Ezri returns to their childhood home where they and their siblings grew up as the only black family in a white suburb to find her parents dead in an apparent murder suicide. Ezri and their siblings are forced to confront their pasts and their presents to determine what really haunted that house their entire childhoods.

As with many of Solomon's reads this dealt with a lot of difficult topics including racism and child abuse. It was a good book, but a hard read. I felt that it was more of a thriller than a horror novel.

A haunted house story unlike any other. Ezri moved all the way to England to escape the house they grew up in. But now something is wrong. All three Maxwell siblings will have to return to the house that still haunts them in order to move on. But is the house really haunted--or is something else going on?

Go ahead and plaster every trigger warning imaginable on this one, because true to Rivers Solomon form, it gets dark. The exploration of trauma and sibling relationships was expertly done, and the twist at the end took me truly and horrifyingly by surprise.

Anyone should read Rivers Solomon's work if not for their writing alone. The prose, like in all their works, is simply beautiful.

I was immediately on board when I heard fae was going to publish faer own spin on the haunted house. They use this to explore themes of mental illness, trauma, complex familial relationships, racism and queerness in an outstanding way.

In the end though I don't know how to feel about the ending, I didn't expect an explanation for all that happened in the house - but knowing what I know now, I would love to reread this in the future, catch all the intricacies in this beautiful work.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read "Model Home" before it's publication date, even though my feedback is coming after it has been released.

I am a huge Rivers Solomon fan. "Sorrowland" is one of my top 3 favorite books of all time, and I was ecstatic to learn that they were coming out with another release that dealt with the supernatural. I honestly haven't really been able to compile my thoughts completely on this novel yet and think it will take another close reading of the book in its final, published form (which I have already ordered) to fully comprehend everything that went into this narrative. I was a huge fan of the sibling dynamic in this novel and how the characters intertwined with one another and their own personal struggles, even though we were hearing the story through Ezri's narration. I am not usually a fan of vague suspense, which is what I feel like this book is truly based around, but I was hooked on it due to the compelling discussions of personal growth, trauma responses, and interpersonal relations. I did not like Ezri much as a narrator or a character, but their perspective was interesting nonetheless. I felt as if their issues with their mother were never made clear to me, and although mother-child relationships are messy, Ezri's perspective of things felt too unreliable for me to believe. Along that same vein, I felt like the last chunk of the book moved very quickly with a lot of pieces that were not fleshed out in a particularly well-done manner and therefore made them seem half-baked. Elijah's possible assault, Emmanuelle's burst to national news, and the final reveal all felt very rushed to me and therefore less surprising than they should have been. I think perhaps I missed something when reading it the first time, hence why I am being more harsh about it than I want to be, and therefore want to re-read it with a new perspective.

There were also a handful of obvious grammatical mistakes in the ARC I recieved, but I assume those have been fixed prior to publication.

Rivers Solomon’s new novel Model Home feels like a horror novel. And in many ways it is. But the horrors that it reveals hit closer to home than readers are likely to expect. As with her previous novels, Solomon uses some genre conventions to explore the experience of Black communities in America. And she does not hold back.
The central character of Model Home is Ezri, who ran away from the family home in Texas, moved to England and converted to Judaism. But the murder suicide of her parents in that family home brings her and her daughter Elijah back to Texas and Ezri’s sisters Eve and Emmanuel. The three are forced to confront the terrors of their childhood – where they were the only Black family in an otherwise all-white housing estate. But worse than that, they believed that their house was (and still is) haunted and that Ezri was in some way possessed. The truth, when they finally uncover it is much, much worse.
On their website, Solomon describes themselves as fae - “half woman, half boy, part beast” and the same could be said about her protagonist Ezri. Gender fluid, conflicted, sometimes feral, fiercely loyal to her family but at the same time combative towards them, Ezri is a somewhat unreliable guide to this world. They believe intensely in the supernatural narrative that has built up around her life but also constantly needs to question its validity. But recognises the damage that was done to her as a child and tries (not always successfully) not to pass that trauma on to their daughter.
Much like the cinematic work of Jordan Peale, Solomon effectively uses well understood tropes in Model Home to explore the Black experience in America. To reveal the hypocrisy and racism inherent in the community and the petty justifications that people make for their discriminatory behaviour. Both of these auteurs work in horror but only in so far as it reveals the true horror of modern society.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc of this book!
Rivers Solomon is a name I have come across but never actually explored. This book seemed just the place to start. On the surface, this is a haunted house story, so, I expected to be creeped out and even moved. Some haunted house stories have the potential to do that. However, this book was a haunted house story more about the people rather than the haunting.

Rivers Solomon has done an absolutely phenomenal job in creating a haunted house story that speaks to the horrors of racism and white gated communities. This book is scary and horrifying, but also delves into themes of trauma, family, grief, queerness, disability, and Blackness. If you are a lover of horror like me, you need to read this book ASAP!

I have loved every book that I have read by Rivers Solomon and Model Home is no exception. Solomon does such an amazing job developing complex characters with flaws and growth and complicated relationships.

While reading this book, I also started reading Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake and I feel that reading the two together deepened my appreciation for both. Sharpe writes on the structural and personal experience of living in the wake of the transatlantic slave trade. Solomon offers us a clear example of that experience, where a rich Texan suburban neighbourhood and house would rather their Black neighbours were dead than living there.

One thing I can’t stop thinking about is the frequent appearance of mouth imagery in this book. In this beginning of the novel the protagonist Ezri notes that “Land is not dirt. It is esophagus, stomach, bowels. A mid-terrace Victorian in bad repair does not fare well on top of the chomping mouth of Leviathan, nor do any of us.” We learn that they and their daughter are autistic and sensitive to food texture.

This is contrasted by the antagonist of the novel who is referred to as the woman without a face, who therefore has no mouth. I think it would be interesting to reread this book with a more careful study of this theme.

I would highly recommend this book with some important trigger warnings, including suicide, murder, child abuse, child sexual abuse and r*pe, self harm and suicide attempts.

Ezri's family is the only Black family in their gated community south of Dallas, Texas. And Ezri is probably the only genderqueer kid in the neighborhood. But that isn't why they or their two younger sisters have been estranged from their parents for decades. The Maxwell children left home because disturbing, unexplainable things happened there, perpetrated by Nightmare Mother.

When they suspect something has befallen their parents, Ezri, Eve, and Emanuelle return to their childhood home to confront their ghosts and understand what has happened to their parents. A haunted house story that explores themes of racism, family dynamics, gender identity, and the cycle of abuse, Model Home was a deeply impactful story and I think will be one of my favorite books of the year. Honestly, this book deserves to be a modern classic next to Beloved.

I love that Ezri is deeply flawed and makes missteps in nearly all of the relationships we see in the novel. They are not painted as a great queer saint, but rather as a human who is trying their best to exist in a system that is often working against them. Their sisters and daughter likewise all make various missteps throughout the novel, but they are all actions driven by grief or adolescent naivete. I appreciate that all of the choices feel human and consequences feel rational. (Yes, I am saying this about a haunted house book.)

I do not often re-read books, but after having experienced the full story and getting to know all of the characters, I found myself wanting to immediately start the book over again. I wanted to try to know them better and I was not yet ready to leave Ezri and their family.

This book contains descriptions and implied instances of abuse. Please check trigger warnings and take care of yourself while reading this book.

The way Rivers Solomon explores trauma by combining it with the haunted house trope is fascinating and honestly refreshing.

Model Home is not your traditional horror story, but it really opened a space in my mind for ghost stories that do more that scare me, that allow me to reflect on other themes, such as gender, race, mental health, identity - as Solomon does in this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

“...When we speak of a house that is haunted, all we are speaking of is a house that is violent. And many houses are violent.”

Rivers Solomon is a fascinating writer; I loved their novella The Deep when I read it last year and was excited to dive into Model Home, billed as a new kind of haunted house novel. Maybe because of the time of year, but I was surprised to find the novel more occupied by grief and trauma than hauntings. Despite some confusion over the content, I found Model Home a challenging but ultimately worthy read. I'd recommend looking at triggers before you dive into this one as there is some heavy stuff!!

Model Home is ostensibly a horror novel, but it is much more concerned with the horrors of racism and trauma than a jumpscare. It reminded me a lot of Alison Rumfitt's 2022 novel Tell Me I'm Worthless, though it's significantly less scary than Rumfitt's work. It is about a family of three siblings who grew up in a wealthy white neighbourhood and were always pushed by their parents to do, and be, better. All three are now estranged from their parents and living their own lives. When the siblings' parents are found dead in their home, they must return to 667 Acacia Drive, which may or may not be haunted by ghosts. I don't want to say more, but it's really well-executed, even if you're not quite sure at times where the author is going with their ideas.


Though we hear from all three siblings over the course of the novel, the dominant POV character is Ezri, a queer, non-binary and neurodivergent person who struggles to participate in the world around them. Moving between past and presence, (that's a typo but it's so good i'm keeping it in) Solomon builds a picture of the family's traumatic childhood in a haunted house - pets are killed, children are injured, everyone is terrorised. I spent a l;ot of time wondering about the ghosts but I trusted the authorial vision and I was glad I did because it's such a clever (and horrifying) twist on what I expected.

The author also does a great job of exploring the lingering ill-effects of this trauma and how it manifests differently in each sibling, but also explores the closeness forged under these traumatic conditions. The relationship between the three siblings is the novel's beating heart and it's really well executed.

Upsetting, compelling, uncomfortable.

I have seen Model Home described as a story about a haunted house and haunted people. It is this and so much more. It is a story with many complex themes including trauma, grief, abuse, mental health, and racism. Model Home is a work of speculative and literary fiction with beautifully written prose. I don't usual annotate books, but there were many sentences and passages that deserved to be highlighted.
I read the book while also listening to the audio book. The audio book is narrated by Gabby Beans. She does a great job bringing this story and characters to life.

Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Macmillan Audio for the ARCs.

Model Home didn't initially sound like a book I would pick up but after reading a number of reviews, I requested it and was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy. I am so glad I did because it was truly an original story with a lot to think about and I know it will stay with me for a long time.

The Maxwell family has lived in a fancy Dallas suburb for a number of years. Ezri has returned home after the death of their parents and what plays out is a haunted house story that's true horror is racism. Touching on a lot of relevant topics, readers will find a lot to explore in Model Home.

This book was not what I was expecting, this is not a popcorn thriller to read for fun. This haunted house story faces a lot of dark heavy topics that may not necessarily be fun to read or comfortable but are important to look at. The writing in this book was full of these dreamlike sequences that left you horrified and not sure what was real or not. The characters in this book have suffered things I couldn’t even begin to imagine but this writing put you front and center and made it hard to look away. This is not the first book I have read from this author and it definitely will not be my last. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Not all haunted houses are haunted by ghosts…

This literary horror follows Ezri who grows up in a house where disturbing things keep happening to them and their family after moving into the model house in an upper class white neighborhood.

Ezri clearly has gone through some sort of trauma which is apparent in both their relationships with their sisters/daughter and inability to stop reflecting on the past and Nightmare Mother.

Without giving away too much, this book was a brilliant story on class, race, abuse, and real life horrors that haunt minority families on a daily basis. The beginning grips you, the middle gives you the backstory of the family, and the end stabs you right in the heart.

Rivers Solomon does it again! Highly recommend if you enjoy literary horror, enrapturing writing, and a family coming together to defeat and heal from their past.

Thank you FSG, Macmillan & Netgalley for the opportunity to read this early!!

This book didn't quite work for me that way I was hoping. It didn't hit as a horror, but more like a family drama with some possible supernatural elements. I appreciated the themes and exploration of those themes, and the writing - as usual by Solomon - is wonderful. But the story itself fell a bit flat for me.

While this novel is definitely well written I just can't say that I enjoyed it at all. Something is here for someone else but not for me.

Others may have a different experience, but for me, the sinister truths around the mystery of the horrors experienced by these siblings in their childhood home were pretty clearly telegraphed from the start of Model Home. This didn't stop the book from being engrossing, engaging, and absolutely chilling. A really traumatic haunted house story.

Rivers Solomon continues to wow me. After finishing this book, I immediately read Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story," which is referenced by Ezri, the main character, four times, the first time in a therapy session. To me, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” feels a little like a source text for Model Home, much in the same way that “The Deep” by clipping. undergirds The Deep (Solomon’s 2020 novella) and Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin undergirds Sorrowland (their 2021 novel). One of my favorite parts of Model Home was the peppering of pop, movie, and literary culture references throughout the book. The Le Guin short story was just the tip of the iceberg of references.

Ok so this was like being placed into someone’s head that has severe trauma and mental illness. This was a ride. I will say i wanted to slap the mom for naming them all with the same letter i was confused a bit by the characters. I did read this with the audiobook which was fantastic.

This was a very heavy read but also a read that needed to be done. Triggering stuff in here but I’m glad it shows that the *spoiler* men aren’t always the predators.