A new take on haunted houses
Review or Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Published: September 9, 2025 by Berkley
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Synopsis:
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.
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 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.
Rating:
Review:
This book had all of the things! Clio has been told a particular narrative about her mother for her entire life. She was so young when they became estranged that she has very few memories of her own. But she knows that her mother was crazy and unstable and that she was injured because of her mother. She knows that her mother wrote a book about being plagued by demons but has never read it. Then her mother dies and Clio and her sisters inherit the house. For reasons she can’t quite explain Clio is drawn to the house and to the book, wanting to know the full story.
This book was so spooky. I had chills, I had the creeps, I gasped out loud, and I hesitated when walking by dark doorways. I absolutely loved it and honestly I don’t think I can find a single thing wrong with it. It takes the haunted house narrative and turns it on its head. What if a haunting is both the cause and the solution to healing your childhood trauma? What if your mother wasn’t the monster that you were told? What if she was?
I was so invested in Clio’s journey of discovery that I read this book in one sitting. I simply couldn’t put it down. I haven’t read any of Rachel’s Harrison’s early work but it’s on my TBR list now. I can’t wait to see if all of her books are this good.