In "Listen to Your Sister," twenty-five-year-old Calla Williams becomes guardian to her sixteen-year-old brother Jamie after promising to keep their family together. With their other brother Dre largely absent, Calla shoulders the entire responsibility of raising a teenager more interested in causing trouble than listening. As an eldest sibling, I found the scenario gut-wrenching. Imagining sacrificing your entire life to keep a family together feels like an absolute nightmare. Jamie's attitude was so frustrating that I couldn't make it past the first few chapters. The constant push and pull felt viscerally real, even though I've never experienced anything like it. I didn't read far enough to judge the full story, but those initial chapters were enough to make me put the book down. Sometimes a book just isn't the right fit.

1.75 stars

Listen to Your Sister was one of my biggest disappointments this year. After finding it on NetGalley, and hearing so much hype, I was thrilled to get started. But I could tell within the first few pages that it wasn't going to be the story for me.

What should have been a family drama horror ended up being a convoluted mess where I couldn't understand what was happening the majority of the time and I'm not convinced that the author even understood what she was writing. I unfortunately ended up skimming the last 25% of the book because I couldn't force myself to read the entirety of the rest of it.

I truly wanted to care about these characters and the story but the concept was much better than the execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings on this one. The writing is beautiful and unique with the descriptions. The plot was intriguing and I was so excited to read this. Unfortunately, I felt the execution fell flat.

The mix between real life and a nightmare wasn’t all that clear. The plot twists were…well also confusing. I ended this book with more questions than I had answered.

I think this definitely had potential and I still look forward to reading more from this author.

I really thought this horror would be right up my alley with sibling relationships and a bit of supernatural horror, but I just can’t get into it.

The changing of perspectives every chapter is startling and we don’t even get to know each of the siblings well before we’re pulled to another POV.

37% in and I still don’t understand the history of Calla’s nightmares or what they are.

37% in and it felt like three separate story lines that weren’t working. One sibling has nightmares and issues at work. One has issues at school, with friends, and got into some trouble when his friends ditched him. The other one is just…there?

37% and 14 chapters in, the characters could have been more settled and defined. For so much description, there is not much clarity.

Both the murder and supernatural scenes felt cartoony and seemed too short for how overly descriptive the rest of the book was.

One of my friends gave this five stars so obviously it works for some people but the writing style and character development/POV change is not working for me.

This is an amazing horror debut that centers Black siblings and the horrors of a white supremacist, racist society. It also centers familial anxiety through that lens of violence against Black men and boys (and women and girls) in a fascinating and truly genius way. I can't wait to read more from this author in the future!

I like the title & the cover of this book & really wanted to enjoy it more than I did. Unfortunately, I thought the pacing was off- some parts dragged, while other areas you could just zoom through. The book was a little weirder than expected, but I did like the concept behind the story.

Review: Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel

Neena Viel’s Listen to Your Sister is a striking debut that blends horror, social commentary, and family trauma into a surreal, unsettling, and unexpectedly funny experience. This is the kind of book that lingers, twisting its way into your thoughts long after you’ve turned the last page.

At its core, the novel follows Calla, a 25-year-old who has spent her life trying to keep her younger brothers, Jamie and Dre, safe. But after an incident forces them to flee to a secluded cabin, the bonds of family loyalty are tested in ways that go beyond the natural world. Viel masterfully blurs the lines between supernatural horror and the everyday horrors of poverty, systemic racism, and familial obligation, creating a story that is both deeply personal and disturbingly universal.

The writing is sharp, the characters vividly drawn. Calla, in particular, is an unforgettable protagonist—strong, flawed, and burdened by responsibilities that should never have been hers. Jamie and Dre, while often frustrating, feel painfully real, shaped by the same cycles of trauma they can’t seem to escape. Viel’s exploration of sacrifice, survival, and the roles we’re forced to play in our families is as emotionally gripping as it is terrifying.

The pacing can be uneven, with some sections dragging while others spiral into chaotic, fever-dream intensity. But even in its more disorienting moments, Listen to Your Sister never loses its emotional weight. The horror isn’t just in the supernatural elements—it’s in the inevitability of what happens when people are pushed to their limits.

Dark, thought-provoking, and deeply unsettling, Listen to Your Sister is an outstanding debut that will resonate with fans of literary horror. Viel has a unique voice, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Rating: 4.5/5

First of all, this book is WEIRD. Not bad weird. Just weird weird. I don't know that I loved the 3rd person POV, but this was overall a solidly weird read that kept me engaged and interested throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

3.5 stars!

I was given an ebook copy of this to review, but ended up picking up the audio book on my own as well after hearing it was so good and listened/read in tandem, which was really enjoyable for this book!

This was a wonderful debut and great read. The audio is great for this. For being horror, and this does have it's moments, this was very funny for me, and I really enjoyed the banter between the siblings.

This had great social commentary in in, which i something I really enjoy seeing in horror stories specifically.

Anyway, loved this - definitely recommend it. It's a pretty unique story, and it's a great time, worth a read or especially worth a listen!

What a ride!! This book was powerfully written. I went in blind not knowing what to expect at all, and I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters before any supernatural things started to take place. It was surprising and such a haunting look at family relationships and racial disparities in this country. Calla will stick with me for a long time, all of her selves.

First off I wanted to say thank you for approving my request for this book. I have decided to dnf this book because im not all that interested in it. It doesn't feel very fast paced and I am a little bored. I'm sure its amazing, but my attention span just cannot read this

Much like the Super Bowl performance by Kendrick Lamar wasn’t made for me, Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel wasn’t made for me. The black experience is very important here. I will offer you my honest thoughts but a black person will find things I didn’t know I was missing.

This story is what happens when a sister takes sacrificing herself to help her brothers to a whole new level. It’s hard to pin down the sub-genre because it goes beyond the confines of our world but is still anchored to it. The mysterious entities are restricted to the human experience but not our version reality. Time, reality, and consciousness get a little bendy here.

Viel does a great job making me, a middle aged white woman, understand these characters and why they make the choices they do. I dislike Jamie and Dre as people but I appreciate them as characters.

How much is Jamie a victim of his circumstances, his parents, his choices, his youthful sense of invincibility, or society as a whole? I fully believe this conversation is part of what Viel is trying to do. Can you change your station when all you’ve know and all society sees is an impoverished criminal?

Race, gender, crime, poverty, choice, familial obligation, trauma. There is so much to dive into. Enjoy is the wrong word. A lot of my own trauma points were pushed by this book.

I had strong feelings and a vested interest. The characters are flawed but well developed. The writing is good. There are so many pieces I highlighted because I enjoyed how Viel used language. It’s dark and brutal with an excellent execution. This is a powerful debut and I look forward to more from Viel in the future. 4/5

Creepy, funny, and a little all over the place... but in a good way??

This book snuck up on me in a way only horror can. So it's definitely creepy, full of dread, but also weirdly funny in a way that makes the unsettling parts hit even harder. The story jumps between three siblings, which isn't something I usually like. (I guess I'm easily confuse?) But I'm this book, each character feels like a distinctly different perspective, and you get a full picture of the family’s history and trauma without it feeling repetitive.

The writing is sharp, and the social commentary never feels forced, but the pacing is a little messy. The first half drags in spots, especially when it circles back to the same ideas a few too many times, and then the second half goes off the rails in a way that’s both exciting and kind of disorienting.

One thing that really stuck with me was how the supernatural elements creep into the most normal moments. There’s one scene with a totally ordinary household object that really got me. It wasnt, like, some big, dramatic scare, but because it was just *wrong* in a way I couldn’t shake. I love it when that happens!!

If you like horror that’s unsettling but adds just enough humor to feel real, this one’s worth a read. It’s a little uneven, but it lingers in the best way.

This was an amazing but weird book that I very much enjoyed. The book starts out slower but quickly picks up the pace. This book feels like a fever dream in the best way possible

This horror novel isn't just another piece of brain candy. There are layers upon layers in Listen to Your Sister, ripe for unpacking with a book club.

Shockingly, this is not the weirdest novel I’ve read this year. But in this case weird is cool. It was fast paced, original, tapped into some very real issues, family trauma, and all the fun supernatural stuff. The story just flowed and I couldn’t put it down.
I loved the characters, other than wanting to throttle Jamie half the time and wanting to shake him. My heart went out to Calla and I honestly just wanted Dre to man up.

Great read. I’d recommend.

I was intrigued by the cover alone, the story kept me locked in. Family drama that turns into a horror-like story coming true made for a devouring read. I love getting caught up in the drama of characters, especially family. Stories where dreams, or "premonitions," start fulfilling themselves (Supernatural fans, this one's for you!) will have me immediately glued to my comfy reading spot.

Calla Williams is a 25-year old guardian keeping her teenage brothers; Jamie and Dre under control. But after an incident, the siblings escape to a secluded cabin seeking a peaceful retreat. But well….

I have an older sister so I know how it is out there right 🤣 so in this book, these siblings will make you laugh or maybe they will scare you. For me I didn’t feel this like a horror but about family and survival.

Okay, it's true that this book is super weird. However, that's what I liked about it. This speculative novel is a great blend of horror and a vibe that feels almost folklore-like. It should be required reading for any elder daughters out there, or for people who feel like they're doomed to take care of their siblings forever. There's some fantastic imagery and some pretty gruesome scenes, but overall, it's a story about how we get stuck in certain roles in our family and can't break out of them. I for sure get why this won't be for a lot of readers, but I loved the creativity in Viel's writing. There were some parts that felt repetitive, but I think this was more of a matter of needing a bit stronger editing. I'd be interested in seeing what types of stories she tackles going forward.

Listen to Your Sister is thematically what I love about horror. The best horror stories are not just about cheap scares but about examining things about ourselves, our world, and our fears. Listen to Your Sister does this in spades. This is a deeping moving story about 3 siblings, their relationship with each other, and all the trauma they have dealt with over the years. That includes drug abuse, abusive parents, parentification of older siblings, and racism.

Overall I really liked this novel for taking all these ideas and turning them into a unique and original horror story. There were times that the story felt like it dragged a bit but I thought the payoff was worth it.