I love an unhinged book, and with reviews relating this book to Yellowface, I definitely wanted to read it.

I saw many people talking about 'how insane, and twisty' this book was, so my expectations were high. AND INSANE AND TWISTY IT SURE WAS.

The premise of a postmortem twin swap, is already an unhinged spin on a classic, and it only got more from there. It tows the line of believability at times.

I don't think I will read it again, and it wont be an all time favorite, but it was a fun distraction from real life.

This book was phenomenal. I can’t believe it’s the author’s debut novel. At first, I didn’t think I’d find the storyline believable, but I got completely sucked in — just like the main character did. It explores themes similar to Yellowface, though the plot is totally different. At its core, this is a sharp commentary on social media and influencer culture, and what the industry can turn people into. When you’re constantly chasing clout, how far would you go? The ending was *chef’s kiss.*

The author clearly did her homework on influencer culture. The stats and industry details were surprisingly accurate (to my knowledge), and she wove in subtle nods to real-life influencer drama. If you follow those influencers (or in my case, follow video essayists on YouTube who break it down lol), you’ll catch on. I could be wrong, but I think some of the influencers in the book are definitely based on real life influencers, for sure.

I don’t usually like horror, and I wouldn’t classify this book as that, but some parts were gruesome. I had a grimace of disgust frozen on my face while reading some chapters. But I do think those moments were necessary for the plot and didn’t feel cheap or gimmicky.

I loved this book. It was thrilling, fast-paced, and mysterious. Also, messy! I think those who loved Yellowface by R.F. Kuang would also like this one.

Unhinged, but utterly bingeable. Compelling, disturbing, and much darker than the cover suggests. I enjoyed the questions this book delves into about identity and performance and what we are willing to give up for fame, money, clicks and likes, but sometimes it went too off the rails for me to think seriously about any of it. Dark satire, dark humor, dark plot twists that left me feeling a little squeamish.

Julie Chan is a supermarket cashier who is barely holding her life together, while her twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, is a popular influencer raking in money. The two were separated when they were young and barely spoke as adults, until Chloe filmed a viral video with Julie in which she buys her a house. But when Julie discovers Chloe’s dead body under very mysterious circumstances, she steps into her twin’s life without much though - with dire consequences. This was a wild ride! While the story is a bit slow to start - the general premise is, of course, unhinged - but once Julie enters the world of influencers, things really start zipping along. Zhang manages to perfectly skewer the sinister world of influencing, of overconsumption, of how whiteness permeates the world in which these women operate. The first two acts are compelling and frequently funny while also being terrifying, and the book’s final third is so completely bonkers that readers won't believe what happens next. This is a memorable, twisty thriller that will have readers clamoring for whatever Zhang writes next.

After finding her influencer twin dead, Julie Chan slips into her sister’s glamorous life, only to uncover dangerous secrets that could make her the next victim.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was so much fun and such a great mashup of different genres and tropes. It was different than other books based on influencers and brought something new. Highly recommend for anyone who loves suspense, satire, and some dark humor!

Thanks for the opportunity to read!

Thank you Atria and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I loved this book! Cult, thriller, mystery satire, mixed with horror. I believed this was very well written and I even laughed a few times. It was so much fun to experience and I am excited for another book from Zhang. Definitely entertaining, I’d recommend to anyone chronically online.

This book was awesome! There was so much to the plot but it never felt overwhelming. It was done so well that I had no idea what was coming next! I adored Julie and love that the ending was a complete surprise. That’s always a treat for me. This was ridiculously well done, I guess you could say sublime.

What happens when you decide to step into your dead twin sister's influencer's life? Well in Julie Chan is Dead that is what Julie does only to uncover dark secrets that were hidden behind her sister's social media appearance in this interesting thriller. This was written with intriguing characters and kept you guessing until the end. The book was definitely weird with murder, strange rituals and more. I did enjoy this one and would recommend this book to any reader who likes thrillers or mysteries. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang.

I really thought this book was going to be a 5 star read.

Sadly, this one let me down so hard. From the beginning I was entranced by Liann Zhang's writing and Julie Chan as a character. I thought it is was a very fun idea for a mystery book to have Julie become her estranged twin sister. It was all going very well until we entered into a retreat-style influencer trip (the women on the trip literally made me lose brain cells). Somewhere along the way Zhang lost the spunk in her writing and Julie was no longer enjoyable.

I fully understand characters change and grow, but there were no more funny comments or thoughts. She wasn't sarcastic. I get that she was a playing a part by this point but I just felt like she and the purpose of the story got lost.

I'd say overall, this is an okay book. If you are looking for a satisfying ending I'm not sure you will find it here but it is a very open ended one. I just wish the writing and characters that we found at the beginning of this novel were found throughout. It just fell a bit flat after about 70% through. There was a lot of commentary about influencer culture and white privilege but nothing really groundbreaking being said.

This honestly read like two entirely different books.

We follow Julie Chan, a girl who was separated from her twin when they were young and lives a mediocre life. Her twin, Chloe, is a famous influencer, but doesn't want anything to do with Julie. When Julie receives a mysterious call from Chloe and checks in on her, she finds her dead in her apartment. The only logical next step is for her to take her sister's place and step into her life.

There were aspects of this book that I really enjoyed. The tension of wondering if Julie will get away with it, the focus on all of the dark aspects of social media and influencer culture, etc. However, halfway through the book it completely switched gears to an island cult vibe. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love a book about cults, but it felt completely out of left field. Overall, I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't memorable.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

I thought that this book was definitely a wild ride. I ran through this book so fast I didn’t even take a break. This is one for a good cozy weekend where you are really craving a fast paced thriller. You have a twisty plot with all sorts of turns around the corners and dark humor and dysfunction galore. You will laugh out loud, you will comment to yourself, you will question things and you will not quite see that ending. If you love different types of thrillers with a little bit of everything for everybody, then this is one you will want to put on your TBR and read.

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Atria Boooks

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang is about a twin who takes over her deceased sister's influencer life. Julie has lived a completely different life from her twin sister, but overnight, she decides to become Chloe VanHuusen the influencer. She has a lot to learn very quickly, but she manages to fool Chloe's influencer friends. She even gets invited on an exclusive influencer trip with them, but that's when things go sideways. I actually really enjoyed the majority of this book; I thought it was a good exploration of the influencer lifestyle. But the story went off the rails in the last third. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

HA this book in bonkers! A twin takes over her sister's influencer life after she dies, and gets caught up in a wild ride of cults, murder, and fashion!!

This book certainly reads like two different novels split in the middle. I love the unhinged part one, where Julie discovers her estranged twin, a famous influencer, has died and through a series of mishaps, takes over her life and make it seem like Julie is the one who died. Like a really weird, warped version of The Parent Trap. Zhang does not hold back on Julie's out of the box theories about life, her wild decisions, and somewhat troubling inner monologue. But all of that gets thrown out the window during the second half, when Julie gets enveloped in a cult-like group of other influencers, led by a scary woman who invites them all to an island for a secret vacation. And this is where things get REALLY weird.

While the book is wholly original, it also was just so wild that while I had fun reading it, it was hard not to also roll my eyes at some points. It's def satire, but not executed in a perfectly satirical way and I wasn't sure what the author wanted to really say by the end (besides the well-trodden themes of social media bad). The book is wrapped up a little too well, but it was a fun read regardless!

I'm going to preface this review by saying that this book starts off relatively insane and just gets more insane as it goes. But I LIKED it.

Julie Chan's life sucks. She and her twin were separated when they were very young after their parents died in a car accident. Julie ends up with her not so great aunt and her twin, Chloe, ends up being adopted by a rich, white family. Julie can't makes ends meet, while Chloe is a beloved influencer who seemingly has the perfect life, and when they're adult, Chloe uses Julie to up her numbers.

When Julie finds Chloe dead one night, rather than tell the truth, she decides to take over Chloe's life.

Now. I'll say that Chloe is painted pretty poorly at first - she seems spoiled, out of touch, and uses her sister for likes and comments. When she dies, I was rooting for Julie to take over. Which is crazy, but hey, I used to love soap operas so it was kind of a fun premise.

But then Julie falls in with a group of well known influencers, and suddenly Julie taking over her dead sister's life is the least insane thing of the entire book.

I can understand why this book isn't more highly rated, because it does require you to suspend your beliefs a bit. But this is why I absolutely loved it. I could not put this book down and in fact, not only did it get me out of my reading slump, I finished it in a day! And honestly? Julie is AWESOME.

Go get your hands on it and get ready for a wild ride!

Julie Chan is your pretty typical 20-something supermarket cashier with a chronic addiction to doom scrolling. Julie has a sister, a twin. However, her and her sister, Chloe, were separated at a young age after their parents died in a car crash. As luck would have it, Chloe is adopted by a rich couple in New York City and Julie is adopted by her aunt who sees her as not much more than an inconvenience and potential income.

Chloe's nepotism shines and she becomes an online influencer, kept afloat by brand deals and selfies. I have never read a novel with any mention of influencers before, let alone one that really explored that sphere so this was very interesting.

In stark contrast to this, Julie struggles to make ends meet and resorts to stealing food from work to get by. That is until Chloe has a new plan for a viral video - Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL.

After some more background story and insight into Julie's early years, Julie receives an extremely odd phone call from Chloe, not a regular occurrence! In a panic, Julie heads to NYC to check in with Chloe and everything takes a turn, a The Parent Trip-esque turn...

It's certainly a book of two halves and I have seen some folks rate the second half less than the first. I can see where they are coming from but I think, in true media/Hollywood movie style, the ball has started rolling and there's no stopping it. The plot is giving very much runaway train.

I loved it! As I said, I've never read a book focused on Influencers. There was some interesting discourse regarding the potential for Influencers to do some good with their reach and wealth, versus just plugging brands and encouraging young girls to try a new diet tea. Furthermore, there was plenty of discussion (which felt both ironic and post-ironic) regarding how tough it is to be an Influencer because they never get a break. Even when they're on holiday at a 5-star hotel they're still suffering through creating content. Now, I understand the opinion but I don't think it lands and I think, whichever way you look at it, it's not an argument in good taste.

I enjoyed the idea of the inner circle of influencers, which you do see/hear about online, and end up wondering if these people are really friends or are they just after another million subscribers.

There are several mentions of other Influencers and celebrities, some of whom we meet and discover in more detail. All of whom I googled their names JUST in case any were real (some were). This felt very meta, highlighting to me that even though I don't typically buy into this sphere, I still wanted to be in the know!

There are some confronting scenes, namely an Influencer capitalising on what can only be described as trauma (see content warnings). There is also some clever foreshadowing, both through the use of emojis in captions and DM's, and through the mention of Donna Tartt's The Secret History... If you know, you know, and if you don't—you'll probably google it.

A conceit of this novel is whether Chloe truly loved Julie, because, for better or worse, Julie certainly loved Chloe. I think there's one tell-tale incident that proved Chloe did love her sister, even if she did use and abuse her for views, but that's purely my opinion.

If you've seen the movie Blink Twice, it kind of, almost gets as insane as that, although no, or less, SA. As I said the ending is a runaway train, in the best way, and I couldn't put the book down. I can't believe this is Zhang's FIRST novel. I think she's going to take this genre by storm and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Identical twins Julie and Chloe's lives couldn't be more different. Julie, stuck in the grind as a supermarket cashier, contrasts sharply with her sister Chloe, a dazzling luxury lifestyle influencer. But everything changes when Julie stumbles upon Chloe's lifeless body, thrusting her into a whirlwind of chaos.

In a bold and audacious move, Julie decides to infiltrate Chloe's glamorous existence. However, this new life is far from the sparkling facade it presents. As Julie delves deeper, she uncovers shocking truths lurking behind Chloe's seemingly flawless online persona.

What I enjoyed most about this novel is its sharp satire and incisive social commentary on influencer culture, the pitfalls of social media, and the quest for validation in a digital age. Julie's outrageous scheme to assume her sister's identity had me hooked, as I eagerly followed her journey into the darker corners of fame.

However, the plot takes an unexpected and wildly unrealistic turn that left me feeling a bit deflated. While I appreciated the boldness of the twist, it felt over the top and detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story.

In conclusion, Julie Chan Is Dead offers a compelling exploration of identity and the impact of social media, even if it stumbles a bit in its execution. If you're intrigued by the complexities of influencer life, this book is worth a read, just be prepared for an over the top twist.

I judged a book by its cover and did not read the full synopsis. While it started off with cozy mystery vibes it eventually turned DARK. like uncomfortable and found myself going WTF several times. It also was so off the wall I had to finish to see how it wrapped up.

I like this book in a lot of ways, but I also kind of hate this book. The writing is great! The ideas of fresh. Who doesn’t love a cult? The main character? Kind of a fucking cunt, if I’m being frank. Reading her inner monologue was almost difficult at times because she is so unlikable. That’s not to say the other characters are likable — they absolutely are not. I think the main character provide well thought out, thorough, and complex narratives, trauma, and personal beliefs. It truly felt like I was inside someone’s head.

I wasn’t expecting the entire book energy to go from lighthearted and fun to weird and unhinged since I hadn’t seen much on the book but I enjoyed the way it turned that’s my favorite kind of stories when they flip what you think to another thing completely