Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Dystopian horror novel Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang has hit the shelves.
The story follows Enka, who meets rising talent and tortured artist Mathilde in art school. The two form an intense, co-dependent bond.
Eventually Mathilde’s fame affects their friendship, which Enka becomes desperate to save no matter the cost.
Enka falls in love and marries a billionaire whose family company is funding technology that heightens empathy, which makes it possible to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and absorb trauma from her brain, causing the boundaries between the two friends to blur even further and sets a series of disturbing events into motion, that change their lives forever.
In an interview, the writer revealed that the book takes inspiration from an incident in her own life that affected her heavily, in which she found out her boyfriend was in a secret relationship with her best friend.
“Much of this book was processing and trying to understand the choices she made, which hurt me, even though she loved me,” Ling Ling said.
“It was also an examination of my love for her, the fact of its continuation in the face of betrayal, and a look at the systems that compelled us to compete with each other,” she added.
