From author Nghi Vo:
The Scarlet Ball started with the image of a young woman standing in a fantastically beautiful red dress, a pretty white face peeling away to reveal her real one—angry, vital and triumphant—underneath. That’s how I met Judith Ban, the survivor who throws herself into a game she was never meant to play, let alone win. She’s tough, clever, wild, and so hungry, and I’ve been thrilled and a little terrified to trail along in her wake. I can’t wait for you to meet her!
From the editor, Stephanie Stein:
This is a book that will consume you. Nghi Vo’s magical vision of an alternate American history is so incisive and real that it feels truer than what actually happened—and so seductive you could almost wish it had. I am so excited for readers to meet Judith and her raging storm.
From the acquiring editor at Del Rey, Kate McHale:
The Scarlet Ball caught me in its claws from the very first lines and did not let go. This is the Gilded Age brought to life as only Nghi Vo could: a sharp and magical world, steeped in beauty, danger and power. Nghi is an incredibly talented writer whom I’ve admired for a long time, and we are delighted to be welcoming her to the Del Rey list.
“Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today.”―Taylor Jenkins Reid
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.