by Rachel Harrison
Berkley, 2025. 325 pages. Fiction
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. Or so her mother, Alex, claimed. 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.
Rachel Harrison has a way of modernizing classic horror themes and tropes in a way that makes her books so fun to read. While less campy than some of her other novels, Play Nice is full of dark comedy, and the dialed back tone allows Harrison's characters to shine. The relationships between Clio and her family members mirror real life complexities and highlight the way children raised under the same roof can have vastly different experiences. The passages from Alex’s memoir add depth and understanding (as well as some great spooky lore!). I’d recommend Play Nice to anyone who wants to enjoy a good character study with some creepiness and nods to horror greats along the way.
If you like Play Nice, you might also like:
by Sarah Gailey
Tor, 2022. 344 pages. Fiction
"Come home." Vera's mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories - she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family. Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren't alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back and is slowly stripping Vera's childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn't the one leaving notes around the house in her father's handwriting ... but who else could it possibly be? There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.
by Marcus Kliewer
Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 2024. 312 pages. Fiction
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. When Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality.
by Rivers Solomon
MCD Books, 2024. 286 pages. Fiction
The three Maxwell siblings, members of the only Black family in a gated community, experienced strange and terrifying events in their house growing up. After their parents’ mysterious deaths, the adult siblings return home to confront the past and uncover whether the deaths were natural or supernatural.
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