The Greatest Gothic Book of the Last 5 Years Is a Dark Fantasy Take on 'The Gilded Age'

Published Oct 31, 2026, 12:05 AM EDT David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year. The Gilded Age recently returned for its long-awaited fourth season, and fans couldn't be more excited. The show has achieved a significant audience thanks to its lush, dramatic portrayal of Gilded Age New York, an era that carries an air of dignified opulence that makes it both alluring and foreign. Indeed, the period has slowly achieved more recognition, thanks in no small part to the show, and now many new books are following suit. This year, renowned author Nghi Vo released her newest effort, The Scarlet Ball, a Gothic fantasy set in Gilded Age New York that defies everything you thought you knew about the setting and genre. Filling beautiful and luxurious ballrooms with blood rituals, sacrifices, and demonic pacts, the book is a fascinating subversion of common Gothic tropes, resulting in a must-read title that's sure to entrance you from the first 10 pages. What Is 'The Scarlet Ball' About? Image via Tor The Scarlet Ball follows Judith Ban, a half-French, half-Vietnamese former convent girl turned courtesan and thief trying to escape her dark past. Arriving in Gilded Age New York, she becomes entangled with the powerful Howard family and makes a dangerous deal with the matriarch: Judith will pose as the family's missing granddaughter, Iphigenia, using magic to stitch the girl's face over her own and infiltrate high society, where a series of events lead to the titular ball at the end of the social season. There, elemental forces of nature assume the guise of men and court young women, looking to consume them, literally. However, Judith's plan takes a dangerous turn when she attracts the attention of a storm demon who is not all he seems. The book is the latest effort by Nghi Vo, the acclaimed author whose fantasy novella, The Empress of Salt and Fortuna, earned her the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Vo's work is highly evocative and subversive: for example, she's also the mind behind The Chosen and the Beautiful, a sapphic twist on F. Scott Fitzgerald's seminal The Great Gatsby, widely considered a strong contender for the title of Great American Novel. 'The Scarlet Ball' Brilliantly Subverts Expectations Image via HBO When we think of Gilded Age New York, chances are our minds go immediately to the hit HBO show, which not only reintroduced the period into the mainstream but also came to define our collective perception of it. Thus, we think of opulent lifestyles, lavish balls, aggressive pursuit of fortune, and robber barons. The show's upstairs-downstairs approach paints a decidedly romanticized version of the real-life extreme wealth inequality of the period, but overall, it does a decent job of depicting how absurd the gap was between the legendary Four Hundred elite. The Scarlet Ball sticks to the basics of the time, but it injects a refreshing supernatural and visceral vibe that makes it as ruthless as the robber barons that made the epoch so infamous. Vo brilliantly keeps the main thematic concerns of the time but filters them through the lens of dark fantasy. For example, the Four Hundred keep their power by making literal blood oaths and rituals with primal forces of nature that ensure their wealth keeps increasing at the expense of those at the bottom. Similarly, the ugly tradition of arranged marriages gets a bleaker tone by having demons as the suitors. Thus, the already dark idea of a woman's autonomy being traded for status becomes that much more insidious. The result is a book that is both socially aware yet undeniably fantastical, serving up dark delights alongside a biting depiction of an infamous time in US history. In other words, the message is not drowned by the book's genre conventions, but rather enhanced by them. There's a seriousness to its critiques of societal conventions, arranged marriages, wealth distribution, and the theft that was common at the time, but there's also plenty of chilling and visceral thrills, blood, body horror, and enough gore to make David Cronenberg squeamish. Oh, and there's also a twisted and unconventional romance, fitting for such a subversive story. 'The Scarlet Ball' Is One of the Most Atmospheric Books of 2026 Image via Del Rey One of the greatest strengths of The Scarlet Ball is just how atmospheric it is. Vo thrives on her descriptions, and this book really comes alive through them. The author makes everything feel so immersive, painting eerie depictions of grand ballrooms and, at points, even describing the gowns in detail. However, the real selling point is how she makes the supernatural elements come alive. In this world, every dark corner hides an even darker secret, and Vo makes sure we can feel every aspect. The blood rituals are particularly effective at bringing a chill down one's spine. Vo writes with such powerful and vivid imagery that it's, at times, quite uncomfortable to keep reading. You feel as terrified, as hopeless as the women waiting to see if their lives will continue or if they'll be devoured by a primal force with an appetite as old as the Earth itself. Particularly in the second half, the writing becomes actively suffocating: the ornate ballrooms become deadly traps, and the wealth that drips down every wall amounts to nothing more than a pretty facade for a revolting, pernicious truth. What else could you ask from a Gothic book other than a great atmosphere? The Scarlet Ball might be the most immersive and entrancing book of 2026, a dark fantasy that is as captivating as it is off-putting. Like the modern master of the genre, Guillermo del Toro, Vo understands there is beauty in all this ugliness, which only makes her gloomy worldbuilding all the better. Yes, the trappings of this demonic high society are dangerous, cruel, unfair, and outright deadly, but there's also an undeniable allure to it all, a hypnotizing pull that makes resisting hard — after all, you're reading the book, are you not?