Happy Release Day!
Congrats Rachel
on release today of
Play Nice!
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Thriller, Paranormal, 336 pages
Published September 9, 2025, by Berkley
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 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.
My thoughts about Play Nice ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First lines—"We're coming up on midnight. The room is loud, everyone champagne drunk, ignorant of volume, and wow, the air in here is intense, all hot breath and designer perfume."
I didn't know much about this book going into it. I have never read this author but the cover intrigued me and the synopsis really grabbed me as well. So I dove in! And man, what a ride this story was! Death, family dysfunction, and then of course, there is the haunted house/demon part of the story. Is it real? Or a manifestation of mental illness?
I raced through this story while also having to put it aside at times to let the demon calm down. Or maybe it was me that needed to take a break from the intensity. Either way, this was a definitely a page-turner that made me pause and take a breathe after reading the final sentence. Play Nice was thoroughly entertaining, while also a little bit creepy.
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Praise for Play Nice
"Play Nice packs a prickly punch by cleverly nesting its possession story within another kind of familial and familiar possession. While the demon at the center of it all terrorizes the women in Clio's family when they are most vulnerable, the book is scary because there's more than one kind of demon."—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World
"I raced through Rachel Harrison's Play Nice, drawn in by the relatable protagonist and the irresistible blend of horror, mystery and family drama. Play Nice is a great fit for anyone who enjoyed The Good House or Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House, taking the reader on a spooky journey through the haunted spaces from the past that plague us all."—Tananarive Due, Bram Stoker Award winner, The Reformatory
"Play Nice is as fun as a journey into darkness and family trauma can get. Rachel Harrison crafts a uniquely spirited haunting that’s both ruthlessly frightening and overflowing with heart."—Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Lucky Day and Bury Your Gays
“Readers will be riveted…As is typical of a Harrison book, Play Nice takes a horror trope—this time, the haunted house—and turned it on its head with a fun, feminist twist. Horror readers who are not familiar with Harrison need to get on board, and this book could be her breakout hit.”—Booklist (starred review)
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About the author
Rachel 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. ~ Goodreads
Connect with Rachel
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