Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer

Thank you to NetGalley for this copy.

I gotta start by saying I'm a huge true crime fan. If you don't like true crime you likely won't like this book.

I'd never heard of Tony Costa but man was he fascinating. I also just find it SO UNREAL how easy it was for someone to murder a person back in the day. He got questioned and would just be like "nah, they just left town" and the cops would be like "oh aight cool!" 😐

His cockiness about not getting caught drove me insane, especially with how gruesome these murders were. The fact that he really was just driving around in the dead girls car .... like what?!?

It also blows my mind that Liza was just chillin' with a serial killer at 9 years old and had no idea. Sheesh

Giving it four stars just because there are SO MANY people to keep track of I truly couldn't tell you who some of them are 😂

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myantigone's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced

1.75

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

The Babysitter shows life in Provincetown MA in the 1906s through a mix of personal memoir and synthesizing a timeline of Tony Costa's life and crimes. There was an astounding amount of casual drug use, alcoholism, and a combination of the two, and the manic energy that cocktail of drugs creates was captured really well by Rodman's descriptions of the adults in her life. It was fully not the intention of the book, but having friends from MA and fond memories of visiting them, the vivid description of Portuguese foods and familiar locations made me smile. The happy memories Liza Rodman shares are intimate and nostalgic. This book is written with stunning detail, showing both the best and the worst the era and location had to offer.

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localbogwitch's review

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dark sad slow-paced

3.0

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technobabble's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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foreverinastory's review

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challenging informative slow-paced

3.0

This was interesting.

CWs: child abuse/neglect, murder, drug use/abuse, addiction, rape, sexual violence, emotional abuse, sexual assault, parental abandonment, domestic abuse, gore, dismemberment, violence, alcoholism, death, physical abuse, suicide, mental illness, adult/minor relationship, toxic relationship, blood, homophobia, f-slur, misogyny, sexual content. Moderate: animal cruelty, kidnapping, pedophilia, suicidal thoughts, torture, suicide attempt, injury/injury detail, fatphobia, body shaming, self harm, abortion, vomit, excrement.

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