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Play Nice
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Horror (2025)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 novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous 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.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous 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.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 9, 2025
2426 people are currently reading
107543 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Harrison
11 books5,879 followersRachel Harrison is the author of The Return, nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica and Electric Lit. She lives in New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 7,193 reviews
October 26, 2025
4.5* I truly don’t think Rachel Harrison can write a bad book.
September 18, 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Is this how good all of Rachel’s books are? Because what the heck have I been doing not obsessing over reading every book she’s ever written? This book was straight up brilliant.
I can see how Clio won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. She is incredibly stubborn, reckless unpredictable and chaotic, but I think that’s exactly what I love so much about her. She stands out to me as being such a unique protagonist that I somehow rooted wholeheartedly for while simultaneously being mad at almost everything she does. I bet her presence alone will turn off a certain percentage of people, but for those who feel about her like I do, this book I will be one of the best ones you’ll read this year.
The thematic resonance of how unique each of our inner demon’s fingerprints are is profound. I love the push towards confronting the messiness of truth, even if it means upending previously held images of those we love. I mean, how can we really say we love someone if we don’t love their flaws and trauma-inflicted souls? Don’t evade messiness to sustain peace. I know I’ve been guilty of this, and it’s a hard lesson to learn.
I won’t forget this book for a long, long time. Oh, did I mention it’s also terrifying? It contains some of the most subtly haunting moments of any book I’ve read. That demon really got under my skin.
Is this how good all of Rachel’s books are? Because what the heck have I been doing not obsessing over reading every book she’s ever written? This book was straight up brilliant.
I can see how Clio won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. She is incredibly stubborn, reckless unpredictable and chaotic, but I think that’s exactly what I love so much about her. She stands out to me as being such a unique protagonist that I somehow rooted wholeheartedly for while simultaneously being mad at almost everything she does. I bet her presence alone will turn off a certain percentage of people, but for those who feel about her like I do, this book I will be one of the best ones you’ll read this year.
The thematic resonance of how unique each of our inner demon’s fingerprints are is profound. I love the push towards confronting the messiness of truth, even if it means upending previously held images of those we love. I mean, how can we really say we love someone if we don’t love their flaws and trauma-inflicted souls? Don’t evade messiness to sustain peace. I know I’ve been guilty of this, and it’s a hard lesson to learn.
I won’t forget this book for a long, long time. Oh, did I mention it’s also terrifying? It contains some of the most subtly haunting moments of any book I’ve read. That demon really got under my skin.
December 8, 2025
I think Playing Nice absolutely earns a place on the throne as my favorite Rachel Harrison book to date! Maybe it’s my lifelong obsession with haunted house stories, demons, and all things paranormal—an obsession probably sparked (or scarred) by The Exorcist ruining my childhood in the best possible way. Or maybe it’s my soft spot for dark, dysfunctional family dramas, where the real horrors lie in the emotional wounds, bottled resentments, and the silence that festers between relatives over time. Either way, this book checked every box for me.
At 25, Clio (Cici) Louise Barnes is living a carefree, self-indulgent life in New York as a fashion influencer, funded generously by her father's wealth. But her carefully curated world gets turned upside down when she learns that her estranged mother, Alex—a woman long believed to be mentally unstable—has died of a heart attack in their childhood home. This isn’t just any home, though. It’s the infamous “haunted house” their mother always insisted was possessed by a demon targeting her and her daughters.
Clio returns to her small hometown for the funeral, only to find herself pulled back into a past filled with unresolved trauma and painful family history. Her two older sisters, Leda and Dafty, still hold deep resentment toward their mother, recalling her alcoholism, erratic behavior, and one particularly terrifying incident where she chased a young Clio with a knife—an event eerily reminiscent of The Shining. After losing custody of her children, Alex spiraled further, aligning herself with a cultish demonologist named Roy and publishing a tell-all memoir about the haunted house that all three daughters swore they’d never read.
Despite the sisters’ vow to stay far away from their mother’s delusions, Clio is intrigued when she learns the house has been left to them. Sensing an opportunity, she decides to renovate it and document the process for her social media followers—maybe even flip it for a profit. But as she settles into the house, strange things begin to happen. She discovers marked-up versions of her mother’s book with notes eerily specific to Clio’s past. Smiley faces begin appearing in unsettling places—on walls, in notes left behind—and a creeping suspicion takes root: what if her mother wasn’t delusional after all? What if the true story was buried beneath her father’s carefully curated version of events?
As Clio digs deeper into the mysteries of the house and her own past, she begins to question her sanity. The lines between reality and the supernatural blur, and she realizes that in order to confront whatever entity may be haunting the house, she must first face the demons she’s been avoiding all her life.
I was especially blown away by the final act—it’s packed with psychological tension and full-on horror that had me literally flinching from the page. The relationship dynamics between the sisters felt painfully real, layered with old wounds, jealousy, and unspoken loyalty. Clio is a complicated protagonist—often unlikable but completely compelling—and her emotional unraveling was written with such nuance. Dafty plays the diplomatic middle child, while Leda is the sharp-edged, brittle eldest who pulls no punches. And can we take a moment to appreciate Austin? The cinnamon-roll side character you just want to hug for putting up with this chaotic trio!
This book was a wild, twisty, emotionally gutting ride, and I devoured it in one sitting. It’s eerie, emotionally charged, and beautifully written—a perfect blend of paranormal suspense and psychological drama.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the digital reviewer copy of this brilliant thriller in exchange for my honest thoughts!
If you love haunted house mysteries, family trauma, and slow-burning dread that explodes into jaw-dropping horror, Playing Nice needs to be at the top of your TBR.
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At 25, Clio (Cici) Louise Barnes is living a carefree, self-indulgent life in New York as a fashion influencer, funded generously by her father's wealth. But her carefully curated world gets turned upside down when she learns that her estranged mother, Alex—a woman long believed to be mentally unstable—has died of a heart attack in their childhood home. This isn’t just any home, though. It’s the infamous “haunted house” their mother always insisted was possessed by a demon targeting her and her daughters.
Clio returns to her small hometown for the funeral, only to find herself pulled back into a past filled with unresolved trauma and painful family history. Her two older sisters, Leda and Dafty, still hold deep resentment toward their mother, recalling her alcoholism, erratic behavior, and one particularly terrifying incident where she chased a young Clio with a knife—an event eerily reminiscent of The Shining. After losing custody of her children, Alex spiraled further, aligning herself with a cultish demonologist named Roy and publishing a tell-all memoir about the haunted house that all three daughters swore they’d never read.
Despite the sisters’ vow to stay far away from their mother’s delusions, Clio is intrigued when she learns the house has been left to them. Sensing an opportunity, she decides to renovate it and document the process for her social media followers—maybe even flip it for a profit. But as she settles into the house, strange things begin to happen. She discovers marked-up versions of her mother’s book with notes eerily specific to Clio’s past. Smiley faces begin appearing in unsettling places—on walls, in notes left behind—and a creeping suspicion takes root: what if her mother wasn’t delusional after all? What if the true story was buried beneath her father’s carefully curated version of events?
As Clio digs deeper into the mysteries of the house and her own past, she begins to question her sanity. The lines between reality and the supernatural blur, and she realizes that in order to confront whatever entity may be haunting the house, she must first face the demons she’s been avoiding all her life.
I was especially blown away by the final act—it’s packed with psychological tension and full-on horror that had me literally flinching from the page. The relationship dynamics between the sisters felt painfully real, layered with old wounds, jealousy, and unspoken loyalty. Clio is a complicated protagonist—often unlikable but completely compelling—and her emotional unraveling was written with such nuance. Dafty plays the diplomatic middle child, while Leda is the sharp-edged, brittle eldest who pulls no punches. And can we take a moment to appreciate Austin? The cinnamon-roll side character you just want to hug for putting up with this chaotic trio!
This book was a wild, twisty, emotionally gutting ride, and I devoured it in one sitting. It’s eerie, emotionally charged, and beautifully written—a perfect blend of paranormal suspense and psychological drama.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the digital reviewer copy of this brilliant thriller in exchange for my honest thoughts!
If you love haunted house mysteries, family trauma, and slow-burning dread that explodes into jaw-dropping horror, Playing Nice needs to be at the top of your TBR.
medium.com
June 16, 2025
Play Nice is half haunted house story, half dysfunctional family drama, and it's really a lot of fun. I mean, sure, the characters are almost all insufferable and Clio desperately needs some therapy and the Barnes family demon is hands-down the least threatening demon in literary history (well, other than that bit at the end), but overall it makes for one entertaining train wreck of a novel.
But, jeez, Clio is such an annoying person, you guys. She's manipulative and whiny and kind of an alcoholic, and if anyone needs a good demon haunting to straighten them out, it's her. She's also rather nonchalant about hanging out in a demon house. Sure, she says she's scared of the demon, but does that stop her from repeatedly going back to the bi-level from hell? No, no it doesn't. Of course, the demon mostly communicates through smiley faces and book annotation, so to be fair I suppose she's not exactly in mortal danger or anything.
And speaking of the demon, I'm pretty sure there's some symbolism to be found there. I'm guessing he represents childhood trauma or something? I dunno. Perhaps he's just a demon and I'm overthinking things. Honestly, my alma mater should probably just go ahead and revoke my English literature degree because I obviously learned nothing.
Anyway, the Barnes family might be dysfunctional, but they're an entertaining sort of dysfunctional. The sisterly banter is great, and Clio's determination to pick out the perfect color palette for a demon house is really quite admirable, I suppose. I do wish some of the other characters were more fully fleshed out — I would have loved to know more about Roy and Mariella — but alas. I also felt like a certain character was let off the hook a little too easily for their role in … everything, but it's a small quibble.
Do expect this book to be a somewhat light and fluffy for a horror novel. There are some semi-scary bits, but it's really more horror-lite than full-blown horror.
But, honestly, you guys, I'm just rambling here. I have no idea how to explain what I liked about this novel other than that it's “fun.” There's a demon and a dysfunctional family and a sexy neighbor and a haunted house and a demonologist and a bunch of fashion influencers and it's all pretty entertaining. Play Nice is my first Rachel Harrison novel but it's definitely not going to be my last.
3.75 stars, rounded up.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is September 9, 2025.
But, jeez, Clio is such an annoying person, you guys. She's manipulative and whiny and kind of an alcoholic, and if anyone needs a good demon haunting to straighten them out, it's her. She's also rather nonchalant about hanging out in a demon house. Sure, she says she's scared of the demon, but does that stop her from repeatedly going back to the bi-level from hell? No, no it doesn't. Of course, the demon mostly communicates through smiley faces and book annotation, so to be fair I suppose she's not exactly in mortal danger or anything.
And speaking of the demon, I'm pretty sure there's some symbolism to be found there. I'm guessing he represents childhood trauma or something? I dunno. Perhaps he's just a demon and I'm overthinking things. Honestly, my alma mater should probably just go ahead and revoke my English literature degree because I obviously learned nothing.
Anyway, the Barnes family might be dysfunctional, but they're an entertaining sort of dysfunctional. The sisterly banter is great, and Clio's determination to pick out the perfect color palette for a demon house is really quite admirable, I suppose. I do wish some of the other characters were more fully fleshed out — I would have loved to know more about Roy and Mariella — but alas. I also felt like a certain character was let off the hook a little too easily for their role in … everything, but it's a small quibble.
Do expect this book to be a somewhat light and fluffy for a horror novel. There are some semi-scary bits, but it's really more horror-lite than full-blown horror.
But, honestly, you guys, I'm just rambling here. I have no idea how to explain what I liked about this novel other than that it's “fun.” There's a demon and a dysfunctional family and a sexy neighbor and a haunted house and a demonologist and a bunch of fashion influencers and it's all pretty entertaining. Play Nice is my first Rachel Harrison novel but it's definitely not going to be my last.
3.75 stars, rounded up.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is September 9, 2025.
September 9, 2025
* SPOOKY SEASON PREVIEW *
Outlier Review: 🏝️
Clio Barnes is a stylist and influencer, with a plethora of followers-but what they don’t know about her is that she grew up in a haunted house.
Well, not haunted exactly -Possessed might be more accurate. 😈
Clio’s mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a new house after a messy divorce. It was the only one that she could afford which would keep the girls in the same school and in the same neighborhood as their Dad.
I guess that’s because it was rumored to be haunted-though she didn’t know that at the time. And, the demon became fixated on her youngest daughter.
But, nobody believed Alex, blaming what she claims on the alcohol she turned to-And, the courts stripped Alex of custody.
She died, sticking to those claims and even wrote a book about it, “The Demon of Edgewood Drive” : The TRUE STORY of a Suburban Haunting. And, we get to read excerpts from her “out of print” book.
After her death, the allegedly possessed home gets passed down to Clio and her sisters.
Her sisters want nothing to do with it, but Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content-For making the house unrecognizable from the place, where all of their childhood trauma occurred.
It would be the next best thing to burning it to the ground. 🔥
But, as the renovations begin, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims.
“Hello, hello! It’s SO a good to see you AGAIN! Hello, hello!” 😈
Unfortunately, I enjoyed the premise a lot more than the execution. Although HORROR and HUMOR are not normally used in the same sentence, they are the two words that USUALLY describe Rachel Harrison’s campy brand! But, I did not have much fun with this one.
Although, I did enjoy the sometimes endearing and sometimes dysfunctional relationship between the three sisters and their Dad, I found Clio to be an egotistical, self absorbed person who uses men like playthings, and a distraction from her problems. OFTEN!! About midway through the book, I grew tired of spending time with her.
The ending is a bit open ended with my buddy readers wondering about a sequel though I imagined something else…Be sure to check out reviews from MarilynW, Mary Beth and DeAnn to see how they felt.
I seem to be an outlier, so this just may be the perfect “Spooky Season” read for you. My favorite of hers is still Cackle! See Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 🕷️ 🕸️
Now available
Thank You to Berkley for the gifted ARC, provided through NetGalley. As always, I have shared MY candid thoughts.
Outlier Review: 🏝️
Clio Barnes is a stylist and influencer, with a plethora of followers-but what they don’t know about her is that she grew up in a haunted house.
Well, not haunted exactly -Possessed might be more accurate. 😈
Clio’s mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a new house after a messy divorce. It was the only one that she could afford which would keep the girls in the same school and in the same neighborhood as their Dad.
I guess that’s because it was rumored to be haunted-though she didn’t know that at the time. And, the demon became fixated on her youngest daughter.
But, nobody believed Alex, blaming what she claims on the alcohol she turned to-And, the courts stripped Alex of custody.
She died, sticking to those claims and even wrote a book about it, “The Demon of Edgewood Drive” : The TRUE STORY of a Suburban Haunting. And, we get to read excerpts from her “out of print” book.
After her death, the allegedly possessed home gets passed down to Clio and her sisters.
Her sisters want nothing to do with it, but Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content-For making the house unrecognizable from the place, where all of their childhood trauma occurred.
It would be the next best thing to burning it to the ground. 🔥
But, as the renovations begin, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims.
“Hello, hello! It’s SO a good to see you AGAIN! Hello, hello!” 😈
Unfortunately, I enjoyed the premise a lot more than the execution. Although HORROR and HUMOR are not normally used in the same sentence, they are the two words that USUALLY describe Rachel Harrison’s campy brand! But, I did not have much fun with this one.
Although, I did enjoy the sometimes endearing and sometimes dysfunctional relationship between the three sisters and their Dad, I found Clio to be an egotistical, self absorbed person who uses men like playthings, and a distraction from her problems. OFTEN!! About midway through the book, I grew tired of spending time with her.
The ending is a bit open ended with my buddy readers wondering about a sequel though I imagined something else…Be sure to check out reviews from MarilynW, Mary Beth and DeAnn to see how they felt.
I seem to be an outlier, so this just may be the perfect “Spooky Season” read for you. My favorite of hers is still Cackle! See Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 🕷️ 🕸️
Now available
Thank You to Berkley for the gifted ARC, provided through NetGalley. As always, I have shared MY candid thoughts.
June 18, 2025
Buy it for the demons. Stay for the dysfunction.👻🔨
Rachel Harrison hammers home another hit with Play Nice, a devilishly clever tale where the true demons aren't just in the walls, they're in the family tree. Equal parts haunted house horror and psychological family drama, this slow-burn stunner peels back layers of paint and pain, one cracked wall (and childhood memory) at a time.
Clio Louise Barnes has it all: a thriving career as a stylist and influencer, a picture perfect feed, and enough dry shampoo to weather any crisis. But when she inherits her childhood home, the one her late mother claimed was possessed by a demon, she trades contour palettes for contractor tools, hoping to turn trauma into trendy content. Only, the house isn’t ready to be flipped... it wants to flip her.
As Clio renovates, she confronts long-buried memories, resentments between sisters, and the unsettling realization that her mother’s madness might’ve been something far more malevolent. The tension simmers until it boils over into full blown horror, with Harrison masterfully blending supernatural dread with the raw emotional wreckage of a fractured family.
If you like your horror with heart (and your haunted houses full of metaphorical rot and literal possession), Play Nice delivers. Think: HGTV meets hellspawn. It’s a dark, gripping, emotionally charged read that shows sometimes the scariest ghosts are the ones you share a last name with.
This house flip turns into a full-on possession.👻🔨👻🔨
Expected September 9, 2025, mark your calendars and prepare to renovate your nightmares.
Rachel Harrison hammers home another hit with Play Nice, a devilishly clever tale where the true demons aren't just in the walls, they're in the family tree. Equal parts haunted house horror and psychological family drama, this slow-burn stunner peels back layers of paint and pain, one cracked wall (and childhood memory) at a time.
Clio Louise Barnes has it all: a thriving career as a stylist and influencer, a picture perfect feed, and enough dry shampoo to weather any crisis. But when she inherits her childhood home, the one her late mother claimed was possessed by a demon, she trades contour palettes for contractor tools, hoping to turn trauma into trendy content. Only, the house isn’t ready to be flipped... it wants to flip her.
As Clio renovates, she confronts long-buried memories, resentments between sisters, and the unsettling realization that her mother’s madness might’ve been something far more malevolent. The tension simmers until it boils over into full blown horror, with Harrison masterfully blending supernatural dread with the raw emotional wreckage of a fractured family.
If you like your horror with heart (and your haunted houses full of metaphorical rot and literal possession), Play Nice delivers. Think: HGTV meets hellspawn. It’s a dark, gripping, emotionally charged read that shows sometimes the scariest ghosts are the ones you share a last name with.
This house flip turns into a full-on possession.👻🔨👻🔨
Expected September 9, 2025, mark your calendars and prepare to renovate your nightmares.
July 13, 2025
✦ My Overall Thoughts ✦
This dark and witty novel is definitely one of a kind! It was unlike anything that I have ever read. It was not just about a haunted house, it was also about a multilayered dysfunctional family. The things that these characters said to one another made me laugh, which made the novel feel more realistic and balanced. I really enjoyed how this book is fast paced, but it explains everything at the same time. It has a strong build up and it ended up being well executed. While this book did give me some laughs, it also made me emotional, tense and sad. I loved the mystery vibes it had! It also came with horror, that slowly sneaks up on you! The twist that this book had, I did not see coming at all!
✦ Quick Synopsis & Rating ✦
“Play Nice” is a novel that revolves around a woman named Clio and her sisters. Clio is forced to confront the demons of her past, while attempting to renovate her old childhood home, after her and her sisters’ Mom passes away. The Mom named Alex wrote a book prior to her death and Clio ends up finding it and reading it. As Clio’s memories start to resurface, she begins to realize that maybe her Mom wasn’t as crazy as she thought! Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars!
✦ Who I think would enjoy reading this book & Content Warnings ✦
This novel is perfect for fans that love to read about hauntings, family trauma and a questionable reality! Content warnings include child abuse, grief, death, self harm, substance abuse and violence.
✦ Thank You ✦
Thank you to NetGalley, author Rachel Harrison and Berkley Publishing Group for this ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
✦ Release Date ✦
This book is expected to be published on September 9, 2025!
✦ Book Tropes ✦
👻 Haunted House
✔️ Influencer Culture
👻 Dysfunctional Family
✔️ A Book within a Book
👻 Family Trauma
✔️ Dark Humor
👻 Unreliable Narrator
✔️ Psychological VS. Supernatural
》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《
❥ ୨⎯ Connie ⎯୧ ❥
ツ౨ৎ
This dark and witty novel is definitely one of a kind! It was unlike anything that I have ever read. It was not just about a haunted house, it was also about a multilayered dysfunctional family. The things that these characters said to one another made me laugh, which made the novel feel more realistic and balanced. I really enjoyed how this book is fast paced, but it explains everything at the same time. It has a strong build up and it ended up being well executed. While this book did give me some laughs, it also made me emotional, tense and sad. I loved the mystery vibes it had! It also came with horror, that slowly sneaks up on you! The twist that this book had, I did not see coming at all!
✦ Quick Synopsis & Rating ✦
“Play Nice” is a novel that revolves around a woman named Clio and her sisters. Clio is forced to confront the demons of her past, while attempting to renovate her old childhood home, after her and her sisters’ Mom passes away. The Mom named Alex wrote a book prior to her death and Clio ends up finding it and reading it. As Clio’s memories start to resurface, she begins to realize that maybe her Mom wasn’t as crazy as she thought! Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars!
✦ Who I think would enjoy reading this book & Content Warnings ✦
This novel is perfect for fans that love to read about hauntings, family trauma and a questionable reality! Content warnings include child abuse, grief, death, self harm, substance abuse and violence.
✦ Thank You ✦
Thank you to NetGalley, author Rachel Harrison and Berkley Publishing Group for this ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
✦ Release Date ✦
This book is expected to be published on September 9, 2025!
✦ Book Tropes ✦
👻 Haunted House
✔️ Influencer Culture
👻 Dysfunctional Family
✔️ A Book within a Book
👻 Family Trauma
✔️ Dark Humor
👻 Unreliable Narrator
✔️ Psychological VS. Supernatural
》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《
❥ ୨⎯ Connie ⎯୧ ❥
ツ౨ৎ
September 27, 2025
Pre-read: I heard something about evil Polly Pocket and I need to find out what that means.
-------------
Mhh, now I've read the whole thing and I still don't really know what that means. Maybe I'm missing some integral knowledge because I never had a Polly Pocket house. I had a Polly Pocket jumbo jet that turned into a catwalk when you opened it up. (It was sick.) Anyway, the book was just ok. It worked as a story about a dysfunctional family with toxic parents and strong but complicated sister bonds. I liked reading from Clio's perspective, because it felt refreshing how she would always blurt out the bluntest things possible. But the horror really fell flat to me. It's just not enough when there's a demon in the house and all it ever does is annotating the book you're reading with funny little sentences. Ok, that's exaggerated, but the haunted house part really was so boring for the most part. Play Nice also has a book-inside-a-book situation and I rarely ever like that choice of narration in the first place and here it went on forever and really gave nothing. It's my first book by Rachel Harrison and now I'm not sure if she is an author for me. The horror was lackluster and while there was solid family drama, it's just not what I picked this book up for.
-------------
Mhh, now I've read the whole thing and I still don't really know what that means. Maybe I'm missing some integral knowledge because I never had a Polly Pocket house. I had a Polly Pocket jumbo jet that turned into a catwalk when you opened it up. (It was sick.) Anyway, the book was just ok. It worked as a story about a dysfunctional family with toxic parents and strong but complicated sister bonds. I liked reading from Clio's perspective, because it felt refreshing how she would always blurt out the bluntest things possible. But the horror really fell flat to me. It's just not enough when there's a demon in the house and all it ever does is annotating the book you're reading with funny little sentences. Ok, that's exaggerated, but the haunted house part really was so boring for the most part. Play Nice also has a book-inside-a-book situation and I rarely ever like that choice of narration in the first place and here it went on forever and really gave nothing. It's my first book by Rachel Harrison and now I'm not sure if she is an author for me. The horror was lackluster and while there was solid family drama, it's just not what I picked this book up for.
September 22, 2025
YESSSSS to this 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🖤 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for GR! such a fun haunted house thriller (borderline horror??) novel for the fall!
if you’re looking for a book to get you in the fall vibe—look no further!!!
her books have the BEST fall vibes and i’m always looking forward to reading them each fall season. i looooved SO THIRSTY last fall (a normal girl runs into a pack of vampires…my dream!) and was looking forward to this one and it didn’t disappoint 👻
if you liked HOME BEFORE DARK or THE BOOK OF COLD CASES i think you’ll like this. its a good blend of thriller/horror/haunted house and family drama. i loved the main character, she was so “idgaf” mindset and kinda fearless which is very refreshing bc most thrillers tend to make the female main character very stupid…
it follows a family who grew up in this haunted house with their mom. once she passes away, they’re forced to deal with the house and revisit everything they ran away from 15+ years ago… including the demons inside 👀👀👀
i’m a baby when it comes to horror but she makes it so approachable! it was such a fun read. great on audio too! the horror parts were honestly believable and really well written. the family drama wrapped up well too. the last 20% was seriously intense!!
also the ending? so well done. it was semi wrapped up but left a bit to wonder… which is needed in a thriller for me!
all in all, really liked it and it was a total fall vibe 🖤
if you’re looking for a book to get you in the fall vibe—look no further!!!
her books have the BEST fall vibes and i’m always looking forward to reading them each fall season. i looooved SO THIRSTY last fall (a normal girl runs into a pack of vampires…my dream!) and was looking forward to this one and it didn’t disappoint 👻
if you liked HOME BEFORE DARK or THE BOOK OF COLD CASES i think you’ll like this. its a good blend of thriller/horror/haunted house and family drama. i loved the main character, she was so “idgaf” mindset and kinda fearless which is very refreshing bc most thrillers tend to make the female main character very stupid…
it follows a family who grew up in this haunted house with their mom. once she passes away, they’re forced to deal with the house and revisit everything they ran away from 15+ years ago… including the demons inside 👀👀👀
i’m a baby when it comes to horror but she makes it so approachable! it was such a fun read. great on audio too! the horror parts were honestly believable and really well written. the family drama wrapped up well too. the last 20% was seriously intense!!
also the ending? so well done. it was semi wrapped up but left a bit to wonder… which is needed in a thriller for me!
all in all, really liked it and it was a total fall vibe 🖤
December 17, 2025
I’ve read every Rachel Harrison novel, even went so far as to pre-order ‘Play Nice’ in both physical and digital formats. But honestly? This one was a miss for me.
Clio, our main character, is insufferable. She’s rude, self-absorbed, and obnoxious, all while parading around under the “boss babe” banner. I’m so tired of this being passed off as feminism. Being cruel, emotionally stunted, and unloving doesn’t make you a strong female lead. It just makes you unbearable.
The story itself? Meh. Harrison usually nails the balance of horror and real-life struggles, but here the message got completely buried under how tiresome the protagonist is. Instead of eerie tension, I mostly felt irritation.
I hope her next book will be something 🤍🙂↕️
Edit: this one was definitely a lesson not to buy books in both physical and digital just because I loved previous work of the author 😭
Clio, our main character, is insufferable. She’s rude, self-absorbed, and obnoxious, all while parading around under the “boss babe” banner. I’m so tired of this being passed off as feminism. Being cruel, emotionally stunted, and unloving doesn’t make you a strong female lead. It just makes you unbearable.
The story itself? Meh. Harrison usually nails the balance of horror and real-life struggles, but here the message got completely buried under how tiresome the protagonist is. Instead of eerie tension, I mostly felt irritation.
I hope her next book will be something 🤍🙂↕️
Edit: this one was definitely a lesson not to buy books in both physical and digital just because I loved previous work of the author 😭
September 16, 2025
Clever, creepy, & deliciously unsettling!
💭 Mood reader moment: Sometimes the best books are the ones that follow you into real life. This one took me a little longer to finish because I was away cheering on my daughter at her horse jumping show 🐎. She distracted me in the best way, I didn’t even want to pick up my book 😂. Brenda has long raved about Rachel Harrison, and with only The Return under my belt (a 3-star read for me), I was eager to see how this one compared. I am glad to say it landed firmly in the win column.
What a ride this was. I went in expecting a standard haunted house vibe, but Rachel Harrison gave it her own wicked spin that felt both satirical and chilling at the same time. The influencer angle, the family drama, and that undercurrent of something sinister lurking in the background made it hard to look away. I loved how the tension slowly seeped in, not too in your face but always there in the corners of the page, waiting to pounce.
Clio was such an interesting main character to follow. She was not especially likeable, but she was exactly who this story needed, and her perspective made the chilling elements feel sharper and more believable. The mix of glossy surface life colliding with old secrets worked so well, and Harrison’s writing struck that perfect balance between humour and horror. The result was sharp, unsettling, and oddly fun.
✨ Key thoughts
👻 Haunted house vibes but with a clever twist
📖 Immersive writing that is both sharp and unsettling
💄 Loved the blend of influencer culture with eerie horror
🕯️ Perfect fall season spooky read
Overall, this one gave me just the right mix of creepy and entertaining. If you are looking for a haunted house story that feels fresh, darkly funny, and deliciously sinister, Play Nice is worth adding to your spooky stack.
Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for my review copy.
💭 Mood reader moment: Sometimes the best books are the ones that follow you into real life. This one took me a little longer to finish because I was away cheering on my daughter at her horse jumping show 🐎. She distracted me in the best way, I didn’t even want to pick up my book 😂. Brenda has long raved about Rachel Harrison, and with only The Return under my belt (a 3-star read for me), I was eager to see how this one compared. I am glad to say it landed firmly in the win column.
What a ride this was. I went in expecting a standard haunted house vibe, but Rachel Harrison gave it her own wicked spin that felt both satirical and chilling at the same time. The influencer angle, the family drama, and that undercurrent of something sinister lurking in the background made it hard to look away. I loved how the tension slowly seeped in, not too in your face but always there in the corners of the page, waiting to pounce.
Clio was such an interesting main character to follow. She was not especially likeable, but she was exactly who this story needed, and her perspective made the chilling elements feel sharper and more believable. The mix of glossy surface life colliding with old secrets worked so well, and Harrison’s writing struck that perfect balance between humour and horror. The result was sharp, unsettling, and oddly fun.
✨ Key thoughts
👻 Haunted house vibes but with a clever twist
📖 Immersive writing that is both sharp and unsettling
💄 Loved the blend of influencer culture with eerie horror
🕯️ Perfect fall season spooky read
Overall, this one gave me just the right mix of creepy and entertaining. If you are looking for a haunted house story that feels fresh, darkly funny, and deliciously sinister, Play Nice is worth adding to your spooky stack.
Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for my review copy.
September 23, 2025
Definitely light on the horror side, but still creepy. I liked the book she found with her dead Mom's annotations which added an interesting layer to the past and bringing it into the present. Haunted house retellings are usually tricky to pull off. It needs a good dose of horror with added character angst and fear, and it needs to be felt off the pages. I did feel angst but did not really feel the fear. I did like it with a solid 3.5 rounded up.
September 9, 2025
“So often we’re trained to ignore our intuition. That it’s impolite or irrational to be anything but sweet and nice, arms open, ankles crossed. Men love a beautiful fool. Weak men, rather.”
this is the first time I’m rating a RH book anything under a 4 star and I’m not happy about it, so i’ll keep this short. the things i did like were the book within a book aspect as we learn the mother’s story through Clio reading her book. i also appreciated the discussions being had on mental health, especially in relation to women specifically and how men will label us crazy the minute they don’t understand what we’re going through. Rachel’s writing is always very magnetic to me as well.
“Remembering is not always a light shone into the darkness. Sometimes it’s a claw reaching out and dragging you back.”
the beginning of the book was intriguing and the haunted house idea had potential. i just could not, for the LIFE of me.. stand any of the characters. the most likable one was probably their mother Alex, but unfortunately she was dead for the entire book. Clio, Daphne and Leda were all terrible and gaslit each other into oblivion when it came to what happened with their mother growing up. i think they all had a right to feel slighted by her for different reasons, the trauma was there for sure and the father was no help whatsoever.. i hated him too. the romance Clio had was also unnecessary, the ending was ok in theory i guess but then the 2 more chapters after backtracked a bit.
➵ many thanks to NetGalley, the author and Berkley Publishing for the arc, all opinions are my own.
this is the first time I’m rating a RH book anything under a 4 star and I’m not happy about it, so i’ll keep this short. the things i did like were the book within a book aspect as we learn the mother’s story through Clio reading her book. i also appreciated the discussions being had on mental health, especially in relation to women specifically and how men will label us crazy the minute they don’t understand what we’re going through. Rachel’s writing is always very magnetic to me as well.
“Remembering is not always a light shone into the darkness. Sometimes it’s a claw reaching out and dragging you back.”
the beginning of the book was intriguing and the haunted house idea had potential. i just could not, for the LIFE of me.. stand any of the characters. the most likable one was probably their mother Alex, but unfortunately she was dead for the entire book. Clio, Daphne and Leda were all terrible and gaslit each other into oblivion when it came to what happened with their mother growing up. i think they all had a right to feel slighted by her for different reasons, the trauma was there for sure and the father was no help whatsoever.. i hated him too. the romance Clio had was also unnecessary, the ending was ok in theory i guess but then the 2 more chapters after backtracked a bit.
➵ many thanks to NetGalley, the author and Berkley Publishing for the arc, all opinions are my own.
November 3, 2025
Who Says you can never go home again????? Home should be a safe place. But what if it's not? What is home is where your demons lay in wait? Home is a haunted place, a place that haunts your mind, your body and your soul????? Rachel Harrison has done it once again! She has delivered a chilling, thrilling, horrific, creepy, and hard to put down book that will get under your skin. I had a hard time putting down Play Nice and loved every single page of it.
Clio Louise Barnes, a stylist and influencer, must face the demons of her past when she returns to her childhood home which is haunted, or is it possessed???? She moved there are a child with her mother, and sisters, Leda, and Daphne. Her mother, Alexandra, claimed that the home was possessed by a demon. Was it? Was their mother mentally ill, as the courts determined when they removed her daughters from her care?
Clio is determined to makeover the house as her viewers watch. She gets the creepy crawlies being back in the house where she suffered so much trauma and lived a dysfunctional life. When she finds a book left behind by her mother, Clio's memories begin to come back.
Rachel Harrison excels at creating a creepy and eerie vibe. She had me wondering what was real and if the house was in fact haunted/possessed. She also excels at creating doubt, tension, and unease. Did her mother really have mental health issues or was she on to something? Is Clio experiencing what her mother experienced or is she being influenced by her mother's writing and being back in the house where she was traumatized as a child.? What role does memory and trauma play in our lives and how we experience things?
This book was awesome. I loved the writing, the well thought out plot, the characters, and the eerie vibe of the book. I love that this book is horrific but not gory. Plus, there is a little romance thrown into the mix to keep things on the lighter side as well. As I mentioned it gets under your skin and will have the hairs sticking up on the back of your neck. I loved the dread, the unease, and the emphasis on family. Families can be messy, they can be dysfunctional, they can be contentious, and they can be wonderful. Families can haunt us just as houses can.
Dark, eerie, chilling, dripping with dread and dysfunction. Highly Recommend.
I listened to the audiobook and loved every second of it.
Read more of my reviews at at www.openbookposts.com 📖
Clio Louise Barnes, a stylist and influencer, must face the demons of her past when she returns to her childhood home which is haunted, or is it possessed???? She moved there are a child with her mother, and sisters, Leda, and Daphne. Her mother, Alexandra, claimed that the home was possessed by a demon. Was it? Was their mother mentally ill, as the courts determined when they removed her daughters from her care?
Clio is determined to makeover the house as her viewers watch. She gets the creepy crawlies being back in the house where she suffered so much trauma and lived a dysfunctional life. When she finds a book left behind by her mother, Clio's memories begin to come back.
Rachel Harrison excels at creating a creepy and eerie vibe. She had me wondering what was real and if the house was in fact haunted/possessed. She also excels at creating doubt, tension, and unease. Did her mother really have mental health issues or was she on to something? Is Clio experiencing what her mother experienced or is she being influenced by her mother's writing and being back in the house where she was traumatized as a child.? What role does memory and trauma play in our lives and how we experience things?
This book was awesome. I loved the writing, the well thought out plot, the characters, and the eerie vibe of the book. I love that this book is horrific but not gory. Plus, there is a little romance thrown into the mix to keep things on the lighter side as well. As I mentioned it gets under your skin and will have the hairs sticking up on the back of your neck. I loved the dread, the unease, and the emphasis on family. Families can be messy, they can be dysfunctional, they can be contentious, and they can be wonderful. Families can haunt us just as houses can.
Dark, eerie, chilling, dripping with dread and dysfunction. Highly Recommend.
I listened to the audiobook and loved every second of it.
Read more of my reviews at at www.openbookposts.com 📖
December 24, 2025
Haunted Mansion for adults.
The only thing that kept it from being 5 stars for me was that I never connected with any of the characters. I don't know how else to describe it other than it had a chick-lit feel. And that's not going to be a bad thing for most readers, so don't take that as a knock.
Clio is the youngest sister of three, with a devil may care attitude and confidence that seems to be a common denominator in those who are the baby of the family. She's not a bad person, but she's a bit spoilt and doesn't seem to have much in the way of depth to her life. She's an influencer who streams and posts her life online, selling dreams and projecting an image of the ideal. Attending parties with frenemies, abiding by the influencer code, having meaningless flings with hot guys, what's not to like?
All of that and the love of her tight-knit family have been the norm for as long as she can remember.
But it turns out there's a lot she doesn't remember.
When her estranged mother dies of a heart attack, Clio finds out that she and her sisters have inherited their mother's home, which rips off a bandage that she didn't even know she was wearing.
When her sisters flatly refuse to go to the funeral, she finds herself talking to some very strange people who have a drastically different take on her mother's erratic behavior.
When she decides to renovate the old home for views, she inadvertently opens the floodgates of her memory to what really happened when she was a child. And piece by terrifying piece, she starts to put the puzzle together, while simultaneously realizing that her entire life might be built on shifting sand.
Did her beloved father finally have to walk away from her mother because of her irrational beliefs, or was he a control freak who was sleeping with her now step-mother and just wanted out?
Was her mother an abusive alcoholic who lost custody of her children after her deluded actions endangered them, or was there an ACTUAL demon in their childhood home?
Were her memories just stories that her family made up to keep a fragile little girl from falling apart?
Or is the real story of her mother far more complicated and tangled than one haunted house with a malevolent spirit in the attic?
This had all the things I think anyone could want from a story about the demons we all have.
Real or imagined.
Recommended.
The only thing that kept it from being 5 stars for me was that I never connected with any of the characters. I don't know how else to describe it other than it had a chick-lit feel. And that's not going to be a bad thing for most readers, so don't take that as a knock.
Clio is the youngest sister of three, with a devil may care attitude and confidence that seems to be a common denominator in those who are the baby of the family. She's not a bad person, but she's a bit spoilt and doesn't seem to have much in the way of depth to her life. She's an influencer who streams and posts her life online, selling dreams and projecting an image of the ideal. Attending parties with frenemies, abiding by the influencer code, having meaningless flings with hot guys, what's not to like?
All of that and the love of her tight-knit family have been the norm for as long as she can remember.
But it turns out there's a lot she doesn't remember.
When her estranged mother dies of a heart attack, Clio finds out that she and her sisters have inherited their mother's home, which rips off a bandage that she didn't even know she was wearing.
When her sisters flatly refuse to go to the funeral, she finds herself talking to some very strange people who have a drastically different take on her mother's erratic behavior.
When she decides to renovate the old home for views, she inadvertently opens the floodgates of her memory to what really happened when she was a child. And piece by terrifying piece, she starts to put the puzzle together, while simultaneously realizing that her entire life might be built on shifting sand.
Did her beloved father finally have to walk away from her mother because of her irrational beliefs, or was he a control freak who was sleeping with her now step-mother and just wanted out?
Was her mother an abusive alcoholic who lost custody of her children after her deluded actions endangered them, or was there an ACTUAL demon in their childhood home?
Were her memories just stories that her family made up to keep a fragile little girl from falling apart?
Or is the real story of her mother far more complicated and tangled than one haunted house with a malevolent spirit in the attic?
This had all the things I think anyone could want from a story about the demons we all have.
Real or imagined.
Recommended.
September 9, 2025
Play Nice
by Rachel Harrison
OMG! This may be her best book yet! Oh, how I love a spooky haunted house! This is definitely spooky.
Family? Very dysfunctional. Mother was committed when our main character was young. Now the family is gathered for her funeral. Our gal decides to fix up the house to get a good price but whatever was there before was waiting for her.
Read with all the lights on and all pets on the bed! This gets so suspenseful! So many twists! Truly loved it!
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this scary book!
by Rachel Harrison
OMG! This may be her best book yet! Oh, how I love a spooky haunted house! This is definitely spooky.
Family? Very dysfunctional. Mother was committed when our main character was young. Now the family is gathered for her funeral. Our gal decides to fix up the house to get a good price but whatever was there before was waiting for her.
Read with all the lights on and all pets on the bed! This gets so suspenseful! So many twists! Truly loved it!
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this scary book!
November 3, 2025
Harrison's Play Nice was decent. There was just too much romance and fluff mixed in for what I would classify as a horror novel.
Co-narrators Alex Finke and Natasha Soudek delivered a fabulous listening experience. Kudos.
Co-narrators Alex Finke and Natasha Soudek delivered a fabulous listening experience. Kudos.
September 14, 2025
This was my third book by Rachel Harrison, and I’m clearly a fan! I really enjoyed this book, I couldn’t wait to pick it up and continue reading it whenever I had the chance, but yet after the conclusion I feel like I’m missing something? 🤷🏻♀️
This story begins with Clio receiving a phone call (plus many missed calls), that her mother Alex (Alexandra), with whom she has been estranged from for many years has passed away. Clio then meets up with her two sisters, Leda and Daphne. Clio is the only one who goes to her mother’s funeral between the three siblings. It is also after the funeral that Clio decides to go back to their childhood home on 6 Edgewood Drive, to fix it up and sale the house. Clio hasn’t been back to this house in 18 years since her mother Alex claimed that the house was haunted by demons, and she even wrote a book to prove it.
While Clio begins her renovations at Edgewood Drive, she finds the book that her mother wrote about the house being possessed by demons. There are even private notes written on the sides of the pages by Alex, and it is then that Clio begins to realize (or question), what really happened in that home during that time.
As I stated above, I really enjoyed this book. I think it was just in time for the ‘spooky season’. 👻 We also had some good storytelling about family dysfunction, and demons. Not only were there demons living in 6 Edgewood Dr., but I think there are demons living inside each of us that we are fighting everyday that no one likes to talk about and keep hidden…
This was my September, 2025 BOTM pick- and I made a good choice! If you are a Rachel Harrison fan like me, I think you will enjoy this one too!
This story begins with Clio receiving a phone call (plus many missed calls), that her mother Alex (Alexandra), with whom she has been estranged from for many years has passed away. Clio then meets up with her two sisters, Leda and Daphne. Clio is the only one who goes to her mother’s funeral between the three siblings. It is also after the funeral that Clio decides to go back to their childhood home on 6 Edgewood Drive, to fix it up and sale the house. Clio hasn’t been back to this house in 18 years since her mother Alex claimed that the house was haunted by demons, and she even wrote a book to prove it.
While Clio begins her renovations at Edgewood Drive, she finds the book that her mother wrote about the house being possessed by demons. There are even private notes written on the sides of the pages by Alex, and it is then that Clio begins to realize (or question), what really happened in that home during that time.
As I stated above, I really enjoyed this book. I think it was just in time for the ‘spooky season’. 👻 We also had some good storytelling about family dysfunction, and demons. Not only were there demons living in 6 Edgewood Dr., but I think there are demons living inside each of us that we are fighting everyday that no one likes to talk about and keep hidden…
This was my September, 2025 BOTM pick- and I made a good choice! If you are a Rachel Harrison fan like me, I think you will enjoy this one too!
October 28, 2025
The most human haunted house story I’ve read.
Truly one of the best horror thriller books I’ve ever read. I took my sweet time with this as much as I could because it was WONDERFUL! Influencer main character (hell yes), sister dynamics, trauma bonding, diverse character pool, great tension
I don’t have any notes, it’s a 5 star from me
Truly one of the best horror thriller books I’ve ever read. I took my sweet time with this as much as I could because it was WONDERFUL! Influencer main character (hell yes), sister dynamics, trauma bonding, diverse character pool, great tension
I don’t have any notes, it’s a 5 star from me
September 15, 2025
This author and I have a weird relationship. I just loooove her books theories but when I read them I'm usually like "it was okay" then she sneaks in with pulling me right back in when I see her next book.
Well hell, I liked the heck out of this one. I hated just about every single character in it. A social media influencer who is the most superficial creature ever is the main character. She gots some issues. The world is supposed to revolve around her. Turns out even demon possessed houses even love her.
See mom! I'm not a demon. I don't love her.
This book is not really scary but I could not put it down wondering whether her butt was going to get the demon treatment or if someone else was. I was cheering for the demon.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
Well hell, I liked the heck out of this one. I hated just about every single character in it. A social media influencer who is the most superficial creature ever is the main character. She gots some issues. The world is supposed to revolve around her. Turns out even demon possessed houses even love her.
See mom! I'm not a demon. I don't love her.
This book is not really scary but I could not put it down wondering whether her butt was going to get the demon treatment or if someone else was. I was cheering for the demon.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
June 7, 2025
Thank you Berkley pub for an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback!
I vlogged my reading experience and (spoiler free) thoughts, check it out: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MspmkR/
I vlogged my reading experience and (spoiler free) thoughts, check it out: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MspmkR/
October 1, 2025
—— 𝟑.𝟕𝟓 ✰ stars. 🐍
📚 || 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧
📱 || 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖
🏷️ || 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: ℍ𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣
📆 || 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝟡/𝟚𝟜/𝟚𝟝 - 𝟡/𝟚𝟡/𝟚𝟝
📃 || 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬
「 “Clio 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 her mom’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, 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.” 」
────୨ৎ────
ᴍʏ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: ★★★.75
ɢᴏᴏᴅʀᴇᴀᴅꜱ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: 𝟺.𝟶𝟼 ☆ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ
ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ: 🎃
ꜱᴘᴏᴏᴋɪᴇꜱ: 👻/5
ᴘᴀɪʀ ᴡɪᴛʜ: ᴠᴏᴅᴋᴀ & ᴄɪɢᴀʀᴇᴛᴛᴇꜱ 🚬
ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɪ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅ?: ✅
⊱ ────── {⋆ ‧₊˚♪𝄞 ⋆} ────── ⊰
ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: ᴅᴇᴍᴏɴꜱ — ɪᴍᴀɢɪɴᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴꜱ
0:55 ———♡——— 2:57
╭───
┆
╰⪼ ❛don’t get too close, it’s dark inside. it’s where my demons hide, it’s where my demons hide.❜
⊱ ────── {⋆ ‧₊˚♪𝄞 ⋆} ────── ⊰
ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
🐍 ᴜɴʟɪᴋᴇᴀʙʟᴇ ꜰᴍᴄꜱ
🏚️ ʜᴀᴜɴᴛᴇᴅ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʀᴏᴘᴇ
🐍 ᴜɴʀᴇʟɪᴀʙʟᴇ ɴᴀʀʀᴀᴛᴏʀꜱ
🏚️ ꜱᴜᴘᴇʀɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟ ᴇʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ
🐍 ᴅʏꜱꜰᴜɴᴄᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟɪᴇꜱ
🏚️ ᴀ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ ᴀ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴛʀᴏᴘᴇ
⚠️TW: death of a parent, alcoholism, drug use, mental illness, emotional abuse, self harm
────୨ৎ────
💬 || 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
• If Rachel Harrison writes it, I’m damn sure going to read it. Since I found out my bubblegum horror queen was releasing Play Nice, it’s been one of my most anticipated releases of the year. However, it wasn’t what I expected…
• I hate to say I didn’t love it because usually all of Rachel Harrison’s books have been big hits with me. My biggest complaint: the pacing. If I wasn’t buddy reading this with Kelsey, Lina, & Ari, it would’ve taken me even longer to finish. I didn’t look up forward to picking this book up, which is such a disappointing feeling, especially when it’s one of your favorite authors inflicting this heartache. a whole lot of nothing happened until maybe 50%ish? And don’t get me started on the main character, Clio. I found her insufferable for most of the book until the end when homegirl finally got some self awareness.
• The creepy parts though were so well done. Now that was the Rachel Harrison I wanted, I just wish the whole book could’ve been like this instead of 75% slow burn family dysfunction with a sprinkle of demonic entities. I love when a book can truly scare me & even though Play Nice wasn’t exactly the scariest overall, I found myself getting chills whenever the demon came out to play… not nicely either.
• If you’re new to the horror genre, this would be a perfect book for you. All of Rachel Harrison’s books would be. I can’t rave enough about her writing, so I’ll let it slide that I didn’t love this one. Also a great book to read with your book club. I loved the thought provoking conversations it invoked with the girls. We did a lot of thinking, a lot of theorizing, & some hating from me & Ari. 🤣
────୨ৎ────
────୨ৎ──── ────୨ৎ──── ────୨ৎ────
❝ “𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎’𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐,” 𝙸 𝚜𝚊𝚢, 𝚜𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚑 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚙𝚎𝚝. “𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝. 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚖𝚎, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢 𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎.” ❞
📚 || 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧
⤷ buddy read with Ari, Lina, & Kelsey ♡
📱 || 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖
🏷️ || 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: ℍ𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣
📆 || 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝟡/𝟚𝟜/𝟚𝟝 - 𝟡/𝟚𝟡/𝟚𝟝
📃 || 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬
「 “Clio 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 her mom’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, 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.” 」
❝𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚠𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚐𝚑.❞
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❝𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚎. 𝙰𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚜 𝙸 𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜, 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚞𝚕𝚝.❞
ᴍʏ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: ★★★.75
ɢᴏᴏᴅʀᴇᴀᴅꜱ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: 𝟺.𝟶𝟼 ☆ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ
ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ: 🎃
ꜱᴘᴏᴏᴋɪᴇꜱ: 👻/5
ᴘᴀɪʀ ᴡɪᴛʜ: ᴠᴏᴅᴋᴀ & ᴄɪɢᴀʀᴇᴛᴛᴇꜱ 🚬
ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɪ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅ?: ✅
⊱ ────── {⋆ ‧₊˚♪𝄞 ⋆} ────── ⊰
lıllılı.ıllı.ılılıılıı.lllııılı.
ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: ᴅᴇᴍᴏɴꜱ — ɪᴍᴀɢɪɴᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴꜱ
0:55 ———♡——— 2:57
⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻
╭───
┆
╰⪼ ❛don’t get too close, it’s dark inside. it’s where my demons hide, it’s where my demons hide.❜
⊱ ────── {⋆ ‧₊˚♪𝄞 ⋆} ────── ⊰
❝𝙸𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚗? 𝙾𝚛 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝’𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝?❞
ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
🐍 ᴜɴʟɪᴋᴇᴀʙʟᴇ ꜰᴍᴄꜱ
🏚️ ʜᴀᴜɴᴛᴇᴅ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʀᴏᴘᴇ
🐍 ᴜɴʀᴇʟɪᴀʙʟᴇ ɴᴀʀʀᴀᴛᴏʀꜱ
🏚️ ꜱᴜᴘᴇʀɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟ ᴇʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ
🐍 ᴅʏꜱꜰᴜɴᴄᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟɪᴇꜱ
🏚️ ᴀ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ ᴀ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴛʀᴏᴘᴇ
⚠️TW: death of a parent, alcoholism, drug use, mental illness, emotional abuse, self harm
❝𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚝—𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚞𝚜, 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚏 𝚠𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚌, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚋𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚜, 𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚘𝚛 𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚘𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜, …❞
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💬 || 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
• If Rachel Harrison writes it, I’m damn sure going to read it. Since I found out my bubblegum horror queen was releasing Play Nice, it’s been one of my most anticipated releases of the year. However, it wasn’t what I expected…
• I hate to say I didn’t love it because usually all of Rachel Harrison’s books have been big hits with me. My biggest complaint: the pacing. If I wasn’t buddy reading this with Kelsey, Lina, & Ari, it would’ve taken me even longer to finish. I didn’t look up forward to picking this book up, which is such a disappointing feeling, especially when it’s one of your favorite authors inflicting this heartache. a whole lot of nothing happened until maybe 50%ish? And don’t get me started on the main character, Clio. I found her insufferable for most of the book until the end when homegirl finally got some self awareness.
• The creepy parts though were so well done. Now that was the Rachel Harrison I wanted, I just wish the whole book could’ve been like this instead of 75% slow burn family dysfunction with a sprinkle of demonic entities. I love when a book can truly scare me & even though Play Nice wasn’t exactly the scariest overall, I found myself getting chills whenever the demon came out to play… not nicely either.
• If you’re new to the horror genre, this would be a perfect book for you. All of Rachel Harrison’s books would be. I can’t rave enough about her writing, so I’ll let it slide that I didn’t love this one. Also a great book to read with your book club. I loved the thought provoking conversations it invoked with the girls. We did a lot of thinking, a lot of theorizing, & some hating from me & Ari. 🤣
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❝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗. 𝙸'𝚖 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜. 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚑𝚎? 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎? 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎.❞
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❝𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚍𝚖𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚎 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝. 𝙴𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚌𝚒𝚛𝚌𝚞𝚖𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚎𝚕𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚠𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚕 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐.❞
November 5, 2025
Viciously layered with brilliant symbolism and poignant themes. It is thoroughly creepy, yet scaredy cat approved. This is my favorite Rachel Harrison yet, and might just be her best!
If you’re not a horror reader - you can and absolutely should still read this. If you do love horror, what are you waiting for?
Play Nice is an unputdownable wild ride.
I related so much to the FMC, Clio. I found myself nodding along in agreement, laughing out loud, and empathizing with so much of her trauma and responses.
This book is layered in a way that I find so very satisfying. Some might miss what the author is saying on first read and enjoy this story as a fun, delicious, creepy ride. But when you look closer you’ll see that this book has a lot to say and it says it very well! This is one I’ll be rereading for sure!
I wish I had the eloquent words to really do this book justice, but I’m not nearly as smart as Rachel Harrison clearly is and nothing I could write would really express how layered and nuanced this book is.
READ IT!
p.s. this book is for the girls with sisters, blood or by choice.
p.p.s. I have more thoughts, especially after seeing Rachel Harrison speak during her book tour, but I’m going to add them here at the end in case you prefer to skip. There are no actual spoilers, but this way those who like to go into a book with as little details as possible can skip the next section.
On the topic of Clio and her un-likeability. I think a lot of readers are going to label her unlikeable. But here is the thing… the traits that make her unlikeable are what make her human, they aren’t actually “bad” traits they are just traits that society says make a woman undesirable. Clio’s traits are ones we wouldn’t blink twice about when applied to an MMC. Actually, the parallel and contrast between Clio and her father is an interesting example of just that.
On the depiction of the effects of childhood trauma. As someone with quite a bit of childhood trauma this was such a cathartic read. It was a spot on depiction that mirrored so much of my own experiences — a creepy yet very satisfying experience.
ALSO the demon - thats all I'll say but if you've read this and want to chat about that symbolism, I could write a dissertation on that!
5⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
If you’re not a horror reader - you can and absolutely should still read this. If you do love horror, what are you waiting for?
Play Nice is an unputdownable wild ride.
I related so much to the FMC, Clio. I found myself nodding along in agreement, laughing out loud, and empathizing with so much of her trauma and responses.
This book is layered in a way that I find so very satisfying. Some might miss what the author is saying on first read and enjoy this story as a fun, delicious, creepy ride. But when you look closer you’ll see that this book has a lot to say and it says it very well! This is one I’ll be rereading for sure!
I wish I had the eloquent words to really do this book justice, but I’m not nearly as smart as Rachel Harrison clearly is and nothing I could write would really express how layered and nuanced this book is.
READ IT!
p.s. this book is for the girls with sisters, blood or by choice.
p.p.s. I have more thoughts, especially after seeing Rachel Harrison speak during her book tour, but I’m going to add them here at the end in case you prefer to skip. There are no actual spoilers, but this way those who like to go into a book with as little details as possible can skip the next section.
On the topic of Clio and her un-likeability. I think a lot of readers are going to label her unlikeable. But here is the thing… the traits that make her unlikeable are what make her human, they aren’t actually “bad” traits they are just traits that society says make a woman undesirable. Clio’s traits are ones we wouldn’t blink twice about when applied to an MMC. Actually, the parallel and contrast between Clio and her father is an interesting example of just that.
On the depiction of the effects of childhood trauma. As someone with quite a bit of childhood trauma this was such a cathartic read. It was a spot on depiction that mirrored so much of my own experiences — a creepy yet very satisfying experience.
ALSO the demon - thats all I'll say but if you've read this and want to chat about that symbolism, I could write a dissertation on that!
5⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
August 4, 2025
DNF at 60%. I really tried to read this one but I found the main character just too insufferable. She’s 25 but acts like a spoiled teen. In the first few chapters I was immediately shown her character when she calls her dad and pretends to be emotionally distressed so that he will drive about 4 hours round trip to take her home. (No valid excuses either. She just wakes up the day she was gong to drive to her hometown and is like hehehe I know how to make it so I don’t have to drive, dad’s a sucker.)
She is constantly judging everyone and is disparaging to her friends then gets irritated and dismissive when she’s called out for her attitude. I kept thinking maybe she’d have some character growth, however, at 60% in the book she unironically told her sister that the world DOES in fact revolve around her.
Perhaps she does change or the last 40% of the book gets a lot more interesting. I was kind of interested in the house possession part but not enough to continue being in a first person perspective with this MC.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book
She is constantly judging everyone and is disparaging to her friends then gets irritated and dismissive when she’s called out for her attitude. I kept thinking maybe she’d have some character growth, however, at 60% in the book she unironically told her sister that the world DOES in fact revolve around her.
Perhaps she does change or the last 40% of the book gets a lot more interesting. I was kind of interested in the house possession part but not enough to continue being in a first person perspective with this MC.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book
November 8, 2025
"Our demons are ours and ours alone."
Rating - 4.5⭐
What a ride this was!!!🤯🥶 The story was gripping, the characters deeply flawed yet relatable, and the demon genuinely terrifying.
What to expect -
🐍Haunted house❎Possessed house✅
🐍Demon in the attic
🐍Dysfunctional family
🐍Sisterly bond
🐍Book within a book
🐍Creepy, unsettling vibes
🐍Flawed characters
Clio Barnes, influencer and stylist have always been the favorite child in the family - spoiled, materialistic, daddy's girl and the youngest of three sisters. But when her divorced mother dies and leaves behind their possessed childhood home to Clio and her sisters, she decides to renovate it for content and sell it for a good price. While her sisters and father claim their mom was unstable and that the house was never haunted, Clio barely remembers her childhood there, just the stories others told her. And when she returns to the house against their wishes, she begins to realize there might be some truth to her mother's words!!👀
Characters -
Clio is one of the most complex, layered and relatable characters I've read in a while. On the surface, she seems to have it all - wealth, recognition, fame, and freedom. And she spends her days at parties and launch events, avoiding commitment, love, and responsibility. But underneath that glossy influencer persona lies someone carrying a lot of unhealed wounds.
She grew up in what her mom described as a haunted house in her book, though her father and sisters insist it wasn’t. And when her mom dies, Clio is the only one who mourns her loss and wants to attend the funeral. Torn between her father’s version of events (that her mom was an addict and abuser) and her own fragmented memories, Clio’s inner turmoil grows as she returns to the house and starts experiencing the same horrors her mother once did.
Writing -
Rachel Harrison’s writing is deceptively simple yet incredibly sharp. Her style makes you fly through pages while still hitting you hard with emotional and social depth. I love how she blends coziness, humor, and relatability into horror while exploring heavier themes like childhood trauma, dysfunctional families, and the gaslighting of women.
Clio often uses humor to deflect, throwing subtle shade at the men around her, especially her father and I adored those moments.
She also dives deep into childhood trauma, showing how Clio and her sisters, caught in the chaos of divorce and misunderstanding, internalized their pain differently. The older sisters clung to resentment while Clio struggled with guilt and confusion. Watching them confront their memories, speak openly, and begin to heal was incredibly emotional. Their sisterly bond felt so real, messy, imperfect, and deeply human.
Horror -
Clio's mother, Alex, has written a book detailing her horrifying experiences in that house, and it is through her accounts that we first meet the demon in the attic, and the things she endured, both physically and mentally. And reading about some of those experiences sent chills down my spine, and it also gave this nostalgia of seeing a horror movie with an exorcism element to it (similar to the movies in the Conjuring universe).
And when Clio starts experiencing the same phenomena, things escalate quickly, to the point where I had to pause the audiobook (I did a mix of audio and ebook, and would highly recommend the audiobook cuz the narrator did a fine job!!) one night because I was too scared to continue past midnight😭🙈 Rachel definitely delivered on the creepy factor imo!!
Overall, if you want a horror story that’s eerie yet deeply human, with flawed characters, sisterly bonds, and sharp commentary on trauma and gender, you have to pick this up.
✨Pre-read -
Have been waiting to read this for Halloween, so here we go💜
Rating - 4.5⭐
What a ride this was!!!🤯🥶 The story was gripping, the characters deeply flawed yet relatable, and the demon genuinely terrifying.
What to expect -
🐍Haunted house❎Possessed house✅
🐍Demon in the attic
🐍Dysfunctional family
🐍Sisterly bond
🐍Book within a book
🐍Creepy, unsettling vibes
🐍Flawed characters
Clio Barnes, influencer and stylist have always been the favorite child in the family - spoiled, materialistic, daddy's girl and the youngest of three sisters. But when her divorced mother dies and leaves behind their possessed childhood home to Clio and her sisters, she decides to renovate it for content and sell it for a good price. While her sisters and father claim their mom was unstable and that the house was never haunted, Clio barely remembers her childhood there, just the stories others told her. And when she returns to the house against their wishes, she begins to realize there might be some truth to her mother's words!!👀
Characters -
Clio is one of the most complex, layered and relatable characters I've read in a while. On the surface, she seems to have it all - wealth, recognition, fame, and freedom. And she spends her days at parties and launch events, avoiding commitment, love, and responsibility. But underneath that glossy influencer persona lies someone carrying a lot of unhealed wounds.
She grew up in what her mom described as a haunted house in her book, though her father and sisters insist it wasn’t. And when her mom dies, Clio is the only one who mourns her loss and wants to attend the funeral. Torn between her father’s version of events (that her mom was an addict and abuser) and her own fragmented memories, Clio’s inner turmoil grows as she returns to the house and starts experiencing the same horrors her mother once did.
"Everyone in my life wants me to behave in a very specific way that’s beneficial to them, and as soon as I deviate from their expectations, it’s an issue. As soon as I act out of whatever role they cast me in in their lives, it’s somehow my fault."Though she was once the “favorite child,” Clio has always been emotionally closed off, masking her pain with humor and indifference. Her parents’ toxic relationship and her father’s constant gaslighting of her mother have deeply affected her. She fears that if she shows vulnerability, people will call her “crazy” too, and abandon her. And I loved seeing her growth. By the end, she learns to lean on others, let people in, and find strength in vulnerability.
Writing -
Rachel Harrison’s writing is deceptively simple yet incredibly sharp. Her style makes you fly through pages while still hitting you hard with emotional and social depth. I love how she blends coziness, humor, and relatability into horror while exploring heavier themes like childhood trauma, dysfunctional families, and the gaslighting of women.
Clio often uses humor to deflect, throwing subtle shade at the men around her, especially her father and I adored those moments.
"I think it’s just easier to call someone crazy than it is to admit that they could be right. Easier to call someone crazy than to confront the nuance of their circumstance, than to accept the callous cruelty that exists in the world we live in, the evil out there that revels in our suffering."And honestly, this line hits hard. How often have women been dismissed as “crazy” simply for expressing emotion, pain, or anger? Rachel tackles this misogyny and gaslighting head-on through Clio’s character, and it’s so well done.
She also dives deep into childhood trauma, showing how Clio and her sisters, caught in the chaos of divorce and misunderstanding, internalized their pain differently. The older sisters clung to resentment while Clio struggled with guilt and confusion. Watching them confront their memories, speak openly, and begin to heal was incredibly emotional. Their sisterly bond felt so real, messy, imperfect, and deeply human.
Horror -
Clio's mother, Alex, has written a book detailing her horrifying experiences in that house, and it is through her accounts that we first meet the demon in the attic, and the things she endured, both physically and mentally. And reading about some of those experiences sent chills down my spine, and it also gave this nostalgia of seeing a horror movie with an exorcism element to it (similar to the movies in the Conjuring universe).
And when Clio starts experiencing the same phenomena, things escalate quickly, to the point where I had to pause the audiobook (I did a mix of audio and ebook, and would highly recommend the audiobook cuz the narrator did a fine job!!) one night because I was too scared to continue past midnight😭🙈 Rachel definitely delivered on the creepy factor imo!!
Overall, if you want a horror story that’s eerie yet deeply human, with flawed characters, sisterly bonds, and sharp commentary on trauma and gender, you have to pick this up.
✨Pre-read -
Have been waiting to read this for Halloween, so here we go💜
October 21, 2025
Rachel Harrison is on the fast track to becoming one of my favourite authors.
October 14, 2025
I loved, loved, loved that the MC and her rancid vibes were outclassed by her family's rancider vibes while none of them were actually really bad people, that stuff felt so real. Normally there's a certain lightness to Harrison's writing which wasn't there in this one. There's a wry tone to the humor and a lot of bitterness which was surprisingly well done.
Harrison has been on my auto-add-to-TBR list for a while and she's solidified her position on that list even further with this title.
4.5 rounded up.
Harrison has been on my auto-add-to-TBR list for a while and she's solidified her position on that list even further with this title.
4.5 rounded up.
September 27, 2025
After her estranged mother unexpectedly dies, Clio discovers that she still owned their childhood home. The thing is, it is still occupied….. supposedly…. by a demon. Her sisters want no part of it as their time in the home with their mother was nothing but negative experiences. Clio on the other hand, wants to fix it up and resell it. As she’s in the process of cleaning it out she stumbles across her mother‘s fictionalized(supposedly) account of the haunting. The book is something neither her nor her sisters have read. Clio takes it upon herself to finally take the time to read it. The more she reads the novel and spends time in the house it does appear her mother might have been correct. Is she losing her mind or is there actually a demon in the house?
I really enjoyed seeing all of this unfold and especially liked to read the book within the book. Sometimes books get bogged down when they try and do this, but in this case, it was just enough to keep the plot momentum moving forward. The dynamic of Clio’s family fit in to the chaos of the novel. The horror elements were on the light side and nothing OTT. This was just one of those novels that sucked me right in. And for once the influencer aspect did not bother me. Shocking!
I’ve read a few of Harrison’s previous novels and so far this is def my favorite.
I really enjoyed seeing all of this unfold and especially liked to read the book within the book. Sometimes books get bogged down when they try and do this, but in this case, it was just enough to keep the plot momentum moving forward. The dynamic of Clio’s family fit in to the chaos of the novel. The horror elements were on the light side and nothing OTT. This was just one of those novels that sucked me right in. And for once the influencer aspect did not bother me. Shocking!
I’ve read a few of Harrison’s previous novels and so far this is def my favorite.
September 27, 2025
copy pasted from How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (which I also didn't like) with the constantly bickering siblings & parental grief. this one was just sans the creepy puppet 🙃
October 16, 2025
wouahhh c’était troooop bien je m’y attendais pas?? et comme tout bon film d’horreur la fin pue la merde 😍😍 obsessed
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