Immaculate Conception Audiobook By Ling Ling Huang cover art

Immaculate Conception

A Novel

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Immaculate Conception

By: Ling Ling Huang
Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
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“A superb work of fiction.”—New York Times Book Review

What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most?

Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close.

Enter SCAFFOLD. Purported to enhance empathy, this cutting-edge technology could allow Enka to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and access her memories, artistic inspirations, and deep-seated trauma. Undergoing this procedure would link Enka and Mathilde forever. But at what cost?

Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you hear the final word.

©2025 Ling Ling Huang (P)2025 Penguin Audio Horror Literature & Fiction Satire United States World Literature Technology

Critic reviews

Good Housekeeping Book Club pick for May 2025

Aadvark Book Club pick for May 2025

Named a Most Anticipated Title by Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Bustle, Betches, Reader's Digest, Ms. Magazine, Library Journal, Book Riot, The Nerd Daily, Gold House, Mochi Magazine, Women.com, Read or Dead, She Reads, and Bookish

“Huang’s Immaculate Conception is unlike anything else I’ve read this year…timely in the way it looks at power, fame and ‘the industry of art’ and at how A.I. affects art; and its exploration of the way trauma shapes us is emotionally resonant. It is a messy, heartfelt love letter to art, and a superb work of fiction.”—New York Times Book Review

“Through these rich characters, Ling Ling Huang raises important questions about not only the boundaries between art and tech but also the blurred lines between originality, autonomy, and possession.”—Harper's Bazaar, "Best Books of Spring"

“A complex and sobering work of dystopian science-fiction, infused with horror and set in the contemporary art scene, Immaculate Conception is as much about the blurred lines of friendship as it is the frayed boundaries between art and technology…Immaculate Conception asks sweeping questions about art, originality, and ownership, as well as trauma, co-dependency, and love. Huang’s latest is a hit.”—Elle, "Best Books of Spring 2025"
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This book was incredibly well written. It’s so easy to picture every moment depicted and you truly feel the desperation of the main character.
The misery and hopelessness is palpable throughout the entire story and it’s increasingly difficult to like the main character even as you try to understand her reasoning.
While I understand this may not be everyone’s cup of tea I was deeply moved by the novel and I look forward to more works by this writer.

Deeply miserable

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This is a sad story of how addictive access to creativity and pleasing others is. It goes very deep into consciousness, art and meaning — and the inability to trust others when you are insecure. This is a super interesting exploration through the lens of an artist seeing the world and society.

Very interesting exploration of the mind and creativity

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Somebody get A24 cuz we got a new banger. Incredible follow up from Ling Ling Huang’s Natural Beauty—here we follow 2 friends who get caught up in a toxic, obsessive, and all-consuming friendship on the fringe of science and art. Beautiful prose, flawed characters, and a heady conceptual experiment on what it means to be creative and create in a near future world.

Art World Jennifer’s Body Toxic Friendship Sci Fi Thriller

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Can you be friends with someone if you envy them? Can you worship someone’s brilliance and have it leave you unaffected? What makes us who we are? Where do art and technology intersect? How do we find validation?

I hesitate to go too much into the plot. I don’t want to give away the twist and turns. Enka is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, almost literally in this world. In art school she meets Mathilde, an art prodigy, with deep emotional scars. The two form a co-dependent friendship. Together they seem to bring out the best in each other’s work but still Enka isn’t anywhere near her friend.

Jealousy, leads to some shockingly selfish decisions that test the limits of friendship and the ownership of self and artistic expression. I found myself questioning if Enka had any self awareness. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

Personally, I loved the art influences and exploration. Yes, the author relied on shock value and artistic tropes but she is an author not a performance artist.

I highly recommend this piece!

Exploration of Envy and Friendship

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By rating it is clear I did not like this book. However I (genuinely) believe that if you like selfless, self loathing characters in addition to horror, you might love it.

The concepts this author come up with always draw me in, but we spend so much time inside the main character's head that anything that happens, is completely overshadowed (both in mood and observations) by the main character's constant self hatred, depression and passivity.

She cannot make one observation without also thinking about her empty non existent self. There is no escape from her within the story, neither in plot nor other characters, because everything is mentioned to point out her misery.

It is like watching a movie with 80% of the sound and vision clouded by a big, grey paper bag. It completely ruins any sense of action, dread, or excitement by being in the settings crafted for this story. Mosfegh writes about similar characters yet even she feels less myopic

To future listeners

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