Blurb:
Calla is 25 and suddenly becomes legal guardian for her wild-teen brother Jamie, while her middle sibling Dre promised help but hasn’t stepped up. Calla is stretched thin, plagued by recurring nightmares of her brothers dying, guilt, and longing. When a protest spirals out of control, the siblings escape to a remote cabin to lay low — only to find that their nightmares may not be just dreams. Something is following them, and it’s more horrifying than they expected

Thoughts:

Listen to Your Sister was so great at creating an atmosphere of unease. The nightmare sequences and cabin setting were vivid and disorienting, and the sibling dynamics—love, resentment, responsibility—felt painfully real. I also appreciated how the horror wasn’t just supernatural but tied to real-world fears like injustice and societal pressure, which gave the story extra weight.

That said, it was sometimes hard to find my footing. The book jumps into visions and nightmares almost immediately, which made it tricky to tell what was real, and Jamie’s reckless behavior made him difficult to connect with. It’s also emotionally heavy—trauma and violence are central—so it’s not an easy read. But overall, I found it unsettling in ways that stuck with me, which is exactly what I want from horror.

Listen to Your Sister isn’t about gore—it’s about the psychological and emotional side of horror. I was pulled in by the sibling relationships and their interactions, the weight of trauma and being a caretaker, and the way nightmares and blurred morality created such creeping dread. It doesn’t offer clear answers and leans alot into ambiguity, but that made it feel even more raw and human. Haunting, unsettling, and powerful, this debut stuck with me long after I finished.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the gifted digital copy!

An enjoyable tale with engaging characters... nothing life-altering but definitely worth the read. Will watch for more from this author! Thanks to Netgally for this ARC.

I DNFed this book at the 10% mark.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the right audience for this book. It felt a little rambling and I couldn't get into it.

Scary, dark, and gripping. The type of book you want to stop reading but cannot put down.
Excellent world building and storytelling
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I’m not sure what I just read. The beginning build up is great. Three African American siblings, the oldest sister Calla is now responsible for her brothers. The middle brother Dre is pretty nonchalant about everything, the youngest teenaged brother Jamie who is rebelling.

But then things start to change and they all start seeing gory, horrific things. Is Jamie’s misbehavior or Calla’s newly thrust on parental stress causing it? Do they have multiple personalities? Are they being haunted? I have no idea. I feel like it was very confusing and convoluted.

Jamie’s character is horrible. He’s a snotty, rebellious teenager who doesn’t listen to his poor sister, is getting into street trouble, abusing girls, and when he gets confronted, screams racism.

I don’t think I was the right target audience for this book. Although I love horror, this one just didn’t hold my attention and confused me the whole time.

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t picture or follow what was happening within the story. I did enjoy the sibling focus of the story though!

This novel had the perfect description for me and I was excited to dive in, but I had a hard time getting invested. I picked it up and put it down a few times before finally hitting stride at 60%+ in the book. Overall a solid debut and I'm interested in future books from the author, I just had a hard time with the pace. Thank you for the advanced copy and the chance to read this book!

Listen to Your Sister is about Calla and her two younger siblings, Dre and Jamie. I thought it was going to be scarier from the description and the creepy cabin on the cover, but this felt like it took forever to get going. I almost quit reading it two different times. It finally picked up the pace around the 65% point.
I really like the siblings' relationship and how they worked together (once they stopped fighting), but it was kind of too little too late. It's also not really a horror book. It's more of a dark fantasy/magic realism book with horror elements.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a free review. All opinions are my own.

Listen to Your Sister is a genre-bending knockout that blends horror, family drama, and speculative suspense into a story that’s as emotionally raw as it is pulse-pounding. Neena Viel’s debut is a masterclass in character development especially when it comes to Calla Williams. Calla is a 25-year-old woman thrust into guardianship of her younger brother Jamie, and her exhaustion, resentment, and fierce love are all palpable. Viel doesn’t just sketch her characters she excavates them. Calla’s recurring nightmares, her fractured relationship with her siblings, and her desperate attempts to hold everything together make her one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in a while. Jamie and Dre, her brothers, are equally well-drawn, each bringing their own chaos, charm, and heartbreak to the story. The plot? Well, It’s a wild ride. What starts as a family drama quickly spirals into a supernatural thriller when the siblings go on the run and take refuge in a cabin straight out of a slasher flick. The tension builds relentlessly, and the horror elements are both metaphorical and literal and Viel knows how to scare you while making you care deeply. Some pacing hiccups aside, this book delivers on every front: emotional depth, eerie atmosphere, and a plot that keeps you guessing. If you love horror with heart and characters who feel like real people caught in unreal circumstances, Listen to Your Sister deserves a spot on your shelf.

The characters in this stressed me out quite a bit - especially the younger brother! Stop being such a brat! But overall I found this to be weird but decently good!

Thank you for the opportunity to review. I read about 80% of the book and just decided that I didn’t care how it ended. I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters. The story was very repetitive and the characters were so flat and similar that I often was confused about whose point of view I was reading. A really intriguing idea that wasn’t well executed.

This was an extremely intriguing horror novel centered around an unconventional family unit steeped in deep trauma. I do love paranormal horror, which is what I was expecting from Listen to Your Sister, but… it was so much deeper. The story is extremely immersive, visceral, and unique. It’s hard to say much without giving spoilers, so I will say that I am glad I went into this one pretty much blind.

TW: body horror and gross-out horror, which is not my usual preference but the story kept me invested.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

Essentially this book was not for me. It was a good book, just didn’t have what works for me personally. I loved authors voice and how she made all three POVs so distinct and unique. That is a true talent on the page. What didn’t work for me were the dynamics between siblings and the horror trope itself, it’s just not my favorite overall and I had a hard time staying in the story. However, I will still recommend this read to others, it’s just a little bit too niche then I anticipated.

I wanted to love this one more than I did. I found it kinda hard to follow and I lost interest super quick

It's taken me a bit to process this one. It is a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Viel.

I don't always agree with comparisons but this definitely had a Jordan Peele feel to it. Everything felt normal, then got weird, then got to uneasy fever dream territory. It would make a great movie. Though I'm older than all the characters it felt modern and relatable, particularly as a non white woman. There were a ton of topical references that I'm not sure will age well. Viel's writing drew me in, and I was eager to see what was coming next. There were a lot of storylines that I think could have been parsed down but overall worked out at the end. I think the author was trying to make Jamie kind of endearing despite being a jerk (and I don't want to discount the fact that he was a teen with boatloads of trauma so acting that way is expected) but he was just a dick.

The audiobook narrators did a fantastic job! I enjoy when each character has their own narrator and the voices were distinct enough to never be confusing. The voices for all the “characters” in parts 3 and 4 were a bit grating, but I understand why they were done that way. It was very immersive and really added to the chaotic mood.

Listen to Your Sister is billed as speculative fiction but I agree with other reviewers that the unrelenting trauma is a more psychological horror. This book isn't going to be for a lot of people, but if you enjoy Jordan Peele and books that you make you think about others' sociopolitical challenges, then this is for you. It gets a little weird but if you don't mind a little body horror, you should be fine. This is not splatterpunk, but it is a smart book that even manages to be a little funny at times before jerking you back to the trauma.

Favorite quote: “My ancestors made me...for cuddling and war.”

This book was wildly funny and unsettling. It definitely gave Jordan Peele movie vibes. 25 year old sister caring for her youngest sibling Jaime, and they end up in an unsavory situation after losing their father in an accident. The end of this book was gripping and I found it hard to put down!!

I feel like the author had a really good idea for a story, but wasn't quite able to make it come to life. The story was kind of discombobulated and hard to follow at times.

The story is not for me. I didn't enjoy the boys perspective. The plot was disappointing. The synopsis sounded great, but it didn't live up to my expectations.

A weird, fever dream of a book. I loved the relationship between the three siblings and appreciated their banter back and forth. Lots of witty and laugh out loud moments. I think their interactions made the book.
Listen to Your Sister is a promising debut that has a lot of heart mixed in with lots of “wtf” moments. I look forward to her next book!