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A review by emilypoche
Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
4.0
Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang is a sophomore novel that brings the author’s signature shocking and evocative style to the worlds of high art and advanced technology. Centering on a pair of friends Enka and Mathilde, and their meeting in art school, or follows how advanced futuristic technology and the world of high art impact them. While Mathilde is considered a genius, her trauma looms over her personal life. Enka, by comparison, is not given the same laurels for her work, but is initiated into the world of the ultra wealthy elite and their “innovations” controlling the very essence of humanity.
If you’re not familiar with performance art, conceptual artists, or the darker sides of the art industry in elite circles, you may be lost at the earlier points of this book. Once the initial parts of the book have passed, that becomes slightly less relevant as the art elements become a scaffolding for the questions of friendship and humanity.
As a sci-fi book, this is a great triumph because it poses different wildly invasive ‘is this humanity’ technologies against each other. Rather than focusing on a singular issue—shared minds, cloning, parthogenesis, genetic scans to predict someone’s future, genetic editing, Huang has created a world where all of these things are not just probably but possible. Thought this ubiquity, it really dissects what it means to be human or to be an individual.
The lion’s share of this story is a reflection on codependent relationships. From the very first few meetings between Enka and Mathilde, their relationship takes an unhealthy dynamic. Through the course of the story it twists and writhes, becoming different iterations of unhealthy as they age. Jealousy, envy, isolation, mental illness, consent, and wealth all play a huge role in the complex and turbulent relationship.
While I’m not necessarily someone who likes science fiction as a genre, this book had the elegant writing and uniquely shocking elements that had me enjoying Natural Beauty, Huang’s last book.
4/5 stars
(Trigger warnings: parent death, 9/11 mentions, self-harm, birth trauma, child death, child sexual assault, religious trauma.)
Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang is a sophomore novel that brings the author’s signature shocking and evocative style to the worlds of high art and advanced technology. Centering on a pair of friends Enka and Mathilde, and their meeting in art school, or follows how advanced futuristic technology and the world of high art impact them. While Mathilde is considered a genius, her trauma looms over her personal life. Enka, by comparison, is not given the same laurels for her work, but is initiated into the world of the ultra wealthy elite and their “innovations” controlling the very essence of humanity.
If you’re not familiar with performance art, conceptual artists, or the darker sides of the art industry in elite circles, you may be lost at the earlier points of this book. Once the initial parts of the book have passed, that becomes slightly less relevant as the art elements become a scaffolding for the questions of friendship and humanity.
As a sci-fi book, this is a great triumph because it poses different wildly invasive ‘is this humanity’ technologies against each other. Rather than focusing on a singular issue—shared minds, cloning, parthogenesis, genetic scans to predict someone’s future, genetic editing, Huang has created a world where all of these things are not just probably but possible. Thought this ubiquity, it really dissects what it means to be human or to be an individual.
The lion’s share of this story is a reflection on codependent relationships. From the very first few meetings between Enka and Mathilde, their relationship takes an unhealthy dynamic. Through the course of the story it twists and writhes, becoming different iterations of unhealthy as they age. Jealousy, envy, isolation, mental illness, consent, and wealth all play a huge role in the complex and turbulent relationship.
While I’m not necessarily someone who likes science fiction as a genre, this book had the elegant writing and uniquely shocking elements that had me enjoying Natural Beauty, Huang’s last book.
4/5 stars
(Trigger warnings: parent death, 9/11 mentions, self-harm, birth trauma, child death, child sexual assault, religious trauma.)