Dark, suspenseful true story about a neglected girl who unknowingly spends time with a serial killer. Liza and her sister had a rough time growing up with a neglectful mom and an absentee father. While Liza usually had it worse than her sister, they were often passed around to any neighbor that would agree to babysit while their mom would go party. Later in life after Liza starts having nightmares, she starts researching what really happened the summer there was a killer on the loose in her neighborhood. Chilling from start to finish, this book is impossible to put down.

First of I want to say thank you to the publisher Atria Books- St.Martins for inviting me to read and review it as well as giving thanks to NetGalley because up until now I've never read or even heard about this case ,so it was a brand new to me which was a shock because I tend to listen to a lot of true crime podcast as well as read quite a lot of nonfiction and some of that is on true crimes or serial killers. This story is told in away that you get the story of both the author as well as the one about Tony Costa , and it brings to live how sick he was and how lucky she and her sister was to be alive today because they could have been his victims. You also see how both the sisters was treated and how Liz tried to keep herself as well as her sister safe. And the more you read about Tony you see how dark and twisted he was from the very start , from how he treated his wife ( who at times made me feel sorry for her) and how he seemed to have some kind of pull that made his victims come to him. Over all its well written and researched, and at times hard to read, especially when it delved into his crimes because it makes you feel the pain that the families went though.

Thank you so much to the publisher and to #netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I love me a good true crime book and this book did not disappoint. It was engaging and really researched. The book actually gave me chills about the fact that this girl was left in the care of a serial killer when she was younger and she idolized him!

Really stuck with me after I finished it.

Oh wow! If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that this was a fiction book. I struggle to read non-fiction, but this felt so different to me. I googled certain people and details, everything is very real. It was just so well written that I couldn’t tell the difference! It shocked and surprised me; made me adore some people and hate others. It was stunningly well written and so very compelling. I love how Tony was evaluated from so many different angles and how the author’s story made it even more tragic. Heartbreaking and heart-warming, this was a magnificent tale of real life!

Wow, the Babysitter is a haunting and quite chilling read. The book alternates between Liza and Tony. This almost felt like I was reading a well written thriller. The atmosphere is eerie and the descriptiveness felt like I was actually there. The fact that the Babysitter is also true crime sent extra ice through my spine.

Liza’s childhood was rough and you can just feel the raw emotions there. Liza and Louisa were often left alone with random people to babysit them while their mom went out. One of these random people ended up being Tony Costa. To Liza, Tony is a nice young man who treats her and her sister very well. They go for rides with him, hike on the beach and he even takes them out for ice cream.

It’s through Tony’s chapters that we uncover how strange and depraved he really is. There are parts of this book that were very hard to read, especially when it delved into his crimes.

This is definitely a bone-chilling read and if you’re interested in true crime, then I definitely recommend giving this one a read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.