"Being a young woman is already like existing in the seventh circle of hell."

I’ve seen this described as a mash up of Yellowface and Bunny, and I couldn’t agree more.
This book hooked me from the very first sentence. It’s filled with dark humor that pokes fun at influencer culture and social media addiction while also highlighting how influencers are constantly performing, even off camera.
Julie and Chloe are twins. After their parents are killed in a car accident, Chloe is adopted by a wealthy white couple, while Julie is raised by her manipulative, verbally abusive aunt. The two grow up estranged until Julie receives an alarming phone call from Chloe and decides to visit her apartment only to find her sister’s dead body.
Julie sees this as an opportunity. All the sponsorship money, the free products, the fame. Why should it go to waste? Julie, who grew up with nothing, tells herself this is karmic justice and steps into her sister’s identity.
Watching Julie spiral as she takes over Chloe’s life, constantly terrified of being exposed, was so addicting. She binges old videos to mimic Chloe’s voice, takes laxatives to fit into her clothes, and even memorizes the names and faces of her Instagram followers.
Were a few parts predictable? Yes. Did it require some suspension of disbelief? Definitely. Did I enjoy every minute? Absolutely.
If you’re looking for a darkly funny thriller about identity, obsession, and the cost of being seen, I recommend this one with my whole chest!

🅁🄰🅃🄸🄽🄶 : 4

🄵🄾🅁 🅁🄴🄰🄳🄴🅁🅂 🅆🄷🄾 🄻🄸🄺🄴

☆ Mystery / Thriller
☆ Influencer Culture
☆ Short Chapters
☆ Race & Class Disparities
☆ Unreliable Narrator

🄵🄰🅅🄾🅁🄸🅃🄴 🅂🄲🄴🄽🄴

Everything that went down at the influencer retreat.
But especially the mice scene. If you know, you know.

🄵🄰🅅🄾🅁🄸🅃🄴 🅀🅄🄾🅃🄴

-The quotes referenced are from an advanced reader's copy and may not reflect the final version. Please refer to the finished copy for accuracy.-

"You have the luxury of bordem and people eat it up. Why? Because you're a stereotypical beauty. Desirable by Western norms. People are sympathetic to your struggles because your appearance makes your whining palatable. And I'm not saying your feelings of depression aren't genuine. They're valid. I'm only saying if a Black, or Hispanic, or hell, even Asian person said the same things you do, they'd be labeled as ungrateful. If we rotted in bed like you, our oily hair would be seen as dirty and lazy instead of relatable. We have to confine ourselves into these perfect yet non-threatening boxes, while you have the privilege of complaining because you fit the aesthetic of sad white girl that society thirsts for."

✨️ Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy of this mind-bending book in exchange for an honest review.

Ever read a book and stop to go back and read the summary because the story is going somewhere you aren't sure you thought it was going? That was this book! Multiple times! The reader is reading along all nice and happy, sad main character with dismal life watching her estranged twin living the shiny perfect life of an influencer when she gets a weird phone call. The reader is chuckling when the sad twin goes to find the shiny twin dead and decides to take her life. Okay, this is all traditional trope territory. Modern twist is that sad twin finds out quickly that the influencer life isn't as shiny and perfect as she thought, or as is presented in social media. But the reader expects that and keeps reading, enjoying the anticipated comedic events to come. Um, well, then this big ol' whatever comes and blows the entire story off any expected course and the reader is reading along all confused and "wtf"-ing. Yup! And that's all I can say! And either the reader is going to be reading along thinking "um, no, this doesn't work for me" or "um, wow, this is crazy and I'm here for it!" Well, I was here for it to the detriment of my beauty sleep and it was worth it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoy discovering new authors and new stories, and I took a chance with this book knowing it was outside my usual reading interest. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It started out very strong, with a premise I found very interesting – a twin (Julie) takes her sister’s (Chloe) place after her sister dies suddenly. Chloe is a social media darling – an influencer making a very large income and living a very lavish life. The first half of the book was solid and followed this story line, but the second half of the book went completely sideways and turned into a very unrealistic and unbelievable story line. I cannot say much without giving spoilers, but one scene involved a group of women deliberately eating live baby mice – yes, that really happened. If you like books like Bunny, this is a good choice for you.

Review for “ Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang”

1. Plot Uniquenes :4/5
2. Pacing and Coherence : 4/5
3. Emotional and Interllexrual Engagekent : 2/5
4. Twists and turns : 3/5
5. Protagonist Character Development : 4/5
6. support character development : 3.5/5
7. Setting and atmosphere : 3/5
8. Chapter Organization : 4/5
9. Conclusion and tied loose ends : 4/5
10. Overall rating of book : 3.5/5

Whoa. Julie Chan is Dead is a diabolical, chaotic good time that went in directions I never expected.

The cover gives popcorn thriller/women’s fiction/satire vibes, and there are elements of all of those genres in this book for sure. The plot does require you to suspend your disbelief, which I was completely fine with because I was so engrossed in this story. I read it in a couple of sittings and couldn’t wait to get back to it when real life intruded.

Meet Julie Chan, who works a dead-end job at a grocery store, lives in a crumbling home, and has a strained relationship with her emotionally distant, cruel aunt, who took her in when she was four after Julie’s parents died in a car accident. Julie has a twin sister named Chloe, who was adopted into a different family (a white, wealthy one), and they have no contact with each other until the day Chloe shows up at Julie’s job, camera crew in tow, to film their tearful reunion for her YouTube channel (#EMOTIONAL). And then Chloe goes back to her glamorous life as a social media influencer, leaving Julie in the dust – until the night she calls Julie, mumbling and incoherent, and Julie ultimately finds Chloe dead in her fancy NYC apartment. A simple misunderstanding allows Julie to sip seamlessly into her sister’s sparkly shoes and assume her identity…but Julie soon learns that Chloe’s luxurious lifestyle isn’t at all what it appears to be.

It’s hard to believe this is Liann Zhang’s debut, because it is so impressive and is doing so much. The fact that Julie could slip so easily into Chloe’s life, fooling her millions of social media followers, acquaintances, and even closest friends, says so much about the types of superficial connections that social media cultivates. And of course, there’s the whole idea of influencer culture itself, with its lack of authenticity; Zhang’s commentary about social media is razor sharp and darkly hilarious. She also digs into issues of race and class in a really meaningful way. And then the last third of the book is on another level entirely, spiraling into a surreal fever dream of horror and violence and wow, I just absolutely loved where this book took me. The whole book was a roller coaster ride of wild energy that went off the rails in the most brilliant way.

Julie Chan is Dead is one of those books that sneaks up on you and then just goes completely nuclear, leaving you reeling and exhilarated. I wouldn’t recommend this for all readers because it gets a bit gross at the end, but if you enjoyed books like Natural Beauty and Bunny, you will love this. Thank you to Atria Books for the early reading opportunity.

This book is unhinged in the best possible way. Like, that’s the only way you could describe a book that centres around a twin assuming the life of her estranged influencer sister after finding her dead, right? But it’s compelling and paints a fascinating portrait of influencer culture, identity, fame and wealth. Julie Chan is Dead is a unique debut that feels adjacent to White Lotus and Yellowjackets. I devoured this book so quickly and can’t wait for other people to read it so we can discuss!!

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Julie Chan was separated from her twin at 4 years old after their parents die in a car accident. Chloe is adopted by an affluent white couple while Julie gets adopted by her aunt. They grow up in completely opposite lives. Fast forward to now and Chloe is a social media influencer and Julie works at a supermarket. They have no relationship, except for years ago when Chloe bought Julie a house and used it as a YouTube video. One night Julie gets a phone call from Chloe and she goes to New York to make sure she’s okay and finds her dead. Julie then takes on the identity of Chloe and pretends that the body was that of Julie Chan.
Julie gets immersed into the lives of social media influencers and we see the dark side (albeit unhinged dark side) of influencers and how they rise to fame.

This book was ADDICTING! The writing and flow had me not wanting to put down the book and staying up way too late. I was laughing and cringing and screaming at parts- iykyk. That ending had me saying wtf did I just read?! But in the best way.
Thank you so so much to Atria books and Netgalley for this ARC! I’m recommending at the top of my lungs.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this book. I received this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are entirely my own.

In this book Julie Chan is the twin sister to influencer Chloe. Julie was adopted by her aunt while Chloe was raised by a wealthy family. Julie is called by her sister Chloe one day after work and Chloe sounds out of breath and keeps talking about a mistake and ends the call. After Julie doesn’t hear from Chloe she goes to New York to her apartment and is instantly mistaken for her twin Chloe. Julie arrives to the apartment and finds Chloe dead and decides to steal her life since it was so easy for people to mistake her for Chloe and gets caught up with being an influencer. Julie as Chloe is invited to Bella Marie’s family island where she and other female influencers are involved in this cult where they sacrifice something big to get what they want. As well as doing some pretty disturbing things in order to get what they want. Julie is found out about not being Chloe and she finds out that Bella Marie killed Chloe because she wanted to tell the truth about the cult. Julie gives the girls a sleeping gummy and ends up putting them all on fire except for one who miscarried on the island and the other had been kidnapped and placed somewhere else after seeing the others being cult-y. Julie is arrested and decides to tell her story on a livestream days before her trial.

Julie Chan is Dead was a miss for me. I felt like there were a lot of bitter feelings and then a lot of cultlike storylines that didn't quite get resolved. There are times the plot could've gone somewhere but then it faded. The ending seemed too clean and wrapped in bow and very unlikely.

Sharp, witty, and mysterious—this one surprised me with its emotional depth beneath the satire. While the title sets up for shock value, the novel delivers thoughtful commentary on fame, identity, and grief. The pacing was a little uneven, but I couldn’t put it down. A smart, strange, and satisfying read.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of this book - I was so excited to review it!

This book felt like 3 different stories all in one: Julie’s life before Chloe’s death, her life as an influencer after assuming her twin’s identity, and that CRAZY shenanigans that went on all around that private island. I found every character to be very unlikeable, but was ultimately interested in how everything would play out. The beginning of the book had slow pacing and the writing felt clunky as the story was getting started, BUT it really picked up about halfway through the story and I couldn’t put it down near the end. With a little more editing in the beginning, this could have been a 4-star read, but it took a little too long to really get into the story. The back 1/3 of the book was the best.

If you are a fan of mean girl antics, and misbehaved social media influencers then this book is for you! Overall this read more like a screenplay and I think this would play out very well in a limited series format.

𝗠𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 4⭐️
JULIE CHAN IS DEAD
🤍𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: thriller/mystery
📖 320 pages
𝗘𝗺𝗼𝗷𝗶𝘀: 🤫🤳🏼📸🌆🚔😱💊📱🚲📔🏝️🛩️🐁🔥
𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: 4/29/2025

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:
◽️ influencers
◽️ cults

💛𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲💛

Thank you @simon.audio @netgalley @librofm @atriabooks for the #gifted copy!

This is an absolute knockout of a debut—fast-paced, sharply entertaining, & instantly immersive. From the first chapter, the plot hooks you in with its biting commentary on influencer culture & the intoxicating power of social media. Zhang doesn’t just skim the surface; she dives deep into the pressure, performance, & addiction to validation that drives so much of the online world.

Set against a backdrop of private jets, mysterious islands, & curated perfection, the story delivers both suspense & satire, wrapped in cultish vibes & comic relief. The characters are exaggerated just enough to feel both ridiculous & all too real, & the audio version takes it to another level. The narrator’s ability to switch voices added so much personality & clarity—I laughed, I cringed, & I couldn’t stop listening. Highly recommend this for anyone who loves a smart, stylish mystery with a razor-sharp edge!

𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁: Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier, is pulled into the glamorous world of her estranged twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a famous influencer who’s found dead under suspicious circumstances. Seizing the opportunity, Julie steps into Chloe’s shoes & begins living her luxurious life of fame, followers, & flawless filters. At first, the transformation is seamless—but the picture-perfect life quickly starts to crack.
During a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s inner circle of influencer friends, Julie struggles to keep up the charade while feeling increasingly out of place. As secrets unravel & danger closes in, Julie must confront the truth about Chloe’s death—before she becomes the next victim.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Liann Zhang for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Julie Chan Is Dead coming out April 29, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received this directly from NetGalley. I thought the summary sounded really interesting. I’m not sure about the execution though. It started off really well and I enjoyed it, but I think it became a little too unhinged for me. There was a lot going on and I wasn’t as into it as the beginning. I would check out other books by this author though. I really enjoy Asian stories.

Book review 📖

📜Julie Chan Is Dead
✍️Liann Zhang
📠Atria Books
📚Mystery/Thriller Fiction/Satire
🗓️Pub date: April 29, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @atriabooks @atriathrillers for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to @theliannz for keeping me up way too late, giggling myself into crying fits. Julie Chan is everything!

✨Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier, is nothing like her twin sister, Chloe—moreso now since she’s the only one of the two with a pulse. Separated at a young age, the twins rarely spoke with one another. Only when Chloe becomes a mega influencer and has something to gain from the public eye does she show Julie any amount of attention. So when Chloe ends up dead from mysterious circumstances and Julie is the one to find her, the wheels start turning in motion.

✨Pretending to be Chloe is easy. After all, it’s not everyday you can slip into designer clothes, have a meticulous skincare routine, millions of followers on social media, and PR boxes galore at your doorstep.

✨On a weeklong island trip with Chloe’s influencer friends, Julie soon realizes that behind Chloe’s perfect façade was anything but, and realizes the dangers that lie in the dark. As an event spirals out of control, Julie is caught in the cross-hairs and fears her life may be next.

✨In the likes of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface and Jesse Q. Sutanto’s You Will Never Be Me, Julie Chan is Dead is satirically sharp and witty, and I will be singing this book’s praises from the rooftop of Chloe Van Huusen’s NYC highrise! From laugh-out-loud scenes and one-liners, to the accuracy of the cut-throat and catty social media world, this book couldn’t be more down-to-earth and just REAL. The ending took a crazy and unexpected turn, but nods to the absurdity of Julie’s newfound life.
This book is a new favorite of mine!
ALL.THE.DAMN.STARS!

#netgalley #juliechanisdead #liannzhang #atriabooks #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #springreleases #thrillerfiction #readthisnow #debutauthor

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier, steps into her dead twin sister Chloe's life as a famous influencer after finding her body under mysterious circumstances. She starts posting as the influencer but discovers her sister's seemingly perfect world was hiding dark secrets. During an island retreat she uncovers sinister forces behind her sister's death and realizes she might be the next target.

Thank you @atriabooks for the arc!

One thing I absolutely love in books is satire, and this was SO much fun! There isn't one dull moment in all 320 pages. I had an inkling something wild was coming, but I never could have predicted where that ending would go.
It shows all sides of the coin: the media consumers, the bts influencer lifestyle, and the massive egos that often develop.

It's thought-provoking, completely unhinged, and wildly entertaining. It blends thriller elements with sharp satire of influencer culture, constantly wondering how far someone would go to get everything they’ve ever wanted.

Julie Chan is alive; then she’s not. Kind of. In “Julie Chan Is Dead” (Atria Books, $28.99), Liann Zhang serves up influencer culture with a twist of doppelgänger drama, a splash of social satire and a full-blown shot of unhinged chaos. When Julie finds her estranged (and very famous) twin sister dead in a luxury apartment, she does what any cash-strapped supermarket cashier might do: steals her identity, skin care routine and 1.2 million followers.

What follows is a dizzying descent into #glamlife hell, complete with cultish retreats, murdery besties and ghosted brand deals — literally. Think “Yellowface” meets “The Talented Mr. Ripley” in a ring light. Zhang’s debut is biting, bonkers and just self-aware enough to make you laugh while you’re cringing. It’s not always tidy, but that’s kind of the point. Virality is messy, and so is grief. Consider this the ultimate anti-influencer beach read. Bring SPF. And maybe sage.

Wow what a story.... and unfortunately, not in a good way. The first half of the book was actually very interesting. Julie has always been living a vastly different life then her twin Chloe. The girls were separated at a young age after her parents were killed and Chloe got adopted to a wealthy family and becomes an influencer. Julie, on the other hand, is raised by her aunt and struggles to survive. When Julie receives a garbled phone call from Chloe she goes to check on her and finds her dead. Seeing an opportunity Julie decides to take over Chloe's life. This is the point where the book turns and becomes an almost different book altogether. I don't want to give anything away but the rest of the book is filled with the unbelievable and incredibly disturbing. I honestly feel like there should be more of a warning as well for the second half of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Julie Chan is a twin who was separated from her sister Chloe, when their parents died in an accident as young children. Julie is raised by her Aunt and Chloe was adopted by a couple with money giving her a very different upbringing than Julie’s lonely struggling life. Her Aunt only wants to collect a check for keeping Julie. Chloe is a popular influencer, and contacts Chloe later in life to make a video on meeting her and buying her a house. After she makes the video which gains millions of views, she stops contact with Julie. This eats at Julie who has always missed her sister, and she realizes all Chloe wanted to do was exploit her. One day she receives a phone call that says she’s with heavy breathing and then hangs up. Julie tries to text and call with no response, so she goes to Chloe’s home only to find her unalive. She calls the police and quickly gets caught up in the lie of them thinking she is Chloe. Instead of correcting them, she believes this could be her way of living the life she has always wanted and takes on her identity. She has an agent who contacts her (through Chloe’s phone which she can unlock with her identical face), to make sure she is going to a high profile event with the Belladonna’s, a group of seven high profile influencers, and because she doesn’t want to raise suspicions she agrees.

Because they are identical twins, everyone thinking she is Chloe is realistic, but as I’m reading this, I’m thinking how can she pull off the personality? She should know all these people right? Thankfully this book was well thought out and every unbelievable idea is backed with a realistic explanation. Julie is able to use grief of losing her sister for her forgetfulness and sadder state than usual when someone confesses that they think she has changed. Also because everyone is an influencer, she is able to go through everyone’s accounts and quickly learn things about them since they share everything.

The Belladonna’s also seem to go dark on social media once a year for a week. It’s a top secret retreat that they can never share anything about. Phones are not allowed. Julie is in the dark on what goes on here, but Chloe has been for the past five years, so she has to act like she knows what’s going on. This is where the story gets really strange with occult behavior on a private island in the middle of nowhere.
Like I said, the whole story was well thought out. Anytime I questioned something, it has an explanation.

This book has mystery, thrills, and even horror once they arrive on the island. This is perfect for those of you who like to read books about the occultist elite with bizarre circumstances, fans of the show YellowJackets, and fans of the book Bunny by Mona Awad (although don’t get confused… these books are not the same, only the circle of occultist girls and the bizarre within the group are).

What a WILD ride this book is and I loved every bit of it! For a debut thriller novel, I must say I am very impressed by Liann Zhang! I could not put this book down... Finished in 5 WORKING days which is something I haven't been able to do for a while now but I could not stop reading just to figure out WHAT IS GOING OOONNNNNN!?!? I love cult-ish stories so cult and a beach getaway.... Sign me up! Also dives into the dark side of social media where people are pushed to extremes such as stealing your own dead sisters identity... what could go wrong... only one way to find out... READ THIS !!!

Thank you to the publishers at Atria Books and NetGalley for the e-arc!!! :)

If you’re looking for a fast, unputdownable thriller with a sharp edge and a twisted sense of humor, Julie Chan Is Dead needs to be on your radar. Julie Chan Is Dead is Zhang’s debut thriller, and wow—what a debut It’s witty, dark, and fast-paced, giving readers a backseat view into the wild world of influencer culture.

Julie Chan is a supermarket cashier stuck in a boring, unsatisfying life. Her identical twin, Chloe VanHuusen, lives a completely different existence as a glamorous, successful influencer. The two were separated at a young age after their parents died in a tragic accident. Their aunt—a ruthless and uncaring woman—could only take one child and chose Julie. Chloe was adopted by a wealthy white couple, mostly for optics, as they wanted to appear non-racist by adopting a Chinese child.

The twins met only once, during a cringey “Buying My Long-Lost Twin a House” video Chloe made for views. But then Julie gets a strange, cryptic call from Chloe. When she notices her sister has gone completely silent on social media, she gets a weird feeling and decides to check on her. She finds Chloe’s body—and what follows is a wild ride that ends with Julie stepping into her sister’s life.

You’d think impersonating your identical twin wouldn’t be that hard, but Julie has to research Chloe’s mannerisms, speech, and even her social circles to pull it off. The people closest to Chloe (and Julie) are the biggest threat—they know her too well.

Then Julie gets an invite from Bella, one of Chloe’s influencer friends, for a girls’ trip. She’s equal parts excited and anxious—she has no idea what kind of relationships Chloe had with these people. And even stranger, no one seems too concerned about Chloe’s absence, not even her adoptive parents. What secrets was Chloe hiding?

And then the trip happens. This section of the book takes a wild, dark turn. I won’t spoil it, but once I figured out what was going on, I was hooked. It was unexpected, intense, and totally entertaining. There were even moments that made me laugh—though I do have a pretty dark sense of humor.

Overall, this book was a fast, entertaining read. It’s the perfect quick summer thriller (though honestly, it would also be great for spooky season). I still can’t believe this is a debut. Zhang offers a fresh, sharp take on influencer culture, and I absolutely devoured this book. The characters worked, the plot kept me flipping pages, and the second half—especially the island setting—was totally unhinged in the best way. This debut takes influencer culture, identity swaps, and sisterhood to a whole new level of wild.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me a chance to read this fresh and wild eARC.