I was lucky enough to attend a book event at Strand NYC where Rachel Harrison talked all this horror while wearing a Barbie-inspired outfit. She does such a great job of writing stories that scare the actual shit out of me while still keeping a touch of girly-pop ever-present. Now that I have her signed collection, I’m making my way through all of her amazing novels. Here they are in order of my most favorite to least favorite:

Bad Dolls
I absolutely LOVED this collection of stories. Slurped it right up and devoured it in one day. There’s only 4 short stories, and I’d rate them all 5 stars. There’s a haunted magic-8 ball, a culty bachelorette trip, a Goblin phone application, and a possessed baby doll. Super creepy and scary, but in the fun way that only Rachel Harrison can capture. Freaky but lots of fun. Again, LOVED it.

Play Nice
So. Fucking. Scary! This novel was jam-packed with a lot going on. The main character is a lovable bitch with two sisters of equally big personality, and they all just found out about the death of their estranged mother. They inherit a house that is supposedly haunted, and uncover deep and dark family secrets from their mother’s novel. I love a good haunted house story, and this did not disappoint even a little bit. Clio was such a fun character, and I really liked the book-within-a-book aspect. Totally loved this one.

Black Sheep
This was whimsical and also full of horror all at the same time and I was so here for it! The main character has left her Satanic cult, but is going back for a wedding and starts to uncover a ton of information upon her return. It’s a little magical, but done in a way that I thought was still grounded in reality. This was an instant favorite for me after flying through it in only a couple of days.

Cackle
I really enjoyed this one, and it made me want to move to a cutsie small town immediately! I really loved the themes of independence, as we follow a woman who is reinventing herself in a new town out of the city after a hard breakup. She makes friends with a powerful women in town, and spoiler, things get witchy. Rachel Harrison’s storytelling style is just really fun and easy to consume, so I really flew my way through this one. Such a fun story!

Such Sharp Teeth
There was a lot that I liked about htis book – including the web of characters and some of the plot twists. And I do love the way that Rachel Harrison writes and crafts a story. However, my biggest issue is that we as the readers know that this is a werewolf novel, but it takes the characters most of the book to figure that out. It feels almost like the plot twist was published on the cover, so I would have liked to learn along with them. Even still, I enjoyed this story of small town drama.

So Thirsty
I really enjoyed the concept of this one – two friends, unsatisfied with the current state of their lives, go looking for trouble and find just that in the form of being turned into vampires. However, what failed for me is the WHY of being a vampire, since their experience was portrayed as always on the run, always thirsty, always looking for something more. I wanted there to be more positives of being turned, and I wanted so much more from the vampire-friend group. But still, I really love the way Rachel Harrison writes, so I had fun the whole time despite my criticism.

The Return
I liked the concept of this one more than the execution. It could have been shorter and then maybe I would have liked it more? The main character had a friend who went missing for two years and came back slightly different, and she is now trying to figure out what happened. I think this is a zombie story, but there was so much dialogue and moving around that wasn’t really necessary for the story overall. Parts of it were good, but this is definitely my least favorite of her collection overall.

As if the books weren’t a reason enough to love Rachel Harrison, she also gave me amazing writing advice. Overall, I just love her, and I hope I get to keep reading her books for a very long time.

Thanks for reading! (Last Updated: Oct 2025)