Julie Chan is Dead starts out with a lie. Identical twin Julie Chan is mostly alive, except in the eyes of the law, social media and everyone who’s ever known her. She’s been routinely mistaken for her famous influencer twin, Chloe van Huusen, for years, especially in her dead-end job at a grocery store – and she hates it. But now, Chloe is dead and nobody knows but Julie, the only person who could step into her shoes.
When you are an identical twin, possibilities for mistaken identity abound. Shakespeare recognised the literary power of twins when he wrote Twelfth Night, and numerous authors have followed suit with twin characters: Angela Carter, Lewis Carroll, Arundhati Roy, George RR Martin, Audrey Niffenegger and others. More locally, Catherine Chidgey’s new book The Book of Guilt has triplets at its core. Reader fascination with multiples, and the opportunities inherent in having identical characters, make them a compelling subject for fiction. Debut author Liann Zhang has taken this and run with it.
Chloe was adopted into privilege when the twins’ parents died in a tragic accident. She’s built her influencer career with skill. It’s a dream of many young people today: wealth, lifestyle, fans, a platform. Parties. Freebies. Glamour. And now she’s dead, and Julie has her life. If Julie can keep the fans happy, and negotiate the exclusive Belladonna influencer group, she can have it all.
Among Pilates sessions at dawn, trying to squeeze into $16,000 dresses a size too small, green smoothies and avoiding emotion in public lest her follower count decrease, Julie has to deal with her blackmailing aunt, Chloe’s missing parents and the relentless questions from other influencers with endless privilege of a sort she’s never encountered before. Then there’s the Belladonnas, who pose a danger to her position that Julie can’t quite fathom.
Julie Chan is Dead is a thriller, and without giving spoilers, the inventive plot veers into improbable territory at times. This is especially evident when the Belladonnas escape for a private, technology-free retreat on an exclusive and remote island.
But alongside that, the novel poses valid and troubling concerns about the power of influencers and the dangers of fame in today’s online society. How far can one go to maintain fame and bring in money, and is this heady online world as addictive as gambling?
Julie experiences the up and downs as a wild ride: “One tap and the world floods me with love. I feel like a god.” But from her underprivileged background, she’s also able to question the validity of this world: “Creators who are ‘down-to-earth’ and reject capitalism are nothing more than hypocrites … those who hate this lifestyle are nothing more than envious wannabes …”
Zhang uses the thriller form and the device of twins to explore privilege in a world entirely laden with it. A preoccupation with class, affluence and the opportunity therein is to be expected, but the book also takes a good hard look at how being classically beautiful – white, blonde and blue-eyed – smooths the path to fame. Belladonna candidate Iz says, “I’ll never be applauded for mediocrity because I’m not a stereotypically beautiful white girl,” igniting fury among the primarily rich, white group.
With its rollicking and sometimes erratic plot, Julie Chan is Dead isn’t necessarily aiming for the literary end of the book market, but it moves quickly enough to please modern readers and will appeal to anyone who has doubts about the validity of influencers.
Readers who liked the probing of Rebecca Kuang’s Yellowface, and the millionaire world of Rachel Paris’s See How They Fall, should find this intriguing.
Julie Chan Is Dead, by Liann Zhang (Raven Books, $36.99), is out now.
