Barnes & Noble Best of 2004
Wrought with strikingly sublime humor and a decidedly quirky cast of characters, Headley’s first novel details a week in the life of a young man as he struggles for redemption in a stifling West Virginia way station. Small Town Odds is a deftly lyrical debut that introduces us to a distinctively fresh voice in contemporary fiction.

Publishers Weekly
Headley's offbeat, bighearted first novel paints
a delightful portrait of small town life, as experienced
by 24-year-old Eric Mercer, a sardonically charming
underachiever. Eric lives and works in tiny Pinely,
W.Va., where drama means betting on the annual
(and futile) efforts of the high school football team
to beat archrival Cedarsville. The bright spot in
Mercer's life is his precocious five-year-old daughter,
Tess, a happy accident from a tryst with the beautiful
Gina Stevens, whom Mercer and his pals pined for
throughout adolescence. Headley intercuts
Mercer's present-day activities—drinking
and fighting in bars, male-bonding with dim-bulb
best friend Deke, handymanning at the funeral
home—with his teenage antics of drinking in the woods,
male-bonding with Deke and loving his girl, Jill Dupree. Bringing past and present together is the death of Jill's father, which forces Mercer to finally face his beloved Jill, back in town after six years, and come to terms with Gina, whose one night of companionship he paid for in the loss of both his college dreams and Jill's love. Headley makes up for the slight plot with his winning protagonist, whose gift for avoidance is as profound as his flair for understated humor. "Slacker grows up" is a familiar trope, but Headley's winning wit and his compassionate, delightful prose mark him as a bright new talent.

KFOG, San Francisco
Told with all the charm of Richard Russo at his finest, Small Town Odds is a celebration of parenthood, and what can happen when one man reconciles with his past. A breezy, enjoyable debut from a major new talent.

Booklist
A one-night stand foils a high-school football star's future in this astute debut about life in a small town . . . This is a sweet, candid tale about finding contentment when life doesn't go as planned.

Library Journal
Headley has been compared with Richard Russo, and the reasons are evident . . . A graceful entrance into the world of fiction.

Booksense: Recommended
When Eric Mercer’s Ivy League dream is derailed by an unplanned pregnancy, he resigns himself to the small town life he’d yearned to escape. Six years later, his past and present collide, and he finally manages to face his future. A thoughtful coming-of-age novel.

The BiblioFiles
Small Town Odds is an elegant, gorgeously written novel. And it is well plotted, the various elements of Eric's quiet drama lining up as they are meant to and leading inevitably to the book's denouement, but not in such a way that one notices mid-read what the author is doing. Only afterward does one appreciate the story's structure, how a funeral and a football game and the baggage of Eric's past lead finally to resolution. Like Richard Russo, Headley is able to create from these elements some very fine fiction indeed.

Chattanoogan.com - The 59 Most Interesting Books Of 2004
In Headley's debut novel, his protagonist, Eric Mercer, tries to overcome the mantle of underachievement and bad decisions in a very small West Virginia town. The smart, loving father of a five-year-old daughter gets some new opportunities to improve his lot, all in a week's time. It reminded me of E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News.

Fairfax County Library
Every note rings true in West Virginia native son Jason Headley's portrayal of life in his fictional town of Pinely, WV. But it is his skill in creating authentic characters that makes this novel linger in the reader's memory.

Bookwormsez
Syndicated in small town newspapers across America
A little like "Mayberry" with a modern twist . . . Small Town Odds is a wonderful, enjoyable book, no matter what size town you live in.

Charleston Gazette
A witty, offbeat and refreshing tale of small town life . . . Small Town Odds is a delightful read. The book is a promising debut by a gifted writer.

Robert Olen Butler
Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN
Small Town Odds is a rich and wonderful novel about the most universal of human concerns—how we pursue a sense of self in a world that is beyond our control. This is a brilliant debut by an important young writer.

John Casey
Author of the National Book Award-winning SPARTINA
Small Town Odds is a lively, wry, and moving novel that puts the author on the shelf with Tony Earley and Kent Haruf.

Bob Shacochis
Author of the National Book Award-winning
EASY IN THE ISLANDS
The sweep of folly through a young man’s life is a classic American theme, and Small Town Odds enriches that literary tradition with unexpected tenderness and decency. Jason Headley is a truly gifted storyteller.