{"id":20355,"date":"2025-12-15T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=20355"},"modified":"2025-11-30T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:38:12","slug":"review-play-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-play-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coverPlay Nice\u00a0by Rachel Harrison<\/strong><\/a>
\nBerkley (September 2025)\u00a0<\/strong>
\nReviewed by\u00a0Haley Newlin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe world will drive a woman insane, then point and laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Rachel Harrison\u2019s new gothic and paranormal horror novel,\u00a0Play Nice<\/em>, a stylist and influencer named Clio returns home following her mother\u2019s sudden death. Alex left the house to Clio and her sisters who immediately wish to sell it. After all, it\u2019s where their mother lost her mind. <\/p>\n

Clio, however, decides to fix up the house, thinking it will make for excellent social media content. Plus, she doesn\u2019t quite remember her childhood as her sisters do. This is a chance for her to explore resurfacing memories for herself, and to better understand why her mother was so afraid of the house and what made her so insistent of a malevolent presence that she wrote a book, documenting her frightening experience.<\/p>\n

Like all of Harrison\u2019s previous novels,\u00a0Play Nice<\/em> is witty and fierce. It\u2019s a familiar premise, a haunted — or possessed — house, but met with powerful feminine themes such as the scrutiny of women, particularly mothers, and the threat to autonomy. Possession has always been a brilliant and cathartic way for readers to step into a more fearsome side of the female experience. As a demon lurks and stalks, hungry for souls, men creep and prey upon women.<\/p>\n

Readers will also appreciate Harrison\u2019s use of a longstanding trope of the horror genre: the hysterical woman. Clio\u2019s mother is the woman who rings the alarm, sensing the danger in her bones, but is dismissed and even questioned as a capable mother to the point of losing custody of the girls. It\u2019s gut-wrenching. Alex writes, \u201cCrazy is quicksand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s message is clear: believe women. Listen. Emotion is guidance. Emotion is truth.<\/p>\n

Harrison writes some of the best feminist horror fiction out there, because her female characters are layered with ferocity, flaws, and wit. They\u2019re\u00a0real.\u00a0Don\u2019t go into a Rachel Harrison novel and expect women to\u00a0play nice. They\u2019re angry. And man, they should be. Clio is such a dynamic and complex protagonist. She\u2019s messy and stubborn, but also resilient and brave. Her pursuit for the truth, no matter how unnerving or messy, is top tier main character energy. She\u2019s the feminist anti-hero I couldn\u2019t stop rooting for.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth mentioning that\u00a0Play Nice<\/em> is the author\u2019s scariest book to date. And the fear exists on so many levels. There\u2019s the obvious; the demonic presence. The haunted house. The smiley faces — I\u2019ll let you see for yourself on this one. And then there\u2019s the emotional fear that comes with exposing those you love for who they really are, and challenging everything you ever knew about them. Making you question every exchange of trust. This emotional suckerpunch hits hard and momentarily entombs the reader in dread. But we can\u2019t maintain unfractured images in the name of peace. As Clio learns, it\u2019s not sustainable and women deserve better.<\/p>\n

For readers looking for a paranormal gothic story with a dysfunctional family, feminist themes, plenty of scares,\u00a0Play Nice<\/em> is not to be missed. A new personal favorite from Harrison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Play Nice\u00a0by Rachel Harrison Berkley (September 2025)\u00a0 Reviewed by\u00a0Haley Newlin \u201cThe world will drive a woman insane, then point and laugh.\u201d In Rachel Harrison\u2019s new gothic and paranormal horror novel,\u00a0Play Nice, a stylist and influencer named Clio returns home following her mother\u2019s sudden death. Alex left the house to Clio and her sisters who immediately … Continue Reading! “Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80],"tags":[2299,3560,2470,79],"class_list":["post-20355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-haley-newlin","tag-play-nice","tag-rachel-harrison","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison - 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