From USA Today bestselling author Nghi Vo, this all-consuming tale of ballrooms and bloodshed weds The Gilded Age with the Gothic vision of Guillermo del Toro.

Pick a face, pick a fate.

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.

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Praise for this book

Praise for The Scarlet Ball and Nghi Vo

“The Scarlet Ball is a dark jewel of a novel: part Gothic fairy tale, part nightmare of manners, and entirely its own. Vo conjures a Gilded Age New York both recognizable and terrifyingly transformed, where beauty is currency, ritual is power, and a single wrong step may prove more than just socially fatal. The Scarlet Ball peels back the silk and glamour of the Four Hundred to reveal the literal monsters lurking within.”—Shana Abé, New York Times bestselling author of The Second Mrs. Astor and A Crown of Stars

“Blending the realism and wit of Edith Wharton with the indulgence and romance of fantasy, Vo has created something wholly unique and wildly genius. Clever, vicious, and gorgeous—my favorite of hers yet.”—Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A faced-paced work of glittering, bloody imagination, delivered in scathing and luxurious prose. It pulled me in, held me captive, then spat me out changed and triumphant. Utterly fantastic.”—Freya Marske, USA Today bestselling author

"After reading The Scarlet Ball, one has to wonder whether Vo is a witch herself, perhaps married not to a flood or wildfire but a demon of stories and genius. The Scarlet Ball is so utterly original, so spellbinding, so effortlessly plotted and so gorgeously written, it's hard to believe a mere mortal could write it, and yet she did, and I stand in awe of it and her."—Johanna Van Veen, USA Today bestselling author of Blood on Her Tongue

"My favorite read of the year so far. What a vicious, ambitious, HUNGRY book. I want to immediately read it again."—Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author

"A whirlwind of a story, a tempest of imagination and full of the most dangerous magic, The Scarlet Ball is as breathtaking as it is entertaining. For wicked dreamers everywhere."—Alma Katsu, author of Incarnate

"Filled with demons and witchcraft, scheming and seduction, Nghi Vo's The Scarlet Ball is a dark, opulent descent into a Gilded Age that never was. This is a novel of immense power and imaginative force. It's nothing short of wonderful."—J. M. Miro, international bestselling author of Ordinary Monsters

"Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid

"So good I want to marry it."—Martha Wells on the Singing Hills Cycle

"Nghi Vo is so good."―NPR on The Brides of High Hill

“I love it with the passion of a thousand burning hearts... From the old bones of an American classic, Vo has conjured up something magically alive.”—The Washington Post on The Chosen and the Beautiful




About the AuthorNghi Vo is the USA Today bestselling author of Siren Queen, The Chosen and the Beautiful, Don't Sleep with the Dead, and The City in Glass, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and Lambda Literary Awards and the LA Times and Ursula K. Le Guin Prizes, and has won the Crawford, Ignyte, and Hugo Awards. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
Title: The Scarlet Ball
Author(s): Nghi Vo
ISBN: 9781250904973
Copyright 2026
Release Date: October 06, 2026
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: None available | Learn More about our supported formats
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