A portrait of companionship – achingly tender and twisted – that captures the tenuous line between love and possession.
What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most?
Mathilde is a dizzyingly talented, tortured artist whose star is on the rise – and Enka, struggling to create art that feels original, is immediately drawn to her.
The two strike up a close friendship, but when Mathilde’s fame reaches new heights, her work becoming more and more extreme, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close – no matter the cost.
Enka falls in love with and marries a billionaire whose family’s company is funding new technology purported to enhance empathy, and which could allow someone else to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and absorb the trauma infecting her brain.
But as their codependency deepens, the boundaries between Mathilde and Enka begin to blur, setting in motion a haunting series of events that will forever change their lives.
Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and eerily timely, Immaculate Conception deftly navigates big questions of art, technology, authorship, and what makes us human. Its answers will haunt you long after you turn the final page.
About the Author
Ling Ling Huang is a professional violinist and the author of Natural Beauty, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Good Morning America Book Club Pick. It won the Lambda Literary Literary Award for Best Bisexual Novel 2024. She lives in New York where she plays with the Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy in 2021.
Industry Reviews
Named a Most Anticipated Title by Book Riot, The Nerd Daily, Gold House, Read or Dead, and Bookish
“ 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
