{"id":4538,"date":"2025-10-22T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4538"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:05:00","slug":"play-nice-by-rachel-harrison-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4538","title":{"rendered":"Play Nice by Rachel Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play Nice<\/strong> by Rachel Harrison<\/a>
on September 9, 2025
Genres:<\/strong> Fiction \/ Friendship<\/a>, Fiction \/ Horror<\/a>, Fiction \/ Occult & Supernatural<\/a>
Pages:<\/strong> 336
Format:<\/strong> Hardcover<\/a>
Buy on Amazon<\/a>
Goodreads<\/a> <\/p>\n

Rachel Harrison\u2019s Play Nice<\/em> is the perfect October read\u2014a blend of haunted house chills, messy family drama, and buried childhood trauma that comes together in a moody, atmospheric story you won\u2019t want to put down.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s picture-perfect world begins to unravel. She\u2019s forced to return to her hometown\u2014and to the house where her worst childhood memories live.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019t be reopened. Strange noises, cryptic markings, and a heavily annotated copy of her mother\u2019s tell-all book begin to blur the line between memory and madness. As Clio digs into the past, she\u2019s forced to question everything she thought she knew about her family\u2014and herself.<\/p>\n

My Thoughts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Clio is such an interesting protagonist\u2014flawed, self-aware, and deeply affected by her past, even as she tries to pretend she\u2019s 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\u2019s memories.<\/p>\n

The story reminded me of Home Before Dark<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Play Nice<\/em> is, in my opinion, Rachel Harrison\u2019s best story yet\u2014sharp, chilling, and layered with just the right amount of heart. I couldn\u2019t read it fast enough, and it\u2019s one I\u2019ll be recommending to anyone looking for a spooky, character-driven read this fall.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The post Play Nice by Rachel Harrison<\/a> appeared first on Book Nook Buzz<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison on September 9, 2025 Genres: Fiction \/ Friendship, Fiction \/ Horror, Fiction \/ Occult & Supernatural Pages: 336 Format: Hardcover Buy on Amazon Goodreads Rachel Harrison\u2019s Play Nice is the perfect October read\u2014a blend of haunted house chills, messy family drama, and buried childhood trauma that comes together in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}