Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I love the cover and the synopsis was interesting but it just failed to catch my attention. I am not a huge fan of social commentary in my horror and this one felt very much like that. I like my horror more in my face than this.

There is definitely an audience for this one but it is not me. I hope others love it.

Not very good. Kind of squanders any spookiness and suspense in the weird impulse to provide a mundane explanation for the supernatural horror, where the mundane explanation is the extremely boring "it was the white neighbors" - because of course it was the white neighbors, I guess, but it's been done better elsewhere (without a bunch of characters making nonsensical decisions for no reason or hamhanded attempts at sexual shock value).

Not your typical haunted house.

The book took a moment for me to get into and I may have given up if I wasn’t reviewing it. But I’m really glad I kept going because after finishing it, a lot made sense. I love when a book’s ending pulls everything together.

There is a sex scene that I was not expecting. And definitely look up some trigger warnings before reading if you have content you are sensitive to.

Thanks to NetGalley, Rivers Solomon and Straus and Giroux | MCD for the opportunity to read Model Home. I have written this review voluntarily.

✨ Review ✨ Model Home by Rivers Solomon

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

The Deep was my first book by Rivers Solomon and this was totally different and somehow felt akin in unexplainable ways. Solomon produced the ULTIMATE haunted house story, laced with racial, gender, and class identity and racism, classism, and gendered trauma.

Ezri, nonbinary parent, along with her daughter, start the book returning back to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, after getting strange texts from her mother. Quickly, the three must grapple with the horrors of their home, which have long plagued them in a wealthy, white neighborhood where they were the only black family.

The writing in this book is absolutely astounding. I was highlighting things constantly throughout. It reflects deeply on family, gender and identity, race and racism, urban development, social media and digital connection, and different forms of abuse.

Here are a few quotes I captured that show the beauty and profoundness of this book:

"The flight attendant brings us our rectangular tray of scalding-hot food. It's disgusting. It's delicious. I devour it like a last meal, the way I do all airplane food."

"And, what of my father? Where is my ire for him? Okay, but like, what of anyone's father. Goodness, we can't be disappointed by men we never once believed in."

"This city is a wasteland. What goodness there once was--in the earth and in the people that inhabited the earth--has been paved over with highways named after genocidists. White-owned Tex-Mex chains serving mediocre fajitas mark the graves of the dead. Housing development after housing development passed by in my periphery."

"Everyone believes in haunted houses. Ghosts are a function of the movement of time. Places become marked by the things that have happened to them, the things they've done. Rings in the trunk of a tree."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: a genre meld of mystery, horror, literary fiction
Setting: Dallas-area Texas
Pub Date: Oct 01 2024

Who doesn’t love a haunted house story during the spooky season? The thing is, this book is so so much more than that. Generational trauma, racism, homophobia, gender identity, family bonds, pedophilia/child SA. While I did enjoy this one, please check trigger warnings because there are many.

Ezri is called back home to join their siblings in checking in on their estranged parents after years of no contact. Ezri dreads returning to their childhood home and what they know as Nightmare Mother. Ezri and their siblings discover the dead bodies of their parents in what the cops have determined to be a murder-suicide pact but which the siblings believe to be at the hands of their haunted house. As they join together for the first time to grieve and arrange the funerals they all begin to process the traumatic memories of how their house harmed them.

I can honestly say I did not see the ending coming here. Ezri is a very unreliable narrator who often experiences dissociative episodes and struggles with identifying real events vs. ones made up in their head. Their unreliability as the sole narrator makes it near impossible for the reader to determine what is real, what is not, and what may have actually happened.

Gritty, dark, emotional and at times even funny, Model Home took me on a wild ride and I enjoyed it.

For fans of:
Black horror stories by authors such as Tiffany Jackson (major White Smoke vibes with this one) and Akwaeke Emezi (also Pet vibes)
Haunted house stories
Gender fluidity/LGBTQIA representation

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for my copy; all opinions are my own. Out now!

This book was spooky, thought provoking and dark. It follows Ezri and their sisters Eve and Emmanuelle, who have long been estranged from their parents and the haunted house they resided in for many years. When their parents are killed, Ezri and their young teenage daughter Elijah must return to that house and the all-white neighborhood that shunned them for being black and different.

While the haunted house was definitely also an allegory for childhood and race trauma, it was creepy enough to keep me on the edge of my seat when it came up. I expected more of it, and for most of the story I was wondering if the house was truly haunted or if it was all in Ezri’s mind. I enjoyed how the story explored generational trauma and the cycle of abuse, and how it can affect children years into the future, even when the parents do the best they can.

The characters were extremely well done and relatable. I found myself relating to some of the mental health struggles that were depicted as well as Elijah’s childish naivety, and I was rooting for them throughout the story, hoping things would work out well for them. Parts of this book broke my heart.

While this book may not be for everyone due to some of the content, I will definitely be recommending this to people I know, and this definitely won’t be the last book I read from Rivers Solomon.

Glad that I read this one! I am currently reading horror genre and Model Home gives me new experience that I didn't expect before.

4.5 rounded to 5

Model Home by Rivers Solomon is an experience that left me gutted, shaken, and questioning the true horror lurking within its pages. I need to go back and re-read those last three chapters because WHAT?!?

This isn’t a book I’d describe with “enjoyment” in the usual sense. Model Home is heavy, weighted with grief, trauma, racism, and family secrets, and it challenges any expectations a reader might bring. The emotional toll is intense, and Solomon’s raw storytelling doesn't allow for a conventional reading experience.

The story centers on three siblings—Ezri, Emmanuelle, and Eve—whose lives are shattered after a devastating tragedy takes their parents. Ezri, who fled to another country to escape her past, is forced to return and confront the painful memories she left behind almost two decades prior. While her sisters remained in Texas, close to the ghosts of their childhood, Ezri tried to escape. But the trauma they share proves impossible to outrun. This isn’t merely a haunted house story; it’s a haunting exploration of grief, secrets, and generational pain.

Solomon has a way of immersing you in their characters’ lives so viscerally that, at times, I felt as though I was Ezri. In those moments, their pain was mine, their fear was mine. I saw pieces of myself reflected back, and it was both unsettling and compelling. Solomon’s prose draws you in and eats you alive, making you live the story rather than just read it.

One of the most captivating elements is Solomon’s exploration of the body. Themes of disability and bodily dissociation are woven throughout, creating an intense sense of claustrophobia. The way they describe breath, physicality, and the neediness of human bodies brings the text to life in visceral detail.

Solomon’s writing is nuanced and precise, blending family drama with psychological horror. The sibling dynamics are complex, each character painfully unreliable, their recollections and perspectives twisted by suffering. Though the story initially seems to explore reconnection and identity, it quickly turns darker, touching on assault, abandonment, and the brutal weight of being Black women burdened by trauma passed down through generations.

The themes Solomon engages with—expectations of Black mothers, the enduring effects of abuse, and generational trauma—are handled with astonishing insight. Solomon captures the liberation and ache embedded in these lives, showing that while it may not be the horror readers expect, familial trauma can be horrific in its own right.

Model Home is both a testament and tribute to River Solomon's poetic and visionary voice.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of Model Home.

Rivers Solomon delivers on a subversive haunted house story that left me thinking about it hours after I finished the book. As with all of their books, Solomon's true prowess is shown through their use of prose. Their use of disorienting language via POV shifts, timeline jumping, and an unreliable narrator all contributed to the overall sense of dread I felt as I read. This was the perfect thing to round out my month of spooky October reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first Rivers Solomon book, and I now absolutely understand the hype around their work. While I anticipated a "haunted house" horror story, this novel was ultimately so much more than that. Yes, there were certainly elements of horror and suspense, and a scary-AF house, and I was genuinely afraid for Ezri the entire time. But the book's strengths lie in the character development, the narrative voice, the relationships between family members, and the development and reveal of the thing that has been haunting them all along. To truly enjoy this book, I think it is best to go in knowing as little as possible, so I will leave my review at that. Thank you so much to NetGalley for my advanced copy. I'm looking forward to reading more of Solomon's writing in the future.

Nearly impossible to read. The style just didn’t work to keep my interest I guess. Maybe others think it worked well. The premise sounded interesting but I just struggled to read this.

I loved this book so much. I was expected a haunted house story but this was so much more than that. This is for those who have mommy issues and lots of trauma. I highly recommend this one.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3 stars!

Lyrical. Haunting. Full of childhood trauma. Sibling love.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

there is such darkness in this book, i found it rather tough to get through solely based on the content- the deep sense of loathing, grappling with mental illness, the way trauma haunts this whole book. the mommy issues!! this does explore many complex themes and I think the end does a good job of wrapping things up in a satisfying way. others will likely enjoy this book, there's moments of powerful and hypnotic writing.

"The comfort of a particular history, no matter how horrid it might be. Its ours. A magic only we can weave."

MODEL HOME by @rivers.solomon is not your normal haunted house story so be ready to be taken through a not-so-fun-house of unexpected horrors. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers @mcdbooks and @macmillan.audio for the e-ARC and audio-ARC.

🏠🏠🏠

After the death of their parents, Ezri and their two sisters go back to the home they grew up in to sort out their family affairs but they are greeted with more questions and an outpouring of childhood memories and trauma. A mostly wealthy white neighborhood, the family moved in when the kids were young and their mother was desperate to be the most perfect family on the block going so far as you telling them to be slivers meaning quiet, well-behaved and barely seen or heard. Very soon after the family moved in dark, scary things started happening in the house that the siblings have all but tried to bury in their memories.

Overwhelmed by the reasons they originally moved to England with their daughter Elijah in tow, Ezri begins unpacking more than they originally bargained for.

🏠🏠🏠

Bedazzlingly spooky and deeply layered with an undertone of anxiety, this dual-timeline story weaves a tense family entanglement built on suffering in silence and the dangerous facade of perfection or in this case, "black Excellence." A whole new level of exposing the family's dirty laundry is a major theme and the discussion about the siblings remembering events differently was one that really hit home as I have often found the same with my siblings - "Jarring. The different versions of events we all have."

There are so many trigger warnings here including childhood sexual and emotional trauma, deeply seeded racism, wild parental expectations and being "othered." There is a lot going on here and I would not be surprised if I pick this one up again for a reread someday as it is so compelling but I suspect I did not catch all the intricate layers. This one was definitely hard to read but well worth the effort.

This was my first Rivers Solomon book and it shan’t be my last! I loved their writing—the style, the subject matter, the character development, and on and on. I was very much invested in these characters and storylines. I do think it’s marketed too heavily toward horror and it’s honestly more mystery/lit fic. The scares are few and though my tolerance is high, I don’t know if this is going to give many people a fright. However, the cover design is incredible because of the fact that it’s marketed as horror, and for that reason I suppose I must be thankful. I would very much recommend this book to people, I just wouldn’t expect to be chilled to the bone!

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing an arc, and to Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Model Home releases October 1, 2024

“This house lures in animals with a death wish.”

Model Home was such a disjointed read, and I’m unsure if that was due to the main character having a dissociative disorder, or if it was just the writing style in general.

I struggled with the inconsistencies of quotation mark placement and only choosing to use them for dialogue half of the time.
I found that the audiobook did a poor job reflecting that Ezri and Elijah moved from England to America as there were no distinct British accents.

If you’re looking for a traditional haunted house story, this isn’t it. However, if you like when a book’s horror is defined by racism and trauma (similar to The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson), with a focus on family drama told through the lens of a gender-fluid main character, then this might be for you.

Such a great take on a haunted house book. I love the way Rivers Solomon writes. It is always such a beautiful experience even when the material/topic is decidedly not. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of the book!

This is a challengingly dark read. But ultimately it ends with cautious optimism. A book that flips the haunted house genre on its head. Sometimes humanity really is the worst.

Model Home feels reminiscent of Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, in that it has a similar and particular focus on the dynamics of the dysfunctional family at the heart of the story— both the family as a whole, and the members individually. The family in Model Home, however, is Black, and their experience as a Black family in a white, ‘affluent’ neighborhood plays a pivotal role in the narrative. Obviously, not an experience that I can resonate with on a personal level, but its exploration throughout the novel amounts to a narrative that is haunting and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Model Home is far more ‘standard’ fiction-forward in genre than speculative (or horror, as I might have assumed before reading this novel), unlike the two other titles I’ve read by Rivers Solomon— The Deep, and An Unkindness of Ghosts— but their authorial ‘voice’ is so distinct that it does seem like a natural extension of the narratives they typically explore.