Thank you Simon Schuster Canada and NetGalley for granting me early access to @theliannz’s Julie Chan is Dead. Happy Publication Day to this sharp, fast-paced, darkly humorous thrilling read!🎉

Separated as toddlers, identical twins Julie and Chloe find each other and meet for one day. What follows after is a series of anxiety-inducing diabolical events as Julie impersonates her deceased social media darling sister Chloe.

The book has elements of Yellowface and None Of This Is True, reminding readers of the perils of a too-accessible digital footprint. Loved the pacing as well as the originality of the storyline (love reading about women’s rights and wrongs!). If you’ve read and enjoyed Midnight Feast or Mexican Gothic, then you’ll like the use of the sketchy old money theme in this one. The book also touches on mental health, herd mentality, the quest for fame/clout, and one’s need for a sense of belonging.

4.25⭐️ A wild ride! If you’re in the mood for a cautionary tale on the dark side of social media and influencer life, then this book is for you! After all, all Julie Chan wanted was to be an influencer😏

Book review: 3.75/5 ⭐️
Genre: contemporary horror/satire
Themes: influencers, identity, privilege
📖 Read if you like: Yellowface, The White Lotus, Yellowjackets

Happy PUB-day! I am sure you have seen this one floating around, and if you haven’t it will now be on your radar. A satire meets modern horror on the true nature behind the shiny veneer of influencers.

The irony of reviewing this book on this platform is not lost on me. This novel is a commentary on the vacuous nature of social media, of the disparity that exists within its space just as it does in reality, but also of it being a place for reaffirming love to all the lonely people in the world. The long black road of what it is to be an influencer, the face you show the world and all the truth you hide behind it. It stitched together race, white privilege and palatable superficiality in a tale that will have you laughing, cringing and accessing whether you should close your social media accounts.

Iz was the character who shared all the thoughts I was rumbling about mentally on the reality of this world, while Julie started off being quite sharp tongued and insightful, she eventually drank the Kool-Aid and ended up being rather pliant. If I had a big criticize this book, Julie herself would be the pitfall. She is supposed to be in her early twenties having lived a hard life, but she came across as a winging teenager most of the time. The threat of the aunt was too manufactured and if anything I wanted her to be more unhinged. Her character was too amorphous, morphing into what the narrative called for instead of the other way around.

The first third of the book was full of antipathy and set up an interesting premise. Julie Chan is not in fact dead, but has stolen the life of her famous twin. Given the difference in their physical appearance, primarily the way they dressed, the initial swap seemed like a stretch, but one I was willing to buy. The second third of the book is where all the pretence is on display, but I found this all rather boring. I am not GenZ so my relationship with social media is a lot different to the central characters. Perhaps this is why I found her behaviours and opinions juvenile and her so easily impressionable. The last third of the book took us to a private island and the promised horror. It left me with that eerie feeling I get from watching Yellowjackets or The White Lotus. You know something is terribly wrong, but its nothing a few sweet words can’t fix. Mostly, I was left thinking WTF?!?!

I think people will either hate or love this book. I fell somewhere in between, but this is generally how I feel about social media as well. At times I found it smart and I enjoyed the passages that made me chuckle or nod along in agreement. Satires are a fine balance between realism and the outrageous and this generally walked the fine line, save for the cultish extremism and Stepford machinations. The main character needed to be better developed so she wasn’t so much of a blank canvas. There were the bones of the abandoned girl desperate for love, but if she was a little more bitter, or angry, or despicable or discerning, I think Julie would have been more interesting. I guess I just wanted a personality or steadfast trait throughout the narrative.

Now please satiate my addiction to positive affirmations and like this post. I’m kidding of course, but if you’ve made it this far thank you for reading. And thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

Unhinged, dark, and cult-y? Yeah. This was definitely my type of book.

Julie Chan Is Dead is about twin sisters who get separated after their parents die in a car accident. Chloe is taken in by a rich NYC family and grows up living a picture-perfect, influencer life. Instead, Julie is sent to live with an aunt who clearly doesn’t want her, and is treated like a burden from day one.

As Chloe rises to fame, Julie watches from the sidelines, growing more bitter and resentful of her sister who she feels abandoned her. Then Chloe mysteriously dies of an overdose and Julie steps into her sister’s shoes, slowly unraveling the very dark secrets Chloe worked hard to keep buried.

Not gonna lie, the first 40% felt a little predictable, but once it kicks off… it really kicks off.

If you loved Bunny by Mona Awad—that unsettling, creepy-girl-group energy, this might be for you. Cult vibes, horror undertones, full-on deranged sisterhood. I ate it up.

Huge thank you to netgalley for the e-arc!

The story starts out giving big Yellowface vibes - when Julie Chan discovers Chloe, her estranged twin and social media influencer, dead she makes the quick decision to steal her identity. While the first half deals with Julie’s efforts to keep up the facade, the second half is much more of a thriller focused on the cult-like social media clique that Chloe was apart of, led by charismatic Bella Marie.

The second half of the story is unhinged and I truly did not see most of what happens coming. You really have to suspend disbelief as the story becomes more outrageous. One critique would be that I think the character of Bella Marie could have been fleshed out a bit more and I was left with a few lingering questions. And although I enjoyed both the book as a whole, it did feel like plot wise I was reading two very different books. Thankfully, Julia is a fun, mischievous and complicated character throughout and you want to follow her along for the ride.

I was really excited to pick up Julie Chan is Dead — especially because it promised a thriller vibe — but unfortunately, this one didn’t quite land for me. While I do agree it falls somewhere near the thriller genre, I didn’t really feel much of a build-up before the major plot movements happened. It wasn’t until about the 80% mark that things actually started to pick up, and by then, it felt a little too late.

What kept me reading was Liann Zhang’s writing. I liked the way her writing flows and it really carried me through the slower parts. That said, the plot itself felt pretty flat. There were a lot of threads and early mysteries introduced, but not enough momentum or development to keep me fully invested. It often felt like questions were being sprinkled in just for the sake of mystery, rather than pulling me deeper into the story.

I do think the book had good bones. I especially liked the way the main character — an unreliable narrator — was crafted. Her personality and actions felt consistent and intentional, and I appreciated how layered she was. Still, despite that, the overall experience just didn’t captivate me the way I hoped it would.

From the beginning of the book, I was hooked in to Julie’s story. Liann did a fantastic job of pulling me into Julie’s initially mundane world right away. As events progressed and she took over Chloe's world, it was hard NOT to sympathize with Julie and at least kiiiind of understand why she did what she did.

The commentary on social media is really powerful and uncomfortable. The way Julie reacts to the attention is all too real. Even on an extremely small scale, it’s relatable. It feels validating to have people like and react positively to things you post, and when they don’t, it sucks. JCID is a very extreme version of the dark side of social media but it really resonates. As I read, I could understand why Julie wanted to be a part of that supportive group of women. But then it starts to get uncomfortable as you see how they are not actually all that supportive, and they’re saying, thinking and doing a lot of messed up things.

I loved how Liann weaved together the social media storyline with the mystery/thriller genre. I would absolutely recommend this book — once I started reading it, it stayed in the back of my mind and I needed to know what twists and turns were going to happen!

(4.5 stars, rounded up)

This debut thriller was very entertaining! It definitely got super crazy at times, especially in the second half. It was quite unhinged and chaotic at times but I was totally here for it! This one hit the reading mood just right!

Here's the basic summary:
Girl finds her estranged sister (who is also a very popular social media influencer) dead in her apartment.
When questioned, girl panics and takes over influencer sister's life. Girl pretends to be sister and begins hustling hard on Instagram. Girl gets in with the sister's "it crew" of other famous influencers. Girl ends up on super secretive and super fancy island retreat. This is where things get completely wild!

I love a flawed character and this main character, Julie, was big time flawed. She was crazy and it worked. The story line here was super intriguing and had my attention right from the start. I was thoroughly entertained!

Wow! I have to say that this is very different than what I expected and then anything just need to be a bit more dense, and not in such big muffin tins I’ve read before. I love that this was written by a Canadian, debut author! This book grabbed me from the very first page and kept me engaged and wondering till the very end.

MC Julie Chan is broke and hating her life and when her (mostly estranged) identical twin dies, she steps into her life to impersonate her. Her twin , Chloe, being a very rich, influential and popular influencer seems to have the idyllic and posh life that Julie craves. As Julie takes on her deceased sister’s life, things start to happen to show that perhaps that life was not what it seemed. Sibling rivalry brought to the next-next level!

I felt like this book was a wild, dark, sometimes gaggy and twisted ride that I didn’t want to get off! Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this debut novel in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hilariously dark and absurdly horrid, Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang is a contemporary adult thriller that centres on the seduction and terror of social media and influencer culture. Having been separated after the death of their parents at a young age, Julie Chan and her twin, Chloe Van Huusen, grew up living extremely opposite lives—with Julie miserably scraping by, and Chloe living the glamorous influencer life—with one twin enviously digesting the life of the other through the small screen of her phone. After finding her twin’s dead body, Julie Chan seizes the opportunity to step into the radiant life of Chloe Van Huusen by assuming her twin’s identity, only to discover dark and grotesque secrets behind her twin’s fabulous façade.

As wild and messed up as the ride was with this novel, I actually thoroughly enjoyed the unhinged journey—though I think the wildest part for me was seeing Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Genshin Impact mentioned just a few pages apart lol—and found it fairly amusing to see the interesting decisions the protagonist, Julie Chan, makes to wind up where she does at the end of the novel. I applaud Zhang for her writing. Zhang not only wrote an intriguing story with a compelling voice and sharp twists that I’m certain will leave a mark on its readers (it surely did for me, particularly the mice scene; I was reading it during my commute to work and the swaying train ride did not sit well with my stomach lol), but her debut novel is also layered with commentary on social media, racism, privilege, and performative allyship and activism.

I look forward to the pub day of Julie Chan is Dead on April 29, 2025! Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this digital arc.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Chan and her twin were adopted by different families. Julie by their aunt, Chloe by a wealthy white family. Their upbringings were completely different. Julie struggled and worked for everything whereas Chloe found fame as an influencer. When Julie gets a strange call from Chloe apologizing she goes to find Chloe dead in her apartment. When emergency responders arrive they assume she's Chloe and it's Julie that has passed so she goes with it. Why not? Who is she harming and isn't it her turn for something good to happen to her? How hard could being an influencer be?

This book is perfect for fans of Yellowface. Be ready for a crazy ride!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for an ARC of Julie Chan Is Dead!

While the premise of this book seems enticing, it's giving Yellowface, it's giving The Other Black Girl...this book falls pretty flat for me. The issue here is the writing style, you can tell the author is trying to weave in thrilling aspects to keep the reader spooked, but the mix of pop culture references and the fact that Julie really just sucks doesn't work. Bringing in supernatural forces also just doesn't work...they're literally just influencers. Maybe that's the point, that someone could crave the attention and popularity so much that they would be willing to bend the rules of natural for it, but idk it's pretty unbelievable to me.

There's not much more to say other than that.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘯 ＆ 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤！

So! My initial plan was to read this novel, a few chapters at a time, while reading other novels I had already started (not sure why, but I do best when reading 3–4 books at a time). What actually happened: I stayed up super late binging it and ultimately finishing the novel the next day because I could not put it down. 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱 is a dark and thought-provoking debut novel with a look into the influencer lifestyle and what one might be willing to give to achieve it. Julie’s character evoked 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 throughout the story, from sympathy to utter shock. It’s definitely one of those dark, guilty pleasure thrillers that has you reflecting on the effects of social media and its influences. I’m already looking forward to reading what Liann Zhang will write next!

J U L I E chan is D E A D .
⭐️⭐️⭐️.✨️

"Will my tower of excessive consumption crush me today?"

Humorous. Can't look away. Thrilling. Good time! You have two sisters separated and adopted separately at a young age. Growing up in two completely opposite circumstances. (Rich vs. Poor)

One sister suddenly passes away, and the other takes over her life as a famous influencer. 👀

Was her sister's life as perfect as it seemed online?
Can she pretend to be her sister at exclusive events?

This was relatable as a consumer of influencers' content, but also a believable insider look of an influencers life. The good, the B A D , and the u g l y .

You can look forward to a fun, cult inspired thriller debut novel.

Released on APRIL 29, 2025

Thank you to @simonschusterca and @netgalley

🌸🐁🍸🧉📱👭

The first half of the book was a little slower than I expected, but the last half really made up for it.
I would definitely read another book by Liann Zhang.

If you enjoyed blink twice movie, you'll love this!

#simonandschuster #netgalley #netgalleyarc

This was an amazing read. How do I know a book is great? Easy, when I’m up until the wee hours of the morning because I have to know what’s next.

Julie’s life is thrown for a loop when she discovers the body of her estranged identical twin, Chloe, a mega famous influencer. When Julie decides to impersonate her dead sister, all chaos breaks loose.
Our novel comes to a head when Julie and an elite group of influencers spend a week at their queen bee’s private island - where nothing is as it seems. And everyone is just as insane as you feared.

The novel delves into the fabricated world of social media, fame, race, and the dark side of what people are willing to do to stay in the public eye.
This was like Yellowface if it had crime and FaceTune. And also so much its very own unique perspective, unlike anything I’ve read.
It’s a page turner. I enjoy novels in which there aren’t really any likeable characters, and a morally ambiguous narrator is always fun to read.

If you are someone who loves a good thriller or likes very current on-the-pulse narratives, you will like this one.
PSA: definitely have an understanding of Instagram if you pick this up, lol.

A big thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me this ARC! It is such a treat to read new books, especially from a Canadian author.
I really think this one will be a hit.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ARC provided by Simon & Schuster Canada.

Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything. Except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she has always envied.

Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.

Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.

I would of never thought I would love a debut this much. What a wild ride. From the very first page, I was hooked and had such a hard time putting this one down. It starts as an entertaining story of stolen identity and influencer culture, then takes a sharp turn and I just enjoyed all of it. At times, I found myself questioning reality alongside Julie, wondering what was truly happening. This story was just the perfect balance of unsettling and upbeat. Zhang also offers a sharp commentary on the dark side of social media and influencer culture. It is a solid reminder to take a step back and remember what is real outside of those screens. Julie Chan is Dead will be a wildly discussed release imo, and I can not wait to see how other readers interpret its twists and turns. I still can not believe this is a debut novel and will be on the lookout for the next book by Zhang. Will be recommending everyone to read this one.

I know so many people who loved this one but I have such mixed feelings about it.

I really wasn’t a fan of the first half of the book. I liked the comedic moments and fresh twist on the twin trope, but the plot felt slow-moving, light on twists and lacked the depth I craved. The main character, Julie, also drove me bonkers. I felt like she was vindictive, immature and made the worst decisions ever.

However, I loved the majority of the second half of the book. The storyline was exciting and unpredictable, the twists were insane and I even started to warm up to Julie a little bit.

I wasn’t a fan of the ending but I will say that it packed a good punch and kept me guessing.

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC!

This was very Bunny by Mona Awad coded but I enjoyed this one a lot more than that.

Julie Chan is separated from her twin sister as a child when their parents die and she goes to her miserable aunt and her twin Chloe goes to an affluent white couple. Fast forward to her early twenties and Chloe is a famous influencer and Julie is struggling to find purpose in a dead end job, no friends, no goals. When her twin contacts her out of the blue curiosity pulls her back into her orbit only for her to turn up dead… but why should a NYC penthouse and amazing life go to waste when Julie could just…. Step right in?

Julie becomes Chloe, and it seems like trading up… but is everything about Chloe as it seems?

This darkly comic debut is a completely unhinged spiral behind the scenes of what it takes to live your life online. So much fun, Julie Chan is Dead is super propulsive and tense with a wild mystery and antihero main character you love to root for.

While some of the way the friend group the Belladonnas talked and acted felt a little too similar to Bunny I didn’t mind that much because I enjoyed this one so much more. I’m not really sure if all the plot lines fully came together cohesively in the end but who cares because I had the best time getting there.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the review eARC in exchange for my honest review. Pub date April 29, 2025.

This book was unhinged in the best way. I am impressed that this was a debut novel! I couldn’t put it down, l loved the satirical exploration of the dark side of social media. It was both smart and funny.

Julie’s downward spiral is dark and she’s kind of a sociopath, yet I still cheered for her and wanted her to get away with sliding into her twins life. Anytime there is a cult aspect in a story my interest peaks too.

This book had me hook, line, and sinker and it refused to let go!

The premise alone was already exceptional.
An unknown, struggling twin takes over her rich and famous sister’s life after discovering her dead body, only to uncover how terrifying the influencer lifestyle truly is behind the scenes. But the actual story? Phenomenal!! I found myself on the edge of my seat the entire time. There was never a dull moment. The main character’s thoughts were incredibly relatable, often making me laugh or say “what the-“

It was a quick and easy read (if you ignore the anxiety-inducing scenes, which happened every two lines or so) but once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. It was engaging and absolutely mind blowing in how it emphasized the dark side of influencer culture and the sacrifices people make for fame and power.

I loved this book so much! Huge thanks to Simon and Schuster for the ARC! I’m genuinely grateful!

I really enjoyed this book, and was pleasantly surprised by it! I loved how unhinged it got, as if pretending to be your dead, rich, estranged twin sister wasn't enough, it got a whole lot worse... and by worse I mean better! I look forward to more from this author.