The Millay Illusion
Novelette 9,210 words Recommended by 5 award/anthology sources
"For the whole of the year that I now look back on as the best of my life, Susanna Miller’s act began twenty-three minutes after mine ended. I went first, to warm up the crowd, followed by the dog trainer, the hypnotist, Susanna, the twin acrobats, the tenor, and lastly Frederic Bowers, the Master of Mystery."
Content warnings 2
mental-illnessmisogyny
Quasar links out; the story lives on Uncanny, where the author gets the click.