Unreliable Memory and Contested Family Narratives in Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

The Unreliable Past: Memory as a Battleground in Play Nice

In Play Nice, Rachel Harrison builds a horror story on a foundation of shaky recollection. The novel's central thematic claim is that memory is not a passive record of what happened but an active, contested narrative shaped by trauma, manipulation, and self-preservation. Each member of the Barnes family carries a version of the past that serves their own emotional needs, and the truth—whether about a mother's cruelty, a father's affair, or the demon that may or may not haunt Edgewood Drive—remains perpetually out of reach. Through Clio's struggle to reconcile her own fragmented memories with her mother's written account and her sisters' denials, the novel suggests that the past is not something we remember but something we argue over.

The Memoir as a Contested Document

The most tangible symbol of this theme is the annotated memoir written by Clio's mother, Alexandra. The book, which Clio reads after her mother's death, presents a polished, self-exculpatory version of family history. Clio immediately notices discrepancies. In the memoir, Alexandra describes how she and the girls chose bedrooms after moving into the house, but Clio recalls wanting to be upstairs near her sisters, not the downstairs room across from her mother. She remembers her mother guilting her into that choice, a detail conveniently absent from the book. Clio's reaction is telling: “One person's truth is another's fiction.” The memoir becomes a “piece of half-rotten fruit” that Clio cannot stop consuming, even as she distrusts its contents.

The memoir's unreliability is not just a matter of omission. In the chapter describing the kitchen incident, Alexandra writes that after finding peanut butter smeared on the walls, she confronted her daughters, and young Cici blamed “the thing that lives in my closet.” Alexandra presents this as a moment of maternal concern, even adding a footnote admitting she was crueler than she recounted. But Clio's own memory of that night is radically different. She remembers the mess, her mother's rage, and the sound of a slap—Daphne holding her cheek. She remembers her mother yelling, “Clean it up, and then go to bed!” What she does not remember is any mention of a closet-dwelling entity. “I have no memory of blaming a vague, formless, closet-dwelling entity for the mess,” she thinks. This direct contradiction between mother's account and daughter's recollection is the novel's first major demonstration that memory is not a shared inheritance but a set of competing claims.

The Kitchen Incident and the Birth of the Demon

The kitchen scene is pivotal because it is where the demon is first introduced into the family narrative. In Alexandra's version, Cici's casual remark about “the thing that lives in my closet” becomes the seed of the haunting. Alexandra later sees a shape in the fort, destroys it in a panic, and begins to believe the house is possessed. Clio, however, has no memory of ever saying such a thing. She wonders if her mother fabricated the entire exchange to explain her own erratic behavior. The novel leaves this unresolved, but the effect is to make the demon itself a contested entity. Is it a real supernatural presence, a child's imaginative excuse, or a mother's paranoid projection? The text refuses to answer.

This ambiguity is reinforced by Clio's internal question: “If we don't remember something, how can we be sure it never happened?” The question cuts both ways. If Clio cannot remember blaming a closet entity, that does not prove she never said it. But if Alexandra's account is the only record, then the past is hostage to whoever writes it down. The memoir, with its polished prose and self-justifying footnotes, becomes a weapon in the family's ongoing war over who gets to define what happened.

The Family Therapy Session: Competing Narratives

The theme intensifies in the family therapy session, where the Barnes family—Clio, her father James, and her sisters Daphne and Leda—sit before a therapist named Maya. Each character uses memory to position themselves as the victim or the authority. James, Clio's father, dismisses the demon as a symptom of Alexandra's mental instability and substance abuse, echoing the accusations he made during their divorce. He frames Clio's grief as a dangerous echo of her mother's paranoia, even suggesting she might need to be committed. Clio, in turn, accuses him of wanting to silence her, and she weaponizes her own tears to manipulate the session.

Daphne and Leda are equally invested in their own narratives. Leda claims that she and Daphne suffered more because they were older and could understand what was happening, while Clio was “never bothered by anything long term.” Daphne agrees, saying Clio “wasn't affected the same.” These assertions are not just about the past; they are about who has the right to claim pain and who deserves sympathy. The therapist tries to steer the conversation toward empathy, but the session devolves into accusations of faking and manipulation. The scene demonstrates that memory in this family is not a neutral archive but a tool for establishing moral authority.

The Climax: Leda's Confession and the Demon's Memories

The novel's climax complicates the theme further by suggesting that memory can be deliberately suppressed or even withheld by external forces. In the attic confrontation, Leda reveals that she knew about the demon as a child but chose to ignore it, hoping it would go away. She also admits she lied about a burn to escape the house—a lie that left a physical scar, a false narrative etched onto her body. This confession undermines the idea that physical evidence can settle disputes about the past. The burn scar becomes a symbol of how memory can be actively rewritten to serve one's own survival.

Later, the demon itself shows Clio memories it claims to have kept from her. This is a radical extension of the theme: if a supernatural entity can withhold or distort memories, then the boundary between personal recollection and external manipulation collapses entirely. Clio offers the demon her snake charm as a kind of trade, but the encounter leaves her with more questions than answers. The demon's existence is confirmed by multiple characters—Austin, Aunt Helen, and the sisters themselves—yet the exact nature of what happened in that house remains murky. The novel refuses to resolve whether the demon was real or a collective delusion born from family dysfunction.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel's power lies in its refusal to choose between competing explanations. On one hand, the demon is treated as objectively real: it attacks Roy, it speaks, it shows Clio memories. On the other hand, every character's account of the past is shown to be self-serving. Alexandra's memoir omits her cruelty; James denies his affair; Leda lies about the burn; Clio admits she may have hoped something would come back to haunt her. The theme of unreliable memory is thus not a simple case of one person being right and another wrong. Instead, the novel suggests that all memory is a negotiation, and that the truth—if it exists—is inaccessible.

This complexity is embodied in Clio's final reflections. After the events at the house, she has not returned to Edgewood Drive, and she acknowledges she may have wanted something to come back and haunt her. Daphne insists it is time to let the house go, but Clio's lingering attachment suggests that the past is not something one can simply move on from. The novel ends with Clio on a balcony, alone, still holding the unresolved question of what really happened.

Study Questions

1. How does the memoir function as a symbol of contested family narrative?

The memoir presents Alexandra's version of events, which Clio reads and finds riddled with discrepancies from her own memories. It becomes a physical artifact of the family's competing claims, a document that claims authority but cannot be trusted.

1. Compare Clio's memory of the kitchen incident with her mother's account. What does this reveal about memory?

Clio remembers the violence and her mother's cruelty, but not the blaming of a closet entity; Alexandra's account includes the entity but omits the violence. This shows how memory can be selective, self-serving, and shaped by emotional need.

1. In the family therapy session, how do different characters use memory to position themselves?

James denies the demon and accuses Alexandra of instability; Leda and Daphne claim they suffered more; Clio accuses them of dismissing her grief. Each uses memory to justify their actions and to claim moral authority.

1. How does Leda's confession about the burn scar complicate the theme?

Leda admits she lied about a burn to escape the house, showing that even a physical mark can be a false narrative. This complicates the idea that evidence can settle disputes about the past, since memory can be deliberately manipulated.

1. What is the significance of the demon showing Clio memories it kept from her?

This suggests that memory can be withheld or controlled by external forces, blurring the line between personal recollection and external manipulation. It leaves the question of what is true unresolved, reinforcing the novel's central theme that the past is never fully knowable.