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3.5 stars. The publisher nailed it by calling Listen to Your Sister a book that will appeal to fans of Jordan Peele’s films. The book explores issues of race and family through a speculative/social horror lens in an unforgettable reading experience full of humor and heart.

Calla Williams is in her mid-twenties when she becomes her 16-year-old brother Jamie’s guardian, and she’s struggling. She’s not getting much help from her other brother, middle child Dre, and she’s tired of being the responsible one who has to hold everything together. She is overwhelmed and anxious, which manifests in recurring dreams about her brothers dying in horrific ways. When Jamie attends a protest that gets out of hand, the siblings must go on the run, fleeing to a remote cabin Calla found on AirBNB. Deep in the woods, the siblings will be forced to confront their conflicts, and must fight to save their family against unexpected forces.

Listen to Your Sister had me sitting up and paying attention in the first chapter, when Calla has a tense confrontation with administrators at Jamie’s school. It’s immediately engaging, with spot-on dialogue and sly humor, introducing us to the characters in a way that made me want to learn more about them. Neena Viel’s character work is outstanding; the Williams siblings are conveyed with rawness and authenticity, and they’re relatable and sympathetic. The first several chapters are a family drama focused on being Black in the present-day U.S., written from the alternating points-of-view of all three siblings, and they’re intimate, powerful, and thoughtful. I felt like I really got to know all three siblings deeply before Viel placed them in mortal peril, which made me all the more invested in their fates.

When the siblings head to the woods, the horror aspects of the plot start to ramp up, and this was where I felt myself coming disengaged. The book becomes a fever dream of violence and terror, unfolding in surreal and complicated ways as the Williams siblings fight against the forces threatening their family. Viel’s writing is descriptive and lush, with a tone that strikes a perfect balance between somberness and levity throughout the narrative, and in the moments I wasn’t confused, I was reveling in the creativity and execution of her ideas � a supernatural manifestation of sisterly love and the bonds of family. I listened to the book on audio, and while I did love all three of the narrators, I wonder if I would have “gotten it� more if I’d read the physical words on the page.

Or maybe I just wasn’t supposed to “get it,� and that’s fine too. Listen to Your Sister is an impressive debut either way, and Neena Viel is an author to watch. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary reading opportunity.