Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
on September 9, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Horror, Fiction / Occult & Supernatural
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
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Rachel Harrison’s Play Nice is the perfect October read—a blend of haunted house chills, messy family drama, and buried childhood trauma that comes together in a moody, atmospheric story you won’t want to put down.
Clio Louise Barnes appears to have it all: a stylish life in New York, a thriving influencer career, and a carefully curated image. But when her estranged mother, Alex, dies unexpectedly, Clio’s picture-perfect world begins to unravel. She’s forced to return to her hometown—and to the house where her worst childhood memories live.
It’s the same house her mother once claimed was possessed by a demon. Her sisters remember things differently, though, and the courts agreed their mother had lost touch with reality long ago. But when Clio inherits the house and decides to renovate it for social media content, she discovers that some doors shouldn’t be reopened. Strange noises, cryptic markings, and a heavily annotated copy of her mother’s tell-all book begin to blur the line between memory and madness. As Clio digs into the past, she’s forced to question everything she thought she knew about her family—and herself.
My Thoughts
This one struck the perfect October reading mood for me. The combination of a haunted house, complicated family dynamics, and unresolved childhood trauma made it both eerie and emotional. From the very first chapter, I was hooked.
Clio is such an interesting protagonist—flawed, self-aware, and deeply affected by her past, even as she tries to pretend she’s moved on. Watching her return to her childhood home and try to rationalize the strange things happening there was both unsettling and addictive. I kept flipping pages, needing to know whether the haunting was real or if the darkness lived only in Clio’s memories.
The story reminded me of Home Before Dark by Riley Sager, with its mix of psychological tension, family secrets, and a house that feels like a living, breathing character. The atmosphere is perfectly eerie without being over the top, and the emotional undercurrent gives the horror real weight.
Play Nice is, in my opinion, Rachel Harrison’s best story yet—sharp, chilling, and layered with just the right amount of heart. I couldn’t read it fast enough, and it’s one I’ll be recommending to anyone looking for a spooky, character-driven read this fall.
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