A ‘Did Not Finish’… ‘The Babysitter Lives’ – Stephen Graham Jones (Titan Books)

 


Page Count: 242 Pages

A ‘Did Not Finish’ is something that you hope you will never meet but the law of averages makes it pretty much inevitable that you will. The thing is though, the tricky little beasts are brilliant at disguising themselves as regular books… You never see the ambush coming until it’s too late for you to do anything about it. Before you even really know what’s happened, the cool looking book, that you thought you’d try, turned out to be a ‘Did Not Finish’ and you’re left looking for another book to read instead. Oh well, not the worst problem to have but infuriating at the same time, especially when you’ve had a rough day and fancied a quiet read.

All of which is a slightly long-winded way of saying that I never thought I’d see the day where a book by Stephen Graham Jones ended up being a ‘Did Not Finish’ in its most devilish disguise yet. But here we are :o) The good news though, is that I think that it was more about me than any fault in the book itself. Sometimes, it’s on you, the book itself is an innocent bystander..

When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms won’t help if she chokes on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes.

Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worse nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house…

I’ll be honest, I’d absolutely recommend ‘The Babysitter Lives’ to anyone, whether you’re already a fan of Jones or you’re just after a quick slice of high stakes, nervous horror. There is a lot going on here and Jones lets it unfold in such a way that you find out that the book you think you’re reading isn’t the book you’re reading at all.

Should have kept going with it then, shouldn’t you? Yep, I should have, and I really wish I had, but unfortunately, it’s not a read for where I am at the moment. As a reader who can’t visualise what I’m reading on the page, I really struggled to work out where people were (and sometimes, who they were); without giving too much away about the plot, you really need to be ‘on the ball’ and be able to ‘place’ everything. Now, I was wondering if this approach was intentional (to really get in Charlotte’s head and show us her confusion) but it ended up being a little too much for me, especially after a stressful day (dentist and then work…)

I may well revisit ‘The Babysitter Lives’, at some point down the line, and I think it’s certainly a book that horror fans will enjoy. This horror fan though? I enjoyed what I read but if I’m reading to escape for a little bit, I want to escape into something that’s a little more straightforward 😉

Anyone else here read ‘The Babysitter Lives’? If so, how did you find it?

Comments

  1. Bookstooge23 June 2026 at 11:11

    I am a huge proponent of telling other people to dnf books. I find it very hard myself though ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Graeme23 June 2026 at 19:04

      I guard my 'down time' pretty jealously these days so if a book really isn't working for me... Back on the shelf it goes ;o)

      Delete

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