaphor. This is a more personal approach to this trope: a haunting of one specific home, one particular family, and, in some ways, one single child. A Haunting that radiates, poisoning everything it touches, causing ripples that affect even the next generation. The haunting is not confined to the house but is a seed that has germinated in our protagonist's mind and heart.
Ezri is a genderqueer parent of a teenage daughter, Elijah, and grew up in a wealthy gated community in Texas with their two younger sisters and very successful parents - the only black family in a sea of whiteness. Ezri has returned to their childhood home after many years, only to find their parents dead. Their first instinct is to believe the house that haunted their childhood finally claimed them - but is that the whole truth?
Ezri has a complex relationship with their mother, whom they repeatedly refer to as God but who is also slowly revealed to be judgmental, withholding of love and affection, elitist, and somewhat cold. They describe their father as absent, if not physically, then certainly emotionally. But Ezri also has a nightmare mother - the woman without a face who haunts their memories and dreams. Is the nightmare mother a ghost? A personification of their childhood home? An alter ego of their true mother? Slowly, the tangled threads of twisted memories and trauma are unravelled, and we begin to learn the truth - not just about their parents' death but about what happened in their home all those years ago.
Dark, distressing, bleak, eerie, and unsettling, Solomon uses the haunted house to explore a complex family dynamic and the malleability of memory. This is an incredibly challenging book to read, emotionally, but it moved me in a way very few authors can - with some of the most devastatingly beautiful and piercing writing I've read.
Content warnings are included at the bottom of this review.
Spoilery additional thoughts:
*spoilers finished*
I feel drained and cracked open by this novel - a mess of broken, jagged edges - tender parts exposed to the harsh light of day. It took me months to finish this, and I'm not sure I'll ever wade through it again, but I'm grateful to have read it. Rivers Solomon is an auto-buy author for me at this point - though I require the extensive building of fortitude between their works to build the required resilience to survive them.
Trigger/Content Warnings: child sexual abuse, pedophilia, grooming, child abuse, neglect, blood, suicide, death, loss of parents, disassociation, racism, ableism, homophobia, homophobic slurs, anti-immigration rhetoric, eating disorders, dieting & diet culture
Rep: MC (Ezri) is Black and genderqueer and diagnosed with BPD, OSDD, NPD, C-PTSD, and GAD. Ezri's child, Elijah, is sapphic.
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Solomon's work is not for the faint of heart - they explore dark, disturbing themes and don't pull punches. But unfortunately, the world we live in is full of people hurting each other in many exceptionally distressing ways, and art exists to tease apart the intricacies of our experiences - good and evil and all the muddy amorphous grey spaces in between. It is this ambiguity in which Solomon shines; there is no easy answer, no perfectly wrapped up happily ever after tied with a bow. Their work is deeply nuanced, and that is the most compelling thing about it.
Model Home is a haunted-house story and a continuation of a tradition in my own personal reading lately of haunted houses as metaphor. This is a more personal approach to this trope: a haunting of one specific home, one particular family, and, in some ways, one single child. A Haunting that radiates, poisoning everything it touches, causing ripples that affect even the next generation. The haunting is not confined to the house but is a seed that has germinated in our protagonist's mind and heart.
Ezri is a genderqueer parent of a teenage daughter, Elijah, and grew up in a wealthy gated community in Texas with their two younger sisters and very successful parents - the only black family in a sea of whiteness. Ezri has returned to their childhood home after many years, only to find their parents dead. Their first instinct is to believe the house that haunted their childhood finally claimed them - but is that the whole truth?
Ezri has a complex relationship with their mother, whom they repeatedly refer to as God but who is also slowly revealed to be judgmental, withholding of love and affection, elitist, and somewhat cold. They describe their father as absent, if not physically, then certainly emotionally. But Ezri also has a nightmare mother - the woman without a face who haunts their memories and dreams. Is the nightmare mother a ghost? A personification of their childhood home? An alter ego of their true mother? Slowly, the tangled threads of twisted memories and trauma are unravelled, and we begin to learn the truth - not just about their parents' death but about what happened in their home all those years ago.
Dark, distressing, bleak, eerie, and unsettling, Solomon uses the haunted house to explore a complex family dynamic and the malleability of memory. This is an incredibly challenging book to read, emotionally, but it moved me in a way very few authors can - with some of the most devastatingly beautiful and piercing writing I've read.
Content warnings are included at the bottom of this review.
Spoilery additional thoughts:
*spoilers finished*
I feel drained and cracked open by this novel - a mess of broken, jagged edges - tender parts exposed to the harsh light of day. It took me months to finish this, and I'm not sure I'll ever wade through it again, but I'm grateful to have read it. Rivers Solomon is an auto-buy author for me at this point - though I require the extensive building of fortitude between their works to build the required resilience to survive them.
Trigger/Content Warnings: child sexual abuse, pedophilia, grooming, child abuse, neglect, blood, suicide, death, loss of parents, disassociation, racism, ableism, homophobia, homophobic slurs, anti-immigration rhetoric, eating disorders, dieting & diet culture
Rep: MC (Ezri) is Black and genderqueer and diagnosed with BPD, OSDD, NPD, C-PTSD, and GAD. Ezri's child, Elijah, is sapphic.
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
October 14, 2024
A creepy, contemporary horror story that explores trauma through a haunted house.
When a Black family from New York moves into an all white gated community in Texas, the children of the family, especially oldest child Ezri, experience unexplainable phenomenon that leave them traumatized and feeling silenced. Years later after the death of their parents, the siblings return to the home to reckon with their present loss and past experiences to potentially worse consequences.
This is my first time reading from Rivers Solomon and it won’t be the last. Their prose was excellent. Very clear and thoughtful decisions on a sentence level that contributed to an overall very engaging storytelling experience. On top of that, there are so many layers to this story thematically—of gender, parents vs. children, race, identity and more—that take this beyond just a haunted house story.
My only complaint is the ending and resolution felt a bit abrupt. I would’ve liked a bit more time at the climax of the story to explore the fallout, especially the inner thoughts of our main character. It was quite short for something with so much build up (which I did enjoy).
All in all though I flew through this one. I thought the story was compelling and page-turning and made me want to explore more of their writing.
When a Black family from New York moves into an all white gated community in Texas, the children of the family, especially oldest child Ezri, experience unexplainable phenomenon that leave them traumatized and feeling silenced. Years later after the death of their parents, the siblings return to the home to reckon with their present loss and past experiences to potentially worse consequences.
This is my first time reading from Rivers Solomon and it won’t be the last. Their prose was excellent. Very clear and thoughtful decisions on a sentence level that contributed to an overall very engaging storytelling experience. On top of that, there are so many layers to this story thematically—of gender, parents vs. children, race, identity and more—that take this beyond just a haunted house story.
My only complaint is the ending and resolution felt a bit abrupt. I would’ve liked a bit more time at the climax of the story to explore the fallout, especially the inner thoughts of our main character. It was quite short for something with so much build up (which I did enjoy).
All in all though I flew through this one. I thought the story was compelling and page-turning and made me want to explore more of their writing.
August 28, 2025
Haunted House story that dives into issues of trauma, identity, and racism in the US. Ezri, the novel’s protagonist, is a non-binary character struggling with their identity. The book takes a look at the long-standing issue of racism in the US, primarily how black families are treated in predominantly white spaces. The house is a character in the story, a place where grief, anger, and pain are left to stew.
There is a supernatural element to the story but the real horror in the book is the trauma passed down through generations of racism and oppression.
There is a supernatural element to the story but the real horror in the book is the trauma passed down through generations of racism and oppression.
February 20, 2025
2.5 Stars
Model Home tells the story of three siblings, returning to their childhood home after the sudden death of their parents. The majority of the novel is told through Ezri’s perspective. What we can ascertain is the deaths of their parents could be caused by supernatural elements within the house. However, these elements are very sparse throughout the novel.
This is now the second book in a row that I’ve had a hard time immersing myself into the story due to the writing style. I found myself struggling to decipher when things were actually occurring versus what was more of an inner monologue within Ezri’s mind. I also had a hard time keeping each of the characters straight because all of their first name started with E and I just kept getting turned around on who was who. Finally, nothing really happened till about the 60% mark. I felt the final resolution did work, but the book itself wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I would’ve loved to have heard more about the childhood history and family dynamics as I enjoyed the snippets that were given.
Overall, this just wasn’t a good fit for me for two reasons. The first was the writing style, and the second being the story itself.
Model Home tells the story of three siblings, returning to their childhood home after the sudden death of their parents. The majority of the novel is told through Ezri’s perspective. What we can ascertain is the deaths of their parents could be caused by supernatural elements within the house. However, these elements are very sparse throughout the novel.
This is now the second book in a row that I’ve had a hard time immersing myself into the story due to the writing style. I found myself struggling to decipher when things were actually occurring versus what was more of an inner monologue within Ezri’s mind. I also had a hard time keeping each of the characters straight because all of their first name started with E and I just kept getting turned around on who was who. Finally, nothing really happened till about the 60% mark. I felt the final resolution did work, but the book itself wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I would’ve loved to have heard more about the childhood history and family dynamics as I enjoyed the snippets that were given.
Overall, this just wasn’t a good fit for me for two reasons. The first was the writing style, and the second being the story itself.
February 3, 2025
This is one of the most moronically try-hard books I have read in my entire life. I enjoyed the writing style (I like my prose a little purple), but the content was ridiculous. Intensely unlikable protagonists with every issue under the sun, and then some. We have child abuse, rape, animal cruelty, autism, disfigurement, diabetes, gender issues, race issues, Munchausen's, unhealthy sexual hook ups, psychosis, delusions, mommy issues, eating issues, perpetual basking in victimhood - at some point it became comical, and then it became boring. Oh, and the main character was casually trying to be Jewish as well. It's like the author was actively trying to write a story involving every trauma and marginalized group they could think of, and what they ended up with was an incomprehensible mess. The ending was twisty in a completely unbelievable way and, again, idiotic. They should have stuck with the false reveal, it would have made a hell of a lot more sense.
I was ready to quit reading less than halfway through, but finished because I'm reading this as part of a Goodreads challenge. The only good things I can say are: the writing style is pleasantly creative and it was a quick read. 1.5/5 rounded down.
I was ready to quit reading less than halfway through, but finished because I'm reading this as part of a Goodreads challenge. The only good things I can say are: the writing style is pleasantly creative and it was a quick read. 1.5/5 rounded down.
November 26, 2024
A brutal, brilliant, unsettling masterpiece that upends the typical haunted house novel. The story focuses on Ezri and their two sisters, who grew up in a McMansion in a white suburb of Dallas, where strange and increasingly terrible inexplicable things happened. There's a lot here about trauma, memory, racism/segregation, and parenting. As a parent, I found this book very impactful but simultaneously difficult to read.
The audiobook performance is great (done by Gabby Beans), although I was confused why she didn't do a British accent for Elijah, Ezri's daughter who has grown up in the U.K.
CW: childhood sexual abuse
The audiobook performance is great (done by Gabby Beans), although I was confused why she didn't do a British accent for Elijah, Ezri's daughter who has grown up in the U.K.
CW: childhood sexual abuse
October 6, 2024
FUCK this one hurt
Rivers Solomon does not disappoint. Their newest book Model Home follows Ezri, a nonbinary neurodivergent diabetic parent as they travel from the UK back to their childhood home in Texas to check on their parents. What follows is a dark, creepy, atmospheric story alternating between Ezri’s childhood experiences, their current grappling with that childhood and grief in adulthood, as well as the parallel of their experiences with their teenager. This is a book about a monster that grooms you to feel like maybe you’re the actual monster. This one hurt and there were many moments that were tough to read, times of wanting to yell out to the MC, wanting to hug and protect them. Be aware of the trigger warnings: death of parent, racism, pedophilia. Solomon writes a terrifying and heartbreaking story with beautiful and thought provoking prose, ending with a message of hope and healing through family after tragedy and trauma. The narrator brought this story to my ears so well, and I will definitely be looking out for more of their work as well. I will not soon forget Model Home.
Rivers Solomon does not disappoint. Their newest book Model Home follows Ezri, a nonbinary neurodivergent diabetic parent as they travel from the UK back to their childhood home in Texas to check on their parents. What follows is a dark, creepy, atmospheric story alternating between Ezri’s childhood experiences, their current grappling with that childhood and grief in adulthood, as well as the parallel of their experiences with their teenager. This is a book about a monster that grooms you to feel like maybe you’re the actual monster. This one hurt and there were many moments that were tough to read, times of wanting to yell out to the MC, wanting to hug and protect them. Be aware of the trigger warnings: death of parent, racism, pedophilia. Solomon writes a terrifying and heartbreaking story with beautiful and thought provoking prose, ending with a message of hope and healing through family after tragedy and trauma. The narrator brought this story to my ears so well, and I will definitely be looking out for more of their work as well. I will not soon forget Model Home.
May 23, 2025
Three siblings return to their childhood home after the death of their parents. In two separate timelines we follow their past, their childhood in a haunted home that was hurting them, killing their pets, playing cruel pranks on them; as well as their present, their reluctant reunion, the funeral and their effort to make sense of what the house is about.
I adore Solomon's writing, but this venture away from their usual SF line, more into the horror/weird fiction territory was a little less brilliant for me. I'm sorry for that, as it seems also heavily marked by autobiographic strands, though it was still really good, it just didn't reach the usual Solomon bar (which is really really high).
I didn't see the answer to the haunting in the house coming, so the ending was clever and made sense. Read for the ShiSha dark read in June.
I adore Solomon's writing, but this venture away from their usual SF line, more into the horror/weird fiction territory was a little less brilliant for me. I'm sorry for that, as it seems also heavily marked by autobiographic strands, though it was still really good, it just didn't reach the usual Solomon bar (which is really really high).
I didn't see the answer to the haunting in the house coming, so the ending was clever and made sense. Read for the ShiSha dark read in June.
October 5, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up
Oof, this was intense but really good. Which is what I have come to expect from Rivers Solomon! Model Home is a horror novel dealing with trauma, abuse, mental health, and white supremacy. It follows a gender fluid parent with a 14 year old daughter returning to xir childhood home for the first time in years. A nice home in a gated neighborhood where they were the only Black family. A home that is seemingly haunted. I won't say too much about what happens, but this hits hard and is rough to read at times, but important. Note that there is a content warning for child grooming and assault, mostly off page. The audio narration is excellent and gives the right vibes for what is a disturbing book. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
Oof, this was intense but really good. Which is what I have come to expect from Rivers Solomon! Model Home is a horror novel dealing with trauma, abuse, mental health, and white supremacy. It follows a gender fluid parent with a 14 year old daughter returning to xir childhood home for the first time in years. A nice home in a gated neighborhood where they were the only Black family. A home that is seemingly haunted. I won't say too much about what happens, but this hits hard and is rough to read at times, but important. Note that there is a content warning for child grooming and assault, mostly off page. The audio narration is excellent and gives the right vibes for what is a disturbing book. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
September 19, 2024
Remarkable. Model Home is suffused with the fierceness that comes from a life in corners, striking against a world beaten into submission by common sense: commonsensical genocide, commonsensical abuse, commonsensical white supremacy.
Each sibling — Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle, are dynamic components of a whole being, offspring of the house attempting to repair what it has taken from them. They cope in their own unique, believable ways, re-performing hyper competence in an attempt to escape what evils they cannot understand. For Ezri, their keen sense of right and wrong is tugged and tormented by the ghost of the Omelas child, sacrificed for the sake of collective normalcy. But what do we lose when we destroy the child to keep ourselves whole? What happens when our own holes form, soon too big to mend? And what, Solomon Jewishly asks, does tikkun olam look like in our lives today, when we are beaten daily by the forces that distance us from the world to come?
This book, while in many ways generational — about a mother, her children, and her children’s’ nascent children and more-nascent free lives — transforms the generational saga plot by burying the nature of their passed-on curses and secrets. Or, perhaps, not burying them, but hiding them somewhere in the fields of normalcy: a family aspiring to fit into a white, middle class, suburban wasteland, a family which believed their intellect and competence were enough to save them, whose members were too smart to see the raw terror lurking in their midst. Model Home is profound and vitally important as we continue grappling with global conditions of genocide, abuse culture, and the violence of the cisheteronormative, settler colonial family and all its accoutrements. It demands to be read.
Each sibling — Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle, are dynamic components of a whole being, offspring of the house attempting to repair what it has taken from them. They cope in their own unique, believable ways, re-performing hyper competence in an attempt to escape what evils they cannot understand. For Ezri, their keen sense of right and wrong is tugged and tormented by the ghost of the Omelas child, sacrificed for the sake of collective normalcy. But what do we lose when we destroy the child to keep ourselves whole? What happens when our own holes form, soon too big to mend? And what, Solomon Jewishly asks, does tikkun olam look like in our lives today, when we are beaten daily by the forces that distance us from the world to come?
This book, while in many ways generational — about a mother, her children, and her children’s’ nascent children and more-nascent free lives — transforms the generational saga plot by burying the nature of their passed-on curses and secrets. Or, perhaps, not burying them, but hiding them somewhere in the fields of normalcy: a family aspiring to fit into a white, middle class, suburban wasteland, a family which believed their intellect and competence were enough to save them, whose members were too smart to see the raw terror lurking in their midst. Model Home is profound and vitally important as we continue grappling with global conditions of genocide, abuse culture, and the violence of the cisheteronormative, settler colonial family and all its accoutrements. It demands to be read.
July 18, 2025
4.25/5
Sometimes you're a twisted child. Sometimes you are a wrong sort of boy and an even wronger sort of girl. Sometimes your body is a transgression.
Model Home is a short and powerful gut punch of a book. It's beautifully told and incredibly dark and so, so heavy. Please check the content warnings!
In their haunted family home, three siblings discover their dead parents and are left alone with the weight of their childhood. We look into their pasts, into the home that was never truly a home to them—a structure that could not shelter them, a building that would not protect them. Here, we discover a nauseating and harrowing history. Here, we see the ghosts that still puppet their present. Here, we glimpse reflections of the characters that they cannot escape.
What is a home when it is not a home? I suppose it is this. Empty, full of dead things, or things better left buried. Through poetic prose, Solomon navigates a difficult and daunting tale with compassion, empathy and intelligent insight. The characters are unfailingly human, messy and flawed and so very complicated, yet they hold so much love within them. They are siblings and share that unique, complex bond. They are parents, desperately trying not to repeat the mistakes made before them. They are children still, clinging to each other and afraid. It is this complete dissection, it is the characters laid bare before us, that makes them so very real and so skilfully written. Solomon is an author I trust and has proven that fact once again.
Haunting is the word that I think best describes this book. It's the word that comes to mind over and over again. It holds true that they can never leave the darkness of their childhood home behind, no matter how far away they move, no matter who they become. It is an incredibly dark book and is immensely hard to read at times, but it is poignant and cutting. And, despite it all, there is that bond of family that runs throughout it all. That promise that no matter how they hurt, no matter what they say or do, they will hold each other and breathe back the life that gutters out.
The only easy intimacy I've ever had in this life is with my sisters. Only when I'm touching them can I convince myself my hands are not blades.
I adore Southern horror as it is a horror rooted in much deeper themes. I adore queer and trans horror for the same reason. Horror books that explore their themes cleverly always make for better books, in my opinion. Horror used as a metaphor can create the most hard-hitting stories you've ever read. Such a horror is Model Home.
I cannot stress enough to please, please, please check the trigger warnings! This book explores some incredibly dark topics and traumas. But if you are so able, this book is one that will stick with you. It will grip onto your chest, awful and human. It is such a show of skill and important storytelling. This is certainly not a book for everyone but, if it is for you, it'll be one you won't ever forget.
Thank you Merky Books for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Sometimes you're a twisted child. Sometimes you are a wrong sort of boy and an even wronger sort of girl. Sometimes your body is a transgression.
Model Home is a short and powerful gut punch of a book. It's beautifully told and incredibly dark and so, so heavy. Please check the content warnings!
In their haunted family home, three siblings discover their dead parents and are left alone with the weight of their childhood. We look into their pasts, into the home that was never truly a home to them—a structure that could not shelter them, a building that would not protect them. Here, we discover a nauseating and harrowing history. Here, we see the ghosts that still puppet their present. Here, we glimpse reflections of the characters that they cannot escape.
What is a home when it is not a home? I suppose it is this. Empty, full of dead things, or things better left buried. Through poetic prose, Solomon navigates a difficult and daunting tale with compassion, empathy and intelligent insight. The characters are unfailingly human, messy and flawed and so very complicated, yet they hold so much love within them. They are siblings and share that unique, complex bond. They are parents, desperately trying not to repeat the mistakes made before them. They are children still, clinging to each other and afraid. It is this complete dissection, it is the characters laid bare before us, that makes them so very real and so skilfully written. Solomon is an author I trust and has proven that fact once again.
Haunting is the word that I think best describes this book. It's the word that comes to mind over and over again. It holds true that they can never leave the darkness of their childhood home behind, no matter how far away they move, no matter who they become. It is an incredibly dark book and is immensely hard to read at times, but it is poignant and cutting. And, despite it all, there is that bond of family that runs throughout it all. That promise that no matter how they hurt, no matter what they say or do, they will hold each other and breathe back the life that gutters out.
The only easy intimacy I've ever had in this life is with my sisters. Only when I'm touching them can I convince myself my hands are not blades.
I adore Southern horror as it is a horror rooted in much deeper themes. I adore queer and trans horror for the same reason. Horror books that explore their themes cleverly always make for better books, in my opinion. Horror used as a metaphor can create the most hard-hitting stories you've ever read. Such a horror is Model Home.
I cannot stress enough to please, please, please check the trigger warnings! This book explores some incredibly dark topics and traumas. But if you are so able, this book is one that will stick with you. It will grip onto your chest, awful and human. It is such a show of skill and important storytelling. This is certainly not a book for everyone but, if it is for you, it'll be one you won't ever forget.
Thank you Merky Books for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
March 16, 2025
Ezri hasn’t been back to their childhood home in Texas since fleeing the nest as a teenager to go to university abroad. That’s not unusual in their family—both of Ezri’s sisters are also somewhat estranged from their parents. It’s not that they were abusive. At most, the couple might have had overly high standards. As the sole Black family in a posh subdivision, they wanted their children rise above their neighbours’ racism and represent upper-class Black excellence. But what none of the siblings can forgive their parents for is staying in that house.
The house of their parents’ upwardly mobile dreams was the site of Ezri and their sisters’ worst nightmares. They believe it was haunted, gripped by supernatural forces. But when even their limited contact with their parents stops, and no one is able to reach them, the siblings must face their fears and go back to the house. What they find is even worse than they could have imagined…
I loved this book. It’s definitely creepy enough to satisfy horror fans, but at its heart, it’s a deeply literary story about family connections and racial prejudice. The three siblings are all flawed and marked by their childhood trauma in different ways, yet their love for one another shines through. This book is filled with twists and turns and an ending that left me shocked. I definitely recommend it!
The house of their parents’ upwardly mobile dreams was the site of Ezri and their sisters’ worst nightmares. They believe it was haunted, gripped by supernatural forces. But when even their limited contact with their parents stops, and no one is able to reach them, the siblings must face their fears and go back to the house. What they find is even worse than they could have imagined…
I loved this book. It’s definitely creepy enough to satisfy horror fans, but at its heart, it’s a deeply literary story about family connections and racial prejudice. The three siblings are all flawed and marked by their childhood trauma in different ways, yet their love for one another shines through. This book is filled with twists and turns and an ending that left me shocked. I definitely recommend it!
March 4, 2025
2.5 Stars
Beautifully written story focusing on family dysfunction & a traumatic upbringing while touching on issues of racism, microaggression, and gender identity, but lacking in horror. I wanted more paranormal scares, and I also was not a fan of the reveal. :(
Beautifully written story focusing on family dysfunction & a traumatic upbringing while touching on issues of racism, microaggression, and gender identity, but lacking in horror. I wanted more paranormal scares, and I also was not a fan of the reveal. :(
November 7, 2024
Contemplating turning back to page one and reading this again. I started this book and from page one knew this was going to be a 5 star read for me, a rare experience for me. The writing is so good, I wanted to stop and highlight but just kept wanting to turn the page to find out what was happening. I'm looking forward to a reread. Unsettling, horrific, poetic, and heartbreaking.
As with most horror/thriller I think the less you know going in the better, but it is good to be aware this book has some heavy themes of child abuse, grooming, pedophilia, sexual abuse, racism/racist acts, animal cruelty/death. Many of these are themes I generally avoid in fiction, but I trusted Rivers Solomon with the subject matter and they are all handled with great care in this book and most are referenced rather then graphically depicted, although it is horror, I think this could be good for someone who doesn't read a lot of horror/doesn't like a lot of graphic horror.
Thanks to net galley and the publisher for an e-arc!
As with most horror/thriller I think the less you know going in the better, but it is good to be aware this book has some heavy themes of child abuse, grooming, pedophilia, sexual abuse, racism/racist acts, animal cruelty/death. Many of these are themes I generally avoid in fiction, but I trusted Rivers Solomon with the subject matter and they are all handled with great care in this book and most are referenced rather then graphically depicted, although it is horror, I think this could be good for someone who doesn't read a lot of horror/doesn't like a lot of graphic horror.
Thanks to net galley and the publisher for an e-arc!
September 22, 2024
‘Model home’ threw me off, it was never what I expected it to be. The writing made for a nightmarish feeling of dread.
It’s more literary with a lot of highlight worthy passages, though what little horror there was, was horrifying. Just when I resigned myself to an ambiguous wrap up, that last 20% disturbed the hell out of me.
It’s more literary with a lot of highlight worthy passages, though what little horror there was, was horrifying. Just when I resigned myself to an ambiguous wrap up, that last 20% disturbed the hell out of me.
September 15, 2024
2.5 - The writing style was a big struggle for me - I had a hard time understanding what was actually happening vs what was a metaphor, and it distracted me from the plot significantly. The plot is what kept me engaged and curious to continue reading, but I feel like I didn't understand what was really going on until the 70% mark. I would have liked a lot more clarity and directness in the prose due to the complex themes and storyline. I did enjoy the sibling dynamics in the novel. The writing style was just a bit too confusing for me, but I enjoyed the solid plot.
Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC.
October 19, 2024
Slay.
What an incredible book. I am a SUCKER for haunted houses and this one slapped. It was a bit on the heavier side and excellent.
It follows a Black family that moved to an all WHITE neighborhood in the suburbs of Texas. Dual time line with the kids coming back as adults because they haven’t heard from their kind of estranged parents in a while to find them both dead in the house that haunted their childhoods.
Deals with grief, abuse, transphobia and racism.
Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan audio for an alc
What an incredible book. I am a SUCKER for haunted houses and this one slapped. It was a bit on the heavier side and excellent.
It follows a Black family that moved to an all WHITE neighborhood in the suburbs of Texas. Dual time line with the kids coming back as adults because they haven’t heard from their kind of estranged parents in a while to find them both dead in the house that haunted their childhoods.
Deals with grief, abuse, transphobia and racism.
Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan audio for an alc
October 5, 2024
This was my first Rivers Solomon book, and from the first page, I understood why I’d heard such good things about them. Here are the opening lines: “Maybe my mother is God, and that’s why nothing I do pleases her. Maybe my mother is God, and that’s why even though she’s never once saved me, I keep praying that this time she will. […] Soon, I’ll be a failed deity, too. My daughter is learning not to believe in me.” I had to stop myself from highlighting line after stunning line.
We get a lot of flashbacks to Ezri’s childhood, but this is less about the horror of a haunted house and more about the real-life horrors they’ve endured. It’s disturbing and unsettling, which made it difficult to read at times. Child sexual assault comes up several times, so be aware of that before reading it.
I picked up Model Home because of the promise of the setting, but what kept me reading was Ezri and the relationship between the siblings. Ezri is a complicated character whose trauma has damaged them. We also see them through other people’s eyes, including Elijah’s, who loves her Yoyo but also accepts them as distant, unable to provide the outpouring of emotion she so desperately craves. The siblings are simultaneously close and separated: they seek each other’s attention and reject it. They want to be embraced and they want to hurt each other.
Despite how difficult it was to read Model Home at times, it was ultimately a cathartic experience that had me in tears. It’s a brutal, painful story about desperately fighting to love yourself when you’ve been systematically hurt and rejected. I finished this several days ago, and it is still haunting me. Ezri pops up in my head unexpectedly. I can’t seem to let go of their story.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
We get a lot of flashbacks to Ezri’s childhood, but this is less about the horror of a haunted house and more about the real-life horrors they’ve endured. It’s disturbing and unsettling, which made it difficult to read at times. Child sexual assault comes up several times, so be aware of that before reading it.
I picked up Model Home because of the promise of the setting, but what kept me reading was Ezri and the relationship between the siblings. Ezri is a complicated character whose trauma has damaged them. We also see them through other people’s eyes, including Elijah’s, who loves her Yoyo but also accepts them as distant, unable to provide the outpouring of emotion she so desperately craves. The siblings are simultaneously close and separated: they seek each other’s attention and reject it. They want to be embraced and they want to hurt each other.
Despite how difficult it was to read Model Home at times, it was ultimately a cathartic experience that had me in tears. It’s a brutal, painful story about desperately fighting to love yourself when you’ve been systematically hurt and rejected. I finished this several days ago, and it is still haunting me. Ezri pops up in my head unexpectedly. I can’t seem to let go of their story.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
October 11, 2024
Took me by surprise. A new spin on the haunted house genre. It’s one of those narratives that manage to keep you in a constant state of dread. The resolution may not be what you’re expecting, but it’s definitely a horrifying and upsetting outcome.
Explores childhood trauma and segregation in a refreshingly innovative way. Surprised me in all the best ways possible. Hooked me from the start.
Totally vicious.
Explores childhood trauma and segregation in a refreshingly innovative way. Surprised me in all the best ways possible. Hooked me from the start.
Totally vicious.
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