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Reviews tagging 'Death'

Model Home by Rivers Solomon

49 reviews

kevinjwangler's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

3.5-4 stars until the ending elevated it to a 4.5. This could be a book the sticks with me king after I've physically moved on.
Comparing it to the movie "Mysterious Skin" is, I think, an apt comparison.
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shanaelyse's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was a lot.

And I mean that in both good and bad ways.

There is some absolutely stunning writing that is done in Model Home and that's the greatest part this journey honestly. Rivers Soloman truly is a master of words and it's highlighted throughout this entire story. Although the writing is spectacular some of the formatting isn't something I particularly enjoyed, specifically when reading through flashback scenes. The only way for me to pick up that it was something that was happening in the past or even "off-stage" were the lack of quotation marks around dialogue. 

Many of the subjects that are in this book are very heavy, and I highly encourage everyone that picks this up to check them out before diving in.

I do love a twist on the haunted house idea and this is exactly that. I found that where I thought this novel would go is completely opposite of what I had initially thought. And the way that I felt about that was 50/50.
I'm a lover of horror and I understand that the genre of horror doesn't always have to be supernatural elements. And in a lot of instances, I don't mind it when the big twist is "hey it's not haunted it's actually this".  But for some reason Model Home falls into the category of times when I don't enjoy it not being supernatural elements.


There is a lot of representation that goes on. Ezri is a wonderful main character whose flaws are a crucial point of the storytelling as well as the flaws of their siblings. However, with the flaws of the main character being a huge plot point, I feel like the ending, and the twist that comes with it to tie everything up in a little bow, end up falling flat. We're left with an unsatisfying conclusion that to me doesn't make sense.
Allowing Lilly to walk free because of "what she could do to those in jail" is honestly asinine to me. And Ezri, as a parent who's literally had their entire life shaped by a predatory woman, should have been the one to make the decision. Allowing a woman to walk free who is in the process of grooming my child only to allow her to go on to groom others seems insane to me.


All in all, this was a good read that sat with me for a while after I finished. There is great commentary in here about racism and incredible representation of how to parent non-binary/genderfluid individuals in here as well as neurodivergent representation. However, I find there are just so many moving parts within the novel that it begins to get clunky and a bit of a trudge. 
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flyle's review against another edition

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Written in a weird flowery unnatural way. Also MC kills a dog to write a poem in its blood around page 50. Seems to be for shock value. Nothing worth continuing reading for. Didn’t find it interesting or enjoyable enough to get past that.
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l_h's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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cjrmusic's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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eeefann125's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Something I never expected.  Soo slow and eerie.  It’s just wow twist and turns that jerked me around then the final twist took me out. 
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ehmannky's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A beautifully written and heartbreaking haunted house story. We follow the Maxwell siblings, three Black siblings who grew up in a racist and oppressive gated lily-white community, as they deal with the aftermath of their parents' apparent murder-suicide. Through the book you learn about the horror of their childhood, and the way their mother's drive for protection and distant love compounded their inability to find safety in suburbia. As always, I love Rivers Solomon's prose, and it lends itself really well to creating a really oppressive and haunting narrative. The themes of the ways that continued abuse haunts you throughout your life were really well done and the commentary on classism, racism, queerphobia are searing.  

The only thing that really knocked my rating of this down is that my preference in horror
is that the supernatural is real. I think the reveal that all of the hauntings were the work of the Maxwell's racist neighbors and the narrator's unresolved trauma from a lifetime of childhood rape worked really well for the story they told, but I like it when the supernatural is real.
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bibliodyke's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Their prose, characters, plot, nuance, details...all fucking brilliant. I stayed up all night reading this book. I needed it. It destroyed me and I've never been more grateful to be destroyed by a book. Thank you Rivers Solomon.
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brunonadamas's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense

5.0

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greavuem's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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