The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. 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. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
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?
Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
This is going to be a hard review to write. Not only because MODEL HOME by Rivers Solomon deals with some profoundly upsetting things, but because I think this is a book that’s just generally hard to describe without revealing all of its secrets.
But I’ll try.
I’ve had a couple of Solomon’s books on my shelves for a while now, but this is the first of their’s that I’ve read. And I honestly couldn’t have been more amazed by MODEL HOME. This book was hard to put aside each night, for sure. It was also very hard to read at times, so I think I just want to put this out there right up front: the book deals with grooming & child sexual assault. There’s also some pet deaths that could be upsetting to read.
Our main character is Ezri Maxwell, and the story is told primarily through their point-of-view. They have two sisters, Eve & Emanuelle. The three Maxwell siblings grew up as the only Black family in an extremely affluent gated community outside of Dallas.
As adults, they’ve gone their separate ways to an extent. Ezri is across the pond, living in England with their daughter, Elijah. But at the start of the novel, Ezri begins receiving threatening texts from someone they think of as Nightmare Mother. Not their actual real mother, but something…other.
Something from their childhood. A woman without a face.
They all return to Texas after learning that their parents have both died tragically (and mysteriously), in the home that the siblings felt so desperate to escape. So they have to do all the routine/upsetting things that need to be done when loved ones die (funeral arrangements, etc), but there is so much trauma and uncertainty around their childhood that needs to be sorted out.
So, that’s kind of the book in a nutshell. But oof…this one is complex & heavy & gets incredibly disturbing. There are deep explorations of racism & queerness & transphobia & gender in this book. There’s also great representations of neurodivergence among the cast of characters, particularly with Ezri & Elijah.
This is a brutal story & the heaviness rarely lets up, to be honest. Sometimes it only seems to intensify. This isn’t a campy, fun haunted house novel, in other words. But it felt so timely & important to me.
It also really resonated with me on a personal level, as someone who has also lost both of their parents (though far less mysteriously). Watching Ezri and their sisters navigate this “new normal” without their parents was painful, but also beautiful in a way. There’s a lot of love between the siblings, even though things get heated at times & are far from perfect. I just really enjoyed some of the quieter moments between the individual characters, where you really feel all the years of love & support baked into their interactions.
This was an easy five star read for me, but I don’t think it will be for everyone. As I said, it deals in some extremely heavy subject matter, so I’d encourage anyone curious about this to check the content warnings on Storygraph before diving in.
This one has me already lining up my next Rivers Solomon book, for sure. MODEL HOME is a really unique take on a haunted house novel, and one that’ll stick with me for a long time.
Big thanks to MCD Books for sending this one my way!
Grimdark Dad 