Play Nice
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🪦 Horror 🎤 Dual Narration 🏚️ Haunted House
💔 Family Loss 📸 Influencer FMC 🔥 Romance Subplot
Synopsis
When Clio, a successful online influencer, discovers her estranged mother has passed away in their childhood home, she is alone in wishing to attend the service. Her two sisters refuse to go back to the house that haunts their memories and beg her not to go. Stubborn as she is, Clio rekindles with her mother’s family and sees a picture-perfect opportunity to flip her old home for content. She never could have imagined the secrets that would surface and the reality of the haunted house that altered her life forever.
“For the crazy girls. This one is for us.”
The one and only Rachel Harrison spoke at my local Barnes and Noble about Play Nice! I went with my gf, Kim, and I just absolutely adore Rachel. Hearing her speak about the characters we loved in the story was so exciting.
Favorites
There were a lot of moments in this book that portrayed such nasty family dynamics, and even though I couldn’t help but cringe or gasp, I really enjoyed the raw and real scenarios that so many readers can relate to. Nobodies family is perfect, so getting to read about authentic arguments and disagreements between family members who have gone through so many traumas was really refreshing. When talking about the book, Rachel pointed out that the same trauma never effects people the same way and really wanted to portray this in her book. It was extremely well done and gave me a lot to reflect on regarding the things my sister and I have gone through together.
When listening to the Libro audiobook, I LOVED how the mother’s writing was separately narrated. It added such a fun element to the audio and allowed me to become fully immersed in her past. This dynamic was another amazing example of how memories and traumatic experiences happen so differently between individuals. Without spoilers, there were a few instances that Clio had felt her mother was recounting incorrectly, but eventually realized the same event happened in two different sets of eyes.
While it was still a horror book, there were a lot of humorous and sarcastic moments that brought light and comedic relief to the story. Clio is so witty and quick - many of her interactions earned a chuckle out of me and allowed me to fall in love with her character by the end.
“I love men. I just don’t trust or respect them.”
ICKS
I found Clio’s character traits to be extremely unlikeable, though couldn’t help but love her. She is incredibly blunt and aggressive in the way that she speaks to and treats others, but she is also very aware of this behavior. Rather than denying or dismissing her coldness, Clio understood and accepted the way in which others reacted to her words and actions.
The only thing I had wished for more of in this book is the actual demon. I felt it was a lot of buildup to a fairly disappointing end; however, it was clear to me when listening to Rachel Harrison, that this story was more about personal growth and reflection then an actual haunted house. Personally, I feel she could have still gotten this important message across with a larger and scarier finale.
“It takes so much to build an image. It takes next to nothing to destroy one.”
Final Thoughts
I had such strong feelings for this book and found that listening to Rachel Harrison discuss it at an event made me love it so much more! I laughed. I nearly cried. My jaw dropped MANY times. I was touched. I cringed. I shivered - I literally felt all of the emotions during this read. I highly recommend to horror and romance readers alike and must thank my friends at Libro for the early listening copy!
