“Julie Chan Is Dead” by Liann Zhang: Self-Destruction In The Name of Fame (BOOK REVIEW)

Self-Destruction In The Name of Fame

Hey, Alex! What have you been reading lately?

Being home for a whole month means only one thing – I will most definitely run out of paperbacks to devour. This time was no different. In the end, I surrendered to my all-time favourite Kindle and found Julie Chan Is Dead by Lianne Zhang waiting to be picked up. This book had intrigued me for the past couple of months with its promising premise. I am usually a very slow reader, but I sped through this one. The chaos inside is addictive, and even though I was rolling my eyes at Julie’s decisions for most of the novel, I still kept turning the pages, wondering how far she could possibly get into this mess of a story.

Tell me more. What is the book about?

It all starts when Julie and her twin sister, Chloe, lose their parents in a car accident and get separated. Julie ends up with her impossible, demanding aunt and has no friends, money or future prospects, while Chloe gets adopted into luxury and grows up to become a top-tier influencer. Julie spends most of her life hating Chloe - she is privileged, superficial, and obsesses over likes and followers while disregarding her true family. Then Chloe dies, and Julie is there to witness it.

Instead of grieving for her sister or investigating the reason behind her suspicious death, Julie slips into her twin’s identity. Just like that. She starts living as Chloe, the person she despised the most. That contradiction - rejecting influencer culture but also being so obsessed with it that she can’t resist it - is the catalyst for the whole story.

What are some strong and weak points of the book?

Julie Chan Is Dead is an extremely entertaining read that can get you out of a reading slump. Most chapters are less than 5 pages long, and it’s easy to keep up with the plot, despite it going in unpredictable directions.

However, I can’t say that I enjoyed reading this book. The whole story felt extremely implausible. Julie reacts to events in this weirdly detached, out-of-body way that just didn’t land right for me. Words like “trachea” and “esophagus” were thrown in every 20 pages or so, which made me think that the novel could have benefited from a couple more edits. The protagonist’s whole relationship with her deceased sister and influencer culture as a whole is also very inconsistent. She loathes them, but the whole book, being written from Julie’s POV, is peppered with contemporary slang and pop culture references, which makes her hypocrisy all the more evident.

On top of that, Julie doesn’t try to uncover what actually happened to her sister. Imagine your twin dies in front of you and all that crosses your mind is that you can now play dress up and pretend to be famous. By the time we reach the ending, where a dream vacation with the influencer girl gang The Belladonnas and an out-of-nowhere murder trial subplot that goes exactly where it came from get mixed in, it all feels more like satire than suspense.

Any final thoughts? Should I read it too?

Think of Julie Chan Is Dead as a “popcorn thriller” - not a book that will change your life for the better, but one that you’ll fly through and laugh about. If you’re interested in things like the cult of celebrity and identity crisis and you have a weekend to spare, you should go for it.

The thing I liked most, which I also believe gives plenty of room for discussion, is the theme of death within the title. It works both ways - Julie finds Chloe’s corpse and swaps their identities (killing off her true self on paper) while also walking on a path towards self-ruin in real time. I didn’t find myself root for Julie at any point, but I was still fascinated by the way she kept surprising me in a non-positive way.

Thank you so much!! Are there any similar books that you can recommend?

If you’re looking for a wild-ride read with cultish vibes or murder mysteries involved, I’d recommend the following:

📱 Siri, Who Am I by Sam Tschida — a woman wakes up with no memories of who she is with only her phone that can provide answers

🐇 Bunny by Mona Awad — a scholarship student joins a sinister clique that pulls her down a rabbit hole towards madness

📲 limaistyping…

rating: ☀️☀️
tropes: 💸 rags-to-riches | 👭 identical twins | 😵‍💫 brainwashing | 🚨 identity theft | 🏝️ ticket to paradise
read if you like: pop culture, KKW contour, The White Lotus, How To Get Away With Murder, The Great Impersonator
look out for: 📜 Rupi Kaur poetry | 🎟️ BetterHelp discount codes | 🪓 chopping wood | 🗣️ the word ‘esophagus’ | 🐀 a rat
“This felt like you wake up tied up to a roller coaster’s seat that you know is about to go downhill.”