🌟 4.5/5 – Babysitting Gone Bananas, Unhinged Mothers, and “WTF is in that basement?” Energy 🌟
Title: The Babysitter
Author: Tanisha Stewart
Tropes: Unreliable Narrator 🧠 Psychological Spiral 🔪 Creepy Kid Core 👧🏽 Motherhood Madness 🤰 Secrets & Surveillance 🎥
Spice Level: N/A but the tension? 🔥🔥🔥 (more mind games than bedroom games)
Review:
If you love your thrillers with a side of delusion, a sprinkle of obsession, and a possibly haunted child who may or may not be running the whole show—this book is your Roman Empire.
Sariah lands a high-paying babysitting job with the wealthy and mysterious Rodwell family. Everything looks perfect: the gorgeous house, the sweet little girl, the smiling pregnant mother, and the trip they’re taking that leaves Sariah all alone with the kid. But under the surface? Something is very, very wrong.
Let’s just say…
✔️ The kid draws creepy stuff and gaslights you
✔️ The mom talks to her belly more than her daughter
✔️ The security cameras are watching everyone, but who’s watching them?
✔️ There’s a folder labeled “Angie.” You don’t know her… but you will.
✔️ There’s a purple bike. And it does not belong to Emma.
Sariah thinks she’s the one snooping for secrets. But what if the house is doing the same to her?
Caroline (the mom) is one of the most fascinatingly unstable women I’ve read in a long time. She’s vibrant, maternal, and spiraling into a very specific brand of madness:
💬 “Why are you always trying to put a damper on my excitement? I thought you wanted a son.”
💬 “Fuck that medication!”
💬 “Everything is perfect.” (Narrator: It was, in fact, not perfect.)
Sariah, meanwhile, is doing her best to be composed while cracking under pressure, seeing shadows, and sleepwalking toward the truth. Literally nothing in this house is what it seems, and little Emma? She might be the most terrifying and brilliant piece of the puzzle.
This book gives:
✔️ Gaslight, gatekeep, ghost child
✔️ Mommy issues on steroids
✔️ “We’re just going on a babymoon! Nothing to see here!” 😵
✔️ Slow-burn psychological unraveling
✔️ Hidden grief and obsession that punches you in the chest
Favorite Quotes:
💌 “We need to get home. Now.”
💌 “She’s watching me. The question is: did someone tell her to, or does she know what I’m looking for?”
💌 “That purple bike belongs to someone.”
💌 “Angie used to read this to me too.”
💌 “What the fuck is going on?”
Final Thoughts:
The Babysitter is not your average domestic thriller. It’s a fever dream of control, grief, and generational secrets hiding in plain sight. It’s less “whodunit” and more “how far will this go?” The dread builds slowly and deliciously, leading to twists that cut deep. If you like unreliable narrators, dark family secrets, and children who definitely know more than they’re saying—this one will have you up all night
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