Becky's Great Book Reviews Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang

Liann Zhang's Julie Chan Is Dead is an imaginative tale of a fictional (I hope!) dark underbelly of social media. This novel was wickedly fun and a quick read.

Julie and Chloe Chan are twins that were separated at age four when their parents died. Chloe was adopted by an affluent white family and Julie was taken in by their evil, vindictive aunt. Twenty-something Julie now has a dead-end job at a supermarket while Chloe is a highly paid, massively influencial social media superstar.

When Julie gets a strange, cryptic call from her estranged sister, she goes to check on her in Chloe's high-end New York apartment. Chloe is dead. Julie then makes the decision to take over her identical twin's life, becoming the highly paid influencer that her sister was.

This is where the story takes a strange, seemingly supernatural twist. Julie, (now known as Chloe) gets invited into a exclusive social media group lead by a woman named Bella Marie. Every year Bella Marie invites a group of other influencers to her family-owned private island for a retreat. Enter strange tests of devotion, employees that seem like they're treated as slaves, and demands of sacrifices to a god named Eto. Logic slips out of Julie's consciousness as she is given what seem to be hallucinogentic drinks and drugs. When one of the other influencers goes missing, Julie decides she must take action.

Suspension of disbelief is required here, but maybe not too much when pondering the clout of social media stars. The dark humor of this novel is spot-on and it's an entertaining read. I give Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang four stars out of five.