Book Review for Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

 PLAY NICE by Rachel Harrison  

Published: Berkley Hardcover Original; September 9, 2025;  

Genre: Occult & Supernatural; Horror 

 

The story: 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. 

 

My Thoughts:  I saw the genre of this book was horror.  That is so not my genre.  I usually avoid it at all costs but this book was calling to me.  I am so very glad that I read it.  I was intrigued, I was invested, and I could not put it down.  I would say this book is more thriller and paranormal mystery than horror.  Not to say that there isn’t a scary presence within the house, it is there and it is horrific.  

 

Play Nice is a twisty turny story with paranormal aspect.  There are many parts that I cringed at and was scared of what was going to happen next.  There is a haunted house and so much family drama.   

 

Thank you Berkley for a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.  

 

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Author Bio: Rachel Harrison is the national bestselling author of 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, in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut collection, Bad Dolls. She lives in western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.