I wasn't really sure what to expect with this one. In fact, about halfway through listening to it, I had to stop and re-read the book's summary on Goodreads. It's not that I wasn't enjoying the ride Viel was taking me on, it was that I couldn't even begin to guess where we were going, or even what kind of ride we were on to begin with.

That's what's so cool about speculative horror, though. It's weird and it's fresh and when done well it's unlike anything else you've ever experienced. Listen to Your Sister is all those things and more. Calla Williams, the titular sister, is relatable, likeable, and complex. As the 25-year-old guardian of her reckless younger brother Jamie, she’s constantly juggling her own exhaustion and frustration with the responsibility of keeping her family together. Her recurring, vivid nightmares of losing her brothers—nightmares she can’t control or explain—set the stage for a gripping narrative that is as emotionally charged as it is terrifying.

When Jamie gets caught up in a protest gone wrong, Calla is forced to flee with both her brothers to a remote AirBnb, culminating in an intense night that feels like a fever dream. As they try to escape the terrifying new reality that might be connected to Calla’s disturbing dreams, the family dynamics come into sharp focus—sibling rivalry, love, and sacrifice all collide in the face of impending danger.

This is horror with heart. Viel has created a deeply complex family unit with these three. Though each one is flawed in their own—often frustrating—way, it's easy to see how much they each care about the others. You can't help but root for them as they fight for their lives and try to figure out wtf is happening to them. She's also created a deeply disturbing, nightmarish situation that these characters are forced to navigate through that is unlike anything I've ever read before. There are some Jordan Peele echoes in the best possible way, but this novel is wholly unique. It's scary, heartfelt, shocking, and often laugh-out-loud funny.

The narration was phenomenal as well. I will be on the lookout for Neena Viel's name in the future. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

“Listen to Your Sister” is a bold debut for Neena Viel, whose writing is blurbed as “Jordan Peele meets Stephen King.” If there is a sub-genre for African American horror novels written by women (think Oyinkan Braithwaite’s “My Sister is a Serial Killer,” Nicola Yoon’s “One of Our Kind,” Rachel Howzell Hall’s “These Toxic Things,” and Zakiya Dalila Harris’ “The Other Black Girl”), then author Viel fits right in. The notable difference in these Black horror stories is the big part that social horror plays, along with the supernatural.

Calla is the 25 year old main character, trying to do right with her 16 year old trouble-making rebellious brother Jamie. Jamie is in chronic pain since his father died and can’t think far enough ahead to visualize consequences of the stupid things he’s doing as an adrenaline junkie. Calla supposedly has shared-custody of Jamie with her 23 year old brother Dre, but Dre shucked most of that responsibility, to live a comfortable separate life. Calla has also long been suffering “The Nightmare,” a repeating night terror of seeing one of her brothers horribly murdered.

“The Nightmare” is becoming a lucid daytime dream now and with good reason: both of her brothers are in deep trouble — not only from the police but from avenging female wraiths (grandma with a stabbing yellow umbrella for Jamie and a hot pink strapless dress girl with a skewering spike heel for Dre). Jamie was caught up in a Black Lives protest when he drove the van that contained weapons; Dre was mistaken for his cheating roommate Roberto. Both were about to be unalived by bad people when their unbelievable avengers stepped in to slaughter their adversaries. Both brothers end up running to their overwhelmed common sense sister, whose secret superstition that “The Nightmare” only happened “when sh*t was about to go down with her brothers.” This time, Calla hears an eerie inner voice: “Don’t let this happen. Whoever did this to them—can f*****g die. Keep them safe”. So when they flee Seattle, where do they go? To a little cabin in the woods, decorated with taxidermy and crucifixes. Even they know they’re walking into a cliché horror story.

The supernatural action is interrupted with sly humor, but the family drama and sibling rivalry is the top concern tearing the trio apart . In the second half of the book things get, well, weird. Calla’s Nightmare is becoming real and there are times when the plot gets muddied. But, overall, a great debut for Neena Viel. 4 stars.

The audiobook version has a full cast: Kristolyn Lloyd, Eric Lockley, and Zeno Robinson as Calla and her brothers. The three narrators give life and personality to the characters as they tumble through their shared nightmare. When each of the POVs has its own distinct voice, listening to such a thriller gives it an extra depth that reading can’t convey. Each performance was top notch — not overly theatrical or somber, but a full range of emotional highs and lows. 5 stars for the audio version!


Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Just the scary woods (although not populated with murderous beavers as Dre insists).

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced reader and listener copies!

I have listened to 34% of this book and I have decided to not finish it. Unfortunately, I find the overall plot hard to follow, the character's to be hard to follow with similar names and lacking of a back story so far, and I am having a hard time getting indulged in the story or what is actually going on. I understand the reader targeted for this story, and I don't believe I am that person.

Thank you for your time and consideration to allow me to listen to this audiobook advanced copy.

3.5 stars rounded up

While this book didn't entirely work for me, I think it's a promising debut in the horror genre and there's a lot to like here.

One thing to note is that this book is being compared to Jordan Peele and The Other Black Girl, therefore you should expect that it is a book dealing with race! I see some reviews that didn't like that element, but I think it's pretty clearly baked into the marketing so I'm not sure why they chose to review it if that was going to bother them. Personally I think horror is a great genre for exploring issues of race relations and that element of the book was done well with complex, nuanced characters.

I also appreciated the theme of what it means to be an older sister who is parentified too young. I could really relate to that, even if my experience was milder. Even this thing of having nightmares about trying to save a younger sibling from harm? Yep, been there. It does a great job of building this emotionally painful situation between three siblings who are struggling, including a woman in her mid-twenties serving as guardian to her 16 year old brother who keeps getting into trouble. The early part of the book sucked me in, but kept upping the creep factor.

Where it kind of lost be a bit was in the execution of the final part of the book leading up to the ending. I felt it went a little off the rails and there wasn't enough scaffolding built for where we end up. I get what it was trying to do, and conceptually it was interesting. But for me the reading experience really lost steam just when it should have been ramping up. That said, I would try something else from this author in the future because there were elements to this that really worked. The audio narration is great with a different narrator for each sibling perspective. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

What even is going on in this family??? The audiobook was frantic and I couldn't get my pulse to slow down enough with all the hallucinations and running around the characters did.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Listen to Your Sister is unfortunately my first DNF of the year. I am 85% done and I just can’t do it anymore, which is a bummer because it started off really strong. I really liked the concept and focus on the torn bonds between the siblings, but that’s pretty much all I liked. The writing felt incredibly convoluted and the plot actually got so hard to follow; and I love a confusing plot. I struggled with how choppy the book felt. I even listened below my normal audiobook speed but I could not follow what was going on at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

This is a creative horror novel with elements of family drama, trauma, and even humor. It's a promising debut overall.

Calla is the responsible sibling, and this is how she ends up as the official caretaker for her youngest brother. The pair have an additional brother, whose commitment to serious adulting hasn't quite appeared yet. As a result of her young age, general life stresses, and the burdens her siblings have put on her, Calla's concerns begin to weigh on her in a number of ways. This all comes to a head when the trio are forced to leave their home for a weird adventure that should remain a mystery until you read it for yourself.

I did have some difficulty getting hooked in the first third of the book, and this was unexpected because there are few motifs I love more than sibling relationships. Once we all went on the move, I was much more interested in and at times fascinated by the directions the events and characters took. Though this is not YA, there are stylistic and thematic choices that make it feel that way at times, and I think some of that inconsistency also challenged my reading a bit.

While this listen contained ups and downs for me, it was a positive experience in general, and I am looking forward to more from this author.

The narrators are so good that a few times I found myself listening to their voices but not listening to the story. The story was amazing too. At first I didn't get it but in the second half I felt this story in my soul. Calla is trying to keep her brothers alive, and has been her entire life. She is burnt out. She is losing it.
And now they are stuck in the paranormal. Amazing.
I love it.

3.5 Stars rounded up!

This debut novel has a lot to offer, even if the pacing didn’t quite hit the mark for me. The story of Calla Williams and her brothers is packed with real-life horror—issues like racism and family sacrifice—that feels both impactful and heartfelt. Calla’s exhaustion and sense of duty are deeply relatable, and Jamie’s recklessness adds plenty of tension to their dynamic.

While much of the book leans on real-world struggles, the supernatural element introduced later in the story was a welcome addition! The pacing felt slower than I prefer, and the ending seemed a tad rushed.

That said, the book is undeniably a solid debut. I’m excited to see what this author does next, as their skill is clear! If you enjoy horror that blends societal issues with supernatural thrills, this is worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this book! I enjoyed being able to move between the e-book and audiobook, which I don’t often get the opportunity to do with advanced copies!

Oh, this was fun!

What a perfect book about the perils of taking someone for granted. Haha. I have to say; I really, really enjoyed this one.

The plot revolves around 3 siblings: a sister, and two brothers who mysteriously always come out on top because someone (or something?) always steps in and saves them at the last second.

I won't say more than that because anything more ruins the suspense and the surprise. But wow, did I like this book!

The only reason it gets four stars instead of five (SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT)

is because I couldn't really visualize the big reveal when the sister finally sees her dream through to the end. Was it really just a horrible nightmare? Or was it something that actually happened that she somehow ... changed? I feel like it was the latter, but I couldn't be sure. That part was a little fuzzy and less well-written than the rest of the book. So it dropped the rating from five to four stars for me.

But yeah. I really, really liked it. Give it a try if you like horror or if you want to read more books this year by POC. It's definitely a good one.

What the H E double hockey sticks did i just read

Imma make my brothers and sisters listen to this book lol! Like this is what happens when you don't listen to your other sister! I will Pull YO ASS INTO MY GUH DARN NIGHTMARE! AND MAKE YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣!! My brain is trying to process what is happening is this book!

But it's so much process! Childhood trauma, having to grow up to soon! death,guilt, parent abandonment! But the horror part is omg!!! Is freaking creepy!!!

I'm done with this book and I'm like ohhhh MY GOD! PLEASE LET ME OUT LOL

Neena Viel's debut horror novel intrigued me when I first heard about it from Macmillan's upcoming books webinar. I really liked the concept behind "Listen to Your Sister", in which the mounting resentment and stress of emotional labor placed on Black women to keep their families together monstrously manifests. I also liked how Viel played with the well worn haunted house trope too. The book's biggest strength is focusing on the relationships between the three siblings: Calla who has been recently dubbed as the guardian to her younger brother Jamie and the middle brother Dre who promises to help Calla out in raising Jamie but conveniently finds ways to do his own thing. I definitely had a hard time in the first half of the book to get my bearings on the plot which I would describe as chaotic. Things begin to solidify in the second half of the book once we learn about the history of the family and the various examples of Calla's emotional labor. I would personally have preferred if we got a slow progression to the horrors instead of them popping up in random places without any context. Viel succeeds in creating some truly creepy imagery. The insertion of dark laugh out loud humor helps undercut the gore and tension.

I am delighted that the audiobook is narrated by a full cast of characters. All of the narrators did a great job in embodying their characters' personality, which made it very easy to distinguish who is who in a story that has multiple points of view. Major props go out to the narrator of Calla who did terrifically horrifying voices to the various Callas.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan/St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley and Neena Viel for the ARC, and MacMillan Audio (#MacAudio2024) for the ALC!

“Hello there angel form my nightmare”…

Part horror, part family drama, this book was unique to say the least. I sympathized a lot with our FMC, Calla, who was exhausted raising her counter brother Jamie. Their other brother, Dre, was supposed to help but his way usually consists of just telling Calla to stop worrying. Both boys seem so lost it really hurt my heart. Throughout it all, reoccurring nightmares are used to illustrate what the siblings can’t say. What I was most impressed with was the author’s ability to weave in family bonds, childhood trauma and racism and show how it affected every aspect of these young people’s lives. A solid horror debut and I can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next!!

I gotta say I was very excited to read this book after reading the synopsis. It gave me creepy and family drama vibes.
And even though I was not wrong, it also failed to keep my attention at times.
I did enjoy the siblings dynamics and all the social commentary that added a lot of family drama to the storyline. The writing, in my opinion, is decent enough (even though there are some words and foul language used that I personally never appreciate when an author does that).
This book is divided into parts, and my favourite one was the third one - The Cabin - that was when all the siblings experienced supernatural occurances and some more heavy family drama ensued.
However, after 2/3 of this book, it all got a little repetitive, for my taste, and the plot got way too heavy on the family drama - the siblings would argue about and over anything and everything. I'm all up for drama in horror novels, as well as social commentaries. But at the end of the day I want a horrific and creepy and scary horror story. And, to me, Listen to Your Sister fails sometimes at providing genuine horror. I mean, this is a supernatural horror story, so other than the social/racial discussions, nothing else is realistic, so the reader gotta suspend their disbelief.
My biggest complaint is the lack of genuine horror and too much family drama. I like that, but I didn't want that by getting into this book.
The ending was not satisfactory to me, personally. But it was more fast-paced and action-packed than the rest of the book.
I'd recommend this book to any readers who genuinely enjoy or are drawn to slow-burn supernatural horror with a lot of family drama and social disccusions.
I listened to the audiobook and it was great. All the narrators are really good and they all made the story easier to follow. I'd also recommend the audio format.
Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for allowing me to listen to an advanced and free audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.