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Play Nice

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Play Nice

By: Rachel Harrison
Narrated by: Katie Beudert
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About this listen

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 novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.

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.

©2025 Rachel Harrison (P)2025 W. F. Howes Ltd.
Horror Haunted Scary
All stars
Most relevant
Once again, Rachel Harrison does an amazing job making this story feel real. Even despite the central focus of some supernatural threat, they’re put in the context of modern life and anxieties we all face. Life is too busy these days to allow someone to drop everything else just because there’s something spooky going on! This is what I love about her books and this one follows that formula.

That approach is really refreshing when we’re talking about werewolves, or witches, or freaky cults, but when we start to talk about haunted houses, it’s well-trodden ground already. Haunted house stories have long explored personal trauma through domestic spaces, and as a result this one feels less fresh than Cackle or Such Sharp Teeth, where Harrison’s perspective felt more surprising. It’s not that the themes don’t work — they do — but they tread more familiar ground so for me it didn’t feel quite as fresh.

That said, the character writing is so good! The world feels so real, so believable, so lived in – all because every single character has a clear and distinct personality.

The protagonist is flawed and believable, and while she isn’t always likeable, she feels real. I cared about her journey, even if the stakes never felt especially high.

The pacing is a little slow, but the resolution is quietly effective. It avoids the obvious route and instead lands on something more empowering and reflective, leaving behind a message that feels applicable beyond the page: that sometimes the healthiest choice is to let things go and walk away. The book also leaves a few minor questions unanswered, which felt intentional rather than frustrating.

A generous 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. Not my favourite book ever, but I did enjoy it. It was thoughtful, well-written, and absolutely worth reading.

Haunting and full of spirit

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