Book Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Play Nice
Author: Rachel Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 9, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

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.

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.

Play Nice is a story of women confronting their demons… literally and figuratively. And just to be clear, while the synopsis and many blurbs refer to this as a haunted house story, this is not actually about a haunted house. No ghosts! However, the house is possessed, and the demon inside it isn’t going anywhere.

Yes, the house scares me. But nothing scares me as much as the idea that I might become one of those tragic, boring would-never people.

Main character Clio is a lot. She’s in her mid-twenties, a highly successful stylist and influencer who revels in her good looks, appeal, and life-of-the-party vibe. She’s highly curated, always down for a good time. Clio’s party lifestyle comes to a screeching halt when her two older sisters call to tell her that Alexandra has died… Alexandra being the mother who was cut out of their lives when Clio was a young child, the abusive, addicted woman who wrote a scandalous book about demons and lost custody completely after endangering the girls one too many times.

Clio’s sisters Leda and Daphne don’t seem particularly affected by news of Alex’s death, but Clio decides that she’s going to the funeral, a woo-woo affair hosted by an occult society in Connecticut. There, she meets with Alex’s sister and is informed that Alex has left the girls their childhood home, which they didn’t even realize she still owned.

The house is a physical disaster, and what’s more, it was the main focus of Alex’s book, which the girls all promised their father they’d never read. Once again, Leda and Daphne want nothing to do with it, but Clio sees the potential for exposure. Home reno and demo reels are huge! She can do a whole series on before and after as she flips the house and makes it gorgeous enough to suit her standards.

Things go sideways almost from the start. The house is, well, kind of gross and dirty. There are mice. And unexplained sounds. But Clio is sure that her plan is worth it. Then she finds a battered old copy of her mother’s book, with handwritten annotations from Alex to Clio. Soon, unwanted memories creep in, presenting very different versions of the events Clio thought she understood. She’s forced to question the main narratives of her life and to wonder: Was Alex really as crazy and abusive as she’s been told all her life? Or could there possibly be a shred of truth in her rantings about demons and possession?

Play Nice goes from creepy to violent to gross-out horror throughout the course of the book, escalating to an incredibly disturbing climax. Meanwhile, the family itself is rocked to its core as old secrets are revealed and certain betrayals and lies come to light.

Clio is hard to like, and is not exactly a reliable narrator. She’s plagued by questionable or repressed memories, and prefers the image of herself that she’s created to any harder looks in the mirror.

I sound bratty and resentful, which is weird, because i swear I’m only one of those things.

She’s used to getting her way, assumes her role as the family favorite is deserved, and causes some of her own problems through her refusal to listen to anyone else.

The sky is blue and cloudless, the sun high and yellow, and the entire world is incapable of telling me no. It makes me feel like a god. Powerful, bored, dangerous.

An underlying theme of Play Nice is the need — craving — for attention. This is clearly what drives Clio’s career and social life. But, as we learn, it’s also vital to the demon.

“… But the demon is real, Clio. You now that now. And it’s dangerous. Its attachment to you is profound.”

Part of me is flattered, because I love attention. We have that in common, the demon and me. I like being the favorite. This part of me feels an allegiance to it. A kinship.

This book has some truly crazy elements, and reading it can be vertigo-inducing, as we slingshot from Clio’s narration to passages from Alex’s book, to scenes of confrontations with her father and sisters that make Clio (and we readers) wonder which version of reality contains the actual truth — if any do.

Play Nice is a disturbing, scary read, leavened by Rachel Harrison’s excellent writing and healthy doses of humor and smart-ass commentary. I’m a big fan of this author’s books, and enjoyed this one, but not as much as some of her others (Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, Black Sheep) which I consider true favorites.

If you’re open to creepy, icky moments and skin-crawling scary bits, and enjoy reading about highly caustic and dysfunctional families, then Play Nice might be the book for you! Really, I don’t believe you can go wrong with any Rachel Harrison book. I’m already looking forward to whatever she writes next.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
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11Dec2024

Book Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Diavola
Author: Jennifer Thorne
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: March 26, 2024
Length: 296 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)

Talk about a family vacation from hell!

The air felt murky when she joined everybody at the table, but it was the usual Pace family murk, bad moods combining to form a full low-pressure weather pattern.

In this creepy, atmostpheric horror novel by Jennifer Thorne (author of the brilliant Lute), a family stay in a Tuscan villa turns nightmarish… and not just because of the forced proximity of a dysfunctional family.

Main character Anna Pace is a constant disappointment to her family. Blamed for everything from the death of her middle school classroom’s pet guinea pig to fooling around with her sister’s prom date (she didn’t, actually) to every other sort of wrong-doing imaginable, Anna is constantly on alert. The idea of spending a week with her family is so stressful that she secretly arrives in Italy two days early to squeeze in some alone time before she has to face the rest of the group.

The family’s idyllic Tuscan luxury rental seems off right from the start. There’s a dead zone around the building where nothing grows. A tower is kept tightly locked, and while Anna thought she saw a window in it, it’s actually totally bricked over. Why is there a goat kept tethered at the end of the lane? And why does Anna spot locals sneaking around with flashlights at night?

Little incidents pile up — slamming doors, spoiled food, onslaughts of mosquitoes — and then escalate into rearranged furniture and injuries caused by unseen hands. The family seems to be in the worst sort of denial. Anna’s father insists that there’s nothing wrong, because he paid for this vacation, dammit!, and they WILL enjoy it. Everyone else falls back on blaming Anna for causing problems.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to stir things up, Anna,” she spat. “I gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago, goodness knows, a long time! There is absolutely nothing wrong with where we’re staying.”

Anna knows deep down that what’s happening at the villa isn’t normal, especially given the side-eye the family gets whenever they venture into the nearby village. She can fell it in the air whenever they go back into the villa, a sense of wrongness and bad intent — and the longer they stay, the worse it gets, especially with the terrible dreams of a menacing woman that begin to haunt Anna’s every moment… even when she’s not asleep.

Oh, this book gets creepier and creepier as it goes along, and the family’s insistence on acting as if everything is okay becomes enough to make you want to pull your hair out. I would have been running away as fast as my legs could carry me as of the second day — and Anna does consider leaving, but it’s the same old family dynamic that keeps her from going:

Everybody would worry about her if she left and it would poison the rest of their vacation and she wouldn’t want to hear about it, but by God, she would. She’d hear about it at every single gathering forevermore.

The toxicity of the family is a huge factor in the horror elements. Yes, there are gruesome, gory incidents, and plenty of disturbing scenes, but the way Anna’s family treats her is one of the most upsetting aspects of this book. She’s the family scapegoat, for no very good reason except that that’s what they’re all used to. No wonder she dreads these family vacations.

Not to downplay the actual horror — the haunting storyline is scary and insidious, and there’s a moment where we readers might think that Anna has finally broken free… but then we see that there’s still quite a bit of the story left, and get a creeping suspicion that the terror isn’t even close to being finished with Anna.

Diavola is a relatively short novel, and if possible, should be read in one or two long reading sessions. Due to limited reading time this past week, I read the first half or so in little fits and starts, and found myself rather disengaged — but I’m convinced the fault was in my approach, not the book itself. Once I sat down for more extended reading over the weekend, I couldn’t put the book down and flew through the second half.

As a story of haunting and possession, Diavola is sinister and frightening. As a tale of awful family dynamics, it’s both relatable and bleak. Black humor lightens some of the worst moments, and yet the overall vibe is menacing all the way through.

There are some gross-out scenes, so be warned if you’re on the squeamish side. Recommended for horror fans who appreciate a gothic vibe in their stories of terrible family vacations.

PS – If nothing else, Diavola should be a lesson to us all to look beyond AirBnb reviews and do a good Google search when staying in ancient villas!

10Aug2022

Shelf Control #330: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Daryl Gregory
Published: 2008
Length: 288 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

It is a world like our own in every respect . . . save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. There’s the Truth, implacable avenger of falsehood. The Captain, brave and self-sacrificing soldier. The Little Angel, whose kiss brings death, whether desired or not. And a string of others, ranging from the bizarre to the benign to the horrific.

As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del’s family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised . . . or is it? Years later, following a car accident, the Hellion is back, trapped inside Del’s head and clamoring to get out.

Del’s quest for help leads him to Valis, an entity possessing the science fiction writer formerly known as Philip K. Dick; to Mother Mariette, a nun who inspires decidedly unchaste feelings; and to the Human League, a secret society devoted to the extermination of demons. All believe that Del holds the key to the plague of possession–and its solution. But for Del, the cure may be worse than the disease.

How and when I got it:

I bought a paperback over five years ago, most likely at a library sale.

Why I want to read it:

I think this book initially made its way into my hands based on a friend’s enthusiastic review. And given that she’s both a huge horror reader and someone who knows my tastes, I tend to pay attention when she insists I need to read something.

I love the sound of these possessions, and think it’s hilarious that Philip K. Dick is one of the people possessed in this story! The premise sound weird and original and truly engaging, and I do intend to read this book… now I just need to make time for it.

Pandemonium is author Daryl Gregory’s first novel. I’ve read two other books by this author (We Are All Completely Fine and The Album of Doctor Moreau, both terrific), and I’m very up for reading more. If you’ve read any other of his books, please let me know if you have a favorite!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

The Boston Bibliophile

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments or link back from your own post, so I can add you to the participant list.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

17Jan2018

Shelf Control #105: A Head Full of Ghosts