Play Nice

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 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 author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.

"I raced through Rachel Harrison's Play Nice, drawn in by the relatable protagonist and the irresistible blend of horror, mystery and family drama. Play Nice is a great fit for anyone who enjoyed The Good House or Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House, taking the reader on a spooky journey through the haunted spaces from the past that plague us all." -- Tananarive Due, Bram Stoker Award winner, The Reformatory

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 her 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, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio's beautiful life to its very foundation.

Rachel Harrison is the New York Times bestselling author of Play Nice, So Thirsty, Black Sheep, Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, and The Return, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and in her debut collection Bad Dolls. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and their cat/overlord.