What do you think?
Rate this book
Hear the Dead
From award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes an edgy, genre-bending, and at times darkly funny story following one aging ex-punk rocker who begins to hear the murders of women she knew in her youth.
One woman. A string of unsolved murders. Only she can hear the victims.
Elena Altieri never wanted to be famous, and certainly not at sixty-six years old. For over forty years she's been hiding from her New York City punk rock youth in the hills of Vermont, but now, the past is catching up with her in more ways than one. Not only is she losing her hearing, but the photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral. Suddenly, she finds herself summoned back to the city for an exhibit celebrating her work and thrust into a world she'd hoped to keep locked away forever. A world where her best friend, Sin, is dead.
At the exhibit, Elena hears the screams of a woman ringing among the hum of her tinnitus, and she's sure something horrible has occurred. But since no one else can hear them, she convinces herself it's just her damaged ears playing tricks. She tries to put the event behind her, but when the auditory visions continue whenever she touches something of Sin's, she becomes convinced she's hearing her friend's murder. Desperate for answers, she has no choice but dig into the past, and what she'll uncover will not only force her to reckon with her own fractured memories, but might prove that Sin, and other innocent women from their youth, were the victims of an unspeakable crime that only she can solve. Old punks never die, and Elena's going to prove that.
Edgy, mysterious, and full of heart, Hear the Dead is at once an inventive and biting story following one aging woman desperate to solve crimes from her past, and a thought-provoking meditation on friendship, justice, and what it means to remember who we are.
One woman. A string of unsolved murders. Only she can hear the victims.
Elena Altieri never wanted to be famous, and certainly not at sixty-six years old. For over forty years she's been hiding from her New York City punk rock youth in the hills of Vermont, but now, the past is catching up with her in more ways than one. Not only is she losing her hearing, but the photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral. Suddenly, she finds herself summoned back to the city for an exhibit celebrating her work and thrust into a world she'd hoped to keep locked away forever. A world where her best friend, Sin, is dead.
At the exhibit, Elena hears the screams of a woman ringing among the hum of her tinnitus, and she's sure something horrible has occurred. But since no one else can hear them, she convinces herself it's just her damaged ears playing tricks. She tries to put the event behind her, but when the auditory visions continue whenever she touches something of Sin's, she becomes convinced she's hearing her friend's murder. Desperate for answers, she has no choice but dig into the past, and what she'll uncover will not only force her to reckon with her own fractured memories, but might prove that Sin, and other innocent women from their youth, were the victims of an unspeakable crime that only she can solve. Old punks never die, and Elena's going to prove that.
Edgy, mysterious, and full of heart, Hear the Dead is at once an inventive and biting story following one aging woman desperate to solve crimes from her past, and a thought-provoking meditation on friendship, justice, and what it means to remember who we are.
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2026
About the author
Ann Dávila Cardinal
14 books498 followersAnn is a Nuyorican, Vermont-based novelist with an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). She comes from a long line of Puerto Rican writers, including father and son poets Virgilio and José Antonio Dávila, and her cousin, award-winning fiction writer Tere Dávila.
Ann’s first solo novel, a young adult horror novel titled Five Midnights, was released by Tor Teen on June 4, 2019. Five Midnights won the 2020 International Latino Book Award in the category of Best Young Adult Fantasy & Adventure, an AudioFile’s Earphones Award for the audiobook, and was finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. The story continues in Category Five, also from Tor Teen, released on June 2, 2020. Category Five is a 2021 nominee for the same International Latino Book Award category. Her latest young adult horror novel, Breakup From Hell, was released by HarperCollins on January 3, 2023.
Her first adult novel, the Puerto Rican magical realist mystery The Storyteller’s Death, was released from Sourcebooks Landmark on October 4, 2022. Her second adult novel, We Need No Wings, is scheduled for release in October 2024.
Her stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology from HarperCollins (2022), Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic from Polis Books (2020) and the Latine young adult collection Our Shadows Have Claws from Workman Publishing (9/6/22),
Ann lives in Vermont with her husband in a lovely little house with a massively creepy basement.
Ann’s first solo novel, a young adult horror novel titled Five Midnights, was released by Tor Teen on June 4, 2019. Five Midnights won the 2020 International Latino Book Award in the category of Best Young Adult Fantasy & Adventure, an AudioFile’s Earphones Award for the audiobook, and was finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. The story continues in Category Five, also from Tor Teen, released on June 2, 2020. Category Five is a 2021 nominee for the same International Latino Book Award category. Her latest young adult horror novel, Breakup From Hell, was released by HarperCollins on January 3, 2023.
Her first adult novel, the Puerto Rican magical realist mystery The Storyteller’s Death, was released from Sourcebooks Landmark on October 4, 2022. Her second adult novel, We Need No Wings, is scheduled for release in October 2024.
Her stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology from HarperCollins (2022), Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic from Polis Books (2020) and the Latine young adult collection Our Shadows Have Claws from Workman Publishing (9/6/22),
Ann lives in Vermont with her husband in a lovely little house with a massively creepy basement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews
Read
August 8, 2026ARC provided by Sourcebooks.
This had some elements I genuinely enjoyed, especially the Puerto Rican references and cultural details throughout the story. Unfortunately, that was the part I connected with the most.
The pacing felt really slow to me, and I never became invested in the characters or the mystery enough for the tension to land. I kept waiting for the story to pull me in, but it never really did.
I can appreciate the cultural perspective and what the book was trying to do, but the actual reading experience just wasn’t for me.
I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy slower supernatural mysteries, character-driven stories, and Puerto Rican cultural elements woven into the plot.
This had some elements I genuinely enjoyed, especially the Puerto Rican references and cultural details throughout the story. Unfortunately, that was the part I connected with the most.
The pacing felt really slow to me, and I never became invested in the characters or the mystery enough for the tension to land. I kept waiting for the story to pull me in, but it never really did.
I can appreciate the cultural perspective and what the book was trying to do, but the actual reading experience just wasn’t for me.
I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy slower supernatural mysteries, character-driven stories, and Puerto Rican cultural elements woven into the plot.
October 18, 2026
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: From award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes an edgy, genre-bending thriller following a retired photographer who begins to hear the murders of women she knew in her punk youth, forcing her to reckon with the past she's desperate to forget.
One woman. A string of unsolved murders. Only she can hear the victims.
Elena Altieri never wanted to be famous, and certainly not at sixty-six years old. For over forty years she's been hiding from her New York City punk rock youth in the hills of Vermont, but now, the past is catching up with her in more ways than one. Not only is she losing her hearing, but the photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral. Suddenly, she finds herself summoned back to the city for an exhibit celebrating her work and thrust into a world she'd hoped to keep locked away forever. A world where her best friend, Sin, is dead.
At the exhibit, Elena hears the screams of a woman ringing among the hum of her tinnitus, and she's sure something horrible has occurred. But since no one else can hear them, she convinces herself it's just her damaged ears playing tricks. She tries to put the event behind her, but when the auditory visions continue whenever she touches something of Sin's, she becomes convinced she's hearing her friend's murder. Desperate for answers, she has no choice but dig into the past, and what she'll uncover will not only force her to reckon with her own fractured memories, but might prove that Sin, and other innocent women from their youth, were the victims of an unspeakable crime that only she can solve. Old punks never die, and Elena's going to prove that.
Edgy, mysterious, and full of heart, Hear the Dead is at once an inventive and biting story following one aging woman desperate to solve crimes from her past, and a thought-provoking meditation on friendship, justice, and what it means to remember who we are.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Elena's not a lot younger than me; she lived in 1980s New York like me; she has tinnitus like me. I was primed to love her, to fall in love with her story. I didm't quite get all the way there. It was a slow climb up the story's mountain to the resolution, or as we in less sexually savvy times called the climax. Call it that in these pursey-mouthed prudey times and you'll get A Look from some "protect the children" overreactor.
Ahem.
Ann Dávila Cardinal uses the weird effects on what one can hear when afflicted with tinnitus to mysterious, spooky purposes for the first time in my long experience. Author Cardinal has Elena grow increasingly deaf from tinnitus by getting odd auditory hallucinations that relate, she thinks, to a hideously traumatic murder she...knows of...in her past.
I'm not being coy, there; the point of this entire story is the murder of lovely young Sin is not in Elena's memory as anything but a bald fact, unattached to details but imbued with dread and a sick discomfort buoying it up in the immense ocean of completely anonymized memories anyone over sixty knows full well. Now that the ringing in her ears is morphing into voices and a changing cast of them Elena is going to have to fish for facts among the sounds. Voices speak words. Voices have conversations. Voices resonate with the ringing of tinnitus, is the modulation into words or just...screaming? Is this Elena remembering Sin's death at last or is this Elena's guilt over...whatever happened, if she heard it is she surfacing something that could lead her to resolve Sin's long-ago murder?
Listen sharp.
A badass in her youth, a badass now: Elena listens intently to the screaming, with the intention of understanding what she is hearing. What a great way to use a very uncomfortable, isolating phenomenon. Elena was a big part of the "underground" scene of the 80s as a photographer, a visual chronicler of the times and places on the punk scene. How telling that she has no visual memory of the awful murder. She has blown-out ears ringing with voices, clamorous with screams, and her visual record of it...absent, gone, vanished, repressed. All of these? None of them? But decades of not knowing, of not consciously being able to assemble the reality into a picture, makes her photographers' eyes twitch.
There is a resolution. You get your answer.
What interested old-man me was Elena's clearly intense desire to make Sin's death right at last. She needs Sin to be in the explained column of Life's spreadsheet because, well, because Death is supposed to end, to finish, to stop. It was murder, as yet unsolved; Death does none of those things for the murdered, so Elena will now listen to her lovely friend's death until she hears the fact that is so terrible, so fearsome, that her photographer's eyes can't see it.
That's tough. That's badass.
That's love.
The astounding pounding that misogyny, that ableism, that crude powerplays wreaked havoc on Elena and her fellow women in that scene, that time, her Nuyorican culture were, I felt, overemphasized. Dramatic effect wears out, like opioid hits; at forst righteous anger burns, then punchdrunk disorientation, then numbness; Reality did all these things to all y'all but fiction has different rukes. I know Author Cardinal knows this. I can only think that she felt so strongly about this story that it *had*to*have all the blows, all the kicks, every cruelty from casual to calculated.
For this reader it stopped having the desired, needed, salutary effect.
The Publisher Says: From award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes an edgy, genre-bending thriller following a retired photographer who begins to hear the murders of women she knew in her punk youth, forcing her to reckon with the past she's desperate to forget.
One woman. A string of unsolved murders. Only she can hear the victims.
Elena Altieri never wanted to be famous, and certainly not at sixty-six years old. For over forty years she's been hiding from her New York City punk rock youth in the hills of Vermont, but now, the past is catching up with her in more ways than one. Not only is she losing her hearing, but the photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral. Suddenly, she finds herself summoned back to the city for an exhibit celebrating her work and thrust into a world she'd hoped to keep locked away forever. A world where her best friend, Sin, is dead.
At the exhibit, Elena hears the screams of a woman ringing among the hum of her tinnitus, and she's sure something horrible has occurred. But since no one else can hear them, she convinces herself it's just her damaged ears playing tricks. She tries to put the event behind her, but when the auditory visions continue whenever she touches something of Sin's, she becomes convinced she's hearing her friend's murder. Desperate for answers, she has no choice but dig into the past, and what she'll uncover will not only force her to reckon with her own fractured memories, but might prove that Sin, and other innocent women from their youth, were the victims of an unspeakable crime that only she can solve. Old punks never die, and Elena's going to prove that.
Edgy, mysterious, and full of heart, Hear the Dead is at once an inventive and biting story following one aging woman desperate to solve crimes from her past, and a thought-provoking meditation on friendship, justice, and what it means to remember who we are.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Elena's not a lot younger than me; she lived in 1980s New York like me; she has tinnitus like me. I was primed to love her, to fall in love with her story. I didm't quite get all the way there. It was a slow climb up the story's mountain to the resolution, or as we in less sexually savvy times called the climax. Call it that in these pursey-mouthed prudey times and you'll get A Look from some "protect the children" overreactor.
Ahem.
Ann Dávila Cardinal uses the weird effects on what one can hear when afflicted with tinnitus to mysterious, spooky purposes for the first time in my long experience. Author Cardinal has Elena grow increasingly deaf from tinnitus by getting odd auditory hallucinations that relate, she thinks, to a hideously traumatic murder she...knows of...in her past.
I'm not being coy, there; the point of this entire story is the murder of lovely young Sin is not in Elena's memory as anything but a bald fact, unattached to details but imbued with dread and a sick discomfort buoying it up in the immense ocean of completely anonymized memories anyone over sixty knows full well. Now that the ringing in her ears is morphing into voices and a changing cast of them Elena is going to have to fish for facts among the sounds. Voices speak words. Voices have conversations. Voices resonate with the ringing of tinnitus, is the modulation into words or just...screaming? Is this Elena remembering Sin's death at last or is this Elena's guilt over...whatever happened, if she heard it is she surfacing something that could lead her to resolve Sin's long-ago murder?
Listen sharp.
From the floor I could shoot from an awesome angle. A guy’s face on the receiving end of a punch, blood and spit spraying out of this mouth. The growling expression of one of the bouncers as he pulled some kid right off his still-kicking feet. And my favorite shot of the night: tiny Josie Bluth, a powerful singer who Sin had worked with for a time, in her short plaid schoolgirl outfit and pigtails, hanging off the back of one of the goons who’d harassed me. I captured the exact moment when she bit off a piece of his ear.
A badass in her youth, a badass now: Elena listens intently to the screaming, with the intention of understanding what she is hearing. What a great way to use a very uncomfortable, isolating phenomenon. Elena was a big part of the "underground" scene of the 80s as a photographer, a visual chronicler of the times and places on the punk scene. How telling that she has no visual memory of the awful murder. She has blown-out ears ringing with voices, clamorous with screams, and her visual record of it...absent, gone, vanished, repressed. All of these? None of them? But decades of not knowing, of not consciously being able to assemble the reality into a picture, makes her photographers' eyes twitch.
There is a resolution. You get your answer.
What interested old-man me was Elena's clearly intense desire to make Sin's death right at last. She needs Sin to be in the explained column of Life's spreadsheet because, well, because Death is supposed to end, to finish, to stop. It was murder, as yet unsolved; Death does none of those things for the murdered, so Elena will now listen to her lovely friend's death until she hears the fact that is so terrible, so fearsome, that her photographer's eyes can't see it.
That's tough. That's badass.
That's love.
The astounding pounding that misogyny, that ableism, that crude powerplays wreaked havoc on Elena and her fellow women in that scene, that time, her Nuyorican culture were, I felt, overemphasized. Dramatic effect wears out, like opioid hits; at forst righteous anger burns, then punchdrunk disorientation, then numbness; Reality did all these things to all y'all but fiction has different rukes. I know Author Cardinal knows this. I can only think that she felt so strongly about this story that it *had*to*have all the blows, all the kicks, every cruelty from casual to calculated.
For this reader it stopped having the desired, needed, salutary effect.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received a free copy of, Hear the Dead, by Ann Davila Cardinal, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Elena Altieri lives in Vermont and is in her 60's. She lived the punk lifestyle in her earlier years, and some stuff has haunted her since. This was a much heavier read then expected. It was nice to relive the 1980's for awhile though.
Read
September 30, 2026The atmosphere was immaculate and I was definitely transported to the 80s punk scene, the prose and descriptions were gorgeous.
It had had me reminiscing about the too loud music and too small venues I experienced punk shows at in the late 90s, early 2000s.
I really enjoyed the main character as a whole. She is badass in her 60s but perfectly flawed in a way that felt very real and relatable. She’s struggling with her worsening tinnitus and hearing loss and I loved seeing her work through her feelings about it.
I don’t read a ton of thrillers so I’m not sure if my critiques are quite as valid given I’m not familiar with the genre but I definitely thought this would have been a considerably more suspenseful & fast-paced book.
The pacing felt inconsistent but overall a bit slow. The beginning roped me in and hooked me but the middle dragged. There were periods I felt like the narrative was repeating itself or over-explaining the thriller/mystery portions of the plot. Then the ending wrapped up too quickly and left me unsatisfied.
Despite the slow pace, I was intrigued enough to keep reading, mostly because I needed to know how the mystery unfolded but I was very unsatisfied with the reveal. Obviously getting into the details of why would be a spoiler but if you’re curious my (IG) DMs are open to discuss. I’m quite conflicted on how to rate this… I think I may be too used to horror novels that explore similar topics & traumas with a bit more nuance and depth, so I’m feeling unsatisfied with this thriller — but perhaps thrillers are not meant to be as deep?
| IG | TikTok |
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
It had had me reminiscing about the too loud music and too small venues I experienced punk shows at in the late 90s, early 2000s.
I really enjoyed the main character as a whole. She is badass in her 60s but perfectly flawed in a way that felt very real and relatable. She’s struggling with her worsening tinnitus and hearing loss and I loved seeing her work through her feelings about it.
I don’t read a ton of thrillers so I’m not sure if my critiques are quite as valid given I’m not familiar with the genre but I definitely thought this would have been a considerably more suspenseful & fast-paced book.
The pacing felt inconsistent but overall a bit slow. The beginning roped me in and hooked me but the middle dragged. There were periods I felt like the narrative was repeating itself or over-explaining the thriller/mystery portions of the plot. Then the ending wrapped up too quickly and left me unsatisfied.
Despite the slow pace, I was intrigued enough to keep reading, mostly because I needed to know how the mystery unfolded but I was very unsatisfied with the reveal. Obviously getting into the details of why would be a spoiler but if you’re curious my (IG) DMs are open to discuss. I’m quite conflicted on how to rate this… I think I may be too used to horror novels that explore similar topics & traumas with a bit more nuance and depth, so I’m feeling unsatisfied with this thriller — but perhaps thrillers are not meant to be as deep?
| IG | TikTok |
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
"Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride"
Elana grew up photographing the punk scene but 40 years ago something happened that altered her trajectory forever. Thing is... she can't remember what happened. As age is catching up, Elana starts suffering from tinnitus, but instead of constant ringing, she's now hearing women from her past. Women who have been long gone from this Earth.
Elana tries to navigate through missing memories, assumptions, sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll to figure out what happened to these girls, including her best friend, all those years ago...but she better buckle up, because it's a hell of a ride.
Publication Date : 10.6.2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for the advanced copy in echange for an honest review.
Elana grew up photographing the punk scene but 40 years ago something happened that altered her trajectory forever. Thing is... she can't remember what happened. As age is catching up, Elana starts suffering from tinnitus, but instead of constant ringing, she's now hearing women from her past. Women who have been long gone from this Earth.
Elana tries to navigate through missing memories, assumptions, sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll to figure out what happened to these girls, including her best friend, all those years ago...but she better buckle up, because it's a hell of a ride.
Publication Date : 10.6.2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for the advanced copy in echange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Early thoughts: I'm fairly well convinced I will get along with anything that originated in this author's skull. From her dedication: "Our knees are shot, but our memories are badass. Stay free."
Feeling: Love an old rock goddess💜
I’m curious about: What the duck 🦆 this title means! *Edit okay, so it wasn't nearly as cool as I thought. It just points to a tired old trope. Still a great read so far!
Final thoughts: I'm honestly very impressed with this book. The writing is stylish and the characters make you love and hate and have all kinds of complicated feelings for them. It's realism is very real and it's supernatural element is... well maybe not great as a plot, but still interesting.
What worked:
🎨 This book is in great part about popular art and the lives of popular artists. And honestly, that element is astonishing: "From the floor I could shoot from an awesome angle. A guy’s face on the receiving end of a punch , blood and spit spraying out of this mouth . The growling expression of one of the bouncers as he pulled some kid right off his still-kicking feet. And my favorite shot of the night: tiny Josie Bluth, a powerful singer who Sin had worked with for a time, in her short plaid schoolgirl outfit and pigtails, hanging off the back of one of the goons who’d harassed me. I captured the exact moment when she bit off a piece of his ear." p77
What didn’t:
❓ This book is marketed as a thriller, but I feel like it's a supernatural mystery book. Neither the pace nor the plot really fulfills the demand points of thriller or horror books. Still good, but slow, more of a "haunted drama". And actually a fine example of that genre mashup.
🎸 A senior life-long punk rock fan is cool enough. We don't need her to defend her kingdom every other page. Especially when she's defending it from dumb kids who think she would know less about an 80s band than they did. Doesn't even make sense.
Who this is for: old rock n roll culture vultures and fans of supernatural dramas like Phantom of the Opera.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Content Notes:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
disembodied voice, ableism, internalized ableism, tinnitus, misogyny, lazy law enforcement, corpse disposal with family permission, addiction, needles, drugs, drug use, overdose,
Feeling: Love an old rock goddess💜
I’m curious about: What the duck 🦆 this title means! *Edit okay, so it wasn't nearly as cool as I thought. It just points to a tired old trope. Still a great read so far!
Final thoughts: I'm honestly very impressed with this book. The writing is stylish and the characters make you love and hate and have all kinds of complicated feelings for them. It's realism is very real and it's supernatural element is... well maybe not great as a plot, but still interesting.
What worked:
🎨 This book is in great part about popular art and the lives of popular artists. And honestly, that element is astonishing: "From the floor I could shoot from an awesome angle. A guy’s face on the receiving end of a punch , blood and spit spraying out of this mouth . The growling expression of one of the bouncers as he pulled some kid right off his still-kicking feet. And my favorite shot of the night: tiny Josie Bluth, a powerful singer who Sin had worked with for a time, in her short plaid schoolgirl outfit and pigtails, hanging off the back of one of the goons who’d harassed me. I captured the exact moment when she bit off a piece of his ear." p77
What didn’t:
❓ This book is marketed as a thriller, but I feel like it's a supernatural mystery book. Neither the pace nor the plot really fulfills the demand points of thriller or horror books. Still good, but slow, more of a "haunted drama". And actually a fine example of that genre mashup.
🎸 A senior life-long punk rock fan is cool enough. We don't need her to defend her kingdom every other page. Especially when she's defending it from dumb kids who think she would know less about an 80s band than they did. Doesn't even make sense.
Who this is for: old rock n roll culture vultures and fans of supernatural dramas like Phantom of the Opera.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Content Notes:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
disembodied voice, ableism, internalized ableism, tinnitus, misogyny, lazy law enforcement, corpse disposal with family permission, addiction, needles, drugs, drug use, overdose,
October 1, 2026
Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark | Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Oh how I wanted to love this one too! Spooky season is officially upon us, and this had all the elements I wanted. An older FMC (hell yes), punk scene from the late 70s/early80s (hell yes some more), and ghosts (hell to all the yeses). Where it fell flat to me was the pacing, which was extremely slow to unravel, and the disability of the FMC, in particular hearing damage/loss that got a magical explanation halfway through the book.
Told in a dual timeline, we zip back and forth between present day and specific events either in the late 70s or early 80s. They are not necessarily in chronological order, but in the order of information we need as it relates to the present timeline. Which is fine, but a smidge confusing as you begin piecing the events together. Every time we get a little more information in the present timeline, we are whisked away to the past. I felt like I couldn’t get fully immersed because we jumped the timeline so often, I’d lose the momentum I was gathering as the story unfolded.
What bothered me on a level that pulled me so completely out of the story, was the paranormal explanation of the main character’s tinnitus. This is someone in their mid 60s and in addition to normal aging hearing loss, she has hearing damage and is at risk of losing her hearing entirely. Around the halfway point, her tinnitus gets “solved” by being able to suddenly hear the dead (hence the title of the book). And it annoyed me enough that I couldn't keep reading. We have got to stop doing this. You can’t give a magical explanation for a very real issue. Tinnitus as listening to ghosts is not good enough. Stop doing this. People can have a disability AND something else like hearing ghosts, it doesn’t have to be absolute. Stop using paranormal (or fantastical) things to “cure” real issues. Just.. no. This is where I stopped, unfortunately because I could not get past this plot device.
Hear The Dead comes out October 6.
Oh how I wanted to love this one too! Spooky season is officially upon us, and this had all the elements I wanted. An older FMC (hell yes), punk scene from the late 70s/early80s (hell yes some more), and ghosts (hell to all the yeses). Where it fell flat to me was the pacing, which was extremely slow to unravel, and the disability of the FMC, in particular hearing damage/loss that got a magical explanation halfway through the book.
Told in a dual timeline, we zip back and forth between present day and specific events either in the late 70s or early 80s. They are not necessarily in chronological order, but in the order of information we need as it relates to the present timeline. Which is fine, but a smidge confusing as you begin piecing the events together. Every time we get a little more information in the present timeline, we are whisked away to the past. I felt like I couldn’t get fully immersed because we jumped the timeline so often, I’d lose the momentum I was gathering as the story unfolded.
What bothered me on a level that pulled me so completely out of the story, was the paranormal explanation of the main character’s tinnitus. This is someone in their mid 60s and in addition to normal aging hearing loss, she has hearing damage and is at risk of losing her hearing entirely. Around the halfway point, her tinnitus gets “solved” by being able to suddenly hear the dead (hence the title of the book). And it annoyed me enough that I couldn't keep reading. We have got to stop doing this. You can’t give a magical explanation for a very real issue. Tinnitus as listening to ghosts is not good enough. Stop doing this. People can have a disability AND something else like hearing ghosts, it doesn’t have to be absolute. Stop using paranormal (or fantastical) things to “cure” real issues. Just.. no. This is where I stopped, unfortunately because I could not get past this plot device.
Hear The Dead comes out October 6.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a new author to me, and while I'm grateful I received an ARC it just wasn't a good match.
I loved the plot and premise of the story, but it fell flat very quickly for me. There was a lot of unnecessary cursing that took over pages upon pages, and the characters read surface level. Unfortunately, I struggled to envision the world in which the story was set, both past and present, even though I grew up in the 80s and 90s in Seattle, where the music scene was alive and vibrant. The story struggled to gain traction to get to the mystery part that needed solving, and I wanted more punch with the unraveling of the outcome.
I loved the plot and premise of the story, but it fell flat very quickly for me. There was a lot of unnecessary cursing that took over pages upon pages, and the characters read surface level. Unfortunately, I struggled to envision the world in which the story was set, both past and present, even though I grew up in the 80s and 90s in Seattle, where the music scene was alive and vibrant. The story struggled to gain traction to get to the mystery part that needed solving, and I wanted more punch with the unraveling of the outcome.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book started out really strong and I was super excited to get into the gritty punk rock scene. But as we get further into the book, I found that it got a little more repetitive. I really liked Elena as a character and thought she was an absolute hoot, but there were a handful of little moments that just didn’t seem to fit her well or seemed more immature than she is. But listen, when I’m in my 60s, I hope I’m as bad ass as her 🤣 As sad as I am to say this (which I really am sad 🥺), I just don’t think this book was a good fit for me. But don’t let that sway you from giving it a go, because I know that a lot of you guys will love it!
Lastly, thank you SO MUCH to Sourcebooks Landmark for my arc of Hear the Dead!
Lastly, thank you SO MUCH to Sourcebooks Landmark for my arc of Hear the Dead!
August 2, 2026
Hear the Dead is a popcorn thriller with of magical realism and a backdrop of punk rock culture. While it wasn’t a bad book, I don’t think it was the right fit for me.
It’s always refreshing to read a thriller with an older woman as the main character, and I really appreciated that. I also enjoyed the friendship at the heart of the story and genuinely wanted to know what happened to Sin. Unfortunately, I felt like the answers were telegraphed from the beginning and I couldn’t wrap my head around why Elana wasn’t more alarmed or suspicious about the death of someone she had been so deeply connected to.
The ending ultimately left me disappointed, and I found most of the character resolutions unsatisfying. The punk elements also came across as a little cheesy for my taste, and I still don’t understand the decision to make Luis Guzmán a character.
Even though this one didn’t quite work for me, I can see it appealing to readers looking for a fast-paced, supernatural-leaning mystery with an unconventional protagonist.
Thank you to NetGalley and Landmark for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
It’s always refreshing to read a thriller with an older woman as the main character, and I really appreciated that. I also enjoyed the friendship at the heart of the story and genuinely wanted to know what happened to Sin. Unfortunately, I felt like the answers were telegraphed from the beginning and I couldn’t wrap my head around why Elana wasn’t more alarmed or suspicious about the death of someone she had been so deeply connected to.
The ending ultimately left me disappointed, and I found most of the character resolutions unsatisfying. The punk elements also came across as a little cheesy for my taste, and I still don’t understand the decision to make Luis Guzmán a character.
Even though this one didn’t quite work for me, I can see it appealing to readers looking for a fast-paced, supernatural-leaning mystery with an unconventional protagonist.
Thank you to NetGalley and Landmark for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Don’t you just love it when the title of a book actually means something that has to do with the story? Because it couldn’t be more accurate in this case. And I love it.
Nothing about this book was bad, but I still wouldn’t give it a five star because I didn’t get that five out of five feeling. It still was amazing.
The main character is in her sixties, we’re following her as she tries to solve these deaths that were alleged suicides back in the day. She’s genuinely one of the coolest main characters I’ve ever read in this sort of thriller/mystery genre blend. She’s an ex punk rock photographer, but her hardcore personality still shines. Even later in her life. Not one time in this entire novel I did I think “Isn’t she a bit too old for this?” which can totally be the case, especially in thriller books. Not that sixty-six is old, but there’s a reason most main characters are on the younger side, in their twenties. It’s more appealing to the masses, I guess. More relatable. And this isn’t the first book with an older woman as a main character but I’d say it’s one of the ones that did the concept justice.
She suffers from amnesia, Elena. Something happened to her (that she can’t really remember) that caused this. And also with age come hearing problems. But for her, that means she can hear the dead! Isn’t that fun? Not for her. That’s how she started investigating these murders, she can her dead people from her past. Namely, her close friend Sin.
Now, I’d say this book leans more into the mystery element than it does thriller or horror. It’s not very scary. I think it’s been marketed more as horror because of the supernatural element, how Elena can hear to the dead. But I still really liked it. The writing was very easy to read, the story was addicting, and each chapter had you wanting to read the next.
I also enjoyed the representation, Elena’s Puerto Rican and that’s definitely an interesting part of the story. Then she’s described herself as “demi-hetero” which would mean that she likes men but only when they’re already close, it’s not easy for her to feel attraction, she says. And finally I’d say the hearing loss, even in the way it’s presented here, is good representation.
I’d give this book four stars, it was very unique and I overall just enjoyed my reading experience.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Nothing about this book was bad, but I still wouldn’t give it a five star because I didn’t get that five out of five feeling. It still was amazing.
The main character is in her sixties, we’re following her as she tries to solve these deaths that were alleged suicides back in the day. She’s genuinely one of the coolest main characters I’ve ever read in this sort of thriller/mystery genre blend. She’s an ex punk rock photographer, but her hardcore personality still shines. Even later in her life. Not one time in this entire novel I did I think “Isn’t she a bit too old for this?” which can totally be the case, especially in thriller books. Not that sixty-six is old, but there’s a reason most main characters are on the younger side, in their twenties. It’s more appealing to the masses, I guess. More relatable. And this isn’t the first book with an older woman as a main character but I’d say it’s one of the ones that did the concept justice.
She suffers from amnesia, Elena. Something happened to her (that she can’t really remember) that caused this. And also with age come hearing problems. But for her, that means she can hear the dead! Isn’t that fun? Not for her. That’s how she started investigating these murders, she can her dead people from her past. Namely, her close friend Sin.
Now, I’d say this book leans more into the mystery element than it does thriller or horror. It’s not very scary. I think it’s been marketed more as horror because of the supernatural element, how Elena can hear to the dead. But I still really liked it. The writing was very easy to read, the story was addicting, and each chapter had you wanting to read the next.
I also enjoyed the representation, Elena’s Puerto Rican and that’s definitely an interesting part of the story. Then she’s described herself as “demi-hetero” which would mean that she likes men but only when they’re already close, it’s not easy for her to feel attraction, she says. And finally I’d say the hearing loss, even in the way it’s presented here, is good representation.
I’d give this book four stars, it was very unique and I overall just enjoyed my reading experience.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received this book as an arc from NetGalley thanks to all involved!
I rated this book 3.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
Things I liked about this book:
🎸The punk rock references. it’s a scene that I like to learn about and enjoyed its depiction in the book.
🎸I like Elena’s character in the book. I think she was smart and likeable. I think it was also nice to see a woman of a certain age portrayed as more of an edgy character.
🎸I liked the flashbacks to the past and her youth. Sometimes I feel like books spend a little too much time in the past but this book didn’t. It showed you what you needed to see and got back to the story.
🎸The pace of the story was nice and it wasn’t super repetitive
Things that I didn’t :
🎸 I feel like the book ended really abruptly. Like it waited until the very last second for some kind of resolution and I would have liked the epilogue to be a little further out to see how things ended up. I feel like there were some things that didn’t really get a satisfactory explanation before the end either and I was left with some questions.
Ultimately I would recommend this book especially if you’re looking for a book with some music elements.
I rated this book 3.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
Things I liked about this book:
🎸The punk rock references. it’s a scene that I like to learn about and enjoyed its depiction in the book.
🎸I like Elena’s character in the book. I think she was smart and likeable. I think it was also nice to see a woman of a certain age portrayed as more of an edgy character.
🎸I liked the flashbacks to the past and her youth. Sometimes I feel like books spend a little too much time in the past but this book didn’t. It showed you what you needed to see and got back to the story.
🎸The pace of the story was nice and it wasn’t super repetitive
Things that I didn’t :
🎸 I feel like the book ended really abruptly. Like it waited until the very last second for some kind of resolution and I would have liked the epilogue to be a little further out to see how things ended up. I feel like there were some things that didn’t really get a satisfactory explanation before the end either and I was left with some questions.
Ultimately I would recommend this book especially if you’re looking for a book with some music elements.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I can’t believe I almost passed on this one! For some reason, the cover didn’t catch my eye, but I was invited to read it, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. If you’re riding the totally rad 80s nostalgia train and love that punk aesthetic throwback, this book is absolutely your jam.
We meet Elena, known as Lens Altieri, a 66-year-old former punk photographer. After the passing of the famous Eddie Carcinogen, some of her old pieces start to gain newfound interest. Lens has become a social recluse, and her photographs bring back a flood of memories along with a lot of potential clients. But then she discovers she’s losing her hearing, a reminder of her wild years in the 80s, following bands around. However, it turns out her hearing is just fine; in fact, she can hear the dead! Her best friend Sin, who tragically overdosed in the 80s despite not being into drugs herself, comes back to her when Lens touches her photo. Suddenly, this journey isn’t just about revisiting the past; it’s about uncovering the mystery of what happened to her friend and other women of that era.
Lens is a legend, and her character is relatable to anyone who remembers the 80s and how things used to be. She’s grown into herself. She's smart, likable, and incredibly talented. Though she mentions the changes that come with age, deep down, she feels young, carefree, and simply wants to enjoy her retirement. However, finances catch up with everyone, and she finds herself needing to revisit the NY scene to sell some pieces and do a bit of amateur sleuthing to learn more about Sin. She reconnects with people from her past and enjoys hearing about everyone’s lives and where they ended up.
I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Not many reviews had crossed my radar, so it wasn’t on my list, but after receiving three invites in my email, I had to see what this gem was all about. The author did a fantastic job of keeping me invested in the investigation, and I really liked the main character. She’s a badass older woman who’s lived through it all, and her unique style is just so cool! She even dresses badass!
If you’re into 80s nostalgia, punk rock vibes, and thought-provoking writing that touches on friendship, trauma, justice, aging, and taking a walk down memory lane, this edgy read will hook you. It’s a mystery sprinkled with speculative magical realism, making it perfect for a buddy read or a book club discussion. There’s plenty to talk about. The story also serves as a nod to a time when young people lived wildly from day to day, often experimenting with drugs, making it unsurprising when someone turned up dead. The book feels somewhat open-ended, leaving me curious about whether there’s a plan for a sequel. I’d love to know what else Lens is up to! She’s now my favorite badass older lady! Whether it’s this review or the cover that piques your interest, I really hope you give this a shot. Even the playlist at the end radiates major punk rock energy!
Thank you, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley, for the DRC widget. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
October 17, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the gifted ebook.
My Review
I have mixed feelings about this one! First, I absolutely loved the 80s punk rock setting. That was my music, so getting to revisit that whole scene was awesome! I also thought having a main character in her 60s was a great choice. I really enjoyed seeing Elena deal with getting older, her health problems, and everything that comes along with aging. It's not something I see enough of in the books I read.
The story follows Elena, who starts hearing the screams of women connected to her past, including her best friend who was murdered years ago. I thought the mystery was interesting, and I really enjoyed the horror elements. The whole idea of hearing these murders through her tinnitus was creepy, and I wanted to know what really happened all those years ago.
Now, here's where I struggled. This book was god awful slow for me! I also think it was a much heavier read than I was looking for. I appreciated the story and what the author was doing with it, but there were times when I just wanted things to move along already.
Would I Recommend?
I think this one will appeal to readers who enjoy slower mysteries with some horror mixed in, especially if you love the 80s punk scene. There were things I genuinely enjoyed, but the pacing made it a difficult read for me at times. Still, I'm glad I gave it a chance.
My Review
I have mixed feelings about this one! First, I absolutely loved the 80s punk rock setting. That was my music, so getting to revisit that whole scene was awesome! I also thought having a main character in her 60s was a great choice. I really enjoyed seeing Elena deal with getting older, her health problems, and everything that comes along with aging. It's not something I see enough of in the books I read.
The story follows Elena, who starts hearing the screams of women connected to her past, including her best friend who was murdered years ago. I thought the mystery was interesting, and I really enjoyed the horror elements. The whole idea of hearing these murders through her tinnitus was creepy, and I wanted to know what really happened all those years ago.
Now, here's where I struggled. This book was god awful slow for me! I also think it was a much heavier read than I was looking for. I appreciated the story and what the author was doing with it, but there were times when I just wanted things to move along already.
Would I Recommend?
I think this one will appeal to readers who enjoy slower mysteries with some horror mixed in, especially if you love the 80s punk scene. There were things I genuinely enjoyed, but the pacing made it a difficult read for me at times. Still, I'm glad I gave it a chance.
October 15, 2026
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!
What a killer (if you would) premise for a book! I love an older protagonist, and the inclusion of her losing her hearing added a cool dimension. Elena is a former punk rock photographer who is starting to wonder if her past is coming back to haunt her, almost quite literally. Asked to revisit the punk era of her career, she finds herself both losing her hearing and simultaneously starting to hear the voices of those she thought were long dead. The set up is, as I said, very unique, but I fear the execution didn't quite work for me. I found the plot easy to follow (we have current timeline and flashbacks but they're clear enough); it is the characters that I had a hard time getting behind. We meet everyone quite shallowly, and by 50% or so through the book, there still wasn't much additional depth added. It made the second half drag for me, then, as the plot also become quite predictable.
Overall, some excellent elements and I'm sure some readers (particularly those who don't see themselves represented on page often) will enjoy this thriller!
What a killer (if you would) premise for a book! I love an older protagonist, and the inclusion of her losing her hearing added a cool dimension. Elena is a former punk rock photographer who is starting to wonder if her past is coming back to haunt her, almost quite literally. Asked to revisit the punk era of her career, she finds herself both losing her hearing and simultaneously starting to hear the voices of those she thought were long dead. The set up is, as I said, very unique, but I fear the execution didn't quite work for me. I found the plot easy to follow (we have current timeline and flashbacks but they're clear enough); it is the characters that I had a hard time getting behind. We meet everyone quite shallowly, and by 50% or so through the book, there still wasn't much additional depth added. It made the second half drag for me, then, as the plot also become quite predictable.
Overall, some excellent elements and I'm sure some readers (particularly those who don't see themselves represented on page often) will enjoy this thriller!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was not my cup of tea, unfortunately.
I appreciated the punk nostalgia throughout the narrative, and the insights into Puerto Rican culture were enlightening. Yvette stood out to me as a character; her strong sense of self, connection with her surroundings, sharp wit, and genuine care for others really resonated with me.
The narrator's voice was a bit too corny, and sometimes I felt a dissonance because of the contrast between it and how I imagined people her age talk or think, but this one might be on me. Still, I believe that this book would benefit from switching to a third-person POV for the narration.
Additionally, she was very condescending, which seemed more like a projected sense of insecurity towards her doubts regarding her identity. The use of "basic bitches" in regard to passerby New Yorkers really gave me whiplash. Overall, she read more like a salty old woman. Isn't the core of punk to reject all labels?
This book is marketed as a thriller, but I find it leans more towards a supernatural mystery. The pace and plot do not quite meet the expectations of the thriller or horror genres. It's still enjoyable, but it moves more slowly than you might expect based on the genre it is marketed as.
Lastly, the visual art component of it, given that our main character is a photographer, was very satisfying. I also wish that more of it was shown in the way she perceives the world, rather than just in reminiscence of her past works.
I appreciated the punk nostalgia throughout the narrative, and the insights into Puerto Rican culture were enlightening. Yvette stood out to me as a character; her strong sense of self, connection with her surroundings, sharp wit, and genuine care for others really resonated with me.
The narrator's voice was a bit too corny, and sometimes I felt a dissonance because of the contrast between it and how I imagined people her age talk or think, but this one might be on me. Still, I believe that this book would benefit from switching to a third-person POV for the narration.
Additionally, she was very condescending, which seemed more like a projected sense of insecurity towards her doubts regarding her identity. The use of "basic bitches" in regard to passerby New Yorkers really gave me whiplash. Overall, she read more like a salty old woman. Isn't the core of punk to reject all labels?
This book is marketed as a thriller, but I find it leans more towards a supernatural mystery. The pace and plot do not quite meet the expectations of the thriller or horror genres. It's still enjoyable, but it moves more slowly than you might expect based on the genre it is marketed as.
Lastly, the visual art component of it, given that our main character is a photographer, was very satisfying. I also wish that more of it was shown in the way she perceives the world, rather than just in reminiscence of her past works.
September 27, 2026
Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC!
Hear the Dead was just okay for me. It was a quick and easy thriller with a unique premise, following an aging punk photographer who suddenly starts hearing the dead and begins unraveling the truth behind the death of her best friend and four other women.
There was nothing necessarily wrong with the story, but it never really excited me either. The pacing felt a little slow at times, and I kept waiting for the story to really grab me in a way that it never quite did.
That said, I did like the overall concept, and I think this would be a great addition to a spooky season TBR for someone looking for a lighter thriller with a supernatural element.
Hear the Dead was just okay for me. It was a quick and easy thriller with a unique premise, following an aging punk photographer who suddenly starts hearing the dead and begins unraveling the truth behind the death of her best friend and four other women.
There was nothing necessarily wrong with the story, but it never really excited me either. The pacing felt a little slow at times, and I kept waiting for the story to really grab me in a way that it never quite did.
That said, I did like the overall concept, and I think this would be a great addition to a spooky season TBR for someone looking for a lighter thriller with a supernatural element.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.3/5
This was not what I was expecting going into this book at ALL. Not that it was bad by any means but maybe it just was not really for me. It did not feel enough thriller OR horror even though that is how it was marketed.
The things I thought were really cool: Puerto Rican cultural references. This is not something I have ever seen in any book I have ever read. Badass older FMC who loves punk rock and has for her whole life.
What did not work for me: too supernatural. I did not connect with any of the characters except the MC a little bit. The story never really hit for me because the pacing was a bit off.
This book was definitely unique and not bad but for me it did not wow me.
This was not what I was expecting going into this book at ALL. Not that it was bad by any means but maybe it just was not really for me. It did not feel enough thriller OR horror even though that is how it was marketed.
The things I thought were really cool: Puerto Rican cultural references. This is not something I have ever seen in any book I have ever read. Badass older FMC who loves punk rock and has for her whole life.
What did not work for me: too supernatural. I did not connect with any of the characters except the MC a little bit. The story never really hit for me because the pacing was a bit off.
This book was definitely unique and not bad but for me it did not wow me.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I settled in with my morning coffee and Ann Dávila Cardinal’s Hear the Dead, and somewhere between the ghosts, old photographs, and gritty punk clubs, my coffee went completely cold. Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for the gifted copy. Have you ever read a character who made getting older feel less like fading away and more like turning the volume back up?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
At sixty-six, Elena “Lens” Altieri is living quietly in Vermont and doing her best to leave her former life as a photographer in New York City’s 1980s punk scene exactly where it belongs—in the past. But when one of her photographs goes viral after the death of a famous musician, Elena is pulled back into the spotlight and invited to an exhibit celebrating work she packed away decades ago.
Returning to New York brings back more than memories. Elena has tinnitus and is slowly losing her hearing, but the screams she begins hearing whenever she touches certain objects are something else entirely. One of those voices belongs to Sin, her best friend who died years earlier. Soon Elena is questioning whether Sin’s death—and the deaths of other women connected to their old punk community—were ever what they appeared to be.
Elena was easily the reason I kept reading. She is complicated, stubborn, funny, angry, and gloriously unwilling to become invisible simply because she is an older woman. Give me more main characters in their sixties with replaced hips, messy histories, active lives, and absolutely no patience for being dismissed.
The story moves between Elena’s present and her younger years behind the camera, slowly revealing the friendship, music, grief, and trauma she tried to bury. The punk-rock setting gave the book its own personality, and connecting Elena’s tinnitus to the voices of the dead was such an original idea.
It did take a while for the mystery to fully get moving, and I guessed part of what was happening before Elena did. Then, just as everything became especially intense, the ending arrived rather quickly. I wanted a little more time with the fallout and the people involved. Still, Elena’s story—and the reminder that women who were ignored in life still deserve to be heard—stayed with me.
What older female character has completely stolen a book for you?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
At sixty-six, Elena “Lens” Altieri is living quietly in Vermont and doing her best to leave her former life as a photographer in New York City’s 1980s punk scene exactly where it belongs—in the past. But when one of her photographs goes viral after the death of a famous musician, Elena is pulled back into the spotlight and invited to an exhibit celebrating work she packed away decades ago.
Returning to New York brings back more than memories. Elena has tinnitus and is slowly losing her hearing, but the screams she begins hearing whenever she touches certain objects are something else entirely. One of those voices belongs to Sin, her best friend who died years earlier. Soon Elena is questioning whether Sin’s death—and the deaths of other women connected to their old punk community—were ever what they appeared to be.
Elena was easily the reason I kept reading. She is complicated, stubborn, funny, angry, and gloriously unwilling to become invisible simply because she is an older woman. Give me more main characters in their sixties with replaced hips, messy histories, active lives, and absolutely no patience for being dismissed.
The story moves between Elena’s present and her younger years behind the camera, slowly revealing the friendship, music, grief, and trauma she tried to bury. The punk-rock setting gave the book its own personality, and connecting Elena’s tinnitus to the voices of the dead was such an original idea.
It did take a while for the mystery to fully get moving, and I guessed part of what was happening before Elena did. Then, just as everything became especially intense, the ending arrived rather quickly. I wanted a little more time with the fallout and the people involved. Still, Elena’s story—and the reminder that women who were ignored in life still deserve to be heard—stayed with me.
What older female character has completely stolen a book for you?
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4 stars
When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about this book. Now that I've completed the book, it's still creeping me out. In a word, I found this to be insidious. I mean that in the best way.
Elena is in her 60s, and she's had quite an untraditional path. Her early partying days in the punk rock scene (I feel 106 years old typing this) have resulted in an unfortunate complication: tinnitus. What's more complicated about that tinnitus is that through it, she seems to be...communing with the dead? Incredible. I love the whole white noise/hidden messages in the music, undertone, backward playing record trope, so I am absolutely living for the idea that this can occur in one's own ringing ears. Genius.
Now Elena's newly discovered gift/curse/superpower/delusion (???) forces her to dig back into her past. This is not a welcome journey for her at all, and it's fascinating to watch the ways in which her past impacts her present. I also found this element to be insidious: that you can never outrun your younger self or your previous traumas. We many not all be experiencing Elena's unique comms, but every reader should relate to that latter part.
I really loved Elena's character and was sad when the book was closing that I wouldn't get to spend more time with her. I also really appreciate that this is a smarter mystery/thriller. There are layers.
This read held my attention and really made me want to read more from Cardinal. I also can't wait to listen to the audiobook!
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Hartley Christensen at Landmark for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about this book. Now that I've completed the book, it's still creeping me out. In a word, I found this to be insidious. I mean that in the best way.
Elena is in her 60s, and she's had quite an untraditional path. Her early partying days in the punk rock scene (I feel 106 years old typing this) have resulted in an unfortunate complication: tinnitus. What's more complicated about that tinnitus is that through it, she seems to be...communing with the dead? Incredible. I love the whole white noise/hidden messages in the music, undertone, backward playing record trope, so I am absolutely living for the idea that this can occur in one's own ringing ears. Genius.
Now Elena's newly discovered gift/curse/superpower/delusion (???) forces her to dig back into her past. This is not a welcome journey for her at all, and it's fascinating to watch the ways in which her past impacts her present. I also found this element to be insidious: that you can never outrun your younger self or your previous traumas. We many not all be experiencing Elena's unique comms, but every reader should relate to that latter part.
I really loved Elena's character and was sad when the book was closing that I wouldn't get to spend more time with her. I also really appreciate that this is a smarter mystery/thriller. There are layers.
This read held my attention and really made me want to read more from Cardinal. I also can't wait to listen to the audiobook!
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Hartley Christensen at Landmark for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
October 9, 2026
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark, Ann Dávila Cardinal, and NetGalley for the complimentary ARC.
Hear the Dead is a horror book like no other.
The book transported me back to the streets of Greenwich Village, the clothing racks at Trash and Vaudeville, and the bathroom in CBGB's (IYKYK). I frequented these places in my late teens, twenties, and early thirties, so it was very nostalgic in many ways.
Elena, aka Lens, is a tough cookie with a heart of gold and a spotty memory due to an incident that took place the night she left and the night her best friend died under suspicious circumstances.
Years later, Lens lives a relatively quiet life in Vermont when she receives a call about a lucrative opportunity in New York City.
This is when things turn sinister because Elena can hear the voices of dead women, including her best friend's.
Can she resolve her past, find out why she's being haunted, and learn the truth?
You will have to read the book to find out.
It will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you rooting for Lens the whole way through.
Ann Dávila Cardinal is a master storyteller, rich with description and excellent character development.
This is one of my favorite reads of 2026. Read it, and I think you'll agree,
Hear the Dead is a horror book like no other.
The book transported me back to the streets of Greenwich Village, the clothing racks at Trash and Vaudeville, and the bathroom in CBGB's (IYKYK). I frequented these places in my late teens, twenties, and early thirties, so it was very nostalgic in many ways.
Elena, aka Lens, is a tough cookie with a heart of gold and a spotty memory due to an incident that took place the night she left and the night her best friend died under suspicious circumstances.
Years later, Lens lives a relatively quiet life in Vermont when she receives a call about a lucrative opportunity in New York City.
This is when things turn sinister because Elena can hear the voices of dead women, including her best friend's.
Can she resolve her past, find out why she's being haunted, and learn the truth?
You will have to read the book to find out.
It will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you rooting for Lens the whole way through.
Ann Dávila Cardinal is a master storyteller, rich with description and excellent character development.
This is one of my favorite reads of 2026. Read it, and I think you'll agree,
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Hear the Dead immediately caught my attention with its mix of thriller, supernatural elements, and punk rock history, but Elena was really what kept me invested.
I loved getting a sixty-six-year-old protagonist who has lived an entire complicated life before we meet her. Elena has spent decades trying to distance herself from her NYC punk scene past, only to be dragged straight back into it when her old photography suddenly gains attention and she begins hearing something she absolutely shouldn’t be able to hear. The way her tinnitus and hearing loss become intertwined with these disturbing auditory visions was such an interesting concept, especially because Elena herself doesn’t immediately know what she can trust.
The mystery surrounding Sin and the other women kept me curious, but I also appreciated that this wasn’t solely about solving a crime. There’s a lot here about aging, memory, grief, friendship, guilt, and what happens when the past you’ve tried to bury refuses to stay buried. Elena having to confront her own fractured memories added another layer to the mystery that worked really well for me.
There were moments where the pacing slowed a little more than I wanted, but I remained invested in uncovering the truth alongside Elena. I also really enjoyed the gritty NYC punk backdrop and how naturally it connected to the larger story.
A unique, emotional thriller with a supernatural edge and an older heroine I genuinely enjoyed following. Hear the Dead was eerie, thoughtful, and ultimately had much more heart than I expected going in.
I loved getting a sixty-six-year-old protagonist who has lived an entire complicated life before we meet her. Elena has spent decades trying to distance herself from her NYC punk scene past, only to be dragged straight back into it when her old photography suddenly gains attention and she begins hearing something she absolutely shouldn’t be able to hear. The way her tinnitus and hearing loss become intertwined with these disturbing auditory visions was such an interesting concept, especially because Elena herself doesn’t immediately know what she can trust.
The mystery surrounding Sin and the other women kept me curious, but I also appreciated that this wasn’t solely about solving a crime. There’s a lot here about aging, memory, grief, friendship, guilt, and what happens when the past you’ve tried to bury refuses to stay buried. Elena having to confront her own fractured memories added another layer to the mystery that worked really well for me.
There were moments where the pacing slowed a little more than I wanted, but I remained invested in uncovering the truth alongside Elena. I also really enjoyed the gritty NYC punk backdrop and how naturally it connected to the larger story.
A unique, emotional thriller with a supernatural edge and an older heroine I genuinely enjoyed following. Hear the Dead was eerie, thoughtful, and ultimately had much more heart than I expected going in.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 6, 2026
🎸 ITS A THRILLER, ITS HORROR, ITS PUNK, BABY! 🎸
Lace up your boots, get your air guitar ready, and maybe pop an aspirin if you’re over 35 for this absolute banger by Ann Dávila Cardinal!
The story follows retired punk photographer, Elena Altieri who starts hearing strange noises - it can’t be just the tinnitus, right? The photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral and she is thrust back into the music scene she has worked so hard to stay away from.
Elena starts hearing the screams of a young woman and is convinced she is hearing the unsolved murder of her best friend, Sid, all those decades ago.
Determined to get answers, Elena goes on an unapologetic, boot-stomping mission to uncover the truth of what really happened to Sid and the other young women.
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. It is full of womanly bad-assery that had me jumping off the couch cheering the girls on.
And remember, you’re still punk. 🪗
Lace up your boots, get your air guitar ready, and maybe pop an aspirin if you’re over 35 for this absolute banger by Ann Dávila Cardinal!
The story follows retired punk photographer, Elena Altieri who starts hearing strange noises - it can’t be just the tinnitus, right? The photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral and she is thrust back into the music scene she has worked so hard to stay away from.
Elena starts hearing the screams of a young woman and is convinced she is hearing the unsolved murder of her best friend, Sid, all those decades ago.
Determined to get answers, Elena goes on an unapologetic, boot-stomping mission to uncover the truth of what really happened to Sid and the other young women.
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. It is full of womanly bad-assery that had me jumping off the couch cheering the girls on.
And remember, you’re still punk. 🪗
October 8, 2026
I really, really loved our main character in this story. She was strong, funny and fierce. The setting really propelled this whole story. It was written in such a descriptive and vivid way that made it all very clear in my head. I loved the supernatural aspects but really struggled to push though due to a much slower pace than I'm used to. It kind of felt like a roller coaster with the pace and how the story progressed. It had a satisfying conclusion which did make up for how I was feeling throughout the book. If you enjoy a slower paced story and lower stakes I think you'll really enjoy this.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
October 6, 2026
Y’all, Hear the Dead had me thinking, “Well, THIS is one heck of a way to revisit your past!” Elena is already battling tinnitus, grief, and decades-old trauma when she starts hearing screams connected to her murdered best friend and missing women from her punk-rock days. Because apparently, unresolved trauma wasn’t enough, she needed ghostly murder clues too!
Ann Dávila Cardinal’s writing is gritty, atmospheric, and wonderfully edgy, with fractured memories and buried secrets piling up like bodies. The mystery twists, turns, and occasionally kicks the door in. Creepy, emotional, weird as heck, and packed with punk-rock attitude. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to #NetGalley, Ann Dàvila Cardinal and Sourcebook Landmark for the copy of Hear The Dead for my honest, voluntary review.
Ann Dávila Cardinal’s writing is gritty, atmospheric, and wonderfully edgy, with fractured memories and buried secrets piling up like bodies. The mystery twists, turns, and occasionally kicks the door in. Creepy, emotional, weird as heck, and packed with punk-rock attitude. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to #NetGalley, Ann Dàvila Cardinal and Sourcebook Landmark for the copy of Hear The Dead for my honest, voluntary review.
October 8, 2026
Hear the Dead had a really interesting setup, and I was genuinely invested in the beginning.
Elena is a 66-year-old former punk photographer who begins developing tinnitus, and along with it comes something much stranger: the ability to hear and sense things connected to her best friend and other women from their old punk rock circle who died decades earlier. When touching objects tied to them begins triggering these experiences, Elena starts piecing together several coincidences surrounding their deaths. What once looked like separate tragedies begins to feel like something much darker — murders that were largely swept under the rug — and that’s what pushes her to start investigating.
I actually liked the supernatural element quite a bit because it didn’t feel randomly dropped into the story. The tinnitus acts almost like the doorway into this ability, and the gift itself becomes the thing that forces Elena to look more closely at a past everyone else seems to have moved on from.
Where this lost some momentum for me was the pacing. The murder mystery itself didn’t really start to take shape until closer to the halfway point, and the middle dragged enough that my interest went from genuinely invested to more mildly curious. The constant movement between timelines also made the story feel a little more uneven than I wanted.
I did enjoy the 1980s punk backdrop because it gave the book a very distinct personality. I also appreciated seeing an older female protagonist with that kind of history, although I occasionally felt detached from Elena because I kept questioning whether a 66-year-old former punk would realistically talk or behave the way she sometimes did.
The mystery was somewhat predictable for me, but the emotional side of the story worked better. The themes surrounding friendship, memory, aging, trauma, and carrying your past with you all landed and gave the book more weight than the mystery alone.
Overall, this started stronger than it finished for me, but there was still a lot here that I appreciated. The supernatural premise felt purposeful, the punk-rock setting gave it character, and the emotional themes had something to say. I just wish the pacing and timeline shifts had worked a little better for me.
Elena is a 66-year-old former punk photographer who begins developing tinnitus, and along with it comes something much stranger: the ability to hear and sense things connected to her best friend and other women from their old punk rock circle who died decades earlier. When touching objects tied to them begins triggering these experiences, Elena starts piecing together several coincidences surrounding their deaths. What once looked like separate tragedies begins to feel like something much darker — murders that were largely swept under the rug — and that’s what pushes her to start investigating.
I actually liked the supernatural element quite a bit because it didn’t feel randomly dropped into the story. The tinnitus acts almost like the doorway into this ability, and the gift itself becomes the thing that forces Elena to look more closely at a past everyone else seems to have moved on from.
Where this lost some momentum for me was the pacing. The murder mystery itself didn’t really start to take shape until closer to the halfway point, and the middle dragged enough that my interest went from genuinely invested to more mildly curious. The constant movement between timelines also made the story feel a little more uneven than I wanted.
I did enjoy the 1980s punk backdrop because it gave the book a very distinct personality. I also appreciated seeing an older female protagonist with that kind of history, although I occasionally felt detached from Elena because I kept questioning whether a 66-year-old former punk would realistically talk or behave the way she sometimes did.
The mystery was somewhat predictable for me, but the emotional side of the story worked better. The themes surrounding friendship, memory, aging, trauma, and carrying your past with you all landed and gave the book more weight than the mystery alone.
Overall, this started stronger than it finished for me, but there was still a lot here that I appreciated. The supernatural premise felt purposeful, the punk-rock setting gave it character, and the emotional themes had something to say. I just wish the pacing and timeline shifts had worked a little better for me.
October 11, 2026
I LOVED this thriller by Ann Dávila Cardinal. The mystery is complex, the resolution hard-earned and believable (although disappointing to those of us who wanted the romance to work), and she does a fantastic job of merging the thriller with a ghost story and the supernatural. I especially appreciated the 66-year-old protagonist. What a treat! Might I hope that Lens Altieri comes back? We have a lot of older guys writing older-guy protagonists investigating crimes. But this Puerto Rican former punk is unique and great fun to spend time with.
September 19, 2026
Elena Altieri is living a quiet life in small town Vermont after spending her younger years photographing punk rockers and leaving after night she still doesn’t remember. Now in her 60s and losing her hearing, the last thing she expects is to have her old work go viral after the subject dies of an overdose. She returns to NYC to show the old work, and begins hearing the screams and cries of women that she recognizes - former friends and musicians that she photographed, who all died of overdoses in their prime… or did they? Determined to figure out what’s happening to her, to them, Elena starts to look to the past. With the help of some familiar faces and flashbacks, can she help piece together what happened to these women? To herself?
I absolutely loved the premise of this one! While a murder mystery, I’m not sure I’d classify it as a horror or thriller, as it’s a bit slower paced than I’d expect one of those to be. That said it was a steady pacing, there were twists I predicted and some I didn’t, and Elena was a fantastic character, summed up perfectly with this quote: “But then I remembered I’m sixty-six and I don’t give a shit anymore.” I somehow missed that she’d be older when requesting the book, but I think it brought a lot to the story. She knew who she was, knew who she wanted, and even in her moments of doubt (or being chased down), I think that gave her the confidence to push through. It also gave her a long and rich history to pull from through flashbacks, including some great 80s and 90s nostalgia moments. While younger than her, it brought me right back to my concert filled teens and twenties. I may also miss my hearing one day because of that, but man were those the days! If you love a good murder mystery, flashbacks that give you little hints to help solve the case, a confident and layered female character, and a pinch of magic/paranormal, this is definitely the perfect pick! It’s going to be a great choice for spooky season, but can definitely be read anytime! I will for sure be recommending!
Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and author Ana Dávila Cardinal, for the eARC of Hear the Dead.
I absolutely loved the premise of this one! While a murder mystery, I’m not sure I’d classify it as a horror or thriller, as it’s a bit slower paced than I’d expect one of those to be. That said it was a steady pacing, there were twists I predicted and some I didn’t, and Elena was a fantastic character, summed up perfectly with this quote: “But then I remembered I’m sixty-six and I don’t give a shit anymore.” I somehow missed that she’d be older when requesting the book, but I think it brought a lot to the story. She knew who she was, knew who she wanted, and even in her moments of doubt (or being chased down), I think that gave her the confidence to push through. It also gave her a long and rich history to pull from through flashbacks, including some great 80s and 90s nostalgia moments. While younger than her, it brought me right back to my concert filled teens and twenties. I may also miss my hearing one day because of that, but man were those the days! If you love a good murder mystery, flashbacks that give you little hints to help solve the case, a confident and layered female character, and a pinch of magic/paranormal, this is definitely the perfect pick! It’s going to be a great choice for spooky season, but can definitely be read anytime! I will for sure be recommending!
Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and author Ana Dávila Cardinal, for the eARC of Hear the Dead.
October 7, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book. I honestly was not a huge fan of this book. It had good potential but I just felt like it was dragged out a bit.
April 19, 2026
I went into this book with very little expectation, having only read a short introduction beforehand.
From the very first chapter, I was hooked and immediately drawn to the main character. I especially enjoyed the flashbacks to the 80s that appeared at the end of some chapters as they added depth and atmosphere. The author’s portrayal of the 80s punk scene felt vivid and authentic, exactly how I’d imagine New York during that era (unfortunately, I was born after the 80’s but admire a lot of the 80’s culture and pop references!). I also appreciated the strong character development, particularly the relationship between the protagonist and her best friend.
The author’s writing style really resonated with me. I loved how the main character was portrayed still incredibly tough and compelling and still a total badass, even as she approaches her 60s. Honestly, she’s the kind of person I’d aspire to be!
The world-building was well done, with rich descriptions that made the setting feel immersive and also a hint of thriller element. At times, it genuinely felt like I was right there in an 80s nightclub, surrounded by the energy of a famous punk band.
I would recommend reading this book if you are a fan of punk culture and a thriller genres. I enjoyed my time reading this book.
Thank you (SOURCEBOOKS Landmark) for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
From the very first chapter, I was hooked and immediately drawn to the main character. I especially enjoyed the flashbacks to the 80s that appeared at the end of some chapters as they added depth and atmosphere. The author’s portrayal of the 80s punk scene felt vivid and authentic, exactly how I’d imagine New York during that era (unfortunately, I was born after the 80’s but admire a lot of the 80’s culture and pop references!). I also appreciated the strong character development, particularly the relationship between the protagonist and her best friend.
The author’s writing style really resonated with me. I loved how the main character was portrayed still incredibly tough and compelling and still a total badass, even as she approaches her 60s. Honestly, she’s the kind of person I’d aspire to be!
The world-building was well done, with rich descriptions that made the setting feel immersive and also a hint of thriller element. At times, it genuinely felt like I was right there in an 80s nightclub, surrounded by the energy of a famous punk band.
I would recommend reading this book if you are a fan of punk culture and a thriller genres. I enjoyed my time reading this book.
Thank you (SOURCEBOOKS Landmark) for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews