Review by childsea - Julie Chan Is Dead

childsea 's review for:

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang

5.0

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What. A. Whirlwind.

It has been such a long time since I was so immediately drawn into a story. Julie Chan is Dead gripped me in a borderline obsessive way; even when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about the book—what might happen next, where Julie would spiral to, how things could possibly be resolved. This doesn’t feel like a debut novel—Liann Zhang is remarkable.

Julie Chan is everything I know I am and wish I wasn’t. Her relatability was frankly alarming; every time I thought to myself “yeah, I understand why she did that” I had to pause and consider how that probably wasn’t good. But it was true—so much of Julie’s character is based in realism, based around the question of what would you do if you suddenly had everything you’ve always longed for? Half the time, the events weren’t exactly realistic, but I didn’t even care. Julie’s reactions to things and her descent into influencer culture just felt so accurate that I could look past when things felt less than real.

I was constantly left guessing, and found myself mouth-agape shocked more than once. There was one scene near the end that had me reeling so much while reading on the train I actually had to put my Kindle down. I loved this book, and even the parts I didn’t think I liked, I realize just fit so well with Julie’s character that I couldn’t even dislike them. I just loved it. I’m definitely going to get myself a copy of this and read more from Zhang in the future! Now I just need everyone else to read this so we can discuss the crazy drama!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings