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.