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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About this listen

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
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Critic reviews

Named a Most Anticipated Title by Harper's Bazaar, Bustle, Reader's Digest, Book Riot, The Nerd Daily, Gold House, Read or Dead and Bookish

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 good friend is hard to find, but how close is too close? Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception details the unsettling unraveling of a codependent friendship between two artists... This explosive new book release explores themes of jealousy, greed, classism and toxic female friendships in a modern dystopia."Reader's Digest, "Most-Anticipated New Book Releases of 2025"

"Any artists freaked out by generative AI, virtual reality, and the general future of creativity in a technocracy will have fun inside Ling Ling Huang’s near-future version of the competitive art world... she grounds her imaginative narrative in the raw feeling of envying a friend who’s more successful and wanting to do crazy things to absorb whatever special touch they have. As the dedication reads, this book is 'for the jealous.'"Bustle, "The Best New Books of Spring 2025"

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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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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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