Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. When I requested this it was the title that sucked me in. Then I read the synopsis and I was like I have to read that! Im very into true crime and I had never heard of Tony Costa aka the Cape Cod Vampire/killer. This was a very interesting perspective for sure.

Imagine the person your mother used to frequently leave you and your sister with turns out to be a serial killer. That is exactly what happened to Liza Rodman. She tells the story of her own childhood coupled with the story of a serial killer I never knew existed.

While I was more interested in the true crime aspect of this book, I still really really enjoyed it. It is set on Provincetown, a place I absolutely love, and now have a lot more knowledge of its history

I was really interested in this but it fell a little flat for me. I guess I thought there would be a stronger connection/more information about the crimes etc and it was too much random memoir for me.

Wow. I have lived all 32 years if my life in Massachusetts and I have never heard of tony costa before, or that cape cod had a serial killer. It was fascinating to read about and it was also interesting to read about Rodman’s life and her friendship with Costa( he was her baby sitter for crying out loud) and her relationship with her mother. Definitely a must for true crime and/or memoir lovers. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.

4.5/5

Liza grew up in Cape Cod in the 60's , with an abusive mother that let just about anyone watch her two girls. The cape was there favorite place and thats were she meet Tony Costa. The now know serial killer. This is part story of her life with her mom and also about Tony a man she had know as fun and caring.

This was a good mix of both true crime story and the story of an abusive life. It weaves the story of how she meet Tony and how he treated them. To her he was the serial killer, he was someone who liked to spend time with her and was kind to them. It was interesting seeing who Tony was and the vibe he carried around as not a great guy or hard worker. I had never heard of him before this book, it was a very interesting read. How he lived his life, the things that hinted at more violence and the police work in different areas at the time. It was crazy to me that Liza and her sister were really just left with who ever would take them. I enjoyed the end and getting some of the answers about her mom and why she also did the things she did.

Thank you to @Atirabooks and @netgally for my review copy

Omg, I am lost for words on this book. I mean, how frightening it is to find out that the person you thought is your friend and who's been nice to you was a serial killer? I admire the research, and for also showing the other side of Tony, this doesn't just focus on Tony the serial killer and the crimes he did but also shows how he was outside those horrific things. My takeaway is always to be cautious and careful with people you meet; some don't show who they truly are. A good read!

I have started to really love true crime and I thought this was a great example of the genre. It read like a novel and was totally gripping right until the end. I loved the personal aspect of Liza, and it was interesting to see the different sides of Tony. I would love to see this as a Netflix special!

Going into this I didn't know much about the case around Tony Costa, just that he was in fact a convicted serial killer. Which was one of the reasons I wanted to read this. I was also interested because it held the story of Liza Rodman who spent her summers around Costa during the time he was actively killing people. All of that made for something I was really was excited about, and The Babysitter was one of my most anticipated reads of the first half of 2021.

Unfortunately, this one let me down in the end.

I will say this, Jennifer Jordan dows a lot of research around the case that was built around Tony Costa and his life leading up to him becoming a serial killer. There is a lot of information presented in three hundred pages, and a lot of work was put into that. I did learn a lot about the case. I also really liked that both Tony and Liza's stories were told together through the timeline. It gave two different views of the world at that time.

However, that being said after a while having the chapters go back and forth between Tony and Liza quickly become an info dump. So much information is being laid at your feet, that by the I got to the last few chapters I had forgotten the first couple of victims. This bothers me because for me with a true-crime I want these stories to be more about the victims than the serial killer themselves. I want to remember their names and what was done to them. I want to feel for them, but it was hard to have an emotion other than disgust. Between the things Costa was doing and the life, Liza Rodman had to live.

Personally, I feel like the short chapters didn't help either. It would have been nice if the book was split in years so the timeline was a little more upfront.

I also felt a little bad for Liza because I feel like this book aired a lot of her dirty laundry in a way. She had a hard childhood, and I'm not really sure we needed to know all of that. I thought it was going to be her story about spending summers with Costa at the RC, but it was more about her struggles growing up that included Costa a handful of times.

Also, while I don't mind books getting gruesome with blood and gore. It just didn't feel needed here. Yes, what Costa did to these women was terrible, but I feel like there was a better way to handle those moments.

I just put this book down a lot, and for something barely over three hundred pages, it took me most of the month. A few days have passed and I realized I didn't really retain any of the information in the book, just that I'm really disappointed this wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

Thanks to Netgalley for an early copy of The Babysitter, this has been my honest opinion of this book.

This book is unreal, but I enjoyed it. I can't believe everything that happened. It is a great look at life in the 60's and how things like this happened. I definitely recommend.

The Babysitter was beyond eye opening. You never know who a person really is. The writing was excellent and the research the author put into the book was thorough. Hope the author was able to seek therapy for the way her mother treated her.

This was fascinating. I loved the story and didn’t want it to end. I am looking forward to adding a physical copy of this to my collection when it’s released

A thoughtful exploration of the life and crimes of Tony Costa, of childhood trauma, and of life in the Sixties. A worthy addition to the true crime shelves.

Interesting memoir/story about a young girl's difficult family and her babysitter who turned out to be a serial killer. Interesting to see the killer through a child's eyes and that child not knowing what the truth was and what was going on that all the adults were talking about. Could have been condensed a bit more.

Part memoir part serial killer true crime, The Babysitter is told through Liza's first person recollections of her summers spent in Provincetown often spending time with Tony Costa who is later revealed as a sadistic serial killer. What's heartbreaking about this story is that Tony is not the only villain in this story. Liza's own mother is physically and emotionally abusive. It's a sad state when one of the nicest people from your childhood is revealed to be a serial killer. Definitely worth a read.

The Babysitter is just the true-crime tale that I needed in the dead of winter here in Chicago. Because it’s true crime (that checks a box), then it takes place on Cape Cod (dreamy) during the 1960’s (which lends such a nice nostalgic touch.) Liza, the co-author and who lived the story, is a young girl who’s mother is too busy partying and meeting men to really bother to parent. And what’s worse, she clearly favors Liza’s little sister and treats her more like a burden than a daughter.

Liza’s lack of attention or affection from her mother left her very needy. And so, when her mother would basically leave her or her sister with anyone who was nearby and could “watch” them while she was out gallivanting, Liza sought out affection from others. And in retrospect, she was INCREDIBLY lucky that nothing worse happened to her. I know that the 60’s and 70’s were a lax time, but that’s when child predators and serial killer ran rampant!

And of course, Liza did end up in the company of a serial killer. But one that was incredibly kind to her and her sister. He bought them ice cream, and drove them around in his truck on adventures. Of course, no one had any idea what he was up to in his spare time.

The Babysitter is a chilling tale that could have been so much worse. Still, it’s an interesting read and is told well by the authors. It makes me think a bit of six degrees of separation. Except this was one degree, and it look Liza nearly 30 years to discover how close she had been.

The Babysitter is a must-read for any true crime junkie. Special thanks to Atria books and Netgalley for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out March 2, 2021.

I don’t know what it was about this but it didn’t speak to me and I wasn’t totally into it. I wasn’t immediately taken with it and didn’t feel like I could connect in any way. I’m a true crime buff and this just didn’t land with me. I’m also nervous that I just read this at the wrong time and couldn’t get in to it because I’m a mood reader. I do think this was interesting as a true crime story and I definitely will want to circle back to it.

This book was FASCINATING! It’s equal parts memoir and true crime, as if The Glass Castle and I’ll Be Gone in the Dark had a baby. Sounds like an odd combination but trust me, it WORKS! The writing is fantastic and the story is blended together in a wonderful way. I kept turning the pages, compelled by a consistent need for MORE. This is an amazing true story and one you need on your radar. The Babysitter was fantastic and a 4 ⭐️ read for me. Thank you @atriabooks for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review!

The creep factor in this book was at a high. I had to tell myself this was fiction (even though it's not!) just to encourage myself to sleep at night. The fact that this could happen right in your backyard without you knowing is terrifying. I love true crime stories and this one is now one of my top favorites.

Ugh, let me tell you I read every painful word of this book, and while some parts were super interesting, overall it was a giant let down. I am a HUGE true crime buff, and love all the theories, trails of evidence, trials, and stories that come along with it. This book however was FAR less true crime and far more small town hearsay. I felt like I was sitting around a small town cafe hearing everyone gossiping and telling their tall tale of how they knew Tony and weird stuff he did. The quotes were so randomly placed and often added nothing to the story line.

First I just wanna say, Tony was simply not her babysitter. While she does have a connection, and many many interactions alone with him, he wasn’t a traditional babysitter in the sense that the blurb makes you believe and I think they over played that drastically to sell books. He worked at her mothers hotel, and ran the trash to the dump,and she often joined.

The more I read the more I realised there were VERY few actual facts in this book, and most was just what they heard from Avis or Tony or another unreliable source. Pretty much all the main characters such as avid and Tony, were self proclaimed liars and drug addicts.

Even Liza’s parts seemed slightly far fetched in certain parts. How in the world could she remember exact quotes from mundane conversations that happened 50 years ago when she was 6? I enjoyed her parts overall, but felt like she was trying to latch to his fame, because lets be real, it was a small town and likely almost everyone had a first hand (or many) experience(s) with Tony Costa.

Also I want to add that this book is not PC at all. They bash homosexuality often, and literally use the full names of people in the book to call them out for being gay, when said persons have literally NOTHING to do with the story line, and even if they did, their sexual orientation does not. They also blame the gays and the hippies for the towns drug problems when it seemed a lot more to me like it was the locals, and doctors, not the incoming people, that seemed to be the problem. Just one big small town gossip fest.


Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC in return for my honest review.

I could not get into this book. The way Tony's part of the story is told by Jennifer Jordan was more than I could stomach. Liza's recollections from her childhood were interesting, but not enough for me to finish the book. True crime stories interest me sometimes, but this one I'll pass on.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!