When Xiomara decides to brave a threatening storm to attend the reading of her Papi Ramon’s will, she has no idea just what she’s in for. She expects her aunts and uncles (Papi’s surviving children) to be horrible, and for her cousins to gossip. For her, that’s all part of being a member of a large Dominican family. Still, since her mother died, Xiomara feels obligated to represent her part of the family and to spare her own father from dealing with his in-laws. It won’t be for more than a few hours anyway, and then she’ll be free of them.
Arriving at Papi Ramon’s house, she finds her grandfather’s home aide, Naomi, and a handful of the other members of the Abreu family waiting for the arrival of Papi’s lawyer. Tensions only rise as old conflicts resurface, with each other arriving relative bringing plenty of baggage. For Xiomara, memories are fiddly. It seems that there are stories of Papi Ramon’s life as a minister that only she remembers him telling, and no one has any idea why she would have been told that he was an exorcist.
When the lawyer finally arrives, the chaos only grows. The will simply states that one of the people in the room is a demon that Papi made a deal with years ago. The Abreus have twelve hours to destroy the demon or they will all be damned. Almost immediately, the family begins to argue with the lawyer, demanding to see the real will that must have been replaced. There’s no way this can possibly be real. Papi Ramon was a good man, wasn’t he? How could he possibly have made a deal with a demon? There’s no such thing, right?
Xiomara, though. Xiomara sees the paper, and realizes that what the lawyer had read as “Hugs and Kisses” was simply XO. A nod to her childhood nickname. A directive. She knows then that she has to solve this mystery to save herself, and Naomi, and, she supposes, the rest of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. This is the beginning of her quest, but an additional complication is soon added. When the lawyer leaves to go find the “real will” that must have been swapped out, Naomi finds a letter demanding that the Abreus confess to their sins, or they will be revealed to the world.
The storm outside soon matches the energy of the drama inside. While they’re trapped by the raging weather, Xiomara has to navigate her toxic family members as their darkest secrets begin leaking online, and a demon may or may not be stalking them all throughout the rooms of Papi Ramon’s house.
Vincent Tirado has absolutely nailed the dynamics of the Abreu family. You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom is a tight, thrilling horror novella. I love that they included a piece at the end of the book giving less informed readers (like myself) a nice primer on the conflicts between Dominicans and Haitians that play such a large role in the story. It provided some excellent context for the Abreu family’s feelings toward Naomi and why they felt so entitled to continue to treat her like hired help even after Papi Ramon’s death. All in all, this was a ridiculously enjoyable book to read. The tension is played brilliantly, and Xiomara’s growing desperation and increasingly transparent attempts to get away from her relatives are nearly flawless. My utmost thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.
You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom hit shelves on Tuesday, 3/10/2026. Go check it out.
The Swords of the Ancients 