Listen to Your Sister

I come from a large family and there is a special way that you can wind one another up. Years of experience and knowledge comes in handy when you are trying to annoy someone, you may not have seen each other for ages, but one shared experience can bring it all back in an instant. In a healthy family, this bickering can be trouble, but in a family that has had it as tough as in Listen to Your Sister it can lead to more than just cross words, it can lead to the release of nightmares onto the world. 

Ever since their father died and mother was deemed unfit, the Williams family have lived under the guardianship of older sister Calla. Dre, only two years younger promised to help, but has moved out and lives his own life. This leaves Calla to struggle with the youngest child, Jamie, a mid-teen who is constantly in trouble with school and the law. There is only so much that a person can take and when Jamie becomes involved in a riot that goes too far, something inside Calla breaks... and leaks into the real world. 

Sister is a book about family. A messed-up family, but one built on love. It is about siblings knowing how to press all each other’s buttons but never stopping to consider what the other is genuinely thinking. Calla as the matriarch has sacrificed so much for her brothers but is she overpowering and smothering? Dre just wants his own space that he can control, but has he pulled away from his family? Jamie wants to fight the world but is he just in a battle with himself? 

The story jumps from one family member to the other and back again, so you get a balanced viewpoint from each. The tension of life looking after Dre and Jamie takes its toll on Calla and it leads to the horror element of the book. The consequences of her life and how she is treated takes on a physical form and it is up to Calla and her brothers to connect in a way that can make the nightmare end. 

If this explanation sounds complex, it is because the book is complex in places. The use of terror and scary creatures makes it a horror, but it is also strongly an urban fantasy. Set in a modern Seattle, it also takes place on different plains of existence. You must believe that trauma can manifest itself for the book to work. This gives the story a magical quality, but also one that is hard to grasp in places. 

The book is at its best when exploring the relationship between the siblings. As the story progresses truths are revealed about their shared past. We learn, as they do, that they may know a lot about their loved ones, they do not know everything. It is a relationship drama at the core, a complex family dynamic that must be resolved with a horror backdrop. 

I found the character of Calla the most sympathetic and it is her hurt which acts as the catalyst for events in the book. Dre and Jamie do not really think about others until they are made to. The love between the three of them is imperative for their survival, but Calla is a better person than many, as it would be difficult to process all that has happened to her. 

Sister is a hard-hitting horror that has plenty of drama. The family dynamic is key to the story and dominates it. If you like horror with strong relationship elements, this may be the most feelings led horror book I have read. There are moments of action and tension to appease horror fans, but I would consider this most for those that like to delve into books with deep and complex character relations.