Julie Chan Is Dead is about a woman named Julie who finds her estranged social media influencer identical twin dead. Julie decides to continue to live life as her twin and absorb herself into the world of influencing through the Belladonnas, a group of influencers who will do anything for followers and money.
I unfortunately thought this book was going to be more of a thriller and instead it showed how wild and crazy influencing can been. Some parts of the book were too much for me. I think some trigger warnings should be known prior to reading, such as eating a live animal and miscarriage. I also had a hard time with many characters in the book, there was little growth of the characters throughout.
The book is fast paced with short chapters, and I enjoyed how the author wrapped up the story at the end. This is a book for those who are interested in social media/influencing and how unhinged it can become!
Thank you to Atria Books & NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

Thank you Atria and Netgalley for my earc. This was 3.5 star read for me downgraded to a 3 star.

A book about an influencer pretending to be someone she's not? The plot kicks off when Julie Chan steps into the designer heels of her recently deceased estranged twin sister who happens to be a mega famous social media influencer. Julie’s only mildly concerned about impersonating someone she barely knew. Cue Elle Woods shrug — “What, like it’s hard?”

As a reader, this book sent my anxiety through the roof—but I think that was intended. I was constantly on edge, convinced Julie was going to be exposed at every turn. The tension ramps up especially once she becomes indoctrinated with a group of young, female influencers #girlboss #blessed and gets invited to a mysterious, off-the-grid social media detox retreat.

The focus of the second half of the novel is the girls trip and it takes a sharp left turn into the unexpected—think culty, creepy, and horror light vibes. The shift in tone swan dives into full-on WTF is happening territory. I genuinely had to stop a few times just to process the madness. I'm not entirely sure what genre this book would be marketed as, but cuckoo-bananas is a good descriptor.

With a sharply satirical edge, this book offers tongue-in-cheek social commentary on influencer culture and the unhinged lengths people will go for internet fame—and trust me- it gets dark with a capital D. This debut feels best suited for fans of new adult fiction, though it skews a bit young at times. Still, it's a wild ride and a fun, twisty, easy debut for your summer TBR.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this juicy tale. I ate this book up in one day. It was so salacious and fun to see some of the extremes that influencers may feel they need to go to. It's a bit of a generalization of influencer culture but it's as addictive as getting stuck scrolling social media or binge watching Gossip Girl. Things took a turn close to the 70% mark which is why this isn't a 5 star for me. While reading, you have a feeling this is where it's going and dang did it go there! Still very much enjoyed the journey of this story, but thought the ending could have been better.

Julie Chan has a sister, Chloe who is a famous influencer, they are actually twins. Chloe reached out to her for content, ended up gifting her a home just for Likes, and whatever these influencers are into. Julie didnt have it easy growing up, even though she had her aunt who cared for her Chloe made it look like she was living her best life. Them chloe reaches out, and Julie goes to her and shes dead.

After that happens, the journey that Julie embarks on it a wild one. Because we all know when it comes to social media that not everything is as it seems and the life of the influencer is hard work. It gets cult-ish, and really spooky, and Julie is working OVERTIME to keep her true identity locked out. Until she gets invited to go away with some other well known influencers and thats where the spooky and cult-ish things start to happen.

If this is the dark side of influencing I don't want it!!!!! lol. It was a pretty wild book.

This was a fun one! Think Yellowface and Bunny.

Julie is a cashier at a grocery store and is often mistaken for her twin sister, Chloe.
Julie and Chloe were separated as children, but Chloe (a very famous influencer) shows up with her good Samaritan hat and her camera crew to do a "good deed" for her sister, then immediately cuts her off. Shortly after, Julie finds Chloe dead.

We know where this is going.
Julie is going to pose as her extremely rich, famous sister and escape her mediocre life. She has immersed herself into a world she was not prepared for. Scandals, obsession, and a glimpse into the life of a mega influencer.

There is a part in the book with diet tea... And you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. That had me laughing out loud.

I recommend you check this out when it publishes April 29.

4 Stars

Note to self: never trust a cute cover again.
I never read book tags, so based on the cover, I totally expected a fluffy mystery chick-lit. Haha.
Instead, the author completely blindsided me with the direction this story took. From the middle to the end, it was one “Wait, what?!” moment after another. And that one particular scene? If you’ve read it, you know. I legit gagged and felt my skin crawl. (Not a complaint, though. Totally worth it.)

I loved every minute of this ride. Julie, our protagonist-slash-villain(?), was such a complex, sassy character. She actually made me snort-laugh more than once.
All in all, a super enjoyable and unputdownable read.

Note: Thank you, Atria Books, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Part mystery, part horror novel, Julie Chan is Dead was an interesting meld of both genres, though at times it tended to drag, especially in the middle. I definitely will be reading more from this author in the future.

This was wild. I think it sits on the fence of horror and thriller. If I had to pick a side of the fence, I’d put it on the horror side. This was hilarious and unsettling at the same time. The entire plot was crazy and I enjoyed every minute. This was so hard to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this ARC. This will be out on April 29, 2025. Don’t forget to add it to your TBR.

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
*arc via NetGalley*

𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗞
Supermarket cashier Julie Chan discovers her estranged twin sister Chloe, a famous influencer, dead! Julie takes over Chloe’s life, but beneath the luxury and fame, she finds a web of dark secrets, fake personas, and a chilling mystery about her sister’s death.

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡
This book starts off with a bang - funny, fast-paced, and totally outrageous. Julie was easy to relate to, and I was on her side from the start.

Once the influencer world took center stage, the story lost a bit of its momentum for me. The pacing slowed, and I found myself drifting a little, wondering if the thriller part was ever going to show up.

And then, around 60% things got wild. The weird little hints we’d been getting started to snap into place, and suddenly it turned pitch black and totally unhinged and I kind of loved it. Honestly, I just wish that shift had come earlier because the dark, twisted bits were where the book really shined for me.

The ending was pretty wackadoo and totally unrealistic, but it suited the satirical vibe and I closed the book smiling.

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗?
If you’re into dark humor, influencer satire, and thrillers that don’t take themselves too seriously, this debut is a great time.

Thanks to @Netgalley and
@AtriaBooks for access to this advanced readers copy

All while reading this book, I could see it on Hulu. It’s fast, clean with no dragging and funny. Julie is not the hero you are used to (or period) and Chloe has unexpected layers.
I didn’t want to be parted from this book for too long. My weekend was a blast with it. I am excited for it to come out and again for when someone picks this up as a limited series.

This book is a timely commentary on the content creator influencer world we are all living in. Two sisters separated after a family tragedy have very different upbringings with very different outcomes. After one sister is found dead, the other sister takes over her life and all the complexities that come with it. This book is one of the quick paced books that you can picture as a movie or miniseries. And maybe that is actually the best part of the book and the worst part of the book. The ending seemed almost too manipulative and unbelievable. I am not sure how I would have preferred it to end but I was disappointed in the ending. However, this book would be a great book club book because there is a lot to talk about!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Chan Is Dead is a very clever, very relevant novel tapping into the absurdities of internet culture with the perfect mixture of biting satire and insightful social commentary. Zhang’s concept feels eerily plausible in today’s influencer-obsessed society, and the novel does an excellent job threading the needle between darkly hilarious and disturbingly dystopian.

The book reflects on wealth, privilege, and the disingenuity of online personas. It manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and deeply unsettling, sometimes within the same scene. Julie’s character is compelling and I found myself genuinely worried for her as the story progressed, which speaks to how invested I was. While the story walks a fine line between ridiculous and grounded, the ending brings things full circle in a way that’s as satisfying as it is absurd.

My only critique is that the plot was a bit predictable, and I spent much of the book waiting for the inevitable fallout, though the journey was still extremely entertaining. 3.5 / 5 stars (rounded up to 4).

This book is whackadoodle and I loved it! Rich influencer twin sister found dead and poor estranged twin sister assumes her identity. Big indictment of social media influencers and how far people will go for power, likes and love. Is it love??!!

What a book! This was such an interesting plot - both wild and kind of believable. Julie Chan has a twin and the whole book revolves around the two of them plus a group of online influencers. The story starts kind of bananas, but it’s easy enough to follow the why. That continues to be true, until it doesn’t. And then?! It’s just wild. And unhinged in a good way. I hated the ending even if it was perfect and fit perfectly with the story.

Advanced reader copy provided by Atria and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

📚: Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
⭐️: 3.5/5 (rounding down on #goodreads)

Julie and Chloe - identical twins, separated at a young age with two very different upbringings. As adults, Julie finds herself in a dead end job as a supermarket cashier. Chloe finds herself as one of the internet’s most popular influencers.

Then, suddenly Julie comes across Chloe’s dead body. And she thinks, “what if I became Chloe?” And jumps into her influencer life.

This book was a wild ride that went from crazy to start to completely unhinged by the second half. As the plot spiraled, I found myself less engaged, although still entertained.

Thanks to Atria Books via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Julie Chan is Dead is out on April 29th.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early review copy.
 
This was a lot of fun.  The writing flows easily and I quickly became engaged, the pages flew by, I was reluctant to set it down.  I love getting completely sucked into a book like this!!  There are a lot of supporting characters and I mostly was able to keep everyone straight, which is impressive.  

This book teeters on the balance between horror and thriller, and it started to feel like it didn’t know what it wanted to be.  Is this a comedy/paranormal horror? Or a thriller that is satirizing society?  Answer: yes, it's a little bit of all of that.  I felt like Zhang wanted to write an insane book like  [book:Bunny|53285047], but she was afraid to fully commit.  So the story kept teetering between realistic psychological thriller, and wildly outrageous fantastical horror, which at times made it feel like it wasn't living up to its full potential.  Go Full Batshit!  I had this same problem with [book:The Other Black Girl|55711688], I wanted it to be more fully horror than it was.  Either fully commit to the horror and batshit insanity, or keep things realistic. (This is probably a "me" issue.)

I thought I knew where this was going, but then it took a surprising turn.  I alway appreciate being surprised by a book!  The end was not what I expected, either.

Overall, I loved this book and I cannot wait to see what else Zhang writes.  I'm amazed that she's such a young author.    

My complaints:  Julie Chan made a few incredibly stupid choices that took me out of the story.  Julie is kind of dense.   Maybe she's supposed to be? 

First of all, when you are pretending to be dead, you don't answer your phone.  It's kinda Rule #1 of Pretending to be Dead.  So right there, Julie fails rule #1.  At that point I had a hard time continuing to really support her, since why bother supporting someone who does dumb shit like that?   

Second, when you're away from home and weird shit keeps happening after meals and you keep waking up feeling hung over and not able to remember everything ... yes, it's possible you're being drugged.  That should be, like, your FIRST thought upon first waking up hungover.   But it takes Julie DAYS to get there.

The first 70% of this book just felt like a knockoff of "Yellowface" to me and I'm not even sure how to explain the last 30%. The ending really ruined the book for me. Sure, the first part wasn't super great, but I had fun reading it. The ending, however, felt super out of place and like I was reading an entirely different book. I really wanted to love this, but now I just feel bitter about it.

Honestly maybe closer to a 4.5! This book took an unexpected turn, but I was along for the ride. Julie’s narration got a little off the rails for me, but in a way that was unaligned with the rest of the book for me- with that said, it wasn’t enough to devalue the reading experience!!

Thanks to NetGalley et al., for the ARC!

Dark thriller about a sister taking on her influencer twins life after she discovers her body. Commentary on social media, race and identity, loneliness and grief, cliques and cults. Entertaining debut that felt a little disconnected between the NYC location and the private island mayhem. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy for a honest review.

I had the opportunity to read Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang, a gripping novel about twin sisters who are separated and later reunited—only for one to be found dead, prompting the other to assume her identity. The book almost felt like two distinct stories in one, but I found both parts equally compelling.

Around the halfway mark, the narrative shifts from a classic whodunit to something more rooted in psychological horror, and I really enjoyed how the genre blended and evolved. It added depth and kept the story feeling fresh and unexpected. Overall, it was a quick, engaging read with a unique twist on familiar thriller tropes.