#model home

Exterior design concept for a large, modern, one-story mixed siding house

If you can stomach some really upsetting content (racism and racist violence, child sexual abuse, child abuse, severe mental illness, suicide, ableism, animal abuse, etc) I would highly highly recommend reading it. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, the book tipped my understanding on its head. And every time something new and horrific happened, I could only think that I wasn't surprised, because all the foreshadowing clicked into place. Stellar, no notes.

It also, weirdly enough, works as a kind of nonbinary escapist fantasy. For me anyway. The main character knew they were nonbinary as a toddler, was accepted by their parents, and is never treated as anything other than nonbinary by their family. They are misgendered maybe three times total over the course of the book. Like, don't get me wrong, the main character's life is NOT a nice one in any sense of the word for 99% of the book, but that specific aspect was a bit of a fantasy for me specifically.

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!).

Image of a medium-sized, open-concept living room with a music area, gray walls, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace, and a wall-mounted television in a transitional style.

Inspiration for a large timeless look-out carpeted and beige floor basement remodel with white walls