Julie Chan is Dead: 'diabolically fun' Monika Kim
Liann Zhang's debut novel arrives trailing serious buzz, and for once the hype holds up. This is a sharp, compulsive thriller that burrows under your skin and refuses to let go. When Julie Chan discovers her identical twin sister Chloe's body, she picks up the phone to call for help. What she does instead will have you reading with your jaw slightly open. Rather than dialling 911, she steps quietly into Chloe's life: the sponsorship deals, the followers, the curated wealth, all of it. She's not planning to keep it forever. Just for now. That's what she tells herself, anyway. So begins a deeply uncomfortable, darkly funny identity swap that takes Julie straight into the Belladonnas, the tight-knit circle of influencers who had embraced Chloe before her death. Life among them means detoxing, filming unboxing videos for hours, filtering every photograph, and performing a version of her sister convincing enough to fool people who knew Chloe intimately. It's only a matter of time before the cracks show. Zhang writes with a wickedly observant eye, skewering influencer culture with precision while keeping the tension wound tight throughout. The result is both genuinely funny and quietly disturbing, a combination that's harder to pull off than it sounds. Grace D. Li calls it 'propulsive and layered,' Monika Kim describes it as 'diabolically fun,' and readers have been staying up well past midnight to finish it. Comparisons to Yellowface and Bunny feel apt. It's the kind of book you'll finish in two sittings, then immediately want to press into someone else's hands.
- Author: Liann Zhang
- Publisher: Raven Books
- Genre: Horror
- ISBN: 978-1526681850
- Pages: 320 pages