I loved Ling Ling Huang’s Natural Beauty and couldn’t wait to read this one too. Sadly, Immaculate Conception didn’t fully live up to my expectations.

There’s a lot here that I admired. The ideas are strong and timely; we get cloning, AI replacing artists, art as commodity, art as theft. The obsessive dynamic between the narrator, Enka, and Mathilde is fascinating. That slow burn of jealousy and the way admiration curdles into resentment, guilt, and self-loathing is incredibly well written. Huang nails that emotional ugliness. 

Enka isn't likable, nor is she relatable. She makes selfish, cruel choices and justifies them badly. But she’s believable in her pettiness and envy. She want what others have instead of building something of her own and I know people like this.

Despite my appreciation for the ideas, the book felt very detached and emotionally distant to me. I finished it, but I never truly connected to Enka, to Mathilde, or to the story as a whole. I wanted deeper character development early on, especially for Enka and Mathilde, before everything spiraled. Their bond is supposed to be intense, but I struggled to feel it.

Huang is an excellent writer, though. The art discussions are fantastic. I actually went and looked up the artworks mentioned, and that genuinely improved my experience. The performance art sections, in particular, are powerful. 

To sum it up, where Natural Beauty pulled me in immediately, this one took effort. I was also, admittedly, hoping for a bit more weirdness and a little more unhinged energy. And while I appreciated what the book was saying, I think it could’ve been shorter.

In the end, I liked it more in theory than in practice. It's smart, thoughtful novel about awe, jealousy, and artistic obsession, but it kept me at arm’s length. Despite my reservations, I’ll absolutely pick up whatever Huang writes next.