Unfortunately I really struggled with this book. I found the disjointed style quite jarring and it prevented me from engaging with the book despite returning to it several times. The concept of the book is good but I found the execution did not suit me. I am aware it has been well reviewed elsewhere however. (Copy received from Netgalley in return for an honest review)

Unfortunately this book was not to my taste , I found it meandering , disjointed and hopped about the different stories too much . I could not finish it but perhaps I should have stuck with it as other reviewers praise it highly.Sorry.

A very peculiar novel with a slow start which is definitely worth pushing through. The story of a bored suburban housewife in the 70's takes a dark turn when she decides to take a lover to find meaning to her life and excitement outside her middle class circle. In the background, the Babysitter snatches and kills kids and soon their stories become intertwined. Diving into the issues of racism, women's rights and predators, this new Oats opus certainly delivers. It might not be to everybody's tastes as it is like her other body of work: unlikeable but real characters, a touch of sinister but still beautifully written. I did not find a resolution at the end but i don't think there means to be any, i still enjoyed it nevertheless. A book that will definitely stay with you.

It’s 1977 and Detroit is still in the middle of good times, still the Motor City, still good for the haves and not so good for the have nots. Hannah Jarrett has arrived at the Renaissance Grand Hotel to meet her lover. She wears her designer clothes like armour as she enunciates them for the reader and carries her Prada handbag like a weapon. She is a 39 year old housewife with a marriage that is disintegrating and met Y.K., her lover, at another charity fundraiser dinner. He touched her arm and she felt a thrill. Now he’s waiting in room 6131. But she will get more than she bargained for…
Detroit is also in the grip of fear as the serial killer that the press have dubbed the ‘Babysitter’ has been on a spree for over a year. He has abducted and murdered 7 children so far, including 2 girls, with the eldest victim being 13 and the youngest 10. He keeps them captive for a few days, washes them and then leaves their naked bodies displayed in public places with their freshly laundered clothes beside them. The Babysitter was a real life case but the killer was never caught although there were several suspects.
Hannah is married to Wes who she assumes might be having affairs and they have 2 children, Katya and Connor. Ismelda, the Filipino housekeeper runs the house, so I did wonder what Hannah actually had to do. Wes, Hannah’s husband is nervy about black people after the 1967 riots and jumps to conclusions about the reasons for the state that Hannah arrives home in after her tryst with Y.K. It will set off a train of unstoppable events on flimsy evidence.
And meanwhile the Babysitter is coming closer….
This isn’t an easy read especially the scenes involving the Babysitter and the entourage of enablers. He preys on the children that no one wants or who fall through the cracks. The ‘children not loved, not deserved.’ It’s also very literary and challenging in that the narrative moves between the past, present and future which I enjoyed.
I know that the author likes to write about unlikable characters and Hannah is definitely one of those. But she did have a fascination for me in her inability to accept the truth or the danger that she was in. She brags to herself that she has a lover and seems to accept that he beats and abuses her. She is returned home with injuries so severe that her husband thinks she has been attacked. An innocent man dies and yet she doesn’t want to stop it. And Y.K. is circling in making promises about them all being together and he wants to meet her children and I’m thinking ‘Don’t you think this is strange. Aren’t you hearing warning bells?’ But then the reader is given information about Y.K. that Hannah wouldn’t know. But I did feel like shaking her at several points in the book.
The ending in which Hannah thinks that she is in control is a fantasy as she never was. She was merely a cog in a wheel. The sterile suburb in which she lives on which, during the day, only service vehicles are seen, the round of charity work and being a ‘lady who lunched’ without seeing the danger coming closer. Too late Hannah realises that there is a price to pay for stepping outside the boundaries.
I’ve only read the author’s short stories prior to reading this and it did make for uncomfortable and disturbing reading. However, I enjoyed being challenged by ‘Babysitter’ both in its shifting narrative and the skilful interweaving of the real life case and a bored housewife who sleepwalked into a situation that she could never have predicted. A writer in full control of her writing and the narrative. But if you’re new to Joyce Carol Oates, this may not be the book to begin with.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

I did not enjoy this book which was a disappointment as it was the first one I had read by this author. The main character is an entitled white woman who embarks upon an affair as she is bored. She meets a man she knows only as J.K. in a hotel and we have numerous versions of her thoughts as she walks along the corridor. Meanwhile a serial killer is murdering children in Detroit and leaving their bodies naked but with a pile of neatly folded clothes. I had no interest in Hannah's life and found the style of the book difficult. This was definitely not for me. Many thanks to the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read it in return for an honest review.

A dark sometimes disturbing novel but I could not put it down. A very well written novel with fascinating characters.
I received this book from 4th Estate and Netgalley for a review

If you read Joyce Carol Oates you’ll know that she is an investment of time, but a worthy one who always pays off.
A genius with words she retains her brilliance in this novel.

*Many thanks to Joyce Carol Oates, 4th Estate, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I am new to JCO's writing, having read only one of her books. Ms Oates's writing is as disturning as the main motif of her novel and I agree that it should not be otherwise. A novel that will not leave you want for more as it is dark and covers some sensitive issues such as rape, drugs and child abuse. Ms Oates in her own unique style takes us on a reading journey that will not be easily forgotten.

I've been a longtime fan of JCO. This novel was riveting, disturbing, well written snd often uncomfortable read (due to subject matter and graphic details). Kept me on the edge throughout but was somewhat disappointed with the ending, as it left me feeling like I missed something. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

Babysitter is a novel about a woman in the suburbs who embarks on an affair whilst a serial killer known as Babysitter is hunting children in the area. It is 1977 and in the Detroit suburbs, Hannah's chance meeting with a mysterious stranger at a charity event leads her to his hotel room. As she is drawn into a strange world of phone calls with this man, her husband Wes becomes fearful of the serial killer abducting and killing children in the area, and Hannah tries to balance her home life with what's going on outside it.

This is my first Joyce Carol Oates book (I feel it's hard to review this without stating whether or not this is the case) and for the first couple of pages I wasn't ready for the writing style, but I quickly got used to it. There's lots of repetition and cycles, as well as unreal elements and alternate happenings, though at the same time, the narrative is still pretty clear. The book does take a long time to go places due to the style, which is probably one that will divide people, but I thought it was good and definitely in the Hannah sections gave you a sense of her fragmented thoughts and uncertainty.

The plotline wasn't quite as I expected, much more about Hannah's affair than the serial killer Babysitter, but there was a lot packed in, including stuff around race, sexual abuse, motherhood, and class. Hannah herself is the main focus, particularly her flaws, choices, and the impact of what she does, which is fine, but leaves the other elements feeling a bit neglected. The setting didn't quite work for me, as it's very easy to forget it is set in 1977 and some elements of it feel too modern, whether this is intentional or not.

A literary take on a serial killer stalking America and a woman yearning for something else that might not be all she wants, Babysitter is an experience, with a writing style I enjoyed but I'm not quite sure all the elements of the book worked for me.

I struggled to get into this one.
The beginning took so long to go anywhere, that I lost interest.
I'll admit that the story wasn't quite what I expected, and so that might have hindered my progress.
I picked it up several times, but never got properly invested.

This is a wonderfully disorientating novel that's an absorbing read and an exploration of some very dark subject matter. A serial killer, a child abuse gang, blackmail and the exploitation of women all get a ride out in this convincingly written work where after a while you are left not knowing which way is actually up.

Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates is set in 1977 in Detroit. A killer is on the loose that targets children, but Oates is not interested in the investigation, this not a crime thriller. At the novels heart is Hannah, a 39 year old housewife whose marriage is deteriorating.

The first third of this novel I struggled with. Oates has form with unlikeable characters, and Hannah is another of these. She whines, moans and seems to not take responsibility. But somewhere in that first third, your opinion changes about this world, about its heroine, and the ballsy, close-to-the-knuckle writing Oates is best known for kicks in and its almost breathless at times.

Because of my problems with the first third- and this might just be me - its not quite a five star review, but this us great stuff from one of America's great writers.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

This, for me, is the best thing that JCO has written in the last few years. It's a complex text that jumps seamlessly through the inner consciousness of various characters, into 3rd person omniscient and back out again. That this is done so fluidly without jarring moments for the reader is already impressive and, combined with the hard-hitting contents that JCO forces us not to look away from, this is quite the tour de force.

Set in Detroit in 1977 (but really set anywhere ruled by patriarchy, racial hierarchies and capitalism), JCO somehow manages to draw comparisons between all kinds of powers and states of oppression: from child abuse to sexual predators, from the authorities assigned to wealth and race to gendered asymmetries and the domestic assumptions, not least motherhood, with which women are burdened.

At the heart of the book is Hannah, a late thirties, wealthy (well, she's married to a rich husband) wife and mother with nothing to do with her time other than sit on benevolent charitable committees with other ladies-who-lunch - she has a live-in nanny (Hannah's not completely sure whether her brown skin is from the Philippines or somewhere from Latin America), she's dressed in designer clothes from her cashmere coats to her YSL snakeskin shoes and her Prada bag (natch!) and if her husband doesn't pay attention to her, well, that's natural in a ten year marriage... isn't it?

What kickstarts Hannah's crisis is the touch of a strange man's hand on her wrist at a gala dinner - and soon her life is terrifyingly off the rails. That this is not just a personal calamity for Hannah is made clear through JCO's setting of her story against the reign of a serial killer who abducts children, primarily boys.

There's so much woven together here: the sterile life of women stripped of any kind of social authorisation other than motherhood; the desperate neediness and desire to be loved that is society's way of containing and holding out rewards to women; violence and brutality, sexual and otherwise; with an omniscient social commentary from now especially on race, the (false) criminalisation of Black men, money, and the power of guns.

Stylistically, not everyone will, I think, respond to JCO's prose: it's iterative and creatively intuitive, sections are hypnotic and hallucinogenic, and sometimes the narrative splits so that there are alternatives captured and held together as alternatives to a single route. I loved it as we flip backwards and forwards and the story itself becomes one that we piece together in collaboration with author and text.

Beware: JCO is bold in her vision and brutal in what she allows to be on the page. A powerful, sometimes terrifying, book - and yes, the best thing she's written in years.

Sorry, DNF for me. Halfway through and completely lost interest. Will try another time. Apologies to the author, but life’s too short to read books that don’t give you pleasure.

Thank you NetGalley.

If this is your first Joyce Carol Oates book, you're in for a baptism of fire. Oates has a unique, distinctive writing style. It took me a few pages to acclimatise to 'Babysitter' but I was drawn in very quickly. It's as morbidly fascinating as it is repulsive. The story is presented in four parts, though I'm not entirely sure why. It's a disorientating read. The 1977 setting feels incongruous with the actual narrative. It's a frustrating book because so much is left unexplained. The beginning dragged out and the ending was abrupt. I feel exactly the same way about this as I did about the last Joyce Carol Oates book I read, which is I've absolutely no idea what I think or feel about it. 'Babysitter' is the sort of literary fiction that leaves you feeling that you must be too stupid to understand it. Having said all of that, it burrows into your brain like an intrusive thought. If you think this review doesn't make sense, wait till you read the book!