Liann Zhang's debut novel is fantastic!

It is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys thriller novels that truly feel like they could be happening right now.

Julie and her twin Chloe couldn't have been raised differently. Julie lived with family, which sounds great except they suck. While Chloe was adopted into an affluent family and never wanted for anything. As a social media star Chloe still doesn't want for anything, until she mysteriously calls Julie apologizing for a mistake.

What Julie finds out next is sure to take readers on an epic journey into the lives of social media influencers.

This book was just not for me, I see all the other great reviews so I am glad other people appreciate it!

The premise of this book had me HOOKED instantly! I rocketed through the first half of so of the book, loving the voice of our main character and eager to see where it would go. It ultimately took a turn into territory that for me personally as a reader is usually a hard no, and I was a little disappointed. It wasn't expected from the blurb so I won't spoil it here but unfortunately it was not for me. I would recommend to the right reader for a fast, buzzy read!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this advanced copy. This was a wild ride with the main character. This was a fun book to read, not as deep as a story as I thought at the beginning. Overall love the plot!

Wow. Julie Chan is Dead took a turn that I was not expecting! Such a quick and engrossing read. This book definitely captured my attention and left me a little bit shaken at the end!

thank you netgalley and atria books for the ARC! all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own

i had a lot of fun reading this but wow that second half of it was a rollercoaster!! my true rating for this is a 3.5/5 rounded up

i read this so fast because i was hooked LOL i felt like i was back in high school binging a season of pretty little liars from how much fun i was having watching everything unravel. personally, i found julie's character really intersting, and even though i started to dislike her as she got more self-absorbed and i disagreed with most of her decision-making, i really enjoyed being in the head of a flawed character and seeing their thought process. i felt like i witnessed a slow descent of julie's character, almost to a point where i was certain she was going to start fully believing she was chloe herself. there were so many times where i was thinking "oh she's too far gone" whenever she went down one of her inner monologues that made her sound like one of the belladonnas

the mystery behind chloe's death, the van huusens, and the belladonna retreat throughout the story was interwoven so nice. i honestly felt so bad for chloe by the end of the story, which is funny because i went in thinking she was completely irredeemable

and oh the belladonna retreat omg my jaw kept dropping like every other page LOL i didn't expect miss julie's social media break make her susceptible to joining a cult!!! i kinda had a feeling bella marie knew about her being julie for a while but seeing the "i love you, julie" written out actually made my heart drop when i first saw it. iz deserved so much better oml i couldn't exactly feel bad for julie when she told the police what happened

i'm not sure how i feel about the ending exactly, but i did get chills at julie's last chapters of monologues. she almost sounded like she was using that same cultspeak that bella marie was using, as if she was becoming the next bella marie herself. i got chills omg

but anyways this was a fun one to binge! i look forward to more of the author's works in the future since this is her debut book!!

Step into the world of social media influencers, private islands, and murders?! Chloe and Julie are twins. At age 4, their parents die in an accident. One twin goes to live with a poor aunt. A rich couple adopts the other twin. How do their lives intertwine 15 years later? When Julie gets an eerie phone call from Chloe, a whole mess of events takes place! You do not want to put the book down. It is hip, irreverent, culty y crazy! If you love murder mysteries with dark humor, this is for you!
Thank you, Atria Books and NetGalley, for my eARC.

I love a book about an influencer, and Julie Chan is Dead is a thriller set in an influencer story, so it was a perfect book for me. When Julie's mega-famous influencer twin calls her for help, she ends up needing to pretend to be her in a world that's completely foreign to her. As she navigates this new world, however, darker elements of her twin's life start to unfold. This book was a good combination of twisty and suspenseful, while also being funny.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

Enjoyable thriller with a unique premise.

Julie Chan Is Dead starts as a sharp, compelling critique of social media’s attention economy and the dark side of jealousy, but by the second half, it veers into unexpected territory.

I enjoyed the debut from this author—it started strong with themes of online obsession, influencer culture, and the consequences of viral fame. However, as the story progressed, it felt like three distinctly different books woven together. The early focus on self worth and digital-age envy gave way to a sinister family cult subplot, along with the Julie’s aunts’ abuse and blackmail, which was once relevant but then doesn’t pick back up until the end of the book. This made the narrative feel disjointed. While each element was intriguing on its own, the shift in tone was jarring, and the cohesion suffered.

Still, the writing felt exciting and let me excited for what the author writes next. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and Atris Books for sending me an arc of this story. It has been on my radar since CBC Books did an article involving it. This book has been described as Bunny meets Yellowface, and I definitely see the parallels between the two books. I would like to add though, that this book was everything I had been hoping to get from Mona Awad’s Rouge. Both involved creepy cults and provided important social commentary; Rouge with the beauty industry and Julie Chan with social media. While I found Rouge to be confusing, I felt that Julie Chan had been the perfect blend of cult horror and social commentary. You get to see the work that goes into being an influencer, while also seeing the inequality and prejudice present in the social media industry. There was a section in the book at about 60% where a character really dives into the unfair advantages such as race and socio-economic status that a lot of social media influencers have when they are starting out.

Overall, I found this book to be both gripping and thought provoking. My only hesitance with giving this book a perfect five stars is that I feel like the story took a sharp turn at the 2/3rds mark and that more could have been done to prepare the reader or hint at some of what was to come. I feel like some aspects surrounding the cult were just thrown at us out of nowhere and that the characters' personalities did a complete 180. If the information had been provided more gradually throughout the novel, this would have been a perfect five stars for me. All in all, I still highly recommend checking out this book by Liann Zhang.

This was a very unique thriller and I'm so impressed it's a debut. I love the identical twins trope where they switch lives and having this one center around an influencer was so fun! It delves a lot into the influencer culture and how removed it feels sometimes. The first half I was all in but I felt the second half went a bit off the rails to be honest. My overall thoughts - super weird, but pretty entertaining.

Blistering pace and a zany proposition rolls into an intriguing read in Julie Chan Is Dead. Devoured it in one sitting but still wide eyed at the huge twist near the end. Gets more and more bizarre as the story develops but is captivating in the cast and concept.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

What if you could have everything you wanted, but the price was your soul? This witty, insightful book takes a look at the cult-like aspects of influencer culture as one teen decides how much she'll sacrifice to step into a new life.

Julie Chan’s life is anything but exciting—she spends her days working at a supermarket, her only family the aunt who raised her without affection. Her only brush with fame came when her long-lost twin, Chloe Van Husen, who was adopted outside the family, showed up out of nowhere, surprised her with a house Mr. Beast-style, and then vanished just as quickly. But when Julie discovers Chloe dead, she faces an irresistible temptation: to step into her sister’s life. After all, they’re identical.

But before her death, Chloe may have been playing with fire—and Julie has no idea what she's stepping into. As she studies the lingo and masters the art of being an influencer, she soon realizes she's in over her head.

This page-turner of a thriller is mesmerizing, capturing Julie’s simultaneous fascination with and disgust for influencer culture. When the influencers head to a retreat, the groupthink intensifies, boundaries blur, and the stakes grow even higher.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this novel was intriguing. After Julie Chan, a struggling supermarket cashier, finds her estranged twin, Chloe, dead, Julie assumes Chloe's life. Chloe Van Huusen, a popular and wealthy social media influencer, was part of a close group of female influencer friends, led by the enigmatic Bella Marie. During a week-long island vacation, Julie (masquerading as Chloe) begins to realize that things may not be what they seem. I enjoyed the first half of this novel (Julie learning to live as Chloe), but once the story moved to the island, things went off the rails quickly, and honestly the plotline became just a little too unhinged for me. That being said, this is definitely an inventive and memorable debut novel - just keep an open mind and be prepared for many surprises.

This book immediately swept me in and had the perfect amount of real life, snark, and intrigue for me to devour it within a few days. While some parts were a bit too fantastical, it also made perfect sense - if that makes sense. Kind of a midpoint on the suspension of disbelief scale.

However, once the retreat happens, it became a bit too much for me. Unlikely and unsettling moments had me skimming just to make sure I didn’t miss any important plot points. After the retreat, it seemed back on track - this was the book I was enjoying for the first third! But then the ending…I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Much of the first half of the book illustrates how Julie learns about the world of high-level influencers, both the dizzying heights of money and adoration, and the lows of nonstop effort to keep the gravy train running, haters, and a much more complicated life.

In the second half, things go completely bonkers, just next-level bizarre, when Julie-as-Chloe goes on a trip with a set of other influencers. If you think White Lotus or RHNY trips are wild, forget it.

This high concept novel had its moments of biting satire, but ultimately it didn’t work for me. I’m just not interested in all the algorithmic and statistical details about influencers, or the twisted interpersonal relationships within their ecosystem. And, unfortunately, the bizarre island half of the book is way too drawn out and repetitive, heavy with dialog of the influencers all saying the same thing. This second half also includes an unnecessary and lengthy scene of animal cruelty.

This book may work for someone who can treat it all as satire, particularly for someone who is strongly interested in influencers and social media. For me, it missed the mark.

I really enjoyed this one! I feel like it started to drag toward the end, but I was flying through it at the beginning.

This book is quite strange, so I don’t know how to will resonate with the general population, but I was so intrigued and needed to know what was going on.

"Julie Chan is Dead" was fast-paced and very easy to read, and would be a great choice for anyone looking for a popcorn thriller with a bit of a crazy edge.

The premise of this book sounded unique and intriguing—a woman finds her mega-successful influencer twin sister dead and decides to take over her life—and as a twin sister myself I was itching to dive in. And unraveling Chloe's secrets was enough to keep me hooked! But as Julie got deeper into the mystery of her sister's life, the plot started unraveling for me too.

It was fun to explore the idea of toxic influencer culture, and the book definitely had a lot to say about it, but there was some literal craziness that was too much for me to buy into. This craziness itself I think is part of that exploration, but I think I can appreciate while also not totally loving it. Some of that is surely personal preference, though, and I know others will enjoy the twists here! I prefer clever-but-realistic thrillers, and this one dips a toe into otherworldly, unguessable territory. To each their own!

I was also somewhat unsatisfied with the ending, though I will say the wrap-up could've been MUCH worse so kudos for not entirely letting us down. So it's a middle-of-the-road three stars from me; I enjoyed the ride, but it was a little too all over the place for me to merit more stars.

[Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance reader copy of this book!]

How fast can we make a movie or TV series out of this one? It's that good. What would have been a standard backstabbing story about the influencer world became much more frenzied—crazy even. Julie is a protagonist you certainly root for, even if she's behaving in a way that you'd think twice about.

The island? What????!!!! I had no idea what I was in for.

That's all I'll say. Get a copy of this book as soon as possible. Thank you for giving me the chance to read such a thrilling book.