I love Rivers Solomon and they write some of the best horror sci-fi fantasy novels out there. They know how to take a subject we know and take it in a whole different direction. This book was no different. The concept of a haunted house how been so over done that I didn't think there was anything new to add but Solomon proved me wrong. This was amazing! Just when I thought I was getting a handle on things and that it couldn't get worse Solomon pushes it just that much further. I don't want to say much more as it best to be surprised with this one but just know you are going to really enjoy this one

There are so many phobias that are abundant in the American South, especially in suburban and rural areas. Segregation, racism, and homophobia to name a few. @rivers.solomon has written a literary haunted house horror novel from a unique perspective that is not seen as often in the horror genre. It includes the themes of racism and homophobia to heighten the horror of the possible supernatural inhabitation of a family home.

I loved this story about the only Black family in a gated neighborhood outside of Dallas, Texas. Scary things begin to occur as soon as they move in to their new home and the three siblings swear they will leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately, after all 3 siblings have flown the coop, their parents die in unusual circumstances. Were they killed by their house?!

I recommend listening to this audiobook this spooky season, especially if you are looking for different perspectives from your typical haunted house story.

Thank you @macmillan.audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review. This same review has been shared on the Barnes & Noble website.

Confusing at first, but in a good way that made me want to keep listening so I could figure things out. Writing is spectacular, narrator was excellent. The message of generational trauma was profound.

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.

A haunted house is a violent one.

Model Home is an incredible take on the haunted house trope that explores familial bonds and generational trauma. The book opens on our main character Ezri, who is traveling back to their childhood home in Dallas with their daughter, Elijah. After being estranged from their parents throughout their adult life, Ezri finds their parents dead in their home in an apparent murder-suicide. However, Ezri, joined by their sisters, Eve and Emmanuelle, suspect their death is due to the house, which they had long considered haunted.

We learn more about Ezri, Even and Emmanuelle's childhoods through flashbacks throughout the book, which informs some of the parallel narratives we see with Ezri and Ezri's daughter Elijah, and all of the horrors the children experienced throughout growing up. The character development throughout the book was amazing and I particularly appreciated seeing how the family bonded through the tragedy of losing their parents and how they reckon with the grief associated both with their childhood and losing their parents. I also loved the sessions between Ezri and Max, their therapist, to understand Ezri better and how they processed their trauma.

The last quarter of the book I was absolutely rapt and needed to figure out what was happening to everyone. This was a fantastic novel, but check the content as it is quite heavy and so many of the events that happened left me feeling so anxious and worried for these characters.

I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator, Gabby Beans, brought each and every character to life. She gave everyone a unique voice and brought so much to the story. I highly recommend listening to this as an audiobook as a result.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advanced copy.

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!

4.5 stars. This was my first Rivers Solomon book and I was definitely not disappointed! The 3 Maxwell siblings moved far away from their tony home near Dallas. 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. However, the matriarch of the Maxwell family, Eudora, would not be cowed and come hell or highwater (or her children's dread), the Maxwell family stayed put.
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?
This is haunted house story turned on its ear and twisted again. It deals with heavy themes of racism and abuse. The horror here is real.

*Special thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

This book is not about a haunted house. I wish it hadn't been marketed as such.

It is well-written and the central characters are haunted, in a way, by their pasts. It does a beautiful job of exploring cruelty, trauma, and racism. The lead cast of characters is diverse and complex and complicated. There is both weight and grit to this story. It is a good story. It feels important.

The story builds, giving you the impression that something supernatural is happening, but that all floats away on the final act. I understand what the author was going for and I think this is definitely horrific. You just need to separate yourself from the idea of a haunted house when you go into it.

Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle grew up in a Dallas neighborhood as the only black family in the area. After the strange and traumatic childhood they had in their home, all three moved away. But when their parents die of unnatural causes, they must return home and deal with past trauma...and the possible supernatural elements of the family home.

This story was haunting, heartbreaking, and spooky. I highly recommend it.

A book that has so much to say about trauma and grief tied up by a take on haunted houses that I hadn't been able to see yet, just to rip your heart out at the end. Phenomenal.

Whoa! This was stunning. I wasn't sure what to expect, and still, the reveal shocked and shook me. That ending was divine, though, even healing.
So far, this is the best novel I've read in 2024.

Rivers Solomon is my favorite living author. I stumbled upon them with their first published novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, which lives rent-free in my mind to this day. I've read everything they've written, including short stories, with the exception of Sorrowland. Sorrowland teases a plot that freaks me out, and I don't know if I can read that type of story right now. I own it both in book form and on audiobook. I'm confident I'll love it one day.

While the underlying tone in this story is sinister and creepy, it's balanced by the connections of the siblings. I would say this story is at the border of literature. It reminds me in tone, not narrative style, of Toni Morrison's work, specifically Beloved. Morrison has the surface level story with an underlying tone in which so much more is happening, but it depends on the readers' abilities to access that narrative. Each time I reread a Morrison novel, I discover something new or something I wasn't sure about upon past rereads is made clear. I've been rereading some of her novels since high school, more than 30 years now. This novel has that same surface story with the story underneath the action. To me, it is reminiscent of intergenerational trauma and how each child in a family takes their own approach to eradicate it in the next generation. We don't 'break' generational curses as much as refurbish and repackage the intergenerational trauma from our own lives into something that falsely feels less weighty.

On the surface this is about Black siblings who grew up in a haunted house in a gated affluent white community. The house has marked each sibling and even their parents. The siblings return to their childhood home upon the death of their parents. This is an intricate and complicated story. Its gift is in the messy, surprisingly relatable details.

This also touches upon class issues, gender issues, racism as well as transphobia & homophobia. This is a story best read without understanding too much of the plot. This has to be experienced to be understood.

I will read the digital or hard copy of this book upon reread. I greatly enjoyed the audiobook as it is a high-quality production narrated by Gabby Beans. I liked Gabby's voice. It felt inviting yet cautious and greatly enhanced the creepy aspects of the story. It was a perfect tone for this novel. I personally find literature is more accessible reading in print. Still, on rereads, the audiobook adds a nice dimension to the story and is definitely worth the listen. This story has trauma included, and sometimes audiobooks can give more if a distance from the trauma. I listen to many history books on audio for this very reason.

Thank you to Rivers Solomon, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

I found Solomon's writing to be beautifully lyrical, yet I was often confused throughout the book. It explores significant themes of gender and race, and the “grand reveal” provides a take on trauma, both individual and generational. However, I frequently felt lost in the narrative. Connecting with the characters was a challenge, and I wasn’t as invested in the story as I wanted to be, likely because of the confusion I faced. I recommend that readers look out for trigger warnings.

Additionally, I listened to the audiobook at 1.75/2.00 times speed since the narration felt a bit too slow for my liking. On a positive note, I really appreciated how the narrator skillfully altered their voice for each character; it added a delightful touch to the storytelling.

In general, I found it to be a combination of highs and lows, yet I think it will truly appeal to the right audience.

ARC: Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review this audiobook.

This book was written differently than I am used to, however that is a very good thing. It is from the perspective of one of three sisters and the time they grew up in Dallas Texas with their parents. The eldest sister, Ezri tells the story of their life in Dallas, away from New York City, in an all-white neighborhood. As the only black family, there were some struggles, but Ezri and their sisters had amazing parents who supporoted them. The house they lived in saw strange happenings, and the sisters were scared. When Ezri comes back in her 40s from moving to England for the services for their parents who recently passed, a lot of rumors surround what happened to them. Ezri believes it was the house, and others share this opinion. This book was scary and heartbreaking. I absolutely loved it.

This book started off really interesting. I loved the not knowing, the haunted house vibes but then the ending came and I was just like meh. I also didn't love the flashbacks as for me it was sometimes hard to follow which timeline they were in until I heard certain parts.

All in all I didn't hate this book but I think I had different exceptions to what I thought I was going into

The Maxwell siblings, traumatized by their childhood experiences in a white gated community, return to their family home after their parents' mysterious death. As they delve into their family's past, they uncover secrets and face supernatural terrors that mirror the real-world horrors they've experienced. I really enjoyed all the themes this one explored. Beyond the racism, generational trauma and queer experiences are strong components of the story. The characters were built well and I loved how the supernatural horror components resonated with the horrors of ordinary life. The build up was great, I just wasn’t a fan of how it all ended and got wrapped up too well. I enjoyed Gabby Beans’ narration of this one, the audio might feel a bit chaotic as timelines jump around but that’s the case for the physical too.
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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.

4 stars

I fangirl so hard when it comes to Rivers Solomon, and their work is on the no-brainer, will-read-immediately list for me at all times. Prospective readers who are also familiar with Solomon's work and style - and who know what they are getting into - are likely to love this. Others may find this shockingly dark (even for the genre).

Three siblings need to know why their parents aren't answering their calls, and this sends them all back to their childhood home for answers. There is so much sinister activity and uncertainty throughout, and the state of not being clear on what is or MAY be happening is extraordinarily unsettling here. What's worse than the unknown? The horrible known sicknesses embedded within society. Solomon shines a crisp light on many of these and will not let their characters or readers have a moment's peace from any of them. And why should they? This relentlessness is certainly a part of reality, especially for some of us.

There are many motifs, scenes, and references that sensitive readers may find to be too much, and the profusion of trauma will leave some readers accessing their own instead of living vicariously. Those looking for an immersive horror experience will find it here, and readers who can manage the content will find another creative, unflinching, and biting effort from Solomon.

*Added note: The audiobook narration is top-notch and absolutely added to my enjoyment of this disturbing but fantastic novel. I highly recommend this version when and where accessible.

A deeply sad and horrifying tale of what haunts a home. After news of both parents death, our main character Ezri returns to Texas with their sisters to find out what has happened. Ezri believes the death wasn't natural and that their childhood home may have something to do with it. Ezri and their siblings reckon with their traumatic past and the possible supernatural events that have plagued it.

This was my second Rivers Solomon book. I read and loved The Deep last year. Model Home is a completely different story but has similar themes of trauma. The Deep dealt with ancestral trauma and Model Home takes a narrower look at individual and familial trauma. The book takes on heavy topics of racism, abuse, violence, and suicide through a modern lens of race and gender. This is a horror book in the sense that horrific things are happening, but it's not a typical haunted house book, and I loved it for that.

I'd recommend this to people who enjoy horror and literary fiction. This was more of a "high-brow" horror read. This reminded me of Last House on Needless Street in the way it talks about trauma and horror. It's quite a heavy read, so I'd look up trigger warnings if you need them.

Also, I listened to the audiobook and LOVED the narrator. It's read by Tony award winning actress Gabby Beans. She does a phenomenal job.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Loved loved lovedddd this novel. First time reading a Rivers Solomon book & wont be my last! Beautifully written, eerie, poetic & unsettling! It’s a bit of a slow start but builds up into a beautiful piece of literature. The queer rep is also another plus! Model Home explores the supernatural, racism, & childhood trauma. What made this scary & horrific was the realness of it. The last few chapters plus made my jaw drop & I loved the ending. Model Home releases October 1st! Thank you NetGalley for this arc.