e-ALC, 10:25:59
Narrated by: Chanté McCormick & Keylor Leigh
Release Date: May 26, 2026
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Read from: May 20-21, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received an ARC of this from TLA in April 2026. I read them at the same time. I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Child Abuse, Sexism, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape
For Readers of: Adult, ARC, Audio, Contemporary, Horror (Gothic), Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Racial/Ethnic DiversityA suffocating and sharp narrative horror novel for fans of Victor LaValle and The Reformatory, I’ll Watch Your Baby is a haunting reimagining of Linda Taylor -known as the original Welfare Queen – pursued, scrutinized, celebrated and vilified, and the impact her image has had for generations.
1974. Lottie Turner is already infamous. Running a wheel of schemes and scams, she’s willing to work for what she wants in…creative ways. But no business is more lucrative than desperate families looking to adopt a child—and there’s only one way to procure children quickly.
And the only way to take what’s owed you is to cross the line no one else is willing to cross.
1994. Bless has finally found the family she deserved. After suffocating slowly with lackluster parents and a non-starter past, she’s found the friends that means everything to her. That she’d live and die for. As they make their way across the country, one smash and grab at a time, Bless is used to acting fast and thinking on her feet.
But someone is playing a long game. Someone has unfinished business. Soon Bless is trapped in a web of horrors past and present, where the only escape hatch is a path only she can walk, if she finds the courage to take it.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This started out so strong! But the more the timeline went on without an explanation, the more confused I got. It eventually catches up and starts to make sense, but by then I had to flip back to the beginning a few times. I was more confused than not then. But I will say overall the book and the plot were really good.
Ok so me and weird time line books just don’t get along. I don’t read usually read the full synopsis of books that sound immediately like a Nikki book, so I missed that there was a weird timeline when I picked it out. I don’t think it would be hard to follow for everyone else, but if you usually struggle with strange timelines you might. I usually do unless I’m eyeball reading or listening on like a really low speed, but I didn’t slow this one down. After awhile I was just trying to get through with it. It’s not terrible, but it did turn me off of it a bit.
The best thing about this was what I learned from it. I have heard of the myth of the welfare queen, but I didn’t know that much about it. I knew it was based off a real woman, but I never knew why. I knew it was racist and I didn’t care to know more. They basically tried to claim that Black people were gaming the system and using the hand-outs from the public welfare system to gain wealth. And from jump that’s a lie because do you know how hard you people made it for Black people to get any benefits at all?! Like BFFR. But I digress. But in terms of this book, that was actually the creepiest part of this lol Lottie was stealing something and turning them in or using them to make money. But something was haunting her because of it. I thought it was just the evil within lol Because Lordt she was terrible. On the other hand of that, there’s Bless who is haunted by something from the past. It’s actually the same thing that was haunting Lottie. I don’t want to say more because of spoilers, but it didn’t actually scare me, it just grossed me out. I don’t love bugs or body horror, but I know that was just a me thing.
In the end there is a connection from the two timelines. It serves as one of the plot twists. I remember being shocked and surprised, but I also had to go and look back at some things and make sure I remembered correctly. I didn’t take any notes for this so I was really going off the dome lol But even with the ebding being so good, I’m not sure this one was for me.
This was more gross than scary, but I guess it makes sense. Horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable. So yeah, with the mention of all the lies told about the real welfare queen, the grossness that was haunting them, and the gross way they acted toward the Black woman in the judicial system, I guess it did the job and made me uncomfortable as hell.
Overall, I give this
