Thank you Libro.fm / Penguin Random House Audio for the ALC and Berkley Pub, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Play Nice in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Berkley / PRH Audio
Published: September 9, 2025
Summary:
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.
My thoughts:
With each book I pick up by Rachel Harrison, I become more of a fan. This is the 4th book of hers I’ve read and I just seem to fall more in love with her writing. I think it’s because I love the way she tackles horror – I’d definitely put these in the horror lite category, which is just fine for me!
This is the perfect book for Spooky Season, with the haunted house, demon and so much family dysfunction. It’s definitely a bit darker than the previous books I’ve read by Harrison, though that’s not to say that there isn’t a bit of comedy thrown in here and there. I also loved the book-within-a-book trope – it added to an already engaging read and of course when memories are at play, I’m all in!
I’ve been on a role with books that deal with trauma and I loved how Harrison played around with it here. It’s both creepy and unsettling, with some heartwarming parts as well, and I could not have loved it more!
Audio thoughts:
I find Rachel Harrison’s books translate really well onto audio. And this one, narrated by Alex Finke and Natasha Soudek, was just fantastic! They both do an amazing job bringing this story to life. Alex really brought out Clio’s sarcastic nature so effortlessly and Natasha, who voiced the book Clio’s mom wrote, did so with just the right emotion. Once I started this one, I could not put it down!
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