This is a fantasy, gothic book set in New York during the Gilded Age. There is magic, witches, and other beings. There is body horror. Violence. This is not a romance; this is a book of survival and how far the main character will go not only to survive but to get what she wants. It is a good story; pacing is good with some slower areas, but those are moved through quickly. The description of the world, setting, and magic is really done well and vivid. I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't as good as The Brides of High Hill. Neither is a genre I usually choose. I am glad I read it and would still recommend it to others who like Gothic fantasy and fiction.
Description:
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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Thank you NetGalley, TorDotCom, and Tor Publishing Group for the e-galley I was under no obligation to leave a review
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