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3.75 stars

Jumping-off-the-page characters, it is rare when a book's marketing material really nails what it is selling, but one cannot describe Listen to Your Sister any better than the publisher's words: it is indeed 'Jordan Peele’s films + Stranger Things'. This is a horror story motivated by today's African American experience, and features some truly otherworldly, gory scenarios.

One thing I did not expect, but whole-heartedly welcomed, was the amount of comedy throughout. Mainly driven by the love/hate bickering between the three sibling protagonists, whose constant quarrel was credibly written and felt incredibly vivid—a harmless jokey sting, or brutally hurtful only achievable by the closest people. All of this really came to life via its audiobook, with the three narrators fully embodied their respective character. Particularly for someone like myself, who's not often exposed to African American Vernacular English, having the words emotively performed helped my understanding tremendously.

While I love the Jordan Peele-insired aspect of Listen to Your Sister, it is its Stranger Things-ness I have some issues with. This is definitely motivated by personal preference, as I've come to realize I'm simply not a fan of quest-like narrative. My experience reading this very much echoed my time reading The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher—where I quickly got bored of the Alice in Wonderland style structure: going to a location to talk to a character/defeat a mini-boss, rinse and repeat until the character meet the ultimate villain. The horror is also more fantastical (monsters) than scary (psychological), so adjust one's expectation accordingly.

Listen to Your Sister was not at all what I expected; I didn't get the type of horror I was anticipating, but I was completely engaged in the complicated sibling drama that felt extremely raw and real. The narrative was a little too absurd and formless for my taste, but I really appreciated its general sentiment and the unique core concept (when selfless love became a burden). Even though as a whole it is not a new favorite, it remains a memorable read.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**