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Book: “The Scarlet Ball” by Nghi Vo
Publishing Info: Tor Books, October 2026
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Judith Ban, former convent girl, courtesan, and failed thief, is on the lookout for her next identity. The daughter of a Vietnamese adventuress and a French naval officer, she’s no stranger to risk, but she’s unprepared for the secrets of New York’s legendary Four Hundred, or for the women who build their power at the city’s heart through blood-soaked, gold-etched rituals of demonic marriage.
In exchange for enough wealth to outrun her past, Judith strikes a deal with the matriarch of the powerful Howard family: she will stand in for the missing Howard granddaughter, who was poised to make her debut when she disappeared. With Miss Iphigenia Marshall’s face stitched over her own, Judith is white, rich, and about to risk body and soul in the deadly games that determine which girls will find a match—and which will be devoured. If she can keep her wits and her life, her reward will be a husband with undreamt-of power who will be hers to command… so long as she can keep his infinite hungers fed. But to survive the season, Judith will have to seduce a storm in the shape of a man, before the night to which everything has been leading—the Scarlet Ball where the demons choose their brides.
A razor-sharp subversion of romance tropes and nightmare of manners, Vo’s fusion of history and fantasy does for Edith Wharton what her acclaimed debut The Chosen and the Beautiful did for F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Review: I’ve read a few books from this author and really enjoyed them. In fact, if I had one criticism about my experience with her titles, it was the fact that each time I turned the last page, I was always left wishing there was just a bit more. Her worlds are always incredibly creative and her style lush. But I’ve only read novellas, so I was excited to see how her talents would play out over a full-length novel where more management of plotting and pacing is required. Well, I’m pleased to say that I was blown away by this book in almost every way.
I’ve used this term before, but I would describe this one as “hard fantasy.” What I mean by that is, like “hard science fiction,” this sort of fantasy doesn’t hand-hold the reader. Vo has created a truly wondrous and horrifying version of Gilded Age New York, a place rife with terrific magic and danger, but also compelling beauty. But there is no hand-holding given or magic system detailed. Things are simply thrown at the readers, who are left to either accept what they’re given or spend the rest of their reading experience banging their heads against a wall.
For me, this added to the beauty and horror of this world. When we’re told that women swallow songbirds to perfect their voices, we are given no more and no less than that horrifying image. This manner of presenting the fantasy elements as straightforward facts allows them to shine an even starker light on the themes and motifs of this story: the value placed on beauty, the pursuit of power, the inherent sacrifices that are placed at the altar of both. And, above all, the choices that remain.
The most obvious example, of course, is the central premise of women pursuing husbands who are the literal embodiment of natural disasters, beings of incredible power who, through their consuming obsession with their wives, both grant those women access to their power but also loom as an inevitable destruction that awaits them. There are the low-hanging-fruit approaches to a topic like this, but Vo sidesteps them all. Instead, tropes are subverted at every angle. But while this subversion is happening, Vo also lets you somehow eat your cake, too, writing a disturbing love story into the background of the tale.
Like the world-building, Judith is a complex and complicated woman. Her background is presented only slowly, and the book often simply presents facts about her life with very little commentary to be offered. It was oddly refreshing to read a character like this who was herself unapologetic for her choices but also free of the shadow of authorial self-awareness that you often see peeking out between the pages.
I also loved the interplay between fantasy and historical fiction. The fantasy elements were wondrous (and truly, the body horror here was on the next level, which surprised me), but I also loved the framework of historical fiction and historical romance that underpinned much of the pacing of the story. Familiar beats were struck, but each filtered through the lens of the fantastic and horrific.
Overall, this was an incredible read. I really didn’t have many expectations going in, other than a confidence that it would be well-written. But this was absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend it to all fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy dark fantasy and historical fiction.
Rating 10: Luscious and dark like velvet, Vo will sweep you up in the fantasy of it all before sweeping you away into the night where monsters lurk.
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Scarlet Ball” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Gothic Fantasy and Romance Novels with Asian Heroines… Upcoming and Current
