Play Nice By Rachel Harrison Spooky or Not?
What would you do to hide your children from a haunted house? Would you give up all custody to try to stay away? In Rachel Harrison’s Play Nice, you find Clio dealing with her mother’s choice after her death, and also the house she left behind.
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 parents’ 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.
I was really hoping this book would be scary. It’s that time of the year when I want spooky and chilling vibes. When I picked this book, I had hoped it would be a little scarier than it turned out to be. I loved the idea of a haunted house, but not just any haunted house, one that is haunted by a demon. I wanted things to move and creepy happenings, but I didn’t get that. You do get some demon activity, but not as much as I was hoping for. The writing, however, was phenomenal! I loved the characters. Clio is so selfish, but I also enjoyed her unraveling. Her constant mood swings also really helped with the overall theme of the book. So while the book wasn’t exactly what I wanted, I did really enjoy it.
