The Scarlet Ball
by Nghi Vo
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted October 13, 2026
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It was a dark and stormy night. Wait…wrong book. It was a stormy night when Judith Ban came to Howards House on 23rd Street in New York, in the fall of 1890. She brought a package for Mrs. Howards from the millinery shop where she worked, but her experiences in that house did not end then. This is an alternate world story, a different Gilded Age, full of magic and mayhem, of seduction and sex, and of monsters and the madames who control them. In our world the monsters are men, and sometimes women, who manipulate and control the markets, subjugate and victimize the workers, or rule as cruel and narcissistic despots. In Nghi Vo's The Scarlet Ball the monsters are real, even if sometimes disguised as men. They are the forces of nature made manifest, from wildfires and earthquakes, floods, famine, drought, storms. Women like Mrs. Howards have harnessed and controlled them in order to consolidate power and wealth. They manage their monsters by occasionally feeding them people who won't be missed, although at times they may be forced to give up a part of their own body, or maybe eventually their own life if they displease their monster.
Certain types of magic are used everywhere, not just in high society. Judith had dabbled in magic herself. She had only been in New York a short while, having fled France to escape someone she stole from. She was born to an Annamese (Vietnamese) mother and French father. She is an ex-convent girl, ex-courtesan, and thief, among other things. She is offered much more, since Mrs. Howards' granddaughter, Iphigenia "Ginny" Marshall, had run away from her obligations. A succession of dinner parties, soirées, and balls are planned throughout the year, the purpose being to attract the attention of monsters to be seduced and married into one of the Four Hundred Families. Ginny had had a bastard half-sister, almost identical in appearance. Mrs. Howard had saved her face, and offers it to Judith to impersonate Ginny at the balls. Judith's incentive is money of course, as well as a promise of a deed to a house of her own if she does as Mrs. Howards asks. The hope is that Ginny will be found and returned to the fold before the Scarlet Ball. If Judith only knew how difficult it would be to escape her fate if she went too far into the scheme, and if Ginny didn't return. Even more difficult when she attracts the attentiuon of a monster she might be able to love.
The story is full of surprising revelations on almost every page, certainly every chapter. It starts when Judith realizes what she has agreed to during the White Ball. There are betrayals and shifting of alliances among the other young women attempting to woo a monster, while at the same time trying to avoid being eaten. All of the others have known of their obligations almost their entire life, but Judith has to learn as she goes, one ball, one frightful encounter at a time. She thinks she has one ally, even if she suspects her handmaid Mirel might not be human. It is tense and exciting, violent and bloody, and while such things are usually not my favorite types of stories I loved this. It is in contention for my favorite novel of the year. Highly recommended.
Related Link:
A list of all my Nghi Vo Reviews
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