New Skin

by Sarah Wang

When Linli Feng returns home to LA after three years’ absence she is aghast at what she finds. Her mother, Fanny, is unrecognizable. In her endless quest to achieve the ‘right’ kind of beauty, Fanny has spent the intervening years having bargain procedures in the basements of LA’s bootleg beauty parlours. Now Fanny’s disfigured face is in dangerous revolt, infected and collapsing from black-market injectables.

But even as Linli tries to wean Fanny off her addiction and wades through the wreck of her mother's finances, Fanny has another secret in store. She has won a spot on America’s Beauty Extreme, a reality television competition in which botched plastic surgery addicts compete for reconstructive surgery as riveted audiences tune in.

When Linli attempts to rescue her mother from the sinister subculture that has already claimed her face, she must at last confront the corrosive reality of the American dream that lies at the very heart of their relationship.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult, Thriller, Audiobook

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2026

About the author

Sarah Wang is the author of NEW SKIN, a novel. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College and has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell, NYFA, PEN America, and the Center for Fiction. She was a finalist for a Nelson Algren prize for fiction and the winner of a Barbara Deming Award. Her writing appears in The New Yorker; The Atlantic; London Review of Books; The Nation; The New Republic; Harper's Bazaar; n+1; McSweeney’s, and more.

Reviews

[Sadie E · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5: "Perfection was always one procedure away." And emotional stability was always one chapter away.

Cosmetic surgery addiction, body horror, immigrant guilt, motherhood, shame, self-loathing, ambition, capitalism, generational trauma, reality TV. This book's got it all.

Oh, and the fundamentally cursed experience of having family members.

Fanny's one of the most spectacularly stressful characters I've ever encountered. She made my blood pressure skyrocket. She reminded me a bit too much of my own ma, which meant I spent a good chunk of this book alternating between cackling and wincing.

"It doesn't matter why she's disturbed. It only matters that you know she's disturbed."

This woman approaches life with complete confidence and absolutely no long-term planning. She makes decisions with the energy of someone repeatedly clicking "Yes" on increasingly alarming pop-up windows.

She's the worst.

And yet the author performs literary witchcraft and makes you understand her.

She makes you feel sorry for her.

I hate Fanny.

I hate her because she's so fucking well written.

I've rarely seen abuse depicted this accurately on the page. Not the screaming, melodramatic kind that makes for easy villains, but the exhausting, everyday kind. The I never said that, but if I did, you probably deserved it kind. The kind that makes you question your own memories. The kind that leaves you feeling guilty for wanting to escape it.

It's mundane and boring and cloying and claustrophobic. It's someone standing in your doorway for 30 years.

Exactly like real life.

I've seen some reviews saying the codependency between Fanny and Linli, and Linli's inability or refusal to leave, is unrealistic.

I don't agree.

If you've ever had a complicated relationship with a family member, you'll get it immediately.

The book understands that you can hate someone and love them at the same time. You can want them out of your life and still desperately want what's best for them. You can recognise every toxic pattern and still answer the phone.

That struggle is depicted so, so well.

You try.

You fail.

Maybe something terrible happens to the person you're trying to escape and you feel sorry for them.

Maybe you think this time will be different.

Maybe you wonder if you imagined most of it.

And then suddenly you're right back where you started.

"I didn't know who I hated more, her or myself. I had known how much it would hurt her when I left without a word. That's why I'd done it."

Sometimes that's your only option. Sometimes distance is the only boundary left. Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is become an urban legend.

And then there's this awful undercurrent of racial self-loathing running through the book. Maybe not overt racism, but disdain for your own features. The passage about Fanny forcing Linli to wear adhesive eye tape because, "like her, I was born with monolids," hurt me. Then she mocks her daughter for the very feature she herself passed down.

It's one thing to dislike your own reflection.

It's another thing entirely to package that insecurity up and hand it to your child like a family heirloom.

But also... isn't that horrifyingly normal?

Who hasn't watched a family member complain about their weight or their nose and then suddenly realised oh... I have those too.

Congratulations on inheriting the family trauma and the family face.

Is Sarah Wang a genius or has she gained unauthorised access to the collective unconscious of every daughter with a difficult mother?

Both?

The body horror is amazing. But I also wanted more? I wanted it to go further and get weirder as it devolved into full blown Ryu Murakami levels of physical revulsion.

But what it lacks in body horror it makes up for with emotional horror.

I was reading scenes about botched procedures thinking, wow, that's gross, only for the next chapter to remind me that the real horror was the generational trauma we gained along the way.

Also, every now and again I'm like, "I should try out Botox."

This book has probably put me off doing anything more invasive than getting highlights for life. Not because it's anti-cosmetic procedures, but because it understands how easily the pursuit of perfection becomes its own kind of addiction.

One procedure becomes two. Then three. Then suddenly your entire sense of self is hanging off the next appointment.

The reality show subplot is ridiculous. Until you realise it isn't. Until you realise we're all basically three bad decisions away from turning our private suffering into content.

Occasionally it's juggling a little too much and it gets a bit messy. But this book had me in a chokehold.

I loved its mess.

I loved its grotesqueness.

I loved how funny it was.

I loved how it kept veering between absurdity and devastation.

I loved how every chapter made me think, surely it can't get worse than this, immediately followed by it getting worse than this.

Until the ending.

And then it just... lost me.

I don't even think the ending is bad. It just didn't hit with the same force as everything that came before it. After spending hundreds of pages in this fever dream, I wanted something sharper and more devastating. Instead, I came away feeling oddly underwhelmed.

Which is a shame because for about 85% of this book I was convinced I was reading a new favourite.

[Holden Wunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting take on a toxic mother/daughter relationship. It’s one that is irredeemable, toxic, and unhealthy… or is it as simple as a generational communication gap?

New Skin breaks into a slurry of topics from abusive relationships with others and especially with yourself. Whether it’s what you deem wrong in the mirror or what you think you frankly just don’t deserve.

This was cultural, literary, with unexpected reality tv and plastic notes strewn throughout. I enjoyed a lot of the reading of this while I was a bit less interested in just starting it picked up quickly enough that had me hooked easily. I didn’t love the ending as much as I hoped but it was less the wrap up I didn’t like, but the very last sentence. Is that enough to ruin it? Not even slightly so don’t let it deter you. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

[maria ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚]

Maybe another time this could've been — or could someday be — an enjoyable read for me, but right now I am a little over these toxic, over-the-top mother/daughter dramas. I know this is an endless, literally infinite topic to dig into, but I have had my literary fill of it by now.

[Katie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think this book should necessarily be labeled as horror. I guess it would technically fall under “body horror” with maybe a touch of psychological horror.

Regardless, I really liked it! Definitely was relatable in a lot of ways.
👩👧🧑‍⚕️😷✋🛑😥🏠🧑‍🧒📺 🥷🔪🏅🙌💰🧊📚

[Ashley Sawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty six year old Linli Feng has spent years trying to escape her complicated relationship with her mother Fanny. Just as she's about to begin a new chapter of her life, a crisis pulls her back to LA. Fanny's decades long obsession with plastic surgery has left her physically disfigured and financially devastated. When Linli returns home, she finds herself once again trapped in her mother's world, navigating medical emergencies, family secrets and the fallout of a beauty addiction that has spiraled out of control. Things become even more chaotic when Fanny lands a spot on a reality TV competition where contestants with botched cosmetic procedures compete for reconstructive surgery. As Linli tries to save her mother from the dangerous underground beauty industry that has consumed her life, she is forced to ask herself questions about identity, assimilation, beauty and the complicated ties that bind mothers and daughters together.

New Skin is one of those books that feels equal parts dark satire, family drama and body horror all wrapped up in a story that is as uncomfortable as it is compelling. At its heart, this is a mother-daughter story and that's where the book shines. Linli and Fanny's relationship is messy, frustrating, heartbreaking and painfully real. I found myself torn between feeling sympathy for Fanny and wanting to shake some sense into her! The obsession with youth, beauty and reinvention creates a fascinating background but the emotional weight comes from the complicated love between these two. The reality TV elements add a bizarre and almost surreal layer to the story while the commentary on beauty standards and assimilation feels sharp and relevant. If you enjoy character driven stories with flawed women, dark humor, family dysfunction and a touch of body horror, New Skin is definitely worth picking up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Wang, and Little, Brown and Company for this eARC!

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

Very intrigued by this one! Thank you to the author for sending an ARC my way <3

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[gracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book with beautiful prose and pretty raw critique on the beauty and cosmetics industry especially on people of colour in pursuit of white beauty standards, and it's well written depiction of the dysfunctional relationship of the immigrant mother and daughter. I was hooked from the start but I found that the end, for how much it did match up with the mundanity of the rest of the book, was quite flat for me.

Still an amazing read regardless.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
fascinating mother-daughter dynamic with piercingly modern themes. unfortunately I was ultimately underwhelmed with the ending

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

i mostly really enjoyed it up until the ending

[Dede · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting to see how far people will go with thier beauty with facelifts and botox. I loved the storyline and the characters. I would definitely recommend this book.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’m a SUCKER for a critique of the beauty industry so this had me hooked from the beginning. and then we follow a woman’s downward spiral prompted by her turbulent relationship with her mother???? what more could a girl ask for

thank u netgalley & publishers for the ARC 🙏

[Sarah Schulman]

This is a WILD book. I laughed out loud so many times even when it was so painful. Like a reverse Frankenstein on one hand- but so familiar to those of us whose mothers were never really interested in our dreams. It is in the tradition of Mrs Portnoy and all the mothers whose wounds make our lives unlivable. Sarah Wang managed an outrageous plot without losing any of the terrible truth.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

DANG! Talk about mama drama.

I am so thankful to Sarah Wang, NetGalley, and Little Brown and Company for granting me advanced access to this generational trauma pot of madness before it hits shelves on May 12, 2026.

Linli and Fanny Feng have a tough mother/daughter relationship. Fanny (mom) is obsessed with cosmetic procedures, butchering her face to no end, and longing to be beautiful. Linli (daughter) has just dropped out of her Master's Program in NYC to take care of her 'dying' mother, and by 'dying' I'm saying Fanny is doing this of her own choosing, as she's receiving fillers that aren't sanctioned, and are taking place in someone's shady basement through this weird MLM/Pyramid Schemey type community.

And she's killing herself in this pursuit.

And Linli is just trying to keep her mother fed, healthy, and happy. But Fanny always has an angle, and auditions for a reality TV show that showcases botched skincare procedures and keeps contestants in a Big Brother-like room to watch emotions spill over. The winner of this competition will receive a facial makeover to clear all their impurities, but there seems to be a darker intent on the producers' part.

NOW, all the while, when Linli is home alone, she's committed to learning the truth behind the dirty procedures to help protect her mother's involvement in a black-market/illegal cosmetics ring she's found herself in, and what she uncovers is worse than she ever thought.

New Skin is like a car crash you just can't look away from, and with each passing day, this duo spirals down deeper and deeper.

[Clara Peng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this overall was fascinating but lacked a lot of nuance. Especially given the immigration plot. I loved this quote though, if you know you know.

“Across the parking lot, there was a store that had shanzhai clothes with unintended mistranslations and funny bootleg gear from China. Luiot Vituton. Samsinxg. Nnkie. I bought a shirt that read on the back: I was ashame4 mysil whe;n i realz live as cos.tum par7t, && I attend with my real FAC-3 tomarro1 another day nowere to COSSC Xuan. The words were something between a poem and dream logic cranked through ESL machinery. I loved flipping through the racks, reading language on the edge of sense written by someone in another part of the same world whose mother tongue churned these extra-lingual compositions.”

[Lois peper - boekig · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5🌟

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh 4.5 wow needed that

[Lily ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect this to be an intelligent commentary on informal labor markets and undocumented workers, but it delivered that and so much more!

This is a strange and wholly original story involving the FBI, reality TV, motherly sacrifice, grad school deference, psychedelics, cycles of trauma, and lucky earlobes.

There wasn’t as much commentary on beauty standards as I expected, but this wasn’t a bad thing; it’s been done before and done well. I truly never knew what was going to happen next.

[KBeansbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was one in which I haven’t delved this deep into a genre since probably junior high school. That author has an uncanny ability to enrapture her readers into the book she is reading out loud having a gifted timing on when to pause, when to look deeply into her classrooms eyes and now to get her entire dozens of AP students enthralled in whatever it is she has been introducing to them as the author and also it was definitely helpful she has the authores daughter with her who subsequently broke down into tears from true emotional overload she had been far too tormented by the ppl she felt loved and would potenct her the best yet the despair, the lack of praise, the celebration of her accolades or any mom d of parenting she desperately desired since she was 2 or 3 years old but neither of her parents knew how to parent as well as most do. Some just are products of their own environments and while that doesn’t excuse abusive mental physical or emotional abuse to your child, it can’t ever make me feel otherwise. My wife was raped and abused in ways you couldn’t fathom and she’s so kind, patios x and precious to the smaller children she teachers and tutors. So it’s no surprise we both have adopted the conviction that there’s no such thing as nurture that causes ppl to become inherently evil. Nature can change the world one himan and hearty soul and spirit at a time.

Thank you NETGALLEY FOR THIS ADVANCED reading ARC BY ELIISA FAISON, and her well written and expressed #SKIN CONTACT AND THE BRILLIANT PUBLIJSHERS WHO SENT ME THIS advanced reading copy#ARC AND TO #Sourcebooks

[Suki J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 stars.

A fantastic debut novel about the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, and her plastic surgery obsessed mother, this was both a look at the difficult experiences of immigrants in the US, and a deep dive into mummy issues.

Linli returns back to her mother, Fanny, after an extended absence to discover her hugely changed due to cosmetic procedures. When she takes a step too far, Linli is left to pick up the pieces, until Fanny has the idea to take part in a reality TV show for botched plastic surgery recipients. As she is whisked away for the series, Linli takes a deeper dive behind the scenes of illicit beauty procedures among the Chinese-American community, and what she discovers is both shocking and sad.

This was a very compelling read, with a mother-daughter relationship at the core that was painful and funny, yet also felt real.

[Coral · Rating 4 out of 5]

'new skin' picks up every thread between this mother/daughter duo, inspects it closely, debates whether it should be cut, and moves on to the next at an engaging pace. there is always new information arising that fills the gaps in the narrator's knowledge.

enmeshment (love, hate, dependence, disgust, admiration, shame) illustrated so complexly and accurately. with an added layer of immigrant guilt.

i saw some reviews complaining that the ending is underwhelming - which i get! but i do not agree.

abusive relationships often push us to the point of insanity. of self sabotage. all for someone else to say, 'what's the big deal?' and i felt like the ending of 'new skin' gave me that feeling. the feeling of 'thats it?' when you finally confront this monstrous person and you realize they're small and just trying to protect themselves. its messy and mostly unsatisfying but you still try to move on and do whatever you can on your own

the real horror of 'new skin' though is ICE. fuck ICE

[Andrea Beatriz Arango]

Best way I can explain NEW SKIN is that it is a combo of the beauty industry messaging and *wtf did I just read?* feeling of Natural Beauty combined with the complicated mother/daughter immigration experiences and *missing history* feeling of Feeding Ghosts.

It was a wild ride for sure, but I really appreciated where Wang took me in the end. I know reviews online are a bit polarizing (this is definitely a love it or hate it book) BUT if you enjoyed reading both of the above comps (emphasis on •both• lol) then I am 90% sure you'll be into this one. (In case it wasn't clear, I LOVED IT.)

This was Wang's debut (❕) so you can bet I'll be keeping an eye out for her future work.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

love the premise but i feel like some parts fell flat?

pros:
- fanny’s arc in part iii
- reality tv setting
- push-pull of a toxic relationship
- backstory reveals of fanny + the other women

cons:
- beginning dragged (we get it, they’re toxic)
- could not get invested into linli as a character
- linli’s work arc felt more like a conduit to deliver life lessons than something worth the amount of pages it got
- what was the point of db and beatriz??
- there was potential for a more plot-driven, thriller-like storyline given the lack of character depth + premise of an underground beauty mafia but it underdelivered on both plot and character imo
- ending was frustrating (but maybe that’s the point?)

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book about a fraught mother-daughter relationship. The daughter is American born Chinese and her mother was initially an illegal immigrant from
Taiwan. The mother tries to assimilate by doing black market cosmetic surgery. She is arrested and charged for involvement in this business and then enters a contest where she can win real cosmetic surgery to fix her ruined face. The mother manipulates the daughter to stay and take care of her, instead of doing a graduate program. It’s messy. It’s strange. I didn’t really see the point, but the content of the book lingers in my mind.

[Marie Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny and interesting story about a mom and daughter in this new age of plastic surgery. It also questions whether we really know our parents and their stories as well as we thought we did. I really couldn’t predict where the book would take me and every page brought a new story that was more interesting than the other. Also a beautiful ending !

[Charlie Gardiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A easy and enjoyable read, but lacking any real impact. I felt the ending fell short and the book attempted to tackle various social and racial issues but fairly poorly and with not much detail or effect. A fun story nonetheless.

[Sophie Verhalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

really a 3.5, it started super strong and then i think the author bit off a little more than she could chew in such few pages. LOVED the body horror tho that felt so cool to read

[EJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

So astonishingly, unspeakably bad, I cannot believe this was published. I mean, it’s offensive, honestly. Zero stars.

[Erin Crane]

Beautiful cover, cool concept. Pissed to be dnfing at 1/3 in. Nothing happens for that whole first third, and I just lost interest. It reads as scattered and kind of skeletal as a story. I’m stopping probably right where it kicks off, but the writing has been frustrating outside of the fact that nothing is happening, so I’m quitting 😭

[Mahilet Abraha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mother - daughter relationship book is going to do it for me every time!! Admittedly, it started stronger than it ended but I still think it was great. There was humor, grief, anger and love. I recommend if anyone’s looking for something uniquely funny (in an almost grim way) and different.

Before this I had never thought about what it must be like to watch someone get botched over time - my world feels so far removed from plastic surgery addiction but who knows what the future holds ahhhh!

[Remi]

and it's true that plastic surgery can be addictive, the premise feels scarily close to my life

*thank you to Little, Brown and Company for the ARC*