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.

The thing that I like most about this book is the way each character feels distinct. They had understandable motivations, thoughts and feelings I could sympathize with, and a voice that made each chapter distinct in whose POV I was reading - honestly, those are the key components to writing a good multi-POV story, and this author nailed it without a doubt. I really felt this when I realized that while from an outside perspective I 100% felt I was on Calla's side and that she was in the right most of the time, during the chapters from Dre and Jamie I could understand the thoughts driving them to act the way they did toward her. Even so, I could feel Calla's justifiable rage during that one particular cabin scene and had a really hard time reading how the boys treated her during that argument without tossing the book out of frustration with them (that's a good thing lol).

Beyond that, this book felt like such a trip. I was confused about what was going on for the first half, which normally puts me off of a book, but the gruesome imagery and the way I could just feel that the author was leaving breadcrumbs I hadn't pieced together yet kept me on the hook and eager to find out what would happen next. The mysterious women showing up to save the boys at different points didn't immediately click for me on where they'd come from, but their determined methods of protecting them had my jaw on the floor. The gore in this book is certainly intense, and even outside the hardcore fighting scenes there were so many moments that churned my stomach with the realism of the description - the mobile of nail clippings and umbilical cord; the dark hair clumps floating in the water; the glass shard from the street going into a foot - all of these made me vaguely nauseous as I was reading. Again, not usually something I can handle in a book, but something about the way the author utilized this imagery felt purposeful and contributed to more than just the creepy vibe.

Genuinely I think one of my favorite parts of this book is the way the author used the narrative to also slip in bits about the criminal justice system and systemic racism. The fear the boys have of being implicated in the murders and what it would mean for their lives long-term, as well as Calla's fear for them, was an extra layer of conflict on top of the supernatural forces already threatening their lives, and one that I think was important to include. Overall, all of the elements of this book came together perfectly and I really loved the story as a whole. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more by this author.

DNF

I could not get into the story or the writing, which was very promising at first and quickly became tiresome.

OK, they really REALLY should've listened to their sister.

Dark, surreal and trauma-laden, 'Listen to Your Sister' focuses on three siblings, their bond and a really intense Nightmare.

The pacing is wildly inconsistent - - the first 50% of the book had me on the edge of a DNF, BUT I'm glad I stuck with it. Once this takes a truly dark turn, it doesn't stop - - circling the drain and dumping you down into the wet, nasty abyss. Familial trauma literally incarnate as body horror.

As far as characters go: Jamie and Dre really grated on me - - as the oldest daughter from a broken family in Florida some of this may have landed too close to home for me to not want to slap them! Calla is just trying her best, man. (Loved Calla, the boys don't deserve her).

I'll be checking out Neena Viel's future works for sure.

This was a do not finish for me, simply not the sort of thing that I enjoy reading about. I only made it to about 7%, when the author was describing Jamie's drug trip. It was disgusting and not worth persuing..