Book Review: "Immaculate Conception" by Ling Ling Huang

Ling Ling Huang might be one of the most exciting names in modern horror at the moment. The term 'wellness horror' was basically born out of her novel Natural Beauty - a novel I thought was incredible. There is another book by her which takes the idea of technology, wellness, class divide and the intrusion of capital on to our real lives, to a whole new extreme. Immaculate Conception has the same amount of body horror but also mixes it in with a question about whether a technology can be helpful or parasitic. It feels so modern and appropriate for our own times. Let's take a look at what it entails.

The unfolding of the novel is when Enka meets Mathilde at a prestigious art conservatory. Apart from absolutely hating these names for the characters, I did find the opening to almost match that of Stargazer by Laurie Petrou in its initial critique on the transactional nature of the modern female friendship. They create various rituals dedicated to this friendship whilst Mathilde's reputation begins to prove her power. Enka becomes very obviously resentful of this, envious even and Ling Ling Huang therefore, gives us the same sort of female friendship that she gives us in the book Natural Beauty in which the means is only to an end.

Mathilde starts to grapple with her own trauma, fuelling her art and her dedication to her craft. Enka eventually tries to make her feel better by stepping in as that one person she can talk to, but it isn't of much use when it comes to fuelling Enka's own artistic talents. Enka then marries into a privileged household and thus gains access to a world which is divided by how much money one has. This is something typical of Ling Ling Huang, in which she presents us with divided worlds, one with the 'haves' and one with the 'have nots' - they are far more apart than any of us care to realise.

Her husband is involved in developing a program called SCAFFOLD which theorises to amplify the feeling of empathy. Enka then volunteers to undergo this with Mathilde in order to prove that it actually works and so, starts to live in Mathilde's inner life. But, what once was thought to be a progressive technological advancement becomes something almost parasitic and awful. Enka starts absorbing Mathilde's personality. Ling Ling Huang normally does this, she turns something that was once considered to be advertised as something good into something that is inherently evil.

Enka's psychological break becomes more and more clear as she descends into the memories and persona of Mathilde. The body horror themes becomes more and more apparent as well - there's experiences of lesions and breakages in the skin. The language becomes more and more disturbing physically and more disturbing on the whole. Ling Ling Huang's definite talent is her way with words once things go to shit. As the story starts to unfold, we start to question whether shared trauma can really be beneificiary to anyone. At this moment in time, we have to go with no.

Once there was a progressive purpose, now there is something far more self-serving. It is a lesson in capitalism in which many of the new technologies that the rich think are for the good of humanity are actually created for the good of themselves. We only realise when it is far too late to do anything about it. Enka's friendship with Mathilde definitely shows us this transactional nature more than perhaps, Natural Beauty does as it is a little bit more subtle.

After reading Natural Beauty, I was convinced that there was nothing that could top that, but Immaculate Conception was just as brilliant with some more universal themes. Though the horror was probably more visceral in the other book I had read, I did think that the idea regarding whether the rich actually have empathy or whether they believe it is something that can be render is a great question and critique. All in all, Immaculate Conception is a book that (though I hated the characters names and sometimes it would take me out of the book) was something quite spectacular to experience.

***

Join my unofficial challenge!