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New Skin
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Expected 12 May 26Win a free print copy of this book!
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25 copies available
U.S. only
A scalding, darkly humorous debut following an enmeshed mother-daughter duo, both best friends and enemies, and the plastic surgery addiction that warps their lives into a perilous spiral
At twenty-six, Linli Feng is still trying to escape her mother Fanny’s orbit. But after three years of estrangement, just when Linli has been accepted into a prestigious graduate program, she is dragged back by Fanny’s latest medical catastrophe and forced to return home.
For decades, Fanny has been addicted to plastic surgery, getting bargain procedures in the basements of LA’s bootleg beauty industry. Now Fanny’s disfigured face is in dangerous revolt, infected and collapsing yet again from black-market injectables.
But even as Linli wades through the wreck of family finances and juggles her mother’s medical care, Fanny has another secret in store. Fanny 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 Fanny from the sinister subculture that has already claimed her mother’s face, she must at last confront the corrosive reality of American success that is at the fraught heart of their relationship.
At twenty-six, Linli Feng is still trying to escape her mother Fanny’s orbit. But after three years of estrangement, just when Linli has been accepted into a prestigious graduate program, she is dragged back by Fanny’s latest medical catastrophe and forced to return home.
For decades, Fanny has been addicted to plastic surgery, getting bargain procedures in the basements of LA’s bootleg beauty industry. Now Fanny’s disfigured face is in dangerous revolt, infected and collapsing yet again from black-market injectables.
But even as Linli wades through the wreck of family finances and juggles her mother’s medical care, Fanny has another secret in store. Fanny 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 Fanny from the sinister subculture that has already claimed her mother’s face, she must at last confront the corrosive reality of American success that is at the fraught heart of their relationship.
368 pages, Paperback
Expected publication May 12, 2026
6 people are currently reading
4037 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Wang
4 books12 followersSarah 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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 12, 2026
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 🙏
thank u netgalley & publishers for the ARC 🙏
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
0.5 stars
New Skin by Sarah Wang attempts to address a myriad of themes but lacks narrative coherence and emotional resonance.
For three years, Linli Feng worked for a nonprofit helping incarcerated women tell their stories while going no-contact with her manipulative, impulsive mother. Her plans to attend graduate school are interrupted when her mother reaches out, once again a crisis—her face is disfigured and rotting from another failed plastic surgery. When Linli returns to help her mother, their enmeshment deepens as her mother seems to dig herself further and further into a hole. Not only does she nearly kill herself getting black market Botox filler, she finds herself facing a felony charge for her role in these illegal operations. When her mother flies off to participate in a reality TV show promising reconstructive surgery for botched plastic surgery addicts, Linli resorts to increasingly desperate measures to save her mother from prison time.
Linli’s mother makes Jennette McCurdy’s mother look like a saint, and she has her hooks in her daughter so deep that the two are completely enmeshed. That enmeshment only grows as Linli tries to fulfill her “one duty in life—to protect her [mother] from herself.” Linli has the awareness to acknowledge that her mother never faces the consequences of her actions, but not the self-awareness to accept that she’s the central enabler in her mother’s life.
The problem is that Linli’s actions are so self-destructive—almost comically so—that it’s hard to connect with her. People who have been in similar abusive situations might automatically understand where she’s coming from, but Wang resorts to heavy-handed plot beats to showcase Linli’s enmeshment with her mother rather than creating a believable psychological portrait. For example, Linli mentions that she had a dream where she has sex with her mother with her penis. At another point, she steals someone’s drugs at a party and takes them without having any idea of what they are. The book flounders with a main character who is difficult to empathize with or even understand.
New Skin tries to address a number of important issues such as immigration, generational trauma, cycles of abuse, American’s obsession with reality TV, and the flaws of the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, it brings these themes in sporadically, and the plot is so unbelievable and chaotic that the effect is alienating. Wang clearly has intelligent things to say, but neither the book’s characters nor narrative serve her thematic contributions.
After a frustrating and bizarre buildup to its conclusion, the book ends with a hasty whimper that is as unsatisfying as what came before it. People who have experiences with narcissistic abuse might find New Skin more accessible, but it fails to provoke empathy and thought through storytelling.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
New Skin by Sarah Wang attempts to address a myriad of themes but lacks narrative coherence and emotional resonance.
For three years, Linli Feng worked for a nonprofit helping incarcerated women tell their stories while going no-contact with her manipulative, impulsive mother. Her plans to attend graduate school are interrupted when her mother reaches out, once again a crisis—her face is disfigured and rotting from another failed plastic surgery. When Linli returns to help her mother, their enmeshment deepens as her mother seems to dig herself further and further into a hole. Not only does she nearly kill herself getting black market Botox filler, she finds herself facing a felony charge for her role in these illegal operations. When her mother flies off to participate in a reality TV show promising reconstructive surgery for botched plastic surgery addicts, Linli resorts to increasingly desperate measures to save her mother from prison time.
Linli’s mother makes Jennette McCurdy’s mother look like a saint, and she has her hooks in her daughter so deep that the two are completely enmeshed. That enmeshment only grows as Linli tries to fulfill her “one duty in life—to protect her [mother] from herself.” Linli has the awareness to acknowledge that her mother never faces the consequences of her actions, but not the self-awareness to accept that she’s the central enabler in her mother’s life.
The problem is that Linli’s actions are so self-destructive—almost comically so—that it’s hard to connect with her. People who have been in similar abusive situations might automatically understand where she’s coming from, but Wang resorts to heavy-handed plot beats to showcase Linli’s enmeshment with her mother rather than creating a believable psychological portrait. For example, Linli mentions that she had a dream where she has sex with her mother with her penis. At another point, she steals someone’s drugs at a party and takes them without having any idea of what they are. The book flounders with a main character who is difficult to empathize with or even understand.
New Skin tries to address a number of important issues such as immigration, generational trauma, cycles of abuse, American’s obsession with reality TV, and the flaws of the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, it brings these themes in sporadically, and the plot is so unbelievable and chaotic that the effect is alienating. Wang clearly has intelligent things to say, but neither the book’s characters nor narrative serve her thematic contributions.
After a frustrating and bizarre buildup to its conclusion, the book ends with a hasty whimper that is as unsatisfying as what came before it. People who have experiences with narcissistic abuse might find New Skin more accessible, but it fails to provoke empathy and thought through storytelling.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I can't help but think New Skin is THAT BITCH by Bea Miller in book form. Linli is a prodigal daughter of sorts, returning home to find a mother who looks disfigured and hellacious with the amount of plastic surgery she has undergone. As it only makes sense to do, Fanny then ends up the subject of a reality show in which the prize to "winning" is reconstructive surgeries. We learn about the other contestants and what it took to send them over the edge of surgeries or injectables (spoiler alert its mostly poverty stricken folks being taken advantage of by back alley drug shilling companies). This is obviously a zany take on societal and beauty standards, but there is oh so much reality seeping between the pages of this novel as well. Wang takes a tricky topic and gives it her own spin, writing in a deadpan humor at times that reeks of codependent and motherly love. Expect some triggers here, perhaps some interesting takes on culture, and a positively new twist on surgical literary fiction. Thanks so much to the author and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced digital copy. All opinions are entirely my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
New Skin by Sarah Wang is a powerful addition to the beauty horror canon, alongside Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang and Rouge by Mona Awad. However, I think this one is insanely visceral, and doesn't pull any punches when describing the body horror that comes with Fanny and Linli's progressively horrific beauty treatments.
It certainly kept me hooked throughout. I love a good dysfunctional family story, and Fanny is the definition of a narcissistic mother who you also can't help but feel bad for. They're complicated, and I love when an author is able to balance cruelty and victimhood within the same characters.
The reality TV aspect was also unrelenting and cruel. It reminded me of a more extreme version of The Compound by Aisling Rawle. I have to say I feel like the book lost me a bit at the end, and I wish the conclusion was as potent as the rest of the book. Overall, a very enjoyable and insane read. I flew through it.
It certainly kept me hooked throughout. I love a good dysfunctional family story, and Fanny is the definition of a narcissistic mother who you also can't help but feel bad for. They're complicated, and I love when an author is able to balance cruelty and victimhood within the same characters.
The reality TV aspect was also unrelenting and cruel. It reminded me of a more extreme version of The Compound by Aisling Rawle. I have to say I feel like the book lost me a bit at the end, and I wish the conclusion was as potent as the rest of the book. Overall, a very enjoyable and insane read. I flew through it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Still not sure what to make of this book to be honest. It's the story of a woman whose mother is addicted to plastic surgery. As someone who remembers all those Channel4/ 5 programs about surgery in the 2000s, I thought this book might be a modern take on those criticisms. I also am a bit of a fan of reality tv critique so thought this book might be perfect.
It kind of was at first but then the second half decended into something a bit difficult to follow. The first half follows the woman's relationship with her mother as a result of her surgery addiction and the trauma bond they seem to have. Then it didn't seem to go anywhere. The second half felt disjoined, difficult to follow in places and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read this through netgalley but I still don't know if I liked it!
It kind of was at first but then the second half decended into something a bit difficult to follow. The first half follows the woman's relationship with her mother as a result of her surgery addiction and the trauma bond they seem to have. Then it didn't seem to go anywhere. The second half felt disjoined, difficult to follow in places and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read this through netgalley but I still don't know if I liked it!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Fabulous. I enjoyed this very much, Mother Fan-Ju and daughter Lin Li, both with intertwined obsessions which take over their lives and for the wrong reasons. When I initially read the synopsis, I assumed this was futuristic plastic surgery - don't know how I reached that conclusion but it was very much present day and based on the horrors of back street plastic surgery. Fanny is unintentionally funny, she manages to land the right way up every time but there are far reaching consequences for Lin Li. Conflicting cultures of Asian born and American born Chinese coupled with typical Asian Guilt parenting, this made for a great read and will be well received on release.
Many thanks to Picador and Netgalley for this ARC.
Many thanks to Picador and Netgalley for this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I think this is probably a book about exploitation, on lots of different levels. A highly complex mother-daughter relationship with elements of exploitation. Reality TV producers exploiting participants. Unscrupulous gangs exploiting undocumented immigrants. Plastic surgeons exploiting people's desire to live up to unrealistic beauty standards. I enjoyed it, and it was thought provoking, and the mother character Fanny is an absolutely brilliant creation - but there was perhaps just a small spark missing to take it from good to great.
Thanks to the author, whose books I would read again, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thanks to the author, whose books I would read again, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
January 15, 2026
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.
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.
tbr-arc
January 15, 2026and 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*
*thank you to Little, Brown and Company for the ARC*
Review of advance copy
Brilliant. Cant wait to read more from Sarah Wang.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan / Picador for providing me with the ARC.
Pub Date 11 Jun 2026
I was drawn to this book because of the reality TV aspect, but this was not the focus of the story. The not so many scenes we got from that competition contained some of the most shocking events in this book. The reality show - America’s Beauty Extreme was so over the top, a satirical look at reality TV.
The main themes here are exploitation, social status and discrimination. It’s not just about the beauty standards, it’s the raw misfortunes of the immigrant life, the mistreatments and all of the ugliness you need to go through to survive. The mother-daughter relationship is the heart of the story and it was hilarious and dramatic in equal amounts. There was no other book that made me laugh one moment, and cry the next in a single page...
The mother, Fanny, is one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read, she won’t be a victim, despite what’s been done to her, being an immigrant and a single mother. It’s so scary what she’s been through, what we are finding out along with her daughter. All of this written in a flawless sarcastic tone,
I am so pleasantly surprised by this book. Honestly, I didn’t expect this to be less than 300 pages, it read so fast. I was never bored; I was mostly shocked, laughing or crying.
By the end there were still some unanswered questions, the ending came pretty quick. I expected more resolution, but the journey was a roller-coaster of emotion. I would read anything this author writes in the future. Highly recommend.
Pub Date 11 Jun 2026
I was drawn to this book because of the reality TV aspect, but this was not the focus of the story. The not so many scenes we got from that competition contained some of the most shocking events in this book. The reality show - America’s Beauty Extreme was so over the top, a satirical look at reality TV.
The main themes here are exploitation, social status and discrimination. It’s not just about the beauty standards, it’s the raw misfortunes of the immigrant life, the mistreatments and all of the ugliness you need to go through to survive. The mother-daughter relationship is the heart of the story and it was hilarious and dramatic in equal amounts. There was no other book that made me laugh one moment, and cry the next in a single page...
The mother, Fanny, is one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read, she won’t be a victim, despite what’s been done to her, being an immigrant and a single mother. It’s so scary what she’s been through, what we are finding out along with her daughter. All of this written in a flawless sarcastic tone,
I am so pleasantly surprised by this book. Honestly, I didn’t expect this to be less than 300 pages, it read so fast. I was never bored; I was mostly shocked, laughing or crying.
By the end there were still some unanswered questions, the ending came pretty quick. I expected more resolution, but the journey was a roller-coaster of emotion. I would read anything this author writes in the future. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews