Review of Teresa Milbrodt, “Grandma and the Krampus,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 129-142 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Indirect references to elder abuse.
What better way to protect your grandmother than to hire her her own personal demon? That’s what the narrator of this story does, advertising for a krampus — “[not] much to do after the yuletide season”! (p. 132) — to watch over her grandmother.
For a folklore demon whose job is to punish wrongdoers and reward gooddoers, this krampus seemed remarkably happy to let grandma and her roommate (and the narrator!) go off on naughty adventures. The push and pull, back and forth between what makes someone good and what makes them bad was dealt with in this story first light-heartedly, and then heart-wrenchingly.
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