Play Nice, Rachel Harrison (Review by Sara D’Onofrio)
Rating: 4.8/5 Stars
“Maybe the devil lives somewhere in the words ‘I know I shouldn’t.’ Or maybe God does.”
What did I just read?? I was HOOKED from the very beginning, and quite literally couldn’t put the book down. It’s impossible to not read one more chapter because something happens every single chapter of the book! You’re constantly on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next and what is going to be revealed. I was obsessed with the sections from her mother’s book and the little annotations on the side, and was also angry at her dad for burning the second half of the book because he robbed the reader of more annotations as well! Austin was such a welcome, and a necessary addition to the story, in my opinion. He added another layer to Clio’s character that I don’t think we would have been able to see otherwise. It’s small details like that separates good authors from great authors! It wasn’t necessarily that he changed her character in a major way, but allowed the reader to connect with the main character on a more personal level. I was hoping the ending would go the way that it did as opposed to having it all be fake or truly a mental health issue. However, I was still a little disappointed with the last chapter. It was such a quick wrap up of the most traumatic event for so many people. What actually happened to Roy? Did the police just believe that it was a demon who attacked him? Where are Clio and Austin living now? Did all the girls just forgive their dad for lying all those years? And the biggest question for me… after literally destroying their mother and their lives, they are all just going to sell it?? I mean, light a match and burn that shit to the ground. How could they possibly be okay with just turning that horror over to someone else? I don’t like to close a book and still have more questions, but otherwise I thought it was great!!