A truly beautiful, albeit heartbreaking, story of a sister’s love and the lengths she would go through to protect her brothers.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Calla is the eldest of three children, Dre and Jamie follow in succession. She becomes the guardian to her youngest brother, a sixteen-year-old Jamie, after their mother is found to be an unfit parent. Dre made promises to help out with Jamie, but has fallen short. Jamie begins to get into trouble which leads all three to run and hide in a cabin in the woods. That’s when the nightmare truly begins. Calla’s nightmare that is. A nightmare that is always the same: her brothers being unalived. How can she stop the nightmare before it comes true?

I thought this book was very profound. It was witty, laugh-out-loud funny, and scary in all the right moments. I loved how the author weaved racial commentary into the story as well. Each character was well developed, interesting, and funny! The book kept me hooked until the very end.

There were times when the book read more like a script as many scenes were hard for me, personally, to visualize and I thought that most of the book would make more of an impact if it was maybe a movie as opposed to the written word. Other than that, I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC, opinions are my own. I really enjoyed the family dynamics of Listen to Your Sister - a set of siblings who deeply love each other are struggling to rise above the weights of their childhood and societal pressures. Calla, as the oldest sibling and the defacto mother figure to her brothers since their births, is crumbling under the work it takes to keep two Black boys alive without sacrificing herself in the process. The boys struggle to understand exactly how much that work is costing Calla until they become trapped in her living Nightmare -which is like a half possession of Calla, half embodiment of their shared trauma. They’ll have to figure out together or not make it out at all. This debut work by Neena Viel was creepy, powerful, and contained a ton of heart and humor. There were times I struggled to understand the more surreal bits of the Nightmare, giving me the sense that I wasn’t imagining what the author necessarily intended, but the fine line between sibling love and hate was executed perfectly. 🤌

I think Viel is going to be someone to watch and I’ll definitely pick up her next book!

This one just wasn’t for me. It started off strong but felt very drawn out and often times disjointed.

Book: Listen to Your Sister
Author: Neena Viel
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: 4 February, 2025
Capone’s Rating: 4⭐ of 5⭐

First off: Wow. Neena Viel is a tremendous writer. Her strength in Listen to Your Sister, her debut novel, is in the characters she’s created. Calla (at center stage), Dre (her younger brother), and Jamie (Calla’s youngest brother) are as real as anyone I’ve met, and they are believable at every page—something that isn’t true of many if not most story characters. And I mean it: These are fully fleshed out humans who curse, make stupid choices, hold grudges, make sudden choices with huge consequences; they do all of this just as a real, and really imperfect, person would do. They’re also characters it’s easy to root for.

These characters are the core of this story, though the conflict is a compelling one: Calla has been looking out for her brothers their whole lives, and a lot goes down in a lifetime. She’s taken it on the chin for them time after time. And all the while, she’s had these dreams—dreams where she’s doing everything in and beyond her power to save them from their own choices and those of ill-intentioned others. And then, amid some protests, things get heated enough in the city that they’ve gotta split. Shit gets really real when they get to their spooky-ass cabin rental in the woods.

Saying more about this book’s plot is tough to do without giving spoilers, and I’ve tried not to reveal anything specifically about the plot you couldn’t glean from the book description posted everywhere books are sold. If you want to be on the safe side, stop reading this and go grab Viel’s debut novel. Supernatural elements meet real-life family sacrifices in this compelling must-read 2025 release.

I had a hard time getting into this book, however I did finish it - this is why I've rated it 3 stars. Interesting debut, but it just wasn't as suspenseful as I was hoping.

A horror story with heart is exactly what I needed this February.

Thanks to NetGalley and Griffin/St Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for a review!

What starts out as a terrifying potential haunting grows into a tale of the transformative power of facing your past, the bonds of shared trauma and shared joy, and the realities of how "it's so hard keeping black boys alive." Calla's love and frustration with her brothers will call to many parentified eldest children. I cried for and with all three siblings.

I don't think this book will be for everyone, but it was definitely for me! The breakneck pace was set right out the gate and never slowed. I don't mind the body horror, but definitely check your TWs if you're sensitive to bloodshed.

Review is posted on Goodreads and Barnes & Noble

The cover of this book and the synopsis of a big sister doing what she can to help her younger siblings is what made me want to read this book. However, it was kinda of a struggle. The pacing of this book was really slow paced.

Earlier this month, Neena Viel released her debut novel, Listen to Your Sister. This comedic yet horrifying story follows three siblings, the eldest of whom is now the official guardian of the youngest brother, a troubled teenager. Calla has been having a repeated nightmare for years, and it centers on her two younger brothers. But the horrors are starting to feel too real lately, sending the three siblings from their Seattle home to a remote Oregon cabin.

Why I Chose This Book:
The intriguing cover and title first caught my attention. I’ve been getting more into horror novels lately (in addition to my lifelong love of horror movies) and this looked like exactly the kind of story I’d enjoy. Especially with comparisons to Jordan Peele’s films, I was sold.

What I Liked:
- Memories becoming waking nightmares
- This story gets pretty surreal!
- Some stream-of-consciousness moments and distorted thoughts add to that feeling of a loosening grip on reality.
- How many ways has Calla has helped her brothers over the years? How much has it affected her?
- Siblings fighting and unraveling… and creating their own horrors
- From sweet memories to their current bitter feelings
- Reminds me of Us by Jordan Peele (hey, the Jordan Peele comparison in the official summary was right!)
- The cabin they go to is “unabashedly haunted” haha
- Fighting back against racism (Black Lives Matter) and misogyny

What Didn’t Work for Me:
- Sometimes it was a bit too repetitive with the frequent returns to the original event that started the nightmares.

Final Thoughts
Overall, Listen to Your Sister is a great debut. I love how it draws on memories, traumas, and nightmares to create people who feel fragmented and isolated. It’s a cerebral and surreal type of horror that ultimately dissects societal issues and the value of family connections. I look forward to reading more from Neena Viel in the future.

Thank you Netgalley, Neena Viel, and St. Martin's Griffin publishing, for this e-ARC.

This book is about Calla Williams, a 25-year-old woman who ends up being the guardian for her two younger brothers, Dre and Jamie.

Calla struggles with raising the troublesome teenaged Jamie, while Dre, the middle sibling, barely helps, though she's close with both boys.

Calla has a recurring Nightmare of her brothers' deaths, in which she sees them dead or injured and tries everything in her power to save them.

After a violent incident at a protest where Jamie was present, the siblings decide they need to leave town, so they escape to a remote cabin, where things get weirder and weirder.

The first half of the book was very slow for me, as we learned about the siblings and the things they've been through with their absent father and mentally unwell mother. As I kept reading, my interest picked up, though I was somewhat confused during many parts of the story. However, I did enjoy the book and was thoroughly creeped out by the horror elements.

Twenty-five year-old Calla Williams world is falling apart. She is struggling at her job, besides trying to connect with a new boyfriend, while attempting to make a life for herself. Sadly, her two younger brothers, Dre and Jamie, are making it near impossible. With their father dead and their mother gone, the three siblings are stuck with each other, to everyone’s dissatisfaction. Middle sibling Dre means well, but he’s a flake who can’t be counted on to show up when it counts. The real troublemaker is 16-year-old Jamie who is a uniquely teenaged combination of bravado and recklessness. He is prone to trouble with school, drugs, and law enforcement. At a civil rights protest, Jamie is stopped by a racist cop that Jamie may become a fatal victim of violent injustice. Calla’s particular angst soon gets twisted into a scenario of something darker— that has other plans. When a spooky little girl disembowels the cop. After a terrifying series of encounters leaves Dre marked by strange, unexplainable wounds and marks, Calla haunted by visions of a vengeful specter, They realize taking off may be their only chance at survival. As the trio flees to a remote cabin in the woods. What will happen there?

The author writes a novel of a descent into familial fears made manifest. It is haunting. The banter between siblings seeed so real. It is a novel that is speculative horror fiction which I enjoyed very much.

this book was so funny, and i thought the sociopolitical aspect of the horror was very well done (and jordan peele-esque like the synopsis says). unfortunately the "normal" parts of this were hard for me to get invested in, and i struggled to settle into the story at times.

The first chunk of Listen to Your Sister had me completely hooked. Neena Viel did a great job setting up a gripping, emotionally charged story about three siblings navigating trauma, responsibility, and the weight of familial expectations. Calla’s unraveling as she takes on guardianship of Jamie felt raw and real, and I loved the complexity of the sibling dynamics—how their love for each other is tangled up in resentment, guilt, and obligation.

But as the story shifted further into the supernatural, it started to lose me. I usually don’t mind when horror leans into the surreal, but here, the second half felt more chaotic than compelling. The eerie buildup that worked so well in the beginning unraveled into something that didn’t quite land for me. That said, I can still appreciate what Viel was going for—themes of grief, responsibility, and the ways trauma warps reality were all handled with care and emotional depth.

Even though the supernatural elements didn’t fully work for me, Listen to Your Sister has a lot to offer. The sibling relationships felt achingly real, and Viel explores some truly moving themes about love and loss.

That was weird. That was hard to describe. The book is listed as horror but I didn't find it to be terribly scary. Often, horrible things occurred. But not your normal horror. I didn't always know what was going on or what was real. That is by design. Three siblings with a complicated relationship each get stuck in their own head as they are pursued by a living nightmare. This was perhaps the most realistic part of the whole thing. Everyone came to their shared present situation in a different way and each only sees it from their own perspective. Each is stuck in their own bitterness and solitude.

This was a fun read! I enjoyed the at times dark humor this book had and characters themselves! I also really enjoyed the sibling relationship that was in this book! The horror was good but with the element of the FMC having vision it at times created confusion and left me wondering what was actually happening and what was in her head? The pacing felt choppy but it did get better towards the end. Overall a solid debut novel that I definitely recommend checking out!

I was quite looking forward to this read from the description however I feel that it became a slog that I had to force myself to continue. This weird in a “Twin Peaks movie” way and not the good David Lynch way. I am not sure I really liked any of the characters and the Nightmare thing is just a bit much for me. I thought it took too long for some of the Callas to be explained and the back and forth was confusing. Try this at your own risk—not really my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins for this ebook arc. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.5/5
I received the eARC for my honest opinion.

This was a crazy, wild, insanely weird book, but it works. I love the darkness that you will find in this book and at the same time you will find humor in it as well. I loved that it was like going through the worst nightmare of your own life or watching a horror film, because this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you like horror novels by Stephen King, you would really like this book.

In this book you will find emotional heartbreaking themes like trauma, loss, death, abandonment, so much more, and the way that the author told this book with having the narrating by all of the siblings really helps the readers to become connected to the characters easier and understanding their thoughts and reasons why things are happening. You will be transported into a world where Calla the oldest siblings, has her inner demons projected into reality and you will transported into her own nightmare world. You will see that on a deeper level for me the author was showcasing how people struggle in this world we live in and how others don’t see it or want to see it or how we treat our younger selves and the damage that we inflict on ourselves. The pace at first was a little slow but I think that was done for the readers to get a feel of what is to come later because once this book picked up, it was on like donkey kong. I loved the fact that the author made the characters likable, and for me I was able to relate to them on different levels and I liked that a lot. I liked that you got to see each sibling dealing with their issues alone and not talking about them, but then you finally see them work together through all of it. I loved the mystery and the supernatural dark theme of this book, and I would read another book by this author. I can’t say more because I would spoil the book, just to know it's great read.

I also received audio of this book, and I thought the multiple narrators did a fantastic job, I liked hearing the world-building from them and seeing the difference in their voices really helped me to connect with the characters more.

I want to thank NetGalley, Macmillan and St. Martin for the opportunity to review this book and audio.

This book was a bit too much. And I never say that. But there was so much happening constantly that it was just unrealistic. It is fast paced and creepy in spots. This kept me reading.

This was a wild ride that, in the end, I found myself wishing Jordan Peele will use his magic on in the near future. This tackled so much in its pages, including family drama, horror, and racial injustices. Since I have read previous reviews stating that the writing is choppy, I want to say that this is a fever dream type read, and it is written as so. And the writing is perfect for its purpose. This was intense and emotional throughout the entire read, and once it gets to the halfway mark, downright creepy. Bloody, intense, and emotional, this was a powerful one. Four stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

Listen to Your Sister is a debut novel by Neena Viel. The story follows two older siblings, primarily the oldest and the only sister, as they're trying to navigate taking care of their rowdy teenage brother. She has created a safe haven for him - safer than he'll ever know. But when the brothers try to fight with their sister and literally sticker her in a closet, they find out they messed with the wrong sister.
This is a great debut. The story is very interested and kept me hooked. The beginning was a bit slow, I couldn't really see where it was going, but when it took off, it really took off.
👻👻👻👻.5