Immaculate Conception: A Novel

by Ling Ling Huang

Overview

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 turn the final page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593850435
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Ling Ling Huang is a writer and violinist. She plays with several ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and the Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy Award in 2021. Her debut novel, Natural Beauty, was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction.

Editorial Reviews

03/31/2025

Huang’s provocative if uneven sophomore outing (after Natural Beauty) blends speculative elements with a story of friendship and jealousy between two artists from opposing backgrounds. Enka, the narrator, was a “fringe kid,” whose family lived on the poorer side of the impenetrable “buffer” in her native Florida. When, despite unlikely odds, Enka is accepted to a prestigious art school, she is immediately fascinated by Mathilde Wojnot-Cho, the “supremely gifted” wunderkind everyone is too nervous to befriend. Mathilde grew up protesting the buffers despite living on the affluent “enclave” side, and she and Enka develop an intense bond, “dream the same dreams.” A rift forms when Mathilde is invited to show her work at the Whitney Museum and the Venice Biennale but Enka receives no such opportunities. Later, after Enka marries into a wealthy family and Mathilde suffers an unimaginable loss, the two decide to connect their psyches via a technology called the Scaffold, which allows its users to “inhabit” each other’s minds. Unsurprisingly, the results are harrowing. At times the dialogue lapses into melodrama, but Huang writes evocatively of Enka’s waxing and waning jealousy of Mathilde, which comes at the expense of developing her own artistic voice. This bracing novel gives readers plenty to chew on. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

Publishers Weekly

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, 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 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"

"This dizzying speculative novel tackles AI, art and toxic female friendship in a whirl of ambition and jealousy."
—Good Housekeeping

"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"

“Brilliant and unsettling . . . Driven by Huang’s compelling, flowing prose, the novel is an examination of a friendship that turns toxic in the most terrifying way. Huang is a master of mixing the speculative with the contemporary, harnessing near-future possibilities to show us just how far humanity will go to achieve the impossible while ignoring very real consequences.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“A frightening, enlightening powerhouse of a book.”
—BookPage (starred review)

“A dazzlingly ambitious feat of storytelling . . . Huang's style is as captivating and distinctive as the story itself, with incisive prose that is alternately evocative, funny, and caustic . . . Immaculate Conception is a virtuosic work beaming the spectrum of human emotions through a prism of indifferent technology.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Huang writes evocatively of Enka’s waxing and waning jealousy of Mathilde, which comes at the expense of developing her own artistic voice. This bracing novel gives readers plenty to chew on.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Immaculate Conception is one of those twisty, nail-biting books you fall into and don’t emerge from until you’re done. I loved it.”
—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

“In Huang’s Immaculate Conception, the desire to be close to the flame of genius leads to catastrophic obsession. Huang, the real-life genius holding the palette, deftly weaves competition, longing, fantastical technology, and gobsmacking imagery into an unforgettable tale. I found this portrait of artist friends utterly gripping: an immersive, transformative read, just the way true art should be.”
—Sierra Greer, author of Annie Bot

“In Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception, all-too-plausible exploitative, extractive technologies force new questions about who is allowed to make great art and who gets denied the same shot—and about what price some might pay to reclaim what they’ve been denied. A gorgeous and frequently shocking novel, whose dark, envy-driven obsessions will quickly become your own.”
—Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

"Huang's brilliant, imaginative, and ambitious novel about an obsessive friendship between two artists gripped me from beginning to end. Immaculate Conception is dark but, at the same time, filled with tenderness. I loved every moment of it."
—Monika Kim, author of The Eyes Are the Best Part

From the Publisher