Play Nice – Rachel Harrison (2025) Book Review

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“Remembering is not always a light shone into darkness. Sometimes it’s a claw reaching out and dragging you back.”

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Rachel Harrison has built a reputation for blending horror with sharp character work, often conjuring stories that are just as interested in the people at their core as the monsters lurking behind the pages. Play Nice continues that trend, taking the familiar haunted house recipe and reimagining it as a story about family, memory, and the wounds that never fully heal. 

When Clio inherits her childhood home after her mother’s death, she and her sisters find themselves hauled into a supernatural mystery tethered to a malevolent presence lurking within its walls. What follows is a gothic horror novel brimming with family tensions, buried resentments, and questions about how much of ourselves is tied to the memories we hold onto. 

But, does Play Nice deliver on its compelling premise? Join us at What We Reading for our book review of Play Nice by Rachel Harrison to find out if this haunted house tale deserves to be on your TBR pile! 

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Date Published: 2025

Author: Rachel Harrison

Genre: Horror, Gothic

Pages: 325

Goodreads Rating: 3.88/5

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Play Nice Summary

Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, yet beneath her glossy veneer, she harbours a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After her parents’ messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her two sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember, nor what the court believes when the girls are taken from their mother. 

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 begins, Clio begins to realise there may be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing the ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation. 

What Worked

One of the things I loved most about Play Nice is that it isn’t just your run-of-the-mill haunted house horror novel. Rachel Harrison takes the familiar framework of a contemporary gothic tale and spins it to explore a messy, dysfunctional family dynamic, with the relationships between Clio, her sisters, their families and friends, providing some of the book’s strongest moments. 

Clio is a particularly refreshing protagonist. Rather than presenting readers with another morally upright or immediately likeable heroine, Harrison leans into Clio’s more unlikeable traits. She’s spoiled, entitled, and all-too-aware of it, embracing the youngest sibling vibe in a way that is both off-putting and hugely entertaining. 

This helps make her a hugely readable lead, especially as her personality is constantly clashing with her sisters: the overly-responsible eldest sibling Leda and Daphne, who is constantly stuck playing the peacemaker. These relationships all provide an extra layer of emotional tension that often proves more engaging than the supernatural plot in play. 

The novel’s central antagonist is also solidly memorable. Instead of relying on a more conventional haunting, Harrison introduces a demon that feasts on memories and experiences, gradually peeling away pieces of someone’s identity. 

The concept of the demon being driven not just by hunger but also by boredom lends it an unusual personality and helps it stick out from other horror villains. Its desire to be entertained adds an unpredictable quality to the threat and reinforces the novel’s focus on memory, identity, and personal history. 

What Didn’t

My biggest gripe with Play Nice is that, despite its label as a horror story, it’s hardly ever genuinely frightening or unsettling. Harrison is far more interested in exploring family, trauma, memory, and the experiences of women who aren’t listened to than she is in building sustained terror. While there are some decently disturbing images, the novel lacks the suspense and tension that make it truly memorable.

The pacing also becomes an issue toward the end of the novel. For most of its runtime, the story unfolds at a steady pace, balancing the character dynamics with the growing supernatural threat. However, the climactic confrontation with the demon feels crammed into the final pages. 

After spending so much time establishing the house, the sisters, and the nature of the haunting, the resolution arrives so suddenly that it only feels rushed. The ending lacks some of that payoff that the preceding build-up appears to promise, giving the impression that the novel suddenly catapults towards its finale. 

Verdict

Overall, Play Nice is a contemporary horror book that delivers far more on the strength of its characters and themes than on its ability to scare. Rachel Harrison takes the familiar premise of a haunted house setup and uses it to weave together a story about family, memory, and the lingering impact of trauma, with Clio and her sisters providing some of the most compelling moments in the book. Their messy, believable relationships lend the novel an emotional core that keeps us turning the pages, even when the horror itself isn’t at its max. 

That being said, anyone hoping for a genuinely scary ride may come away disappointed by Play Nice. The novel hardly builds the sort of sustained tension that makes the best horror novels unforgettable, and the rushed confrontation stops the story from fully capitalising on some of the groundwork Harrison laid out. 

Nevertheless, Play Nice remains an entertaining and thoughtful read with a memorable protagonist and an intriguing supernatural premise. It might not be one of the all-time greats in my opinion, but it’s a solid example of character-driven horror that showcases how Rachel Harrison’s real strength stems from the people she creates as much as the monsters she unleashes. 

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Our Rating: 3.5/5

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