Babysitter is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates published in 2022 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Contents
Plot
Reception New York Times critic Oyinkan Braithwaite reports that reading Babysitter may be unsettling:
Praising Oates's "beautiful" Gothic-themed narrative for its style, Braithwaite repeats the caveat: "Babysitter is a ghost story without the ghosts, but with tension thick enough to inspire several heart attacks. Read with care."Oyinkan, 2022: "In plot and theme, Babysitter is bleak and indulgent. Still, it is nigh impossible to fault Oates's style. She writes beautifully."
Reviewer Valerie Taylor at BookTrib Taylor finds Oates's profuse application of parenthetical remarks "jarring", perhaps leading readers "to either to stop and ingest the words or to simply ignore them." Describing the novel as "disturbing" and "stunning," the narrative presents a litany of social horrors set in late 1970s America, which "could just as easily have been ripped from today's headlines."Taylor, 2022: "It's a stunning portrayal of multiple forms of brutality: child abuse and abduction, police misconduct, clergy abuse, and of course, rape." Taylor cautions: "Babysitter is not for the faint of heart."Taylor, 2022
Kirkus Reviews calls Babysitter "a searing work of slow-burning domestic noir."
Footnotes
Sources Braithwaite, Oyinkan. 2022. "Joyce Carol Oates's "Babysitter" is a serial killer." New York Times, August 22, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/books/review/babysitter-joyce-carol-oates.html Accessed 08 March, 2025. Oates, Joyce Carol. 2022. Babysitter. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Taylor, Valerie. 2022. "The Babysitter is Out for Blood in New Joyce Carol Oates Thriller." BookTrib, August 22, 2022. https://booktrib.com/2022/08/22/the-babysitter-is-out-for-blood-in-new-joyce-carol-oates-thriller/ Accessed 8 March 2025.