so so much fun. wry humor with witty insight into the literal and metaphorical demons that plague us...albeit, the line differentiating the two in this book are rather blurred.

I really, really enjoyed this book! The story of three sisters and a twisted childhood, that has more than one version, depending on who you ask. This story is about Clio, Leda, and Daphne and their childhood of growing up part time in a haunted house with their mother. This story dives into the after effects of those experiences when their mother dies and old wounds are reopened.

This story had some really great characters!!! I felt like I could totally understand everyone’s motivations and why they did/said the things they did throughout. This made it so easy to just fall into the story and just keep going! Then when the creepy AF, like I was reading this poolside and I was still scared, hearing noises, haunted house activities started up it was like full steam ahead! I couldn’t stop! Then to top it off the backdrop of calling people ‘crazy’ or whatever they believe or are doing is ‘crazy’ because they don’t understand it, agree with it, or any other reason that they don’t support it and smashing that word ‘crazy’ and proving those people are wrong and can’t admit it. Love IT! We need more acceptance in this world, more open thinking. To accept that sometimes you are wrong to take that fact gracefully and accept it. It’s okay to be wrong and change your mind, views, perceptions. I love Harrison’s writing and stories! I can’t wait to read the rest of them that I haven’t gotten to yet!!!!!

Readers of Rachel Harrison may be surprised at the darker tone of this book. Harrison is known for tackling horror with allegory and nuance, and she has always done well at bringing much-needed levity to her books, making the medicine go down more easily. Play Nice, however, is…let’s say “different”.

The family dynamic is interesting as always. Harrison is fantastic at writing believable families that have dimension and natural chemistry. Still, I’m not exaggerating when I say that 95% of the interactions between family in this book are just…depressing.

I think what she was going for was showing the ugliness brought out of traumatized people while grieving a subject of their trauma. And, if that’s the story you want to go with, then that’s fine, but there are still injections of levity throughout that come across as inauthentic at best, and distractingly shoehorned at worst. It’s a case of emotional whiplash, which made this one longer to get through when usually I could finish a Rachel Harrison book cover to cover in one sitting.

All of that being said, the confusing tone of the book was my only real hang-up on it. As said, the characters are well done, the story is simple but interesting, character growth is fantastic at letting people stay in gray areas and being ok with accepting that, and the scares were good. Well, they were good when they were there.

Much of the book the reader is left wondering if the demon is real, or if this is a case of heretidarial insanity, etc. etc. We do get a solid confirmation by the end of the book of what’s going on here, but Harrison is so good with subtlety when it comes to her monsters (internal or not), that it was weird to see the horror elements battling against the family drama at the center of the story.

That being said, my favorite parts of this were getting to read the book-within-a-book that has her mother’s annotations in it. That was the Rachel Harrison book I was expecting, so I was disappointed when we only got half of the fictional book before the rest of it was burned up. I don’t want to come off as cheesy, but there was LITERALLY a fantastic and intriguing book trying to break out of this.

Out of all of her works, I don’t think anything can ever beat Black Sheep in my mind, a nearly flawless book that I can’t stop recommending to people. It’s not fair to compare an author’s work to what you consider their magnum opus, but it’s frustrating to know how amazing this book could have been. Sadly, I don’t even know who to recommend it to. Who is the audience? Drama seekers may get turned off by the random supernatural occurrences, and vice versa, horror fans will be left scratching their heads for not…being scared.

I’m glad I read it, it kept me interested as I read, and I wanted to keep learning more and more about what would happen. However, as I said, my heart lies with the book-within-a-book sections, which I will defend are the strongest elements. If we ever get a companion novel that’s the annotated infamous book, or even a story told from the past through Alexandra’s eyes, I’ll be signing on as fast as I can.

Loved this! Relatively low on the horror, but high on the humor, the relationships, and the character development. A really poignant, funny, suspenseful look at the ways wounds fester in families, and the horror of realizing just what the people closest to us really think.

Nobody writes millennial women losing their grip like Rachel Harrison. And Play Nice? It’s her most razor-sharp gut punch yet. A haunted house horror story disguised as a renovation influencer’s next big project, this book has interior design, inherited trauma, family secrets, and demon possession all fighting for center stage. It’s creepy, cathartic, and oddly funny in the way only Harrison can deliver. Think The Haunting of Hill House meets HGTV with a heavy pour of generational dread. I devoured it.

I like the book excerpts within the novel. I feel bad for Roy and all the other occultists but ESPECIALLY for Alexandra, please give that woman a break. Good atmosphere and pacing, I just found Clio to be a tad bit too infuriating to enjoy living in her head

I really enjoyed this one! I love a good haunted house story and this one definitely came through. It wasn’t scary to me, but it still had that dark, creepy vibe. I connected deeply with Clio and found myself rooting for her. The story dives into family trauma and blurs the line between perception and reality, making it both raw and deeply emotional. It kept me hooked from start to finish with just the right amount of suspense. (4.5/5)

Play Nice follows Clio who has a secret…she grew up in a haunted house. Her mother Alex claimed that the house is possessed by Demon. No one really believed her. When her mother passes away the house goes to Clio and her sisters. Her sisters want nothing to do with the house. But Clio wants to fix it up and sell it. The more time that Clio spends in the house the more she starts to believe that the house is actually possessed. Soon further truth are revealed and Clio’s who perception changes.

Rachel Harrison is one of my go to horror authors. I typically really enjoy her books. Unfortunately this one was a bit of a miss for me. It had How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix mixed with Home Before Dark by Riley Sager vibes. I didn’t really find this book all that scary. I also found the romance on this book a bit distracting and unneeded. I think because I have high expectations for this author because I typically really like her books, this one just fell really flat for me. I do suggest this author though her books are usually pretty wild.

Thank you, Rachel Harrison and Berkley for the ARC of this book this comes out September 9!

I just finished Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Clio Barnes' life is glamorous. A successful fashion influencer and stylist in NYC, a living family including her two older sisters, a father who would do anything for her. And then her estranged mother dies, leaving her and her sisters ownership of the house she swore was haunted. Clio decides this is an opportunity, she's watched the DIY videos, has a healthy dose of skepticism, and is ready to document a full home renovation. What she is not ready for are all the memories to come back, and how that makes her question everything she was sure she knew.

Bias confession, I love Rachel Harrison's books. All of them. This one may just have become my favorite. I read it in one sitting, unable to walk away from the hot mess that is the Barnes family. Clio is an amazing disaster-- selfish, spoiled, childish-- while also possessing a refreshing self awareness. This book has a book within the book, and I would give anything to read the book that Clio's mom wrote about the demonic possession of the house. As per usual, Harrison tackles more than just spooky stories, she brings a sharp whit, and moments of levity that underscore the horrors in the novel. Clio doesn't have to just face down a demon, she needs to face down the loss of her entire sense of self-- if she can't trust her family, or her own memories, who can she trust?

Shout out to almost all of Harrison's books taking place in NJ at some point or another. Anyone who has ever lived in NJ knows how beautifully weird it is.

This is an incredible play on family trauma and abuse, so well illustrated through a generational possession. Putting the damage front and center makes this book an emotional powerhouse, and one sure to be a favorite with horror readers of all kinds.

4.5 stars

Clio Louise Barnes is a stylist and influencer, living a fab life in NYC. When she was a child her parents went through an acrimonious divorce and Alex, mother to Clio and her older sisters Leda and Daphne moved them into a home that Alex claimed was haunted by a demon. Alex even wrote a book about it, an AMITYVILLE HORROR sort of the thing that all three girls have been forbidden from reading. Of course, everyone thought Alex was nuts and the courts revoked her custody; the girls had little contact with Alex afterward.

Now Alex has died and it turns out she still owns the house in Edgewood Drive, in fact she died there. Though her sisters don’t want to revisit this scene of so much childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity to create house flipping content. However, during the process she finds an annotated copy of the book that her mother left for her and she finds that maybe her mother wasn’t crazy after all.

So, I’ve read and enjoyed Rachel Harrison before, but this is my absolute favorite of her books; she knocked it out of the park her, and if you’ve liked her earlier works RUN get a copy of this. It’s a great haunted house story and a wonderful story about family, who we love and why and what happens when they fail us. I’m a little too old to completely identify with Rachel, but most people will likely see themselves in one of the sisters, and both their mom and dad are well drawn characters too. Plus a bit of a romance, which usually I don’t love but it works here. 4.5 stars may be a little high and, perhaps on reflection I might lower it to 4, since 4.5 stars means 5 stars, but I’m comfortable with the 4.5 stars for now. Highly recommended.

I did not particularly care for the voice of the narrator in this book. Her inner thoughts were kind of allover and not one I enjoyed the story through.

Hooray! Another fun and creative horror from Harrison. A demon haunted house horror at that, even better. This is almost like 3 stories in 1. You've got present day; what happens in the past as told through the book; and what actually happened during the time of the book. It was a little confusing to keep track at first but this story is so fast-paced you just keep barreling through. Clio is a piece of work. I don't like her but at least you get to see all the ugly sides of her family as well. We all have ugliness. Keep writing Harrison, you're my favorite horror author. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

So so good. Harrison always does a great job of balancing humor with serious topics through the horror lens. This one might just be my favorite of hers - she does a great job of diving into the fear, alienation, and intense horror of being labelled the 'crazy woman'.

This is my favorite Rachel Harrison book since Such Sharp Teeth. I continue to enjoy how Harrison explores issues that are distinct to women through the lens of horror. This book definitely delved into family difficulties, the way women are gaslit and not believed about their experiences, and the perils of putting your entire life out for the world. Also, not for nothing, but the book had some scary, genuinely unnerving aspects, both supernatural and not.

A new Rachel Harrison book, yes please! If you want a spooky read haunted house story with character that are just as haunted this is the book for you! I truly enjoyed this one and would recommend to anyone that would listen!

5/5

I don't normally go for paranormal stories, and I didn't realize that's what this one was (I thought it might be the kind where the characters think it's paranormal in nature but then it turns out to be regular people behind eveything), so this one wasn't totally my thing, but I do think the suspense and creepy-crawly vibes were well done! It definitely creeped me out, especially the messages that appeared, and it got my heart pounding a few times.

Harrison's collective of work is uneven for me; I love some of it; some of it lets me down, but I keep trying her! This title falls somewhere in the middle. All of the characters were a little flat, and some of them with the most interesting potential were brief. The main character was completely unlikeable and because of this, I never had a moment when I was really invested or scared by the demon. I'm not a reader who needs to be terrified to enjoy a horror story, but I do like to feel some feelings about the characters; I'd particularly like to feel some concern for their wellbeing. I didn't have that experience here. I enjoyed the family dynamic with dad and mom maybe not being who the kids were told they were. Maybe if that storyline had been a little more focused then I would have been drawn in. By the end, the main character had a moment of clarity, but it was too late at that point and I was left feeling as if it was tenuous at best.

Clio Barnes and her sisters Daphne and Leda inherit a haunted house when their mom dies. A demonic house, actually. Or was it? After her parents divorced, the sisters moved in with their mom to a house that her mother eventually claimed was inhabited by a demon. She even wrote a book about it. When the sisters inherit it, Clio decides to fix it up and flip it, against the wishes of her father and sisters. They all claim her mother was lying about the demon. Clio was young and doesn't remember much about it - only what her family has told her and what her mother claimed.

Despite it being about a demon house, the fights and squabbles among the family members feel realistic. Clio, the youngest of the sisters and the most spoiled, is a frustrating character because she seems so real - from the the influencer fakeness and partying lifestyle to her bad choices in dating. Even the house has its own personality, as though it is a character in the book as well.

Frankly, I would read anything Rachel Harrison writes, even if it's about something that sounds ridiculous. But this book was right up my alley. A haunted house, a demon, and a dysfunctional family. What more is there to love?

I gave this book a 5/5 ⭐️! Wow, this book was one of the first books that I’ve read that actually terrified me. I was so scared and I felt like there were some points where I had to stop reading it. The story was well written and I love how every character had their own personality and you could see it. I literally felt like I was watching a scary movie! The writing and atmosphere of this book left me speechless! This was a great horror book!