I am so thankful to MCD, Macmillan Audio, Rivers Solomon, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this galley before publication day. I really enjoyed the dialogue and plot of this book and can’t wait to chat this one up with my friends!

What began with a slow start, turned into an incredibly slow burn terrifying novel. In the suburban, very white, enclave outside of Dallas, the three Maxwell siblings grew up living in terror. The family, despite the daily horrors inflicted upon them in the house, stayed until the siblings grew up and left, now estranged from their domineering mother and ambivalent father. However, the death of the matriarch and patriarch of the family brings the siblings back to the house, for closure, and for answers.

The characters, the family were fully brought to life by Solomon as was the terror they went through. The second half of the book kept me on my toes, looking for answers to what had actually happened in what looked like a picture perfect home.

For such a slow and steady book, it wrapped up super quick.

This book is so full of quotes you just want to highlight and I will definitely be getting my own copy so I can.

This is about a haunted home in the loosest sense and I'm not mad about it. Turns out I like literary horror when written by Rivers Solomon.

CW for CSA

Honestly, I think Model Home proves I will read anything by Rivers Solomon, without a doubt! This was a fantastic, spooky but also wistful and hopeful, haunted house story — not that you could really call it a traditional haunted house story anyway. This one feels more like if the house and the people who live in it are haunted in supremely different ways and constantly go at each other for it. I could go on forever, but Solomon does a very neat and discerning exploration into so many issues like queerness and Blackness and class and trauma and 'the American dream' and the horror that lies at the centre of all of those things. I was mesmerised by the internal haunting of the characters as much as I was over the external supernatural-ness. It's a slower-paced read, but coupled with the shorter chapters, I think it all comes together very nicely, and without a doubt, Solomon's prose was the key factor here. Can't wait for the next one from them!

As always, Rivers Solomon poetically explores the darkness of the human experience. This was a slow burn for me personally, unsure of where I was being lead. But when I just trusted Solomon to navigate me through I found a comfort in the richness of the prose. I just wanted to highlight entire pages of this, and found myself nodding along to paragraphs exploring complicated a complicated childhood and sibling dynamics. In many ways this book should be bundled with In the Dream House as a companion for those with CPTSD and an appreciation for lush writing.

Okay I LOVED this book. I loved each and every character (except THAT bitch, you'll understand at the end of the book) and the storyline was flawless, rivoting, and I never knew where I was going but I was just happy to be along for the ride.

This novel is jam packed with themes and messages. Solomon touches on LGBTQ+, racial tension, generational trauma, grief, depression, identity, sexual assault, trauma, AND SO MUCH MORE.
Generally when one story tries to include this many different themes it feels too much but Solomon interwove each theme so perfectly into the storyline and plot.

Model Home wasn’t anything like I was expecting. Definitely not a traditional haunted home story. I don’t want to say too much but I think this was so well done. I loved the writing, the exploration of gender identity, class, and the horror of being Black and trying to achieve the American dream. This was haunting for sure and I will definitely be checking out more Rivers Solomon!

This book is a wild and heartbreaking ride. I always enjoy Solomon’s prose and they did an amazing job portraying disassociation and trauma in this story. I would recommend this novel to anyone who has already enjoyed Solomon’s work. To any new readers I would caution that this is a horror novel that hits very close to home. It’s a realistic and horrific reality that we already live in.

I want to specifically point out the amazing sibling relationship in the novel between the main character and their two sisters. I loved reading about them and seeing the conflicts they went through.

Thank you to Rivers Solomon and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux via NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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!

Rating: 3.5/5 Model Home is an emotionally honest and beautifully written account of generational trauma, the cost of secrets, and the love of family. And it wasn’t at all what I expected. I went in thinking I’d get a straight up haunting, but I got a metaphorical one along with the commentary that comes with it. My expectation threw off my enjoyment a little bit. I wasn’t pulled into the story like I usually am with their books, so I waited for the audio and that was the right choice. The narration by Gabby Beans is amazing! The weight, complexity and slight humor that she brings to the main character was so helpful in connecting with this story of survival. The story was thoughtful and thought provoking, but I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it.

Rivers Solomon is one of the greatest writers living right now.

Model Home is a literary haunted house novel about three siblings who must confront the death of their parents and the terror they grew up with. With echoes of Toni Morrison's Beloved, Solomon has crafted a metaphorical story about racism, gender queerness, social class, and abuse in a picturesque American neighbourhood. There's something to be said about the only Black family in the neighbourhood living in the "model home" that the rest of the neighbourhood's properties are based on.

I don't think I've ever highlighted so many passages on my kindle than I did as I read this. The writing is so fucking raw and queer and autistic. The final section of this book left me filled with dread and devastation and I will read it again and again.

Thank you to Netgalley and MCD Books for a free E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

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!