Oh, this was fun!

What a perfect book about the perils of taking someone for granted. Haha. I have to say; I really, really enjoyed this one.

The plot revolves around 3 siblings: a sister, and two brothers who mysteriously always come out on top because someone (or something?) always steps in and saves them at the last second.

I won't say more than that because anything more ruins the suspense and the surprise. But wow, did I like this book!

The only reason it gets four stars instead of five (SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT)

is because I couldn't really visualize the big reveal when the sister finally sees her dream through to the end. Was it really just a horrible nightmare? Or was it something that actually happened that she somehow ... changed? I feel like it was the latter, but I couldn't be sure. That part was a little fuzzy and less well-written than the rest of the book. So it dropped the rating from five to four stars for me.

But yeah. I really, really liked it. Give it a try if you like horror or if you want to read more books this year by POC. It's definitely a good one.

What the H E double hockey sticks did i just read

Imma make my brothers and sisters listen to this book lol! Like this is what happens when you don't listen to your other sister! I will Pull YO ASS INTO MY GUH DARN NIGHTMARE! AND MAKE YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣!! My brain is trying to process what is happening is this book!

But it's so much process! Childhood trauma, having to grow up to soon! death,guilt, parent abandonment! But the horror part is omg!!! Is freaking creepy!!!

I'm done with this book and I'm like ohhhh MY GOD! PLEASE LET ME OUT LOL

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.

I am delighted that the audiobook is narrated by a full cast of characters. All of the narrators did a great job in embodying their characters' personality, which made it very easy to distinguish who is who in a story that has multiple points of view. Major props go out to the narrator of Calla who did terrifically horrifying voices to the various Callas.

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

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley and Neena Viel for the ARC, and MacMillan Audio (#MacAudio2024) for the ALC!

“Hello there angel form my nightmare”…

Part horror, part family drama, this book was unique to say the least. I sympathized a lot with our FMC, Calla, who was exhausted raising her counter brother Jamie. Their other brother, Dre, was supposed to help but his way usually consists of just telling Calla to stop worrying. Both boys seem so lost it really hurt my heart. Throughout it all, reoccurring nightmares are used to illustrate what the siblings can’t say. What I was most impressed with was the author’s ability to weave in family bonds, childhood trauma and racism and show how it affected every aspect of these young people’s lives. A solid horror debut and I can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next!!

I gotta say I was very excited to read this book after reading the synopsis. It gave me creepy and family drama vibes.
And even though I was not wrong, it also failed to keep my attention at times.
I did enjoy the siblings dynamics and all the social commentary that added a lot of family drama to the storyline. The writing, in my opinion, is decent enough (even though there are some words and foul language used that I personally never appreciate when an author does that).
This book is divided into parts, and my favourite one was the third one - The Cabin - that was when all the siblings experienced supernatural occurances and some more heavy family drama ensued.
However, after 2/3 of this book, it all got a little repetitive, for my taste, and the plot got way too heavy on the family drama - the siblings would argue about and over anything and everything. I'm all up for drama in horror novels, as well as social commentaries. But at the end of the day I want a horrific and creepy and scary horror story. And, to me, Listen to Your Sister fails sometimes at providing genuine horror. I mean, this is a supernatural horror story, so other than the social/racial discussions, nothing else is realistic, so the reader gotta suspend their disbelief.
My biggest complaint is the lack of genuine horror and too much family drama. I like that, but I didn't want that by getting into this book.
The ending was not satisfactory to me, personally. But it was more fast-paced and action-packed than the rest of the book.
I'd recommend this book to any readers who genuinely enjoy or are drawn to slow-burn supernatural horror with a lot of family drama and social disccusions.
I listened to the audiobook and it was great. All the narrators are really good and they all made the story easier to follow. I'd also recommend the audio format.
Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for allowing me to listen to an advanced and free audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.