Just Read: PLAY NICE by Rachel Harrison
I will always tear into a new Rachel Harrison book the very second it arrives (or, in the case of PLAY NICE, when she delivers it *into* my greedy reading hands and I do my *very best* to not devour it in one sitting). I always enjoy Rachel’s wry, feminist voice and bold take on horror stories that speak to the feral, “unlikeable” among us, and PLAY NICE now sits in my Top 3 Rachel Harrison titles—right alongside CACKLE and BLACK SHEEP.
With its haunted house, familial trauma, and sisterly squabbling, PLAY NICE is reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House and How to Sell a Haunted House, sitting safely within genre staples, yet with the sharp humor and culture critique that gives Harrison’s newest its own vivid edge.
So, if you enjoy haunted‑house thrillers layered with feminist commentary, unreliable memory, or a haunting that might be all too real, PLAY NICE is for you!
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' 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 her 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, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
PLAY NICE is coming from Rachel Harrison and Berkley in September, and available now for preorder!
