This story takes place on the east coast. Liza's mother does not like her child and spends most of her time drinking and dancing and leaving Liza and her sister in the care of anyone. available. She works at a motel and so the two girls find a friend in Tony who takes the trash to the dump and is nice to them. He often takes them along and buys them candy. Sometimes he takes them into the woods to show them his special place. Little do they know is that Tony has a dark secret.
This book flowed well and kept me interested to the end. I thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer” is the true story of infamous serial killer Tony Costa, and the summers Liza Rodman spent with him as a child in Cape Cod in the 1960s prior to his arrest. Liza was a lonely child with a negligent mother, and she and her sister were frequently left with various babysitters, including Tony Costa. Liza recounts her memories growing up, and the seemingly normal man she knew as a child.

This novel is written as a hybrid of memoir and narrative non-fiction, combining Liza’s memories with other recollections of the crimes, police records and reports, Tony’s medical and psychological testing, and recordings of interviews. The true crime portion of the novel seemed to be predominant, as the chapters from Liza’s point of view tended to be shorter. I loved this blended format, and found Liza’s memoir portion incredibly interesting, more so in regard to her mother’s emotionally abusive relationship with her than her relationship with Tony. This novel sparked all kinds of feelings while reading, from heartbreak, to fury, to horror, and more, and the book is truly a rollercoaster of emotions. The novel was well-researched and thought-provoking, and I would definitely recommend this book to readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

🔪BOOK REVIEW🔪
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The Babysitter: My Summer’s With a Serial Killer
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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Thank you @netgally for this ARC copy!
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This book has a lot triggers so I’m going to list them at the end for reference.
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I was truly intrigued with The Babysitter, a hybrid memoir & true crime investigation of a Cape Cod serial killer who also happened to be the only adult young Liza Rodman felt safe with. Rodman and Jordan's book was able to portray the mindset of a murderer while winding in Liza’s childhood of neglect and loneliness.
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I could not put it down once I started. It showed during the 60s that it was very easy to “disappear” and be considered missing and will most likely to return. Tony used his charm and character to his advantage to not only the women he encountered but Liza as a young girl.
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If you’re looking for a true crime novel that it a quick and dark read at times this is for you.
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Triggers:
-child abuse
-drug abuse
-sexual violence
-alcoholism
-drug use
-emotional abuse
-physical abuse
-rape
-sexual assault
-suicide
-violence
-addiction
-adult/minor relationship
-death
-mental illness

The Babysitter tells the story of Liza and Tony Costa. The story focuses on Liza as she grows up spending her summers on the Cape and being left with anyone that will watch her and her sister Louisa while her mother goes out. The story also follows Tony Costa as he maneuvers through life on the Cape with a wife, 3 children, a drug problem, and many other haunting secrets.

I was amazed by how easy this book was to read. It was part memoir, part true crime and it worked beautifully. I was so heartbroken for Liza as a child and the hardships she went through for no fault of her own. She just wanted someone there for her and, sadly, that was found in a serial killer. The story had amazing pace and never dwelt too much on too many details. The descriptions were top notch. This has quickly become one of my favorite true crime books and, I promise, that is saying something. 5 stars all day long.

This book is very captivating and engaging. It is a very narrative look at a true crime case and how it intertwined with this author's life as a child. This book really reminds that people are not always who you think or they say they are. If you are a fan of true crime or even just someone looking for a good nonfiction book, then this is the novel for you.

I was completely engrossed while reading The Babysitter. Liza Rodman didn’t realize until decades later the guy who used to give her rides to the town dump and the woods where he buried his victims was actually a deranged sick killer. Rodman switched the chapters back and forth between Tony Costa’s life and hers, intersecting them numerous times. The writing was fluid and cohesive. It’s fascinating to read about how the world was in the late 60s and how vastly different it is now. Costa reminded me of Ted Bundy in so many ways, it was chilling. He was a total narcissist and he deserved far more punishment for his crimes. This book reveals how duplicitous people are and how neglectful the author’s mother was. It’s an excellent read.

This true crime/memoir does an excellent job of taking you into the world of Liza, a little girl suffering abuse and neglect as her divorced mother takes them back and forth to Cape Cod in the summer. It’s on the Cape where she meets a charming man who takes her and her sister for rides in his truck as he brings trash from the hotel where her mother works to the dump. After buying them organs popsicles, he even brings them to his secret garden in the woods.

It wasn’t until much longer than Liza learned that Tony Costa was a serial killer. The book shifts between telling the story of Costa and the women he murdered and dismembered and that of Liza and her family. Costa’s story sort of frames the story of Liza’s difficult childhood. The authors do an excellent job of bringing character and humanity to the people involved in both stories. This is not a salacious expose but is instead a thoughtful exploration of the impact one disturbed person had on the concentric rings of people around him including his family, friends, his victims, and their families.

This is also a book in which setting is important. The Cape Cod of the late 60’s is described in detail, giving the reader a real sense of what it was like.

The Babysitter is recommended for fans of thoughtful true crime like I’ll Be Gone In The Dark or podcasts like True Crime Bullsh** that explore place and context while also fleshing out the lives of the people involved in the story.
Fans of suspense novels that focus on childhood trauma and like Dark Places will find Liza’s story compelling.

The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer from Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan was, for me, an uneven but still enjoyable book.

Uneven might not be the best word but I think it fits. This is both a memoir and a true crime book. Because the memoir is not really part of the crimes themselves, it really makes this two distinct books in one (as compared, for example, to a memoir from a victim or criminal in which the crimes or some part thereof are part and parcel of both elements of the book). Which means that while remembering being with Tony gives, through a child's eye (after researching the man and the crimes), some view of him, it is still separate from him as a serial killer. The after-the fact trauma she feels certainly makes her a type of victim of his crimes, but legally his crimes weren't terrorizing women decades after the fact, it was serial murder. So the memoir is, at best, tertiary to the true crime part of the book. Other than making the memoir of interest to a larger group of readers than it would be otherwise.

The true crime part of the book is interesting and works pretty well as a form of investigative journalism, though there isn't really a lot of mystery being investigated, mostly filling in the gaps for the person who realized much later that her babysitter was a serial killer. So a desire, understandably, to come to grips with what she remembers and what the facts were form the basis for digging into the old case.

I found the memoir interesting but not particularly compelling and the true crime to be more of a bringing together of information as compared to an investigation that sheds a lot of new light on a mysterious case. So while neither "book" was bad, neither was all that gripping. Because they didn't really blend together very well as a single coherent text, it lowered the appeal of each.

I would still recommend this to readers who know nothing of this case or who enjoy reading memoirs of the "I knew him when..." variety. Those wanting their investigative journalism to be more of the uncovering type than the information gathering type may be disappointed, though I think they will still find where the two books do complement each other to be worthwhile. Unfortunately, that is not consistent throughout.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This is a really great blend of memoir and investigative journalism, and quite the blast from the past. Rodman and Jordan recreate the late 1960s so perfectly on these pages and it was so interesting to see how much (and, in some cases, how little) society has changed since then. I also loved the inclusion of music from the summers Rodman spent in Provincetown—it really helped ground me in the story and time period.

I think what is most interesting in this book, besides Tony's bizarre and horrifying serial killing, is the contrast that Liza experienced in Tony—an adult who made her feel safe and valued, versus the evil person who brutally murdered multiple women. Rodman casts both an investigative, mature eye on this contrast and examines it from the perspective of her childhood. This duality served the story well and the moments of inconsistency between the two perspectives helped drive meaningful observations about human nature and family.

This made me think of the dichotomies in my own life, and how what we know and come to learn about someone can serve to either save or destroy your memories and opinion of someone. We see that in practice in Rodman's experience with Tony and her mother. It was powerful to read Rodman's memory of her "aha" moment with her mother, and how that helps her develop an understanding so that they could continue their relationship in adulthood. Meanwhile, what she learns about Tony rightfully fractures her memories of him and adds this dark specter over their time together. Unexpectedly, I found this book to offer a meditation on what it means to come to terms with the whole of a person, and what those consequences of that can be. This element really added to my reading experience and made this entire story more meaningful to me.

If you're interested in memoirs, true crime, and family relationships, then I'd definitely pick this one up. It explores so much besides a horrific series of crimes, and truly captures a time and place.

This was definitely a well written, but dark true crime book. True crime was my favorite genre, but after wine life altering events, I sort of steered clear. I am glad I did give this one a chance, as it’s definitely written in a captivating manner. I found it to be very chilling, scary, and emotional to read. It was written in a way that held me glued to the pages. I would definitely recommend to those who love a dark, disturbing true crime on a serial killer and how he effected so many life’s, especially the authors!

Will buzz around and use low amazon reviewer number on release date!

As a true crime fan I was looking forward to reading The Babysitter; unfortunately I made it to the 25% mark and did not finish it. I find it harder to objectively review books that are first hand accounts or memoirs as they are someones life. experiences and memories and I never want to diminish what they went through. The backstories, which were told in alternating chapters for Liza and Tony felt disjointed until their stories overlapped. There was crude and vulgar language (and some doesn't typically bother me), homophobic language, and quite a few different trigger warnings. As much as I wanted to get sucked into this story and be engrossed into the first hand account of knowing a serial killer, The Babysitter wasn't it for me.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and sadly, I did not enjoy it.

This book had such a cool concept and I thought the case was so interesting, but I didn’t like the writing. The memoir, although the individual’s story was valid and important, it felt a little forced towards the end and how it connected to the story of the serial killer.

In regards to the true crime portion of this book, the language used was crude and was disrespectful to the victims. There was also a lot of unexpected homophobic language that made me want to give this book one star. However, with half the book being a memoir by another author, I didn’t feel right about that

In The Babysitter, Liza Rodman recounts her childhood growing up in on and around Cape Cod in the late 1960s, and most memorable her sometimes babysitter, the handsome handyman Tony Costa. The same Tony Costa, who would later be known as the "Cape Cod Vampire." Part memoir of a childhood with an aloof mother, part true crime documentary, this chilling story is perfect for fans of Ann Rule and "My Favorite Murder"

In 1969, Tony Costa was convicted of killing two women and suspect of killing at least 5 more. He buried bodies in his "secret garden," where he also illegally grew marijuana and hid stashes of stolen drugs. He would also take young Liza and her sister on "adventures" in his truck to his secret garden, when their mother sloughed them off on his for an afternoon of babysitting.

The author weaves the story of her own loveless childhood along with Costa's descent into drug addled serial killer. While at some points the narratives can see disjointed or disconnected, the narrative account of Tony Costa's life and crimes was worth the deep dive.

I’m not a big fan of true crime books, but I thought I’d give this one a try, since I’m trying to read outside my comfort zone. Unfortunately that didn’t quite work out well for me.
I got the chills while reading this book. To think you could be so comfortable with someone and then it takes a turn for the worse.
I got a bit too creeps out and put the book down after a few pages.

Interesting but not groundbreaking. 🤷‍♀️⁣
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I’ve really been trying to decrease how much I read/watch/listen to true crime, and initially THE BABYSITTER appeared to be worth the read. It’s narrative nonfiction about a woman who realizes that as a child she unknowingly spent a lot of time around a serial killer. ⁣
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It was...fine. A couple issues: first, the title vastly overstates their relationship. The author’s mother was neglectful and rarely coordinated actual babysitters, and the killer happened to be someone who was around sometimes. Additionally, as with a lot of true crime, I wish this book took a bigger view of both the author’s and the killer’s lives. For both, there were significant factors (poverty, sexual assault, substance abuse, neglect) that deserved way more attention beyond just building background. ⁣
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Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for this review. ⁣

I am a big fan of all things True Crime so I was thrilled to be gifted a copy of this book. While at first I wasn’t too sure about the shifting perspectives, in the end I found that Liza’s recollections about her Babysitter Tony Costa and her life growing up in the 1960s and 70s was helpful in better understanding Tony’s story as well.

This was an excellent read! The part that "got" me the most is that it's a true story. I think this is the part that kept me drawn into the book and left me with a lasting impression. Sometimes I just can't believe what the human body can endure!

The Babysitter is a true story about a lonely girl's search for love, who instead finds acceptance from a serial killer. Liza grew up with her mom and sister in a town near Providencetown. Her mom was the head of housekeeping for a hotel, and while she was busy at work she was often dumped onto a list of babysitters--including the resident maintenance man Tony Costa.

Liza and her sister would beg Tony to come along as he ran errands. And then one day he lets her in on a secret. A secret garden where he goes to take care of things. Little did Liza suspect the horror that was kept in the secret garden.

I absolutely loved this true crime memoir. Not only did the story take you through the life of a serial killer, but told from the perspective of young Liza you began to see that the character of Tony was not so black and white. He took a neglected child and showed her kindness and care. In addition to the gruesome accounts of the murders, with a follow-up where some of the missing were eventually found. This book is part memoir and part true-crime story, with a question around what makes a killer the way they are. A must read.

Riveting mix of memoir, and true crime story,. Tony Costa was a notorious serial killer who murdered women in Truro, MA in the 1960's. He was also a motel handyman and sometime babysitter to at least two children living with their divorced mother in motels she worked at during tourist season. Highly recommend even if serial killers aren't your genre.

Absorbing, compelling writing that blurs the line between non-fiction and fiction. The dual narratives were distracting at times and it felt like the author's story overshadowed Costa's quite a bit. Still a fascinating read!