Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

Play Nice

by Rachel Harrison

Release Date: September 9, 2025

2025 Berkley

Hardcover ARC; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593642573

ASIN:  ‎ B0DPYGZJ6Y

Audiobook: B0DVBM3858

Genre: Fiction / Horror / Gothic

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

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.

 

My Thoughts

Play Nice is one of those books I was excited to read because of the gothic setting, the haunted house, the possession, and well, it's Rachel Harrison. I have always enjoyed her books and was looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, I did not resonate with the main character, Clio, and although I did like the haunted house aspects of the book, I just couldn't warm up to the MC. 

 

So let's about what I did like first. I really enjoyed the haunted house aspect of this book as well as the family dynamics that existed due to the trauma of what happened during the sisters' childhood. The two older sisters have spent their lives trying to forget what happened to them and had no interest in reconnecting with their mother, Alex. Alex had written a book about what happened, and you pretty much spent the entirely of the book wondering if what she had written actually happened or was Alex an unreliable narrator.  But I loved those book entries included in the book as I found them to be the most interesting part of the book, and the annotations were pure gold. Unfortunately, while there was some stuff that happened to Clio when she was in the house, the level of tension just wasn't kept up and I got lost in Clio's personal relationships and her attitude about everything which threw me out of the story constantly, to the point where it got frustrating. I wish the author had focused more on the haunting and less on Clio's behaviour.  I just felt like the balance wasn't there in this one.

 

And now let's get to Clio. Not a fan. While I don't have to like a character, I do have to relate to her behaviour, and in this instance, I just couldn't. She was selfish, was egotistical, and was so self-centered it turned me off.  And the comments she made about her sexual partners...? It's okay to be certain about what you like and don't like, but you don't have to be a bitch about it, you know? Then she would whine about how her family treated her, then go out and treat other people exactly the same way.  What bothered me the most was her refusal to even acknowledge her sisters' trauma when they were young, making excuses for them, even going so far as to accuse them of being melodramatic, not listening to anything they had to say. Honestly, when you behave like a child, you get treated like a child. And when you read the book, you will see how her behaviour is so childish. I just wanted to tell her love interest to run while he could. So, after all of this, I preferred the sisters to Clio and wished the POV had been one of theirs. 

 

Verdict

Play Nice was definitely not my favourite book from this author. It had an interesting concept, and there were some creepy moments for sure. The author kept you guessing if it was real or not by having an unreliable narrator in the form of Clio's mother and having Clio behave the way she did was supposed to support that unreliable narrator bit, but Clio's part did not work for me at all because she was so annoying. There were definitely some interesting moments, and I absolutely loved the interactions between the family members as that was one of the things that felt real, but together, it didn't quite work for me. That being said, I am not discouraging anyone from reading this book as this author is still and automatic read for me. The way the book ended, I am wondering if there will be a sequel; hopefully, it will not be from Clio's POV though as I don't think I could handle that again.