Play Nice by Rachel Harrison Published by Penguin Audio on September 9, 2025
Source: Purchased
Genres: Horror
Length: 10 hrs 17 mins
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
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A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
I don’t read a lot of horror, and when I do, I tend to prefer the lighter side, and the horror aspect of Play Nice was fairly light. The family drama and unresolved childhood trauma were the heavier parts here. Clio is an influencer who seems to have the world at her feet. When she and her two sisters inherit their mother’s house after her death, Clio insists on taking on the rehab and selling of the property, a house their mother always insisted was demon-possessed, thinking it will make great content.
Clio is a difficult person to like. She is deeply affected by her past, no matter how much she believes she’s past it. She’s self-centered, stubborn, a bit chaotic, probably an alcoholic, but her character makes sense, given the family dynamics and I found myself rooting for her. Yes, I wanted her to make different choices, but that’s part of the horror genre, isn’t it? The relationships between her and her sisters felt real and complicated, with secrets and jealousies and loyalty.
As Clio digs deeper into the house’s mysteries, she also has to confront her family’s past and her own place in that history. It’s well written, with just enough paranormal suspense to be eerie, but not keep me up at night. And I adored Clio’s love interest.
About Rachel Harrison
Rachel Harrison is the New York Times Bestselling author of PLAY NICE, SO THIRSTY, BLACK SHEEP, SUCH SHARP TEETH, CACKLE, and THE RETURN, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I don’t read horror (I feel we are living it) but this sounds very suitable for Halloween!
Totally understand that.
Some of my favorite horror novels have very unlikeable characters. There is something about the genre that still works with not a single character I would want to hang out with