Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a copy of Julie Chan Is Dead in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded to up 3.

I was hooked by the premise right away—a down-on-her-luck woman finds her influencer twin sister dead and decides to steal her life. (The Yellowface comparisons kind of make sense… to a point.)

The writing was easy to get into, and I enjoyed the satirical mystery about influencer culture. But about halfway through, the book takes a HARD left turn. It honestly felt like two different books mashed together, and the pacing never really recovered. The second half is absurd, and that’s where it lost me.

The characters are intentionally grating, which I understand, but the group of influencers Julie falls in with all blur together. I had trouble keeping track of who was who, so I stopped trying. I wanted more depth from both the plot and the people in it.

I stuck with it just to see how it ended, but I can’t say I really enjoyed it or felt satisfied by the payoff.

3.75 Stars
Wow. While I expected this novel to have some darkness after reading the description, I was totally unprepared for the places it went. Julie, an identical twin, receives a bizarre call from her estranged sister Chloe. She decides to visit her sister to find out more about this call, only to arrive at Chloe’s apartment and find her dead on the kitchen floor. In a moment of weakness, Julie assumes Chloe’s identity and takes on her sister’s life to try and find out what occurred. Chloe was a well-known influencer, Julie was a grocery store clerk, so this takes a bit of maneuvering both on social media and in person. It is when Julie (as Chloe) meets her sister’s influencer friends that things begin to take a dark turn. Oh what a twisted little path we are led down. I ended up reading as fast as I could, caught in the sticky fibers of the macabre little web Liann Zhang wove. I will go no further in description so as not to spoil it for anyone else, but recommend that you pick this up if you are into social media and thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley for the Advance Copy.

what a debut!!! i devoured this—it pulled me in right away and was such a quick, enjoyable read.

🎧 highly recommend the audiobook! the narrator was great and it was super easy to follow.

this one is getting early buzz and it’s definitely worth the hype! it has a ton of interesting pieces—it was giving YELLOWFACE meets SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE?! but yet very unique and like so many books / none at all? i was digging it!

the premise is so interesting: a girl’s identical twin (who is a famous influencer) is found dead. no one knows she’s dead yet. can she take over her famous sister’s glamourous life and leave her own behind?

i will say the first half the book felt v different than the second half which isn’t necessarily bad but i was not expecting it to go there. it almost turned kind of… cultish? the ending left me with some question marks, but overall this was just really fun.

also if you like books that poke fun at influencer culture, you will definitely like this book 🤣 i’d actually love to see a famous influencer read this and review it lol!

i have a feeling this one will get some 🎬 news too. it’s so timely to today’s culture and eerily realistic!

if you’re in a reading slump or looking for a fun, unique read to grab you right away, this will do the trick!

thanks to Atria for the gifted copy and Libro FM for the ALC :)

Julie Chan is Dead is brilliantly bizarre dark comedy-thriller that blends camp and satire to sharply critique influencer culture.

Liann Zhang has crafted a cast of delightfully zany characters and wildly imaginative plots.

Thank you to NetGalley & Atria Books for letting me read this ARC.

What a chaotic, twisty, fabulously unhinged thrill ride!

I devoured this book in one sitting. Julie stepping into her twin’s influencer life? ICONIC. It’s dark, sharp, and hilariously on point about social media culture. Every chapter had me gasping or laughing and often a mix of both!

If you're into mess, murder, and influencer drama with bite then this one's totally for you. Absolute blast.

ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!!

Misleading Marketing, Jarring Shift

This book felt like two entirely different stories stitched together — the first half promised a mystery, but the second took a sharp turn into a different genre altogether. I didn’t enjoy the direction it took, and the shift felt abrupt and misaligned with how the book was marketed.

I’m deliberately avoiding comparisons to similar titles, as even naming them would spoil the twist. But had this been labeled as horror rather than mystery, I might have been better prepared — or skipped it entirely. The mismatch between expectation and reality really impacted my enjoyment.

Trigger warning - animal death

I really enjoyed this book! As someone going through the struggle of life, Julie is immediately someone people can resonate with. The plot thickens, there’s some cool twists, and bam I ended up at the end of the book in one day. It is a fast paced book that has you turning page after page. The humor is so up my alley, and the commentary on parasocial relations, the media, and influencing hit me. A super interesting read!

Loved this so much! The second half of this book is absolutely unhinged and I ate it up. Happy this book actually went there!

What did I just read?! This book is WEIRD.
I had to sleep on this one...

Was I entertained? Yes.
Was I nauseous at some points? Yes.
Did I binge read the last 3/4 of the book? Yes

The first hundred pages of this book was reading almost YA and very GenZ. Then about half way through the book things started getting interesting, but weird. I was entertained with the social media/influencer aspect of the story and how easily we become addicted to the social world and our phones.

Julie Chan's twin sister that she was separated from as a child, Chloe VanHuusen, is one of the top social media influencers. When Chloe suddenly dies, Julie chooses to leave her mundane and impoverished life behind by taking over Chloe's identity. Julie is quickly enthralled by the luxurious influencer life... social media fans, the money, lavish events, free products, but what she doesn't realize is what she has to do to maintain her ranks with her social media friends and keep her new identity undercover. Will she fool everyone and keep Chloe's identity? Is fame and fortune worth the cost?

Julie Chan is dead. But so is her twin sister Chloe. In fact, Julie is dead because Chloe is dead. It's complicated.

Julie Chan and her sister Chloe VanHuusen weren't separated at birth, but they were raised apart after their parents were killed in a car accident. Julie was taken in by their sour-faced aunt, and Chloe, well, Chloe was adopted by a wealthy couple who gave Chloe the kind of life the twins could have only dreamed of before their parents' passing.

Now Chloe is a famous influencer, raking in millions, while Julie is working a dead-end job at a grocery store. But everything changes one day when Julie receives a mysterious call from her estranged sister that abruptly cuts off. Julie treks it to Chloe's apartment to check on her, only to discover she is dead. Through a case of mistaken identity while reporting Chloe's death, Julie suddenly finds herself stepping into her sister's influencer shoes and glamorous lifestyle.

Chloe wanted for nothing, and Julie quickly discovers how easy it is to succumb to wealth and privilege. As Julie tries to get a hang on being a believable influencer without blowing her cover as Chloe, she also learns that Chloe was a member of a super exclusive circle of influencers called the Bella Donnas. But when Julie joins the Bella Donnas on a weeklong retreat to a private island, she soon learns the dark and deadly side of her sister's fame and fortune ...

Liann Zhang's Julie Chan is Dead is such a compelling and unsettling book. Absorbing right from the start, the novel brings readers into the world of influencers and their inner circle, showing not only all of the sweat and toll that goes into turning your entire life and persona into a brand, but also all of the perks that come along with being "aspirational." As someone who despises influencers and everything they represent (I prefer to keep it real), Julie Chan is Dead could almost be described a hate read for me - a hate read that I could not look away from.

When the narrative takes us to the island retreat with the Bella Donnas, things get positively weird and cult-like. Naturally, I don't want to spoil the story, but if this is what goes on when influencers get together, I want none of it!

Anyone interested in the dark side of influencing who has an obsession with twins and switching places, should pick this up - especially if you want to come out of it despising influencers even more than you already do.

Julie Chan is dead was such a compulsive and fun read!
The premise itself was super intriguing, and on top of that, the character building, writing style and plot were very well executed.
I love when books combine a fun reading experience with social commentary without being too obvious, and this book delivered!

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and aml opinions expressed are mine.

This book gave me twitches vibes and I love it. It follows twin sisters Julie and Chloe -one successful and another working an ordinary job. When Julie finds her sister’s body instead of notifying the police she takes on the role of Chloe. Interesting premise ,a twist you font see coming and definitely a page turner.

“Julie Chan Is Dead”, by Liann Zhang, reveals the extreme lengths that people will go to in order to protect their own self-interests and investments. Going into this book, I knew very little about influencers (thankfully), and although this is obviously fictional, at least some of the influencers in the book are loosely based on real people (although, legally, Zhang claimed in a recent author talk, they are all completely made up). On top of the whole influencer aspect, this book features twins, cults, creepy family legacies, island-owning levels of rich people (poor them, being so ostracized by society for owning islands, they can’t even tell people about their islands anymore without getting cancelled), and more. Even though this is a thriller novel, the book delves beyond the superficial into issues such as racism in the social media world and the spread of misinformation, and how hard it is to resist being swept up in certain cultural forces that may seem benign at the time, but in fact are completely insidious. “Julie Chan Is Dead” also excavates how beguiling capitalism can be to young women, who attempt to find fulfillment by filling up their homes with useless items that have been peddled to them by influencers whose value is derived from getting free stuff and convincing others to buy their own versions of that stuff so they can be just as happy and fulfilled. In addition, the book probes into female relationships, and the false comfort that superficial relationships with other influencers or social media stars can bring. I would definitely recommend this as a surface-level engaging and easy read that also has greater depths.

Julie Chan is Dead was perhaps one of the most interesting premises of a book that I’ve read in a LONG time—essentially, one twin decides to assume the identity of her deceased influencer sister, and discovers that influencer life has a much darker side than she expected.

At no point did I anticipate exactly where this book was going. It had a behind the scenes look at influencer life. It had a luxury vacation. It had blackmail. It had murder. It had drug use and other criminal activity. It had a secret rich-person cult. It had ritualistic sacrifices. It truly bordered on outlandish absurdity, but in the same way that your favorite reality tv show is so unbelievable that it becomes unbelievably entertaining. And yet, at the same time it also touched on a surprising number of deep themes such as identity, sisterhood, family dynamics, friendships, money, and our obsession with influencer culture.

This book was quite graphic at times and definitely veered towards dark humor, but if that’s your jam, this is a great fit. I’d absolutely recommend for readers who enjoyed books like My Sister, the Serial Killer and/or You’d Look Better as a Ghost.

Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the ARC! It sure was a WILD ride, but I enjoyed it immensely!

Rating: 3.5

I liked this book overall, but I didn't have any strong feelings about it. I wasn't exactly rooting for the main character, she was insane, but I also didnt want her to go to prison.

OMG WHAT IN THE HECKIE DID I JUST READ?? The second half of the book just totally went in a totally different direction and gave me straight up horror vibes! I even grimaced while reading! Went from cutesy to messed up but I can't complain?? The unexpectedness of it all actually made me like the crazy turn it took. Definitely not everyone will appreciate that though so reader beware. I personally haven't read Bunny but see this book being compared to that a lot so take that with a grain of salt.

Julie Chan Is Dead lures you in with a killer premise (pun fully intended) and then tosses you into the chaotic, unfiltered world of social media influencers, sibling secrets, and, eventually, horror. If you've ever wondered what would happen if your long-lost twin sister turned out to be a famous influencer—and then mysteriously dropped dead—well, Liann Zhang has you covered.

The story begins with Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier, who discovers that her estranged, successful twin, Chloe, has died. Instead of calling the cops like a normal person, Julie does what any self-respecting anti-hero might do—she steals her sister's identity, claiming the influencer life she's always wanted.

I'll be honest: there were parts of this book I really liked. The premise is absolutely bonkers in the best way, and there were moments when I was desperate to see how Julie would manage to keep the charade going. The shift in tone when the horror elements kicked in was jarring but not unwelcome. It just took a while to get there. You're deep into the story before the genre pivots, and when it does, it's like, "Ohhhh okay, now we're doing the creepy thing."

But let's talk about the characters. I get it—they were written to be grating. That whole vapid, curated, influencer vibe was the point. But still... it was a struggle to even want to read about most of them.

The plot is a bit of a mess. There were threads that felt scattered and pacing that sometimes wandered, but somehow, Zhang ties it all together in the final chapters. I didn't expect to like the ending as much as I did, but it stuck the landing—and that saved the book for me.

Julie Chan Is Dead is a wild, uneven ride through influencer culture, identity, and the dark side of curated perfection. If you can handle some seriously annoying characters and a late-stage horror pivot, you might enjoy the ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book had so much hype around it so i wanted to see what it was all about. This was such a good read--I hadn't read this author before so excited to see what else is out there.

Thanks for the gifted copy!

This book was very entertaining. It kept me engaged and wanting more. The story follows twins sisters Julie and Chloe who are unfortunately estranged due to be separated at a very early age. Julie, under much better circumstances becomes an successful influence, while Chloe works at a grocery store as a cashier. While Julie reaches out to Chloe, Chloe is excited but unaware of what awaits her. She finds her sister deceased and through her grief decides that she is going to fill Julies shoes. This is where the story takes off. It touches on on the negativity and heaviness of influencing and social media. Funny and well written. I would definitely recommend. Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest reveiw.

Because the persona of an erstwhile supermarket cashier who happens to be strikingly articulate and extraordinarily well-rounded proved so very irresistible, I was unable to put Julie Chan Is Dead down, and was as or more interested in a sequel as I was in how the novel would ultimately conclude. I will add that these feelings about the book were reinforced by the reality which that I am a longtime fan of Gore Vidal and Martin Amis (as being rather old in the here and now!).