I DNF’d this at about 30% 😓 I requested this arc based on the synopsis because it sounds really interesting but where I stopped at in the book, I was just so lost at what was going on and because of how slow the pace was I just realized I was reaching less for this book.

Unfortunately I struggled with this book and had a hard time finishing it. I loved the idea of siblings fighting against the paranormal horror for each other but I just could not wrap my head around all the things that happened, is it a dream or is it a nightmare - or is it both and how do I tell the difference. I think I am probably just not the right reader for this book. 2.5 stars.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for a chance to read an ARC version of this book.

This one is an absolute doozy. Neena Viel wrote one heck of a debut novel that is centered around family dynamics and all the complications that come with it but then you sprinkle in some horror, slight humor, twisted psychological events and bam, you got gripping plot that I could not get enough of.

At the center is Calla Williams, a 25-year-old guardian trying to juggle way too much. She’s the breadwinner, parent figure, mentor, counselor, and friend to Jamie, a defiant high schooler. On top of that, she’s also the big sister to Dre, only two years younger. This trio is a chaotic mix of love and conflict, constantly at odds with each other and themselves. And just when you think things couldn’t get worse, Calla’s recurring nightmares intensify, Jamie has a life-altering moment after a protest, and the siblings end up fleeing to a remote cabin. I truly felt for Calla—her overwhelming sense of responsibility weighed so heavily on her, and I couldn’t help but wish she could just find some peace. This story felt deeply personal, as if it came straight from the heart.

Viel’s writing is vivid and immersive, pulling you into every twist and turn while making the psychological elements feel incredibly intimate. The book explores the Black perspective, sibling relationships, survival, and loyalty in a way that’s heavy yet balanced by moments of humor. Chapter 39 had me laughing out loud—it was such a curveball and not what I expected at all.

I’ll admit, there were a few parts where I got a little lost in the plot, but I’m already planning a reread when the audiobook drops. This book does deal with the Black POV, has harsh language and a raw reality, so if you are sensitive to these topics, then this book is not for you.

Neena Viel is an author to keep an eye on. Honestly, I’d love to see Listen to Your Sister on the big screen.

Big thanks to NetGalley for this one! Listen to Your Sister is set to be published on February 4, 2025.

Excellent! First read of 2025 and it was everything I needed.

Immediately drawn into the story of Calla and her brothers Dre and Jamie. Calla is now legal guardian of 16 year old Jamie. He was her baby when he was young, but now he’s into all kind of trouble. Dre, the middle brother, is conspicuously absent when she needs him. Calla is full of resentment and anxiety. All of the Callas are.

Favorite character is Jamie. He’s absolutely hilarious and the humor was probably my favorite part of this book, I laughed out loud many times. Serious topics of drug abuse, child neglect and abuse. But told with so much heart I cried at the end.

Read it please! Best to go in cold.

The description drew me to this book, but in all honesty I got something wildly different than I expected, in a good way.

The are so many important topics packed into this book; sibling dynamics, generational trauma, racism and sexism. The horror is visceral and disturbing, but the real story is much deeper.

Viels writing is beautiful and poetic, and the way she constructed the story, dropping breadcrumbs along the way is incredible. Seriously. the attention to detail is unbelievable. The concept itself is wonderfully unique and blew me away.

The only reason I can't give this a full five stars is because of the pacing. The story is definitely a slow burn. The last quarter left me breathless, but around the middle I did struggle to keep going. The ending is totally worth it, but the slower sections did affect my overall enjoyment.

This book is a surreal, fever-dream experience that blurs the line between reality and imagination, creating a uniquely complex and compelling narrative. The fact that this is a debut is astonishing—Veil’s writing is sharp, evocative, and deeply impactful.

The story masterfully weaves themes of dread, familial trauma, and love, brought to life through three distinct and dynamic points of view. The siblings’ journey from dysfunction to beautifully crafted growth arcs is heartbreaking and uplifting.

While the middle section lags slightly in pacing, the overall impact of this layered story is undeniable.

I’m thrilled that my first book of the year was so provocative!

Starting off slow, Neena Viel soon drags you into an eerie ride that leaves you questioning what you know about horror. A very Jordan Peele-esque feel to it, you dont have many typical horror tropes to pull this book into "oh thats been done before" territory. The bond of family and what lengths a person will go to to protect their own are woven throughout the heartpounding confusion of nightmares merging with reality. I feel like this is the first time I dont want to say too much in a review because i dont want to give anything away. A very well done debut, I cannot wait to see what comes out of Neena Viel's brain next!

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Listen to Your Sister is an insane rollercoaster of a book. I spent half of it going wtf??? and the other half thinking "whoa, no way it can get any crazier." And let me tell you, it always got crazier.

Listen to Your Sister follows big sister Calla, middle sibling Dre, and baby brother Jamie. Calla is exhausted from keeping everyone and thing together, Jamie is exhausted from being the family fuck up, and Dre is exhausted listening to them both complain about each other. Enter The Nightmare.

It would make a super cool movie, IMO. I don't want to say too much else, because I think this is a good book to go in mostly blind, but it is perfect for fans of campy horror. It's scary, it's heartfelt, it's insanity.

Listen to Your Sister completely surprised me. I truly thought this was going to be an isolated cabin type of thriller/horror, but the story quickly took a unique turn that I didn’t see coming. The author handles heavy topics like family trauma and race with a surprising lightness. I can see why it’s marketed for Jordan Peele fans…it definitely has that feel.

I did like the different perspectives and the exploration of their relationships was a highlight. I truly believed in their sibling bond, even as the story unfolded into mystery and horror. The pacing was a bit slow for me personally which is why I gave it 4 stars but it picked up halfway through and sped toward a thrilling conclusion. This was an unexpected, heartwarming twist on the genre, and as a debut novel, it's a promising start from a fresh voice.

Special thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin and Neena Viel for the eARC.

I went into this book expecting to love it. It didn't turn out as I hoped. Calla is a young woman struggling to raise her younger brother Jamie. Dre, the middle child, has promised Calla that he will lend a hand but it too focused on his own life to actually help. Jamie makes some seriously bad choices that results in the siblings having to hide out in a cabin in the woods. But throughout her life, Calla has been haunted by horrific nightmares about her brother, nightmares that seem to have become reality.

I don't enjoy books where you have no idea what's going on. Yes, I can suspend belief enough to love the horror genre, but this one was a stretch for me. When you can't tell what is reality and what is a dream, it makes my head hurt. Yeah, my head hurt with this one.

Okay, I tried really hard to like this book. So many have given this book a positive review.

That being said and me being totally honest, I found it hard to keep up with the pace. I felt I was bouncing back and forth between the characters and reality. And I'm not a fan of some of the language used. I really struggled to finish this one..

I would like to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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.

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

On a positive note, I really liked the narrators in the audiobook. They had a way of making each POV their own, so you feel as if you're really reading about three siblings with different personalities vying for each other's love and respect.

But other than that, this felt more lit fic with a focus on character studies, and sadly, that isn't really my thing.

If I had known that this was more about the characters' interpersonal relationships as siblings, I probably wouldn't have picked this up. Sure, there was horror, and a glimpse into racism, but a lot of this book hinged on knowing and familiarizing with all three siblings and their family dynamics.

The horror aspect was heavily based on Calla's role and responsibilities as the eldest sister and motherly figure to her brothers. Jamie was the odd one out, having been "saved" from the foster care system by his older siblings. Dre is the classic middle child.

I felt like this novel really dragged, especially since the set-up is based on getting the reader to really know and understand the characters. After that, it became a house of horrors situation where each character had to reconcile with the whole gamut of their feelings and emotions towards each other, especially Calla.

If you're into horror based on sibling ties, then this might be for you. While this didn't work out for me, I know others might like this book.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for this arc.

A horrifying tale about a family ravaged by dysfunction, and the steps they will take to come together. This haunting book takes you into the minds of Calla, Dre, and Jamie, a group of siblings that have had to build their lives after their father passing away, and leaving their angry mother. Jamie comes under the guardianship of Calla, and the siblings are forced to reckon with their past as odd dream like situations and people come into their lives. This was a fast-paced, funny book that read like a movie! I loved it!

3.5 stars

This one is for Jordan Peele fans. It's part family-drama, part horror, and part dark humour, the author blends it all perfectly in one novel. It's tense from beginning to end, and it's a great debut noel.

Hell of a horror novel that focuses on three siblings in the aftermath of the youngest sibling making a truly stupid fucking mistake, their past together, and all their perceptions and worst fears coming true on one night as they try to navigate hiding from the cops and staying alive, and the nightmare that ends up unfolding around them. Pre order this now.

This one is almost indescribable. Not at all what I expected, but a wild journey through the heart of a family. Calla would do anything for her brothers, this is that story. How family can destroy you and save you, simultaneously. Just don't expect a linear, conventional story, this is a fever dream told with blood, soaked with pain.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

It is so, so good. Read it! You will never be the same.

Enjoyed every chapter. It kept getting better and better.

Highly recommend.

After gaining custody of her youngest brother, Jamie, Calla's life has been nothing but stressful. The sixteen-year-old's drug use, fighting, and philandering have gotten him into legal hot water more times than she can count, hurting her career and personal life. To make matters worse, their middle sibling, the fastidious and stylish Dre, is conveniently busy or tired whenever she asks for his help. When an incident at a protest makes Jamie look like a cop killer, the family is forced into hiding in a dilapidated cabin in the woods. Secrets are painfully revealed, nightmares become real, mysterious women begin attacking them, and the siblings' feelings towards one another are put to the test.

'Listen to Your Sister' is a lot of things--it's a heartwarming story about siblings learning how important they are to one another. It's a horror story about repressing your emotions and trying to overextend your reach. It's funny as hell, especially when Jamie is speaking or is the point-of-view character. Most importantly, 'Listen to Your Sister' is unapologetically black. From the constant worry from the Williams siblings about becoming statistics to the absence of characters existing for white comfort (y'know, the supportive white friend or authority figure who exists so sensitive white readers can see them and say 'not all of us are like that!'. Self-reflection doesn't hurt!), Neena Viel punctuates her characters with weave colors, sneaker choices, and rap lyrics. And the characters are the heart of 'Listen to Your Sister', with each Williams sibling feeling like a real person. I work with so many teens who remind me of Jamie; getting involved with drug use that I can't even imagine at that age, feeling the need to prove themselves to adults who see them as children, and having ambitious ideas without the means to execute them. Dre is a relatable middle child--frequently feeling ignored and that he needs to claw out his own individuality, since he's had to share everything with his siblings growing up. That said, and an eldest daughter, I couldn't help but relate to Calla--a neurotic mess who wants to be a gentle role-model to the point of being a pushover. Calla was the most relatable older sister I've read since Lenny in Beth Henley's 'Crimes of the Heart', and I equally enjoyed and cringed at her.

I don't want to say too much about the plot because I don't want to spoil it, especially the true nature of Calla's reoccurring Nightmare.. The cabin doesn't come into play until about one-third into the story, but the book moves at a great pace and everything that happens before the AirBnB from Hell helps to establish the characters. This book might not be for you if you're looking for a nonstop thriller, but if you like character-driven family dramas with a paranormal twist, I cannot recommend this enough.

So often I'll read books on NetGalley that I'll give a four or five star review because it's a thorough, well-written book, even if it's not something I'd enjoy enough to recommend. 'Listen to Your Sister' is not one of these situations--it's a wildly enjoyable book and I had so much fun with it. It's not even 2025 yet, but this has already earned a space on my 'best of the year' list.

Damn! This description delivers: “ The old woman's neck was a shade too long to be natural. A black net extended from a wide-brimmed hat and shielded her face. The hat was more unsettling than Freddy Krueger's fedora or the Babadook's top hat, the grandmother equivalent of a nineteen-inch dick: no one would dare join this woman's pew at church, even if they could fit.”

I would like to say that my nightmares protect people from disasters but unfortunately not. They simply terrorize me like they terrorized the siblings in the second half of the book. the creativity of the sister’s nightmare is giving mine money for their run.

Neena Viel created a world where you would be scared to go to sleep or be a sibling of a very protective sibling. The language of this book was a I expected to be: raw, worthy of three siblings love and hate each other, and incredibly new generation. I would be on the look out for more of Neena’s books.