"Model Home" weaves together horror and literary elements in such a way that I could not put the book down. There are some truly horrific moments, along with an exploration of family dynamics, as three siblings return to their haunted house to grieve the loss of parents. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a thought-provoking horror novel!

I highlighted at least a quarter of this book. Rivers Solomon is an absolute genius.

I’m finding it difficult to put into words what Model Home is about. One could say trauma, racism, family, the complexity of life as a human animal. It’s all those things, and the fact that much of it sounds like poetry to my ears, even the terrible parts, makes it so much more true. Solomon’s absolute honesty, awareness, and deft storytelling abilities took me on a ride that was both therapeutic and searing.

Every piece of this story was tied to each other, a perfect portrayal of real life - no matter how we try to compartmentalize it. The way the brutality of racism, the dehumanization it requires, and the complete selfishness and madness of it are reflected in every traumatic act and consequence throughout the novel. I was gripped by Solomon’s ability to express the pain ever-present in the world around us, and in ourselves. Our connection to one another, through emotion, belief, and circumstance, shapes our worlds inside and out. It can sometimes overwhelm us or blind us to our true selves. They also show us the amazing resilience of our inner flames in the face of total, personal obliteration, the fact of the emotional absence of many of our fathers, and the undeniable power of Mother.

Every time I review my highlights from Model Home, I see and feel something new. If you enjoy the writings of Rivers Solomon, I would also suggest Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. They are both skilled with metaphors and meaning, lace their words with both beauty and sorrow, and create queer characters that are whole and complex.

The books we love the most are the hardest to write reviews for, right? I’ll do my best but it will be hard to do Model Home justice.

Model Home manages to be an outstandingly creepy haunted house story while also totally subverting typical haunted house expectations. Furthermore, Solomon manages to do this while also deftly tackling topics of Black excellence, generational trauma, classism, racism and complex sibling relationships. In a less skilled author’s hands, this could’ve easily felt like trying to take on too much. Solomon, however, is clearly a master at their craft.

I devoured Model Home in 2 days. While the action is not exactly fast-paced, the story is unfolded in such a way that made it impossible for me to put down. The way we learn about the characters, the family’s history, and the current occurrences - I really can’t say it enough - is simply masterful.

While Model Home easily lands in my top books of the year, I would highly highly suggest anyone thinking of reading this to check content warnings. This is an INTENSE read and does feature storylines of grooming and child sexual assault.

hi, rivers solomon is an autobuy author for me.

i don't even know how to talk about this book. i just put it down, my brain is a giant scream.

"i'm not a person but a place where bad things happen."

our main character is ezri, who is a parent, fat, genderqueer, and a diabetic(!) and after a text from their sister they find themselves going back to a place they never thought they would - home. the home looms large in texas, a sprawling thing compared to the tiny apartment in new york they moved from. from the beginning we learn of the looming presence of the HOA - a horror in and of itself - and a representative named laurie. but they also begin to realize that maybe they're not as welcome in their home as they think.

years later, ezri goes home and finds the bodies of their parents. memories of a nightmare mother erupt, memories of the lady without a face. as ezri and their sisters work to lay their parents to rest they grapple with unraveling the truths of their childhoods - is it a malevolent spirit? was their mother responsible for all the pain they went through?

don't let this book fool you. though it is rife with all kinds of visceral horrors that will send shivers up your spine, the real horrors are the legacy of whiteness and the trauma that it has caused throughout generations and still continues to cause to this day. you'll also find plenty in here about mental illness and gender and how white supremacy continues and perpetuates both in a variety of ways.

trigger warnings for all of the previous, plus child sexual abuse/grooming (mostly off page), animal death/torture, gaslighting, ableism, and certainly other things that i'm forgetting.

i'm truly apologetic that i can't write (nor could i ever write) the review that this book deserves, but i genuinely think this is the must-read book of 2024. absolute perfection.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an e-arc of this novel!

Model Home follows the three Maxwell siblings: Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle, as they navigate the loss of their parents and a return to the house they grew up in that haunted their childhood.

I think it's best to go into this one knowing as little as possible (though, content warning for <spoiler> child sexual abuse</spoiler>). This novel is a heavy interrogation of grief and trauma. It's difficult to read in the way that it's difficult to reflect on a childhood shrouded by uncertainty and horror.

There's a lot that I loved about this novel. I loved the way we see Ezri work through their past and the weight of having to return to a home that they fled -- the writing is beautiful and compelling and so realistic. I love that situates the haunted house in the middle of a clearly racist gated community, heightening the tension between the horrors inside the house and the horrors outside the house. I love that this novel is so centered on the Maxwell siblings -- their love for each other, their complex feelings towards their parents, the ways that they attempt to break the generational trauma they inherited. I loved the casual queerness -- the way Eve and Emmanuelle are so protective of Ezri and love them for who they are so strongly.

I do think the pacing was a bit dissonant -- the end wraps up quite quickly compared to the slow build of tension and dread throughout the first 80% of the novel.

Overall, really loved this one!

As always, Rivers Solomon has written a haunting and beautiful exploration of family, gender, sexuality, and the fantastical. These characters are done exceptionally and Solomon’s writing style is always striking. I did find some small inconsistencies or plot holes which hindered me from giving this a full five stars, but overall Solomon’s work will always make me emotional.

Wow, what a book. This is an incredibly unique take on the haunted house trope. I love literary horror and this had some stunning writing. The juxtaposition of the lyrical prose and the incredibly dark plot was very well done. Tread carefully because the central themes are around trauma in all its forms. Other central themes are racism, mental illness, queerness, and generational trauma.

I spent the majority of this book unsure of whether I liked it or not. It felt written from a place of pain and that pain leaked onto every page. The writing felt like a fever dream and I often felt disoriented trying to figure out what was happening. Anyways, long story short, that was definitely the point. The last 10% solidified my positive opinion of this book and it was such a powerful read. Not an easy read by any means. Quite the contrary. Model Home sought to make you uncomfortable and it really drove home the book’s purpose. A very bleak and thought-provoking read. Absolutely recommend.

we start with our three siblings coming back to the childhood home after one of them feels something has gone wrong.

if you’ve read anything by this author, you will recognize the slightly feverish writing style which can be hit or miss for people but I tend to enjoy it. it makes me want to keep reading since it’s so unpredictable with the scene hoping which again, not for everyone but it keeps me engaged.

i’ve only recently learned that I don’t actually like haunted house books but that is a me problem. and it’s always because I know the house is never haunted it usually the people, item, ghost, etc., that lives there was or originated in the ‘haunted’ house but I think our author does a good job of keeping the disbelief suspended.

I would however recommend this to more literary fic lovers/enjoyers than horror fans.

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of the ARC for a review!

There were times I really enjoyed this book. It covered some really heavy and important topics. Unfortunately, I had to slog through the rest which was written in a style that I found grating. It didn’t flow. Maybe that was on purpose. It made me read whole pages without really paying attention. I think my rating still would have been higher if the ending had even different.

Model Home
Rivers Solomon

Rivers Solomon’s take on the haunted house trope – a psychological thriller about social horrors of racism and social class, of exclusion and othering. The Maxwell siblings return to their childhood home in suburban Texas upon the sudden, unexpected death of their parents, only to face their childhood horrors. Childhood trauma and abuse, rape and mental illness are brought to the forefront.

The writing is crisp and effective, with dread building slowly until the last hundred pages when the story just takes off. This is an intelligent horror novel, which will have you thinking for some time after you close the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

3.5 stars. I’m so torn about Model Home by Rivers Solomon. I had the audiobook to listen along while reading, and I really enjoyed the narration. There was so much care and emotion put into the performance, especially in capturing the sibling dynamics. However, I did notice some inconsistencies where a complete chapter was off, only to reappear later in the audiobook, but not in the same order as the digital ARC I had. That threw me off a bit and took away from the experience.

There were things I liked about this book, but also things that worked against it, ultimately affecting my enjoyment. And I use "enjoyment" lightly because Model Home isn’t necessarily a story meant to be enjoyed in the traditional sense. It’s heavy, and for readers expecting something different based on how the book is described, this might be an issue. The weight of the topics—grief, trauma, racism, and family secrets—is much more intense than the premise may initially suggest.

The story follows three siblings—Ezri, Emmanuelle, and Eve—after they lose their parents in a horrific tragedy. Ezri, who has moved out of the country with her daughter, must return and confront the past she ran from almost two decades ago. While her sisters stayed in Texas, close to the haunting memories of their childhood, Ezri distanced herself, but the pain and trauma they all share linger. What we witness is not just a haunted house narrative, but the way grief, secrets, and generational trauma linger and shape their lives.

One of the things I appreciated was how Solomon writes with nuance, weaving together family drama and psychological horror. The sibling relationships are complex, and each character is unreliable in their own way. Their perceptions of the past and present are clouded by pain, and Ezri, in particular, struggles to face the truths she’s been avoiding. Initially, the story seems to be about reconnection, self-discovery, and identity loss, but it gradually shifts into darker territory—addressing issues like assault, abandonment, and the brutal realities of being Black women burdened by generational trauma.

At times, I felt the story dragged in its attempt to maintain the front of a haunted house narrative. By the time all the secrets were uncovered, I wasn’t sure the twist fully worked for me. The formatting of the e-ARC didn’t help either, with the narrative bouncing between flashbacks, inner thoughts, and multiple POVs, often feeling disjointed.

I think one of the challenges for me was the book's reliance on the haunted house trope. It irritated me how long Eve & Ezri left Emmanuelle in the dark. To the degree they allowed her to go on TV and make herself seem crazy. You’re led to believe that the house is literally haunted, only to find that it’s the characters’ internal and neighborly demons haunting them. When the truth was finally revealed, I almost wished Solomon had stuck with the supernatural explanation. It wasn’t that the twist was bad, but after investing in the haunted atmosphere, the shift felt rushed and a bit underdeveloped.

That being said, I still appreciated the themes and conversations Solomon engages with—the expectations placed on Black mothers, the long-lasting effects of abuse, and the way trauma gets passed down through generations. Solomon has a way of writing about liberation and generational ache that really stands out, and even though I’m still undecided on whether or not I liked the book, I can say it’s thought-provoking. It might not be the horror story people expect, but there’s something to be said about how horrific familial trauma can be.

This is my second read by Solomon, and they have a unique voice and perspective. I’ll definitely be looking for more from them in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley / Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Audio for this immersive digital and audio reading experience.

After reading Sorrowland a couple of years ago, I knew this book would be far more than basic horror. It's creepy, disturbing, haunting, all of that. But it's also real, because Rivers Solomon writes about the monsters that have already gotten us, are getting us still. The past, history repeating itself, untended wounds, and denial.

Ezri is the oldest of three sisters raised in an exclusive gated community in Dallas. The only black family in the neighborhood, they feel their difference immediately. Even the house - the stately large "dream home" that Ezri's mother coveted - seemed to reject them. Strange things happen. The pet fish die en masse. The class pet entrusted to Ezri's care dies. The bath turns acidic and burns Emmanuelle's skin. Years after they fled to England, Ezri returns home to find their parents dead. Police call it a murder-suicide. Ezri and her sisters feel the house has finally purged the family. Still, Ezri is keen to "keep the scale of 677 [Acacia Street] in perspective". When we speak of haunted houses, Ezri says, "all we are speaking of is a house that is violent, and many houses are violent. In its end, Grenfell Tower was a haunted house. Every house in Flint, in so many cities, is a haunted house."

If Sorrowland was about the atrocities perpetrated upon Black bodies by the US government (think Tuskegee Syphilis Study, slavery) then Model Home is about the racism of towns and cities everywhere, making any house, for a Black family, haunted, potentially dangerous. Whether it was the constant threat of bombing in the American South or the willful ignorance of the Flint city counsel, Black neighborhoods had always - always- suffered the impact of passive racism. "Humans are gods," Ezri says, "making worlds , then making miseries of those worlds."

Rivers Solomon is so good at writing such visceral and real stories. They are hard for me to rate because I wouldn't call them enjoyable reads, but I don't think they are meant to be. Solomon really illustrates the true horrors that human perpetrate against one another so well, and this book was no different. Don't come to this looking for a popcorn and cotton candy type of horror story, but if you want something a little sharper around the edges, than this one's for you!

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Model Home by Rivers Solomon from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux/MCD via NetGalley. It should be available to the public on October 1, 2024.

Rivers Solomon was in the process of writing Model Home when they read a teeny excerpt at WisCon last year. I wrote down the title and have been obsessively waiting for its release ever since. I almost lost my mind when I received an Advanced Reader's Copy because I couldn't wait to read this before Halloween. You see, Model Home is a ghost/haunted house story, and it will haunt the hell out of you. When you have to deal with the death of close family members, like your parents, it brings up all sorts of skeletons from your past. How one deals with it varies greatly. Rivers has a way of writing that really puts my senses through a workout. I swear I could taste the late night diner pancakes. I really wanted those pancakes. Don't let the pancakes distract you! This is some deeply dark stuff we are dealing with, but wow, was it worth it.

This was a hard one to rate. I never felt truly connected to the characters involved. The dialogue and structure were a bit discombobulated, making it hard to really emerge myself into this. However, the plot and thought-provoking content made its mark. This ran deep and still somehow managed to convey emotions and explored trauma and identity. Although this is technically horror, it is so much more than that, and any literary fans will devour this. Overall, although this is not my particular taste, the writing and content alone deserve no less than four stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

This book is awful.

Don't get me wrong, this is a brilliant novel, but I found the reading experience to be really difficult. Not that I struggled to keep reading; I couldn't put it down. This book took a toll on me mentally as it went to some pretty dark places, some of which I did not see coming.

The writing is in the typical sort of litfic style, which I am usually not a fan of, but it really works to cultivate the overall mood/atmosphere of the book. The prose flows well, and strikes a fine balance between being complex but still readable.

The author uses the haunted house novel as a vehicle to explore themes of white supremacy, generational trauma, and cisheteronormativity. I am not smart enough to get everything, but the author does an excellent job of conveying the themes in the narrative.

There are time jumps, switching between the present day and scenes from Ezri's childhood, as well as dialogue without quotation marks, which were disorienting to read, but served the narrative well, as it conveyed their current mindset well.

I really resonated with Ezri's relationship with their mother, as well as the themes of generational trauma; while my relationship to my mother is much better than their's, there were certain moments between them that I found quite relatable.

I read some reviews that didn't like the plot, or the ending; while there is definitely a large tonal shift at the end, due to the plot, I think that it makes sense thematically.

Overall, a book that is definitely going to be staying with me for some time.

I'm including the content warnings at the bottom of this review, as it contains spoilers; however, if you struggle with dark themes and difficult subject matter, I would advice that you check the content warnings before reading this book.
Keep in mind that I may have missed out certain warnings.
- Death, suicide
- Child abuse, emotional abuse
- Homophobia, transphobia, slurs
- Child sexual assault, grooming
- Explicit sexual content
- Animal death
- Mental illness, depression, dissociation, suicidal thoughts
- Chronic illness
- Threat of gun violence
- Racism, classism
- Vomit
- Disordered eating
- Gaslighting

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my early copy to read and review.

This was not at all what I was expecting. The cover and synopsis suggested a more standard horror novel, but in the end this was something much more powerful, poignant and important. There's a lot to unpack here, with several very heavy themes including race, gender, sexuality, class, trauma, grief, abuse... the list goes on. I almost feel that labelling this as "horror" is inaccurate, and that "literary" would be more appropriate... but some topics here are truly horrific and uncomfortable to read. It's a difficult book to sum up, but one which is written beautifully with lyrical prose and raw emotion bleeding through on the page. These characters are flawed, damaged, sometimes unlikeable, but most importantly they feel real, with painfully honest inner dialogues and personalities shaped by circumstances.

A+ for representation. I'm not sure I can think of another book which handled this so well. I definitely think this will be a much-loved favorite for the right audience.

I love how Solomon creatively deals with deep issues. This book is one that will stick with me for awhile. Using a haunted house to explore issues of trauma and marginality works incredibly well in this book. The atmosphere is creepy and the book goes to some very dark places. There is much disturbing in this book, but also much that is beautiful. Each of the Maxwell Washington siblings has dealt with the trauma of their childhoods in their own unique ways and they come together after years apart. This book really runs through so many emotions. I don't want to give anything away - so I'll just say that this book made an impact on me and I highly recommend.
I read the first half of the book with eyeballs and then switched halfway through to the audio. The audio narrator is fantastic!

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Macmillan audio for an advance copy of this book for review.

Rivers Solomon has absolutely mastered the kind of prose that punches you in the gut and I love it. This one is dark and haunting and twisting but so so so good. Really calls into question the definition of a haunted house and the history of ghosts and violence in the US especially. Check the trigger warnings before diving in but this would be a fantastic summerween read.

Compulsively readable, but ultimately not as satisfying as I hoped, this is a haunted house story that is truly unlike any other I have read.

I found Ezri, our main character, to be frustratingly difficult to follow. They aren't a reliable narrator, and being inside their head was disorienting much of the time. They also aren't a very likeable character, and unfortunately I just struggled with the experience of following them.

I would also be forewarned that this book does not involve the use of quotation marks, in case that is a pet peeve of yours.

The story is full of themes about hauntings and the limits of memory/trauma. It's very dark, and I highly recommend looking up trigger warnings.

I did enjoy the mystery itself, and unlike some readers I did like the ending. Overall a mixed bag for me, but I feel like this will really hit for the right audience.