Review: A Cautionary Carnival Ride
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
Yowsa (this is a technical term describing the visceral reaction to a piece of fiction that reaches up from the page and smacks you in the face…repeatedly).Billie Sue Mosiman is a wicked, wicked writer.  She sets up the reader beautifully, even as the carnival barker sets up those few guests willing to take that ill-advised step from relative light into unknown darkness—where they have been warned they might not want to go.  Down that long dark hall where the real freaks are waiting.Of course the question is always the same:  Who ARE the real freaks?This story, as with all really good short fiction, has a twist (and what a deliciously mean twist it is), but it works beautifully without it…which is also the mark of truly fine short fiction.This was my first Mosiman tale.  It will not be last.  Bravo.