Books and Ghosts

Books of 2026: MODEL HOME by Rivers Solomon.

Rivers Solomon does unilaterally excellent work that I feel like I can never recommend, because it's all So Heavy and So Trauma Filled but done So Extraordinarily Well.

MODEL HOME is no exception! I annihilated this in two sittings, because it's a shortish book, and the largely stream of consciousness voice was so compelling, and the dread got me. It's about the adult Maxwell siblings, who grew up as the only Black family in an all-white gated enclave near Dallas, in a horrible house that may or may not be haunted--unexplainable terrifying phenomena abound. The siblings manage to escape, but their parents decide to stay, and many years later the parents' death brings the kids back to sort out what happened, both within the past couple weeks and all across their childhood.

The main narrator, Ezri, has an amazing amount of gender fuckery going on, which I adored. They were also enormously traumatized and Very Neurodivergent, which is one of my favorite parts about Solomon's writing--the perspectives they write are always so raw and unflinching and handled with such care. I was pleased with the dipping into alternative perspectives in a couple patches, too, unsignposted. The voices and points of view served the story beautifully, and were a little disorienting (hence: serving beautifully!).

1. Oh he has all the powers, wow

2. I mean yeah, if i had all those powers i would be doing the same thing, and im clearly the worst most selfish least disciplined person in the world so like, obviously someone like Kal-El would use his powers to help

2.5 clearly this is an expression of his grief and atonement at not being able to save his planet

3. It is weird that he chose Earth to help, i wonder how he picked a refugee planet is it based on looks? How similar our physiology is?

4. Would it be akward to ask if he has anatomical diagrams i want to know if his heart is near his liver

5. Spock <3

6. All those powers and fighting people with mind control abilities i should figure out how to stop him in emergencies it must be stressful for him

i feel like i don’t post enough/any of my mel doods so here’s some of my recent faves