The Babysitter Lives — a review
The Babysitter Lives is the latest offering by one of my favorite contemporary horror writers–Stephen Graham Jones.
The Babysitter Lives has a touch of social commentary reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, the Willbanks’s home–a twisty and ever-changing monster of a thing–evokes Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and the book’s tone is similar to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline–with a sprinkle of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street for good measure. The Babysitter Lives is clearly the brain stew made up of all the things Stephen Graham Jones loves most when it comes to horror, and luckily for us, he’s put it down on paper for us to enjoy.
It’s the night before Halloween, and Charlotte–a high school senior and our main character–has agreed to babysit the Wilbanks twins. Charlotte thinks it’ll be a simple night of babysitting. She’ll put the kids to bed early and have time to herself so she can study for her upcoming SATs the following morning. Charlotte’s plans quickly change when she learns the tragic history of The Willbanks house and finds herself stuck between two realities.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Babysitter Lives. It’s only available as an audiobook and was the perfect companion on my family's most recent vacation to Texas. A horror audiobook is a travel tradition for my wife and me. Some years back, we listened to The Shining on our way to California. In 2020, during a road trip to Montana, we listened to another of Jone’s books, The Only Good Indians, so it was nice to have another Jone’s offering during our most recent family vacation.
Narrator Isabella Star LaBlanc does a beautiful job bringing Stephen Graham Jones's words to life.
The Babysitter Lives is not perfect–but what book is? Sometimes, it felt like the tones of the book were conflicting. I don’t mean this negatively, but at times it read like a teen or young adult novel, but then a scene of extreme adult content–alligator, anyone?-would occur, which I found to be jarring. Also, and this could just be me, on long road trips, I’ll find myself drifting whenever listening to an audiobook, which caused me to possibly miss some vital details on the mechanics of the haunted house thing because I had some questions I never felt were answered.
Minor complaints aside, I enjoyed my time with Charlotte inside the Willbanks house. I hope The Babysitter Lives is released in a physical format so I can dive back into this world in my own time.
I think an illustrated edition of The Babysitter Lives is something Jone’s publishers should seriously consider.
