I finished Rivers Solomon’s “Model Home” a couple of weeks ago and have struggled with what to say about it without giving too much away. So I’ll start with what someone else said about it:

“‘Model Home’ is a story of a haunted house and haunted people; profound family secrets lie at the heart of this book as well as, surprisingly, blessedly meaningful touches of love and hope.” – Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women

I had just bailed on a disappointing novel, so I was encouraged to read this recommendation. “Lone Women” is one of my favorite books from my past few years of reading and deserves consideration for your #TBR.

“Model Home” came to me through my library’s Lit Crate program, in which you say what you like and the librarians choose books for you. I expressed preference for horror and dystopia, and was happy to see from the dust cover that I likely was holding a horror novel:

“It wasn’t being the only Black kids in the neighborhood that pushed the children to flee, but rather the strange and inexplicable things that began to happen in the house as soon as they moved in. Was it some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper class? … Rivers Solomon has turned the haunted-house novel on its head.”

That the author does. I would have been thrilled to read a traditional rip-roaring haunted house story. This is not one. That’s fine, but it ends up far enough off that I wonder whether “haunted house” even belongs in the description.

At the point I expected to receive answers, they began unspooling, but there was a left turn involved. My first reaction was “Ugh, not this again,” expecting a cliché I had encountered in at least one other is-it-horror-or-something-else novel. I was invested in these “haunted people,” though, especially Ezri and Elijah, so I pushed through patiently and by the time everything was laid out, I wasn’t mad.

“Model Home” is an excellent novel with important things to say. I wasn’t looking for important messages, I was looking for spooky entertainment, so I had to recalibrate. That said, I’ll be telling the librarians that they should endeavor to get this book into more people’s hands.