Pam Jones’s Andermatt County: Two Parables revives the Southern Gothic tradition. The collection’s Ye Shall Be As Gods and Happy Birthday, Dear Bitsy are narrative and thematic polar opposites, but complement each other well. One follows a teenaged boy taken under a serial killer’s wing, while the other concerns a mother-daughter relationship and a doll-themed nightmare of a birthday party. Jones imbues her work with a certain charm, subtly mixing the beautiful with the horrific. Although some plot contrivances are not fully convincing, Jones’s period detail, idiosyncratic characters, and prose cadences envelop the reader’s senses. Flannery O’Connor would be proud.
Sean Woodard
Andermatt County: Two Parables by Pam Jones
Published by April Gloaming Publishing
