All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.
Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?
A confession: PLAY NICE wasn’t the first Rachel Harrison book I read, but it was the first one I posted about. It was for sure one of my favorite reads of 2025, and I still think of the book often.
But a couple years before that I read SUCH SHARP TEETH, and it just…wasn’t for me. Or it wasn’t for me, then. I’m always thinking about how, for one reason or another, a book might not work for you. And I think a lot of the time, it’s just not the right book at that moment in your life. And so after how hard I loved PLAY NICE, of course I’m considering revisiting SUCH SHARP TEETH and seeing if clicks for me on a second read.
In the meantime, I want to continue to explore Harrison’s earlier titles & I decided to start with CACKLE!
This is the story of Annie Crane, who was recently broken up with by her boyfriend, Sam. They shared a life together in Manhattan, they lived together, and Annie was pretty much blindsided.
She’s devastated. She also can’t afford to continue living in Manhattan, so she finds a teaching job in a quaint, nearly Hallmark-esque town called Rowan, in upstate NY.
She quickly meets a captivating woman named Sophie, and the two become fast friends. The people of Rowan are…a bit odd around Sophie. Cordial, in some instances. But others seem more…cautious. Even a little afraid.
The more time Annie spends with Sophie, the more unusual things become around her. There always seems to be something lurking in the shadows. There’s the seemingly-endless supply of spiders hanging around. And there’s the sense that, anything Annie desires or needs, Sophie will somehow provide.
Harrison is such a keen observer of the human condition & she is absolutely going to give you extremely messy, relatable, and lovable characters. Annie is really Going Through It, and I was rooting for her all the way. So much of this book is about Annie rediscovering herself after having her entire life flipped upside down. She’s hilarious & thoughtful & has big feelings about lots of things. And Annie’s friendship with Sophie is unpredictable & complex. It gets weird & tumultuous, but these two are incredible together on the page.
CACKLE is much more of a Vibes Book than a Plot Book, but the vibes are incredible. This book is fun and funny, very slightly spooky, and is incredibly hard to put down.
There’s an irreverence to it all, almost a sense of decadence to the story. But it can also turn real, and raw, and emotional in a heartbeat, which seems to be a real trademark of Rachel Harrison’s writing.
I had a complete blast reading CACKLE, and I can’t wait to keep making my way through Rachel Harrison’s books! She’s got such a distinctive voice, and she’s a great storyteller!
Grimdark Dad 