This true crime story was unique in that it is told in two parts. The first is pretty straight forward and typical as the serial killer, Tony Costa’s, life and crimes were chronicled. The second voice belongs to Liza, a woman who spend her childhood in the 60’s on Cape Cod frequently being watched by Tony Costa. Liza’s story is full of neglect and inappropriate physical discipline and it is scary to think how an attention starved 10 year old fell into the radar of such a troubled and dangerous man. Tony struggled with mental health issues which were made worse by the amount and variety of drugs he took, probably to manage his symptoms. True crime can be a little hit or miss for me but I really enjoyed this story of a serial killer before that descriptor existed.

I was intrigued by the subject matter of The Babysitter: My Summers with A Serial Killer and I was a little shocked to find that it was more of a memoir than fiction. I usually shy away from non-fiction. I prefer fiction and fantasy over real-life.
Liza is a young girl, living with her mom and siblings up around Cape Cod. Her mom works hard at local motel. Liza's mother has no problem leaving the kids to a man she barely knows, just to have them out of her hair. Little does Liza know, she is being left in the presence of a killer. Tony easily makes friends and is one charismatic man. He knows how to lure younger women in to trusting him. Woman turn up missing and know one knows where they are. Everything eventually falls apart. Tony secret life comes to light.
Overall, I was expecting a little more drama in the story. The story wasn't as shocking as I would have liked it to be. It was even a little boring in parts and didn't hold my attention. I am glad I read the story of Tony and Liza.
Special thanks NetGalley, Atria Books, and Liza Rodman; Jennifer Jordan. 3 stars

▪︎Thoughts▪︎
The Babysitter is the story about Liza and Tony Costa. It's a dual narrative alternating between little Liza who was neglected as a child and Tony, the babysitter and the sole person in her life that was caring to her.

I was very intrigued by the storyline because it is part memoir, part narrative non-fiction. what a chilling and unsettling read. It started off slow and steady but I was into it! Somewhere though it lost me and I found I kept putting it down more than I ever planned on. It became repetitive on certain subjects that I felt were unnecessary and would have loved for it to be ironed out. There was also something else I didn't really like and i do not want to give away too much.
Overall I enjoyed this one but it wasn't my favorite true crime read.

Thank you @netgalley & @atriabooks for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

The Babysitter
My Summers with a Serial Killer
by Liza Rodman; Jennifer Jordan
Atria Books
You Like Them
True Crime
Pub Date 02 Mar 2021 | Archive Date 16 Mar 2021

True Crime is a very popular genre at our library. I found this book to be well written and researched, and I especially enjoyed the first hand account of this chilling tale. I'm so glad our author was not one of Tony's victims.
Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

5 star

"The Babysitter" by Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan is a genre-bending book about a young girl's interactions with a serial killer. It is definitely the most readable true crime novel I've ever read! Told through alternating chapters focused on Liza and Tony, the authors reveal the horrible crimes of Tony and the trusting nature of Liza. This book is well-written and absolutely chilling. It is very well-researched and the additional element of author Liza having known Tony personally leaves a personal touch on an otherwise horrific story. The reader can't help but constantly think about how lucky Liza was to have never become one of Tony's victims herself!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

”What makes a monster?”

I was excited to see The Babysitter available on NetGalley because I’d never read any true crime before, and I have friends who adore this genre. I was eager to try something new. The Babysitter tells the story of serial killer Tony Costa, and I was expecting (or maybe hoping for?) a portrayal of Tony from a mostly-psychological standpoint. I enjoy thrillers, and was interested in something that might offer a peek into the mind of a real-life killer like Tony.

”Tony Costa considered himself more than just an intellectual; he considered himself a superior mind.”

The authors did an admirable job of presenting this story - it is well-written and well-researched, deftly walking the line between nonfiction and memoir. I could picture it as a documentary almost, shifting perspectives and voices at just the right times, and layering in the right balance of personal anecdotes, mixed with documented facts and hard evidence. Fans of the true-crime genre will likely be impressed with their work!

”One day he’s going to flip out and kill somebody, and I don’t want it to be you.”

I struggled with the gruesome physical descriptions of the murders themselves. I love the psychological aspects of fictional thrillers and murder mysteries, but this became uncomfortably graphic for me (especially the descriptions of the dismembered bodies and the rape of corpses). The fact that it wasn’t fiction made it that much harder for me to sit with all of the discomfort.

”He had a lot of time to consider his crimes and perhaps feel real remorse for having taken the lives of at least five women. But true to his pattern, his abiding sorrow was only for himself.”

After reading The Babysitter, I think I can safely say that I am clearly not the intended audience for true-crime books. Now that I know what to expect, I’ll stick to my “safer” genres! ;-) If you are a lover of true crime, you’ll probably really enjoy this, and my review will be useless to you. But if you’re on the sensitive side, or have anxiety surrounding murder, child abuse, rape, sexual assault, serial killers, or other difficult topics, you may feel more like I did.

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A huge thank-you to Liza Rodman, Jennifer Jordan, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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This was a well written true crime novel and it captivated me from the beginning. Part Liz’s memoir, this book was well researched and looks at the crimes of Tony Costa. It details the time Liz spent with him as a child.I found this story to be riveting and hard to put down.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I cannot seem to get enough of a good true crime book, especially when it is written with first-hand experience. This book follows two simultaneous timelines: the story of Liza's early life in Cape Cod, which then intertwines with notorious serial killer Tony Costa. The book chronicles the story of how as a young girl, Liza would frequently spend time with her mother's coworker, a young man named Tony who would help out with odd jobs around the motel where the adults all worked. It is intertwined with the story of Tony himself, following his early childhood up through his marriage, adulthood, and ultimately the killings of 4 women.
This book was fascinating because it has a first-hand account of how amiable, kind, and unassuming this man was and how very specific occurrences had to happen in order for him to even have been caught, as this was at a time when the internet did not exist, DNA wasn't availble for testing, and knowledge of this sort of thing was in its very infancy.
I would highly recommend this book for ANY murderino, anyone interested in true crime, or anyone who has an interest in seeing how the mind can truly work - and go wrong.
DEFINITELY recommend.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book reads like a fiction you sometimes forget that it isn't! Once you remember it makes you get this pit in your stomach but have to read more! Such a dark crazy story!! Very interesting to read this story from her point of view.

DNF @ 72%; this is the first ARC I’ve ever been unable to finish, and I’m pretty disappointed. :(

I’d like to start by saying that I pass no judgment on the content of this book. Memoirs are tricky for me to rate and review because I don’t feel that I’m in any position to critique someone’s experiences. So let me get it out there: My star rating in no way reflects the author’s story.

Rather, I did not jibe whatsoever with the presentation of said story.

The prose is confusing and/or mediocre at best, stilted and unnecessarily offensive at worst. At one point the book is describing the people who populated Provincetown in the 60’s: liberal artists, hippies, and “homosexuals,” all of who transformed good kids into troubled teenagers. (Needless to say, I did not appreciate the insinuation that gay people were corrupting influences.)*

In another instance, during one of Tony’s chapters, there’s this line about a girl being a “true redhead”* because she was pestering Tony and making demands of him. I was confused by this. Is “redhead” somehow slang for “feisty”? Am I… missing something here? Or did the book just stereotype all people with red hair as inherently demanding and overbearing?

That being said, I understand, obviously, that homophobia was rampant in the 1960s in a way that it isn’t now. I understand that Tony was a bigot who probably did refer to redheads (along with women, gay people, people of colour, religious minorities—heck, EVERYONE) in derogatory terms. But the issue I have is that this isn’t a book written by Tony. As such, there was no need for these iffy descriptions to be used.

Again: I’m not casting judgment on the authors. And I’d like to give the book the benefit of the doubt, so let’s talk about my main gripes with the prose in The Babysitter: it just wasn’t easy for me to read. Several sentences were weirdly structured and required several rereads before I could parse out their meaning; this really bogged down my reading experience.

Moreover, quotes and testimonials were inserted awkwardly rather than seamlessly into the text. The result was that I felt jarred out of the book, when I would’ve liked for these firsthand quotations to imbue the story with a greater sense of nuance or realism.

Bottom line: Not the book for me, unfortunately! But many readers and reviewers have had a great time with The Babysitter, so maybe it’s best for you to read this and make your own call.



* Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The quotes and specific examples I cited in my review were taken from an uncorrected advance proof and will be verified with the published copy when it releases on March 2, 2021.

"Each body was cut into as many parts as there are joints."

True crime novels run hot and cold for me. I absolutely hated I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, as it was an unorganized mess, but I've always really enjoyed Ann Rule novels, particularly The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story.

Needless to say, I was a little leery diving into The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer, but ended up being pleasantly surprised. This true crime offering was clean, easy to follow, organized, and well-written. Alternating chapters told not only Tony Costa's story (The Cape Cod Cannibal), but also that of Liza Rodman's childhood, and the things she remembered about Tony (who often babysat her and her sister, Louisa), and her life growing up in Provincetown. Unlike some of the more well-known serial killers, Tony Costa's was not a name I was familiar with, so this story was doubly interesting for me, as I knew nothing about it at all.

It was quite absorbing and I was impressed by how well researched this book was. The research was so thorough, in fact, that Ms. Rodman actually discovered what happened to three women suspected of being additional Tony Costa victims, and she tells their stories in the epilogue.

I do think pictures should have been included. They're so helpful in achieving a sense of the people in true crime novels, and it saves readers from having to look up all the story's players themselves. Oddly enough, during my internet searches, I think I found Tony Costa's wife, Avis, on Facebook. The couple was married when she was just thirteen or fourteen, and she had three children by the time she was eighteen. Costa was a fascinating and deeply disturbing individual.

If you love true crime, are a sucker for serial killers, and enjoy clean, well-written text...I'd definitely recommend this book.

Available March 2, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Atria for my review copy.

For the bulk of Liza’s childhood, she raised herself. Her mother was abusive to only her and lavished all her attention on her younger sister. The girls had much more freedom than most children their age. Enter Tony, the son of one of the women who cleaned the motel. Tony was the cool guy and always had a flock of teenagers around him. Fast forward several decades later, and Liza learns that the guy she spent her summers with, the one who took her and her sister everywhere, was a serial killer. Told in alternating viewpoints of Liza and Tony, we get a complete picture.

The research that went into writing this was evident from the start. My heart hurt for Liza in her youth. It surprising she still talked with her mother because of the level of abuse she suffered growing up. It’s not surprising that the girls spent so much time with Tony because as long as there was someone to watch the girls, she didn’t much care who it was. For me, the story got repetitive at times with the daily routines of the girls. Aside from that, this is a well-written and engaging read. It’s incredibly chilling and hooks you from the start. Thank you, Atria Books, for sending this along.

I really enjoyed that this book was a mixture of fictional thriller AND true crime! I loved the factual elements combined with the authors' imaginative story to make a view of this serial killer that you can't stop reading about. It's a book that grabs you from the start and draws you in. There is a lot of source material to refer to, which helps flesh out the true-crime part of this story.

Overall, this was a great story that was filled with twists and turns, and I really enjoyed it!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

The babysitter is a mix memoir and part true crime mystery. It is based on the memories is Liza Rodman and her childhood.

Liza spent summers as a child in Cape Cod with her single mom who worked during the day and partied at night, leaving her children with whoever would watch them. One of Liza’s favorite “babysitters” was Tony Costa, who treated her kinder than her mother ever did. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she found out that Tony, was in fact, a convicted serial killer – and bodies had been found in the woods where Tony had taken her many times as a child.

The story goes back and forth between both Liza and Tony’s lives and when they would cross paths. The book was an interesting and easy read.

This was a really interesting book! I had never heard of this serial killer from Cape Cod before. The story was told from two different perspectives - Liza (the author who crossed paths with the serial killer) and the serial killer, Tony. Liza's mother was abusive and it was quite difficult to read about the abuse and neglect. Tony was a crazy, drug addict who enjoyed the company of much younger people than himself.

There wasn't a tremendous amount of detail about the actual crimes - most likely because Tony's story about what he did changed seemingly from moment to moment.

This was a great read - especially if you know the Provincetown/Truro areas!

This review was also posted on Goodreads.

“Part memoir, part crime investigation”

Liza Rodman spent summers as a child in Cape Cod with her single mom who worked during the day and partied at night, leaving her children with whoever would watch them. One of Liza’s favorite “babysitters” was Tony Costa, who treated her kinder than her mother ever did. It wasn’t until she was an adult that Liza found out that Tony, was in fact, a convicted serial killer – and bodies had been found in the woods where Tony had taken her many times as a child.

This book alternates between Liza’s memories of her lonely and tragic childhood, and Tony’s life as pieced together through extensive research. The Babysitter surprised me by being an easy read, despite often feeling heartbroken for Liza and horrified by Tony. A chilling and compelling read that I highly recommend to all fans of true crime.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is not only a chilling true crime tale, but also a heartrending memoir of Liza’s childhood. It’s a striking dichotomy to read about Tony’s heinous crimes, and then see how tenderly he treats Liza and her sister. Liza craves a compassionate adult figure in her life, and you can feel her pain & longing when she wonders where Tony has disappeared to.
In between chapters about Liza, we learn more about Tony Costa. Every part of his life is explored-his childhood, his family, his friends, his marriage, and more. Liza has done her due diligence into Tony’s history, with extensive interviews with law enforcement, psychiatrists, and residents of Tony’s hometown.
I have never heard of Tony Costa before, and this book opened my eyes to a tragic piece of time. I quite enjoy true crime books, and it was unique to read about someone that grew up alongside a serial killer, while not knowing about his crimes.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC of The Babysitter in exchange for my honest review. This true story is told about a young girl growing up with a very unstable, unloving home life. She meets a older guy who seems one of the few people in her young life that actually like her. The little girl eats up the attention of this man since she doesn't get it anywhere else. Tony disappears from her life and no one tells her why. Years later, Liza puts the pieces together to realize the danger her mother was putting her and her sister in by leaving them with pretty much anyone, including a serial killer which at the time was unbeknownst to them all.

A fascinating part memoir and true crime story about a serial killer who terrorized Cape Cod in the 1960s - which was a turbulent time in America.

This was an interesting read and what a dynamic situation! I really enjoyed it and look forward to checking out the author's other works in the future as well! Will be recommending this to all my true crime readers and lovers!