For Judith Ban–half Vietnamese, on the run, friendless–intelligence and ruthlessness are all that keeps her from slipping even further down the social ladder into utter poverty. She’s hanging on to a job at a milliner’s by the skin of her teeth and anger is a luxury she can’t afford, no matter how rude the customers are to her. But in the opening pages of Nghi Vo’s outstanding novel, The Scarlet Ball, Judith receives a job offer she’d be stupid to turn down. When she learns just how much her new employer left out, Judith’s anger turns out to be just as useful as her cleverness and lack of mercy.
Judith barely hesitates before accepting her strange new job: to impersonate the missing daughter of the Howards until she can be found and brought home. Using magic to disguise her features, Judith has to learn how to talk, dance, and behave like a privileged daughter of one of New York’s 400 elites. If she can pull off the impersonation, she will have her own house and enough money to live in style for years. Judith’s a quick study thanks to her previous experience as a member of Paris’s demimonde, except nothing could have truly prepared her for what Mrs. Howard has planned. In this version of Gilded Age New York, members of the Four Hundred owe their power, influence, and wealth to demons. Daughters marry demons, if they can attract one. The sons are sacrificed to host these demons. If a daughter is unable to attend the trio of balls where the demons make their choices, they are doomed (according to Mrs. Howard) to ordinary human husbands. At least Mrs. Howard does warn Judith that breaking any of the rules set for the daughters could mean instant, bloody death. There’s always a body count when the White Ball, the Rose Ball, and the Scarlet Ball are held.
We follow Judith as she not only pretends to be Iphigenia Howard well enough to escape detection, but also learns more of the sinister source of the Howards and the other families willing to offer their children to demons. The White Ball is utterly bizarre and terrifying (and delicious to read). It’s only thanks to her iron self-control that Judith survives and she is absolutely furious with Mrs. Howard once she realizes what she’s really facing. To keep Judith from quitting every time she has a brush with the infernal, Mrs. Howard offers more and then more. That’s when Vo throws a huge curve ball at her protagonist. One of the demons summoned during the White Ball appears interested in Judith. Perhaps Judith will end up doing more than merely hold Iphigenia’s place.
Readers, I devoured this book. I loved the slow, natural way that Vo lets Judith discover the truth of the glittering, deadly world of the Four Hundred. Vo is a master at writing exposition without either lecturing or breaking the illusion of the story. Even the demons are believable in The Scarlet Ball. And I absolutely adored Judith. She’s a hard woman, but only because circumstances have made her that way. At the same time, however, she also stays true to her enjoyment of pleasure and luxury. Even though the rules about how to behave around demons are very much there for good reasons (i.e., not getting messily eaten on a ballroom floor), Judith can’t resist doing things her own way if it means she can get a bit of what she wants in addition to her prize from Mrs. Howard. I’ve been a fan of Nghi Vo since the first Singing Hills novella and this book knocks even those amazing stories out of the water.
I’m gushing about this book, I know, but I can’t help it. I hope The Scarlet Ball wins all the awards.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration.