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

This book is very unique but I don't think I was the right audience for it. It started off fast paced and intersting however about half way through
I lost focus and was a little confused what I was reading. I didn't know what was reality and what was a nightmare. The characters were unlikeable,
but I did appreaciate their sibling bond. Also keep in mind that this is not your typical cabin-in-the-woods horror as described in the blurb.

Thank you St. Martin Press and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Whoa! This book took on a life of its own. Uniquely twisted, terrifying, and emotional all at the same time. The love of one's family is at the heart of this book. What would you do to keep your brothers safe? The constant worry bringing on its own type of stress and anxiety to the mix. Add in a nightmare that causes screaming that sends shivers down your spine. Well now we need to uncover what that is about and fast!

Calla is at her wits end with her brothers. She has guardianship over her 16-year-old brother Jamie. As the years have passed, she has had to worry more. He seems to always have one toe slipping into the dark unknown. Her brother Dre is little self-centered, not there for Cala and Jamie like he promised he would be. This all comes to a head when Jamie finds himself in deep trouble. Making the three siblings come together and skip town and find themselves at a desolate cabin. This cabin made me shiver in horror. The descriptions alone would have me turning around, a scream echoing through the trees, as the car ripped far from its red door. As the nightmare takes on a life of its own. I was left flying through the pages. The terrifyingly dark details, the horror these three people have witnessed, and the love they have for one another left me staggering to the finish line.

The details and descriptions for this book were not held back. I will be having my own nightmares for months to come. The horror was found in the details. Darkness surrounded everyone and everything. The sacrifices that Cala made for her family are truly beautiful and heart wrenching all in one. Cala needed her brothers no matter what. She held on and tried to make them see the right choices. I could feel her frustration when no one saw her and what she did for them. I feel that every day with my own son. The ending was a breath of fresh air. Thank you to Neena Viel and St. Martin's Griffin for my gifted copy.

Ready to enter the fever dream that is Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel? The speculative horror debut is a psychological mind-f*ck in the vein of Jordan Peele films and trippy novels like The Other Black Girl, The Night Guest, and We Used to Live Here, where you never know what’s twisting around the next corner, for better or for worse.

The book follows 25-year-old Calla, who’s drowning under the weight of raising her brother Jamie, a reckless, rebellious, hard-partying 16-year-old. Even though Dre, their listless middle sibling, lives nearby, he hasn’t helped out with Jamie nearly as much as he initially promised when Calla agreed to become their little brother’s guardian. She’s overwhelmed, overworked, and and just tired — she needs a nap. OK, actually, a nap is the opposite of what she needs, considering anytime she closes her eyes she has a vivid, recurring nightmare of her brothers dying that seems less like a dream and more like a premonition.

Things continue to get worse for the siblings when Jamie’s participation in a protest spirals out of control, leading them to book a remote cabin to get out of dodge while the police are looking for him. Unfortunately the Airbnb find is less a cozy woodland retreat than it is a dilapidated shack, which proves to be the perfect, creepy backdrop for a brand-new threat facing Calla, Dre, and Jamie: someone — or something — has followed them there, and it’s out for blood.

What I liked about ‘Listen to Your Sister’:

-I really respect just how deeply weird this book is. It’s almost Lynchian in how the story melds the sinister with the mundane, warping things into a confusing, dream-like state. Neena Viel layers an unnerving haze over the entire story so you’re never able to quite get comfortable before being walloped with a new kind of terror.

-That sense of everything being a little askew, a little off-kilter, enhances the descriptions of Calla’s nightmare. They’re so immersive I’d frequently find myself short of breath while reading them, as if I was the one being pulled under a pool of oily water, or stepping on a shard of broken glass. Viel makes sure you feel just as trapped by these visions as her characters.

-The visuals! The descriptions! Freaky as hell.

-In this house (er, broken-down cabin), we love female rage!!! This is such an interesting, unique take on that.

-Big fan of the banter between the siblings. It feels genuine. Some good lines in there.

What I wasn’t crazy about in ‘Listen to Your Sister’:

-Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. I think the tone the author is trying to strike is more ‘endearing dickhead,’ and less ‘total asshole,’ but I don’t think he ever comes across as anything other than the latter. Within the first few chapters he commits violent assault against a girl at a party, which feels oddly glossed over. I understand that he’s ~seeing things~ at the time, due to the ~horror~ of it all, but it’s not nearly enough to feel justified. (Especially when that same girl is later described as ‘scared’ of Jamie, and sporting a massive bruise on her collarbone.) The see-saw of whether or not he’s an out-of-control teen with a heart of gold, or a self-centered POS tips too far, too often in the wrong direction for me.

-“Jamie wanted to defend himself. He just didn’t know exactly how to explain to a girl he once wanted to sleep with that he didn’t mean to abuse her, he’d just experienced a creepy vision where a tiny hand got stuck in Alice’s insides. Her cheek had swallowed his fingers, for Christ’s sake, and not in a porn way.” — None of that makes what he’s done any better? I hate him?

-See also: “Jamie knew how to best help women: give them weapons instead of pacifiers.” It’s giving condescending, it’s giving misogyny, it’s giving go to therapy.

-I wish Viel would’ve slowly ramped up the psychological confusion she creates within the story, rather than dumping us in the thick of it almost immediately. What’s real, and what’s a hallucination? It’s hard to tell when you don’t really have a baseline. That also results in a confusing sense of setting, place, and time — people in key conversations aren’t described, details of movement and action sequences (like the protest, which is a blur) come off as muddled. Even if it’s all done purposefully to reflect the psychological breaks the siblings seem to be having, it makes the actual story less effective. A bummer, because there are solid, scary moments in here.

-The above also makes it harder to really get to know these characters. I wish we could spend more time with them before everything goes to sh*t.

Alright, so what’s the TL;DR of it all? Should you read this, or nah? Three siblings fighting to escape the same, all-consuming nightmare, tied to a past they desperately want to forget, is such a great concept. I think if you have a healthy appreciation for books unafraid of taking creative risks, especially in the horror genre, Listen to Your Sister has potential. It wasn’t exactly to my tastes, but who doesn’t love a big swing? At the very least, it never ceases to be interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this! This is written in a way that makes every character seem like a real person and I was invested in the story. The pacing is good. This was an entertaining read! I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Neena Viel, St.Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.