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a few hours after midnight on January 1st I had the offhanded thought "huh, I'd like to read more..." so basically this is me trying to encourage that habit. I've just finished my first book of the new year!
Ezri, who hasn't spoken to their mother in years, is called back home to their parents' idyllic suburban Dallas mansion following a series of concerning texts. Throughout the course of the book they, and their two sisters Eve and Emanuelle, will have to confront the traumatic memories of their childhood in a house that they have all determined to be terribly haunted - though the reality of what happened at 677 Acacia Drive is a bit more complicated than that.
I was gripped from the start, both because it's haunted house related AND set in Dallas, Texas. growing up in that area, I had a strange familiarity with the events of the book in a way that made it so much more immersive. I could see the interior of the airport the characters stood in, I knew the look of the streets they drove down, the heat of the summer sun. I was also deeply compelled by the exploration of Black identities in the racist infrastructures of American suburbia. The book doesn't shy away from the constant low-level (and sometimes straight up blatant and high-level) stream of discrimination and exclusion that Black people face to this day in predominantly white spaces.
Okay, some spoilers ahead, time for my detailed review!!
Model Home was incredible! it took me only a couple days to read, as I basically couldn't put it down as soon as I picked it up. I found myself at multiple points saying "I'll just read a little bit before bed," and then suddenly it was 2am and I kept going "just one more chapter..." over and over again.
the writing felt very approachable to me. not sure if this is just because I've been reading lots of "dense" things at the moment (thank you, Aperture Record, for getting me back into reading academic stuff), but I definitely breezed through it faster than expected. I also just loved the repeated themes and poetic descriptions of things throughout the book. my highlighter definitely got plenty of work!
from the start, Ezri's relationship with their mother is set up as the focal point of the book, literally starting with "Maybe my mother is God, and that's why nothing I do pleases her." As we progress through the plot and uncover more and more of their upbringing, there's a strengthening of both the spiritual themes and the more matter-of-fact ones, leaning into the hyperreality the characters are facing and the real growth they face through years of therapy and maturing.
"How cruel that our parents, unexorcisable, go on inside of us. How cruel that we cannot disimbricate their ghosts from our being."
as someone who is uncovering a... less straightforward relationship with my parents than I thought I had before, it was very painful but also very comforting to feel the siblings navigate the wounds in themselves, often messy and imperfect, but trying nonetheless. their mother looms over them still, even after her and their father's death, the father in this instance having been so absent in their lives as to only have a single chapter dedicated to him, speaking glibly about the near-complete lack of presence in their lives. each of them is still filled with love for their parents, and many happy memories, but the weight of the hurt cannot be overshadowed by pleasant memories alone.
"I could never know how Mama was going to react to anything, though. I hated tossing the coin. I preferred to keep secrets. If I didn't show her who I was, she couldn't disapprove."
^ THAT part specifically resonated with me like crazy. Ezri, on top of dealing with the perceived "haunting" of 677, also dealt with being the odd sibling out, the queer, autistic, OSDD OCD ADHD riddled sibling, the "difficult" one. they spend the whole book grappling with their overlapping identities, dissociating at times, trying to avoid the pain at the core of their being from growing up "different." the way the book explains dissociative identities and different personalities fronting is, from my admittedly limited experience, done in a respectful and beautiful manner, poetic in the way it's described. it's so refreshing to see a book casually use neopronouns for characters without even blinking, to have the protagonist be a "girlboy" as they call themselves without anyone in their support group caring about it, to have their identity repeatedly defended from outside misgendering. the very end is also a beautiful summary of a family coming together and healing through the lens of a character describing it in a therapy session, which I loved.
the big twist towards the end is... somewhat strangely paced. the characters learn that it was never a haunting at all, that all their neighbors (spearheaded by one specific character named Laurie, who also sexually assaulted Ezri as a child) banded together to manipulate the residents of 677 through horrifying long-term psychological terror in ways more cruel and devastating than you'd think anyone could fathom. I definitely think the book would have benefited from lingering on this revelation a bit longer, expounding on the characters processing it and sitting in the horrifying reality for more than just a few pages... but I think an argument could also be made that it mirrors the dissatisfaction of reality - shocking things aren't always thematically satisfying, sometimes they just happen and you're left in the aftermath without any form of satisfaction or resolution, and must process it on your own times.
"Mother is God, and Mother is just a woman."
overall, I enjoyed my time with Model Home, and could easily see myself rereading this to catch extra details and beautiful passages I missed the first time around. I, ever the collector, love to highlight random quotes from books I find particularly striking, and this one certainly added to that collection quite a lot.
I don't know yet if I want to add some sort of rating system to these book reviews yet... for now I'll just say that this one's a 4/5 stars
Ezri, who hasn't spoken to their mother in years, is called back home to their parents' idyllic suburban Dallas mansion following a series of concerning texts. Throughout the course of the book they, and their two sisters Eve and Emanuelle, will have to confront the traumatic memories of their childhood in a house that they have all determined to be terribly haunted - though the reality of what happened at 677 Acacia Drive is a bit more complicated than that.
I was gripped from the start, both because it's haunted house related AND set in Dallas, Texas. growing up in that area, I had a strange familiarity with the events of the book in a way that made it so much more immersive. I could see the interior of the airport the characters stood in, I knew the look of the streets they drove down, the heat of the summer sun. I was also deeply compelled by the exploration of Black identities in the racist infrastructures of American suburbia. The book doesn't shy away from the constant low-level (and sometimes straight up blatant and high-level) stream of discrimination and exclusion that Black people face to this day in predominantly white spaces.
Okay, some spoilers ahead, time for my detailed review!!
Model Home was incredible! it took me only a couple days to read, as I basically couldn't put it down as soon as I picked it up. I found myself at multiple points saying "I'll just read a little bit before bed," and then suddenly it was 2am and I kept going "just one more chapter..." over and over again.
the writing felt very approachable to me. not sure if this is just because I've been reading lots of "dense" things at the moment (thank you, Aperture Record, for getting me back into reading academic stuff), but I definitely breezed through it faster than expected. I also just loved the repeated themes and poetic descriptions of things throughout the book. my highlighter definitely got plenty of work!
from the start, Ezri's relationship with their mother is set up as the focal point of the book, literally starting with "Maybe my mother is God, and that's why nothing I do pleases her." As we progress through the plot and uncover more and more of their upbringing, there's a strengthening of both the spiritual themes and the more matter-of-fact ones, leaning into the hyperreality the characters are facing and the real growth they face through years of therapy and maturing.
"How cruel that our parents, unexorcisable, go on inside of us. How cruel that we cannot disimbricate their ghosts from our being."
as someone who is uncovering a... less straightforward relationship with my parents than I thought I had before, it was very painful but also very comforting to feel the siblings navigate the wounds in themselves, often messy and imperfect, but trying nonetheless. their mother looms over them still, even after her and their father's death, the father in this instance having been so absent in their lives as to only have a single chapter dedicated to him, speaking glibly about the near-complete lack of presence in their lives. each of them is still filled with love for their parents, and many happy memories, but the weight of the hurt cannot be overshadowed by pleasant memories alone.
"I could never know how Mama was going to react to anything, though. I hated tossing the coin. I preferred to keep secrets. If I didn't show her who I was, she couldn't disapprove."
^ THAT part specifically resonated with me like crazy. Ezri, on top of dealing with the perceived "haunting" of 677, also dealt with being the odd sibling out, the queer, autistic, OSDD OCD ADHD riddled sibling, the "difficult" one. they spend the whole book grappling with their overlapping identities, dissociating at times, trying to avoid the pain at the core of their being from growing up "different." the way the book explains dissociative identities and different personalities fronting is, from my admittedly limited experience, done in a respectful and beautiful manner, poetic in the way it's described. it's so refreshing to see a book casually use neopronouns for characters without even blinking, to have the protagonist be a "girlboy" as they call themselves without anyone in their support group caring about it, to have their identity repeatedly defended from outside misgendering. the very end is also a beautiful summary of a family coming together and healing through the lens of a character describing it in a therapy session, which I loved.
the big twist towards the end is... somewhat strangely paced. the characters learn that it was never a haunting at all, that all their neighbors (spearheaded by one specific character named Laurie, who also sexually assaulted Ezri as a child) banded together to manipulate the residents of 677 through horrifying long-term psychological terror in ways more cruel and devastating than you'd think anyone could fathom. I definitely think the book would have benefited from lingering on this revelation a bit longer, expounding on the characters processing it and sitting in the horrifying reality for more than just a few pages... but I think an argument could also be made that it mirrors the dissatisfaction of reality - shocking things aren't always thematically satisfying, sometimes they just happen and you're left in the aftermath without any form of satisfaction or resolution, and must process it on your own times.
"Mother is God, and Mother is just a woman."
overall, I enjoyed my time with Model Home, and could easily see myself rereading this to catch extra details and beautiful passages I missed the first time around. I, ever the collector, love to highlight random quotes from books I find particularly striking, and this one certainly added to that collection quite a lot.
I don't know yet if I want to add some sort of rating system to these book reviews yet... for now I'll just say that this one's a 4/5 stars
