I've heard great things about this writer so I was excited to finally try a novel, and the writing really is dark, engaging, and beautiful. The main character engages in uncomfortable acts, clearly related to ongoing trauma, while returning home after the family's parents are found dead.
This book did such a great job building up this tense atmosphere, but then, at least for me, didn't deliver. Still, the writing is amazing so this won't be my last Solomon. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

With books this good, it’s hard to write a review that you feel will do it justice. So first off: read this book. It’s great.

After receiving a text from a creature known only as ‘Nightmare Mother’, Ezri returns to their parents’ home in a wealthy, predominantly white neighbourhood in Dallas, a home from which they had fled along with their two younger sisters as an adolescent. Despite the disturbing, supernatural happenings and trauma inflicted on their children in, or by, the house, Ezri’s parents had chosen to stay, becoming mostly estranged from all three children. Ezri arrives to find her parents dead in their home under mysterious circumstances. As Ezri and their sisters deal with the aftermath of their parents’ deaths, the story unfolds into a deeply suspenseful, unnerving twist on a haunted house horror. How can an investigation into their parents’ deaths be conducted when the killer may be the house itself? Who would believe such a thing?

While weaving together a terrifying horror story, Solomon also writes beautifully of trauma, survival, and the nature of the self - how we are formed by the stories others tell us and the ones we tell ourselves. Their writing is nimble, leaping between moments of surreal terror and domestic relations deftly; I felt a simultaneous trust in their storytelling ability and a constant discomfort of not knowing where it would take me next. This is easily one of the best books I have read this year.

Thank you to net gallery for this arc copy.
This book did end up taking me way longer to read than usual as I thought it was a horror book and I was so wrong on that. I found this book so hard to get into and I struggled to read it at times. The three main characters are traumatised by events leading up to the deaths of their parents and I found any book with the death of a mother involved very hard to read due to personal reasons so this was such a hard read for me at times. It certainly is a very difficult read but I will say it is so well written though. This is a different take on horror - visceral and emotional
The writing is beautiful and emotionally charged even in the darker parts of the book I will say. Please please be aware that this is a such a harrowing read and that it will definitely haunt you so best not to read at night time. I was very intrigued by this book and it’s story but it just wasn’t for me sadly and I wouldn’t read from this author again either sadly as I don’t think there the right author for me with what books they write. Such a shame this book wasn’t the for me in the end. Xxx

I found this hard to get into initially but when I did it was a dark and engrossing book with themes of intergenerational trauma, race and gender.

Ezri, Emmanuelle and Eve, are traumatised by events leading up to the deaths of their parents in an exclusive enclave. It's a take on the haunted house novel but one which has a 21st century twist.

I liked the fragmented style of the writing. Unusual and strange book that was well executed

Definitely a difficult read but excellently written. This is a different take on horror - visceral and emotional
The writing is beautiful and emotionally charged even in the darker parts of the book. The characterisation was excellently done with themes of gender dysphoria, race, and inter generational abuse.
A haunted house of family secrets and the way that abuse/trauma stays with someone, an excellent and harrowing read.

It’s fitting that the characters of Model Home should talk about The Bluest Eye, as the hollow feeling this book left me with is only comparable to my experience with that book. A harrowing look at intergenerational abuse and how the damage can haunt you and colour your experiences for a lifetime. This is a difficult and visceral read.

When their parents bodies are found, three siblings must reckon with the nightmarish past that brought them here. Model Home is the perfect example of horror with an emotional core for fans of The Book of Accidents and How To Sell A Haunted House.

A difficult read, but one with a lot of depth and poignance. At its heart, Model Home is a meditation on race relations and gender identity, centred around Number 677, the Texas home in which three siblings grow up. This is a house that has a terrifying legacy for Ezri, Emmanuelle and Eve, and cements trauma in them that is to last a lifetime, up until the deaths of their parents in the very same home. Solomon is able to challenge the cliches of the haunted house novel in intriguing ways, exploring how, sometimes, the threats and fears we face in reality are often more damaging than the supernatural could ever be. But though they ask some incredibly important questions about our current society, its dark undercurrents, their narrative was so often fragmented. This works on so many levels, but the story ended up suffering as a result. A fascinating project, but one with clear shortcomings.

Took me longer than usual to read this, which speaks to how well Rivers Solomon creates an ambient vibe of tension and worry, and (yes) horror.

There were times I had to put the book down, and times when I decided against picking it up again that evening because that would mean tiptoeing back into that atmosphere and I did. not. want. to. Especially not before going to sleep because who knows what my subconscious would do with it.

I am a horror fiend, I love scary books and scary movies and am rarely ever scared by them. This, though, is the type of horror that does get to me. The kind that burrows under my skin and scrambles my synapses so that I feel like an exposed nerve the book keeps poking at. Even having a good idea of where the story may have been headed did nothing to at all to protect me from the telling of it.

This is a scary book for a multitude of reasons, some of which would be spoilers, but some of which - Solomon's ability to conjure and maintain an atmosphere, the effectiveness of their characterizations, the sheer beauty of their language even when it's used to speak of horrors - are no spoilers at all.

They are reasons why you might want to read this book.

But please be aware that this is a genuinely harrowing read that will (I'll say it) haunt you past the final page.

My thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone and Net Galley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘Model Home’ by Rivers Solomon is a novel we didn’t know we needed. There was an obvious gap in the market, and they have filled that gap with this grappling story that makes you question everything from the beginning. Solomon offers a hauntingly ideology of what contemporary American life could be like for Black people; it comes across as somewhat far-fetched, but at the moment how far-fetched could it be?
The exploration of three siblings and what happened in their past when they lived as a somewhat happy family at number 677. Growing up in Dalton, Texas with two sisters – Eve and Emmanual – Ezri weaves a narrative of someone who struggles with gender identity, racism and deeper problems that relate a lot closely to the ending of the story, allowing the reader to go through the story at the same time as Ezri is – as if real-life events are being written as we are reading the book.

When their parents are found dead in the house, Ezri, Eve and Emmanuel must face their questionable past of trauma, denial and terror they witnessed and the haunting by the woman with no face.

Solomons’ words will make you feel consumed in the words, and although it’s a slow-release book, you will get through the pages so fast due to the feelings you endure with the characters. The idea of being suffocated and almost possessed with emotions and information in regards to Ezri and their family. Intergenerational trauma is prominent with themes of racism, white supremacy and throughout there are darker themes of sexual assault and grooming.

Looking back at the story now I have finished reading it, it becomes so obvious how the story ended and how it all unravelled, but part of you did want the supernatural occurrences to be more involved with the outcome. Solomon challenges the stereotypical haunted house aspect, where it turns out, that the scariest things people can be confronted with are more realistic issues such as the complex trauma that Ezri had to endure as a child.

The whole storyline is to face the ghosts of your past and deal with the trauma you were dealt with otherwise it will escalate and it will haunt you. Healing in the book is shown as the hardest thing the siblings have to deal with, their existence somewhat relying on them focusing on themselves and coming together as a family rather than pushing away and falling into the darkness. Ezri shows this a lot throughout the book, spiralling into the depths of an embrace of Nightmare Mother.
I would have given this novel five stars, but the only issue I had with it was that the ending felt somewhat rushed after everything that happened. I feel that Laurie needed the punishment she deserved and the family needed that closure of justice. But I suppose letting a white person go after tormenting a black family to the point of suicide is more realistic in today’s society, unfortunately.

I loved River Solomons ‘An Unkindness of Ghosts’ due to the way it was written, and again they have managed that flow of lyrical literacy in a way that not many other writers can. The narrative is always raw, and truthful and pushes the boundaries of modern fiction to the point it doesn’t feel like fiction anymore. The energy of the narrative and the resilience of the characters balance each other out to give us this powerful novel that will be read for years to come.

"Model Home" is a compelling novel that delves into the lives of three siblings who grew up in a seemingly perfect gated home in Texas. Ezri, along with their sisters Eve and Emmanuel, spent their childhood in a large home in a predominantly White community.The siblings are compelled to faceof their past and the bitterness they hold towards their childhood home and parents for confining them there after their parents are discovered deceased in the residence. The novel delves into the idea that the real origins of our haunting experiences are not always what we first believe them to be. The book "Is no easy" , but I found it interesting because of the way the characters are developed. I also found the hypersexuality of some of the characters not so nice but is part of the complexity of their trauma and their personalities as characters. I found the book to be quite intriguing. Initially, I thought it would be more of a horror story, but it turned out to be a solid and enjoyable read.

Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle grew up in a haunted house that left physical and emotional scars on them, shaping their childhoods to be one of fear and unexplainable events. Fearing for the safety of their estranged parents after so many years, Ezri returns to a horrifying scene.

This book focuses heavily on grief, complex family dynamics, racism, and trauma, with prose that is fluid and stunning, not a single word wasted. The story itself is dark and heavy, and untangles satisfyingly as it reaches its conclusion. I will definitely read more from Rivers Solomon in the future if this is anything to go by – a suffocating, uneasy exploration that felt like it could go anywhere.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

It’s quite hard to categorise this book, but there is a lot going on in every facet explored in terms of personal identity, familial relationships, and hauntings and what a haunting is. There is a lot of nuance that lends itself to critical theory, philosophy, and social justice throughout the book which is critical but at times I found quite overwhelming as this was a subtext to the ongoing plot.

At the beginning of the book I was slightly uncomfortable with the hypersexuality of the main character after they disclose their diagnoses, primarily that of borderline personality disorder as a person with that diagnosis, hyper sexuality and hyposexuality isn’t dealt with in nuance. This later is built upon but might be a difficulty in other readers with lived experience, although like mentioned the text does build nuance and context to these moments.

If you’re looking to read a typical horror haunted house tale, this isn’t it. But if you’re wanting to look at the domesticity of horror, racial, sexual, and disability social issues this is insightful and quite devastating.

“It doesn’t feel right to say 677 is haunted - I can’t bring myself to believe in such things, to forgo all reason- but yes, of course, it’s violent.”

677 Acacia Drive is the childhood home of Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle. There, they grew up together in constant fear, tortured by the cruel, unexplainable events of the house; blood pooling up in the sink drain, the sudden death of animals, freak accidents, constant headaches, and the woman with no face who lived in the attic. They have evaded the house for years, but as adults, concerns about their parents’ safety have led them back home. They must finally face up to their past, confront their demons, and ask themselves what really happened in 677…

From its very first pages, I loved this book. It is deep, dark, spooky and emotive with a gripping narrative. Rivers Solomon explores complex themes such as gender dysphoria, mental illness, and childhood trauma with engaging, creative storytelling and beautiful writing. A favourite quote was “I am forced again into that suspended place, where I am always dying, but never yet gone.” I felt completely immersed in this novel, and was sad to find myself on its final pages.

Though not a horror novel, this book has a spooky feel throughout which I really enjoyed - I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a dark read.

Model Home is a novel about three siblings and what happened in their seemingly ideal gated home. Ezri grew up in Texas with their two sisters, Eve and Emmanuel, in a McMansion their parents were proud to own, even in such a White community. When their parents are found dead in the house, Ezri and their sisters must face the haunted childhoods they spent there, and their blame on the house and their parents for keeping them there, because sometimes the what haunts us isn't always what we think.

I was excited to read a new book by Rivers Solomon and this one didn't disappoint, combining a complex family relationship and a classic haunted house premise with ideas of memory, justice, and recovery. The chapters are mostly told from Ezri's perspective, with some from others' points of view, and it works well to make it hard to work out exactly what people know and what memories might mean. The plot is quite like a horror story, and is split between the past and the present to explore what it was like for the siblings to live in the house as well as the present events, but the book also plays with these ideas of haunting, and what kinds of harms might be out there.

The characters are rich and well-realised, even shown through mostly Ezri's perspective, and I like how details about them are slowly revealed rather than told to us straightaway. There's also a lot of character detail that feels very real, like diabetic characters taking insulin and checking their blood sugar, and characters are allowed to be messy, complicated people without it needing to have a plot reason. I liked the relationship between Ezri and their daughter, and the complexity of not always being able to be the parent a child might need, and also how various parent-child relationships in the book showed how these can change over generations and there can be new models of parenting. Model Home is very much about family relationships and the ways that these can haunt, as well as how choices made by family impact each other.

There's plenty more packed into the book as well, as it plays with expectations about what kind of story it is, and it defies easy categorisation, but is just a book that explores memory, haunting, family, race, and belonging whilst having a gripping plot about a house that reminds the siblings of a terrible past.

Model Home follows Ezri, Eve and Emmanuel as their parents are found dead at their estate. Their parent’s home has haunted Ezri and her siblings and they have to confront the reasons they left especially when they were the only black family in the neighbourhood.

This was just okay but it wasn’t nearly as good as Sorrowland. The writing just wasn’t great, it was very matter of fact and just wasn’t for me. I was intrigued by this story but it just wasn’t what I was expecting and I can’t say I really enjoyed this book.