Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang -Review
TL;DR
3.5 Stars
Pros: Great second half, audiobook narrator, critique of influencer culture, plot is entertaining
Cons: male influencers spared from critique because why??, INSUFFERABLE characters, practically 0 character growth for MC
Spoilers in review? No
Opinions going in/why I picked it up:
We're back at it again with a thriller as the book club pick for this month, this one in particular being nominated by my good friend who reads thrillers more than any other genre. I say this every time, but I don't tend to really enjoy thrillers, but I went into it with an open mind.
I knew literally zero going into this book other than the fact it was supposed to be similar to Yellow Face by R. F. Kuang, which I have read and liked. I didn't even read the back of the book to figure out the premise, just opened it and started reading.
Likes:
The second half of this book was a fever dream, and I mean that in the best way possible. Every moment was so surreal and demanded my attention so fervently that I may have taken several extended "bathroom breaks" at work so I could focus soley on consuming this book.
And the audiobook narrator, Yu-Li Alice Shen, did a phenomenal job. She was honestly the only reason l why I did not DNF in the first half of the book (more on that later)
And then to get on to the themes of the book, it was mostly a critique of the fake, manufactured, "perfect" lives displayed by influencers, specifically those specializing in making content in the lifestyle/travel/make up spaces.
I'm no expert, but while I think aspects of it was exaggerated, it seemed like a pretty accurate portrayal of to superficiality of influencers and their obsession with power, money, and popularity. There is one side of this, though, that I think should have been at least touched on that was completely absent in this book, which leads us to the dislikes...
Dislikes:
While I think it's fair to criticize the types of influencers that Zhang criticized in this novel, I do think of you're going to talk about the absurd level of wealth, pretentiousness, and self-centered natures of influencers you cannot only talk about the women without it coming off at least a little bit misogynistic.
There were dozens of women in this novel, each one horrible in their own way (except like one), but there was only a handful of men present at all and most of them were victims of one or multiple of the women's ambition or ego.
It's true in society that female presenting influencers are much more heavily scrutinized, but for the book about how shitty influencers can be, one would expect at least a problematic man or two. It's not like there's a lack of inspiration (Shane Dawson, the Paul brothers, Mr Beast, James Charles, Jeffree Star, etc. etc. need I go on?)
But going back to the women, pretty much every single character in this book was deeply unlikable, especially the main character. Don't get me wrong, that was definitely the point and was intentionally done by the author, but that doesn't make it suddenly enjoyable to read. This section is called 'dislikes' and not 'list of objectively poor quality things' for a reason.
I do think if the main character was just a tiny bit more realistic at the beginning, the book would be better for it. Don't get me wrong: mean, bitter people do exist irl, but the main character is cartoonishly cruel to everyone around her from the get go. She lived through a very tough upbringing and suffered at the hands of her abusive aunt and cousin, but I am of the opinion that having a hard start to life does not give you the excuse to treat people you don't even know like garbage.
The main character was so awful to literally every person she came across and was so selfish and entitled that I nearly stopped reading. And what made it worse is that, 9 hours of audio book later, she is exactly as mean, selfish, and entitled as she was at the beginning.
I think if there was just a little bit of a character arc, especially a corruption arc, where the main character goes from a fairly normal person to a influencer worth critiquing, the book could have been a bit more interesting at the beginning.
Rating Breakdown
Characters: 5
Atmosphere: 7
Writing: 7
Plot: 8
Intrigue:7
Logic: 7
Enjoyment: 8
Dialogue:8
Total: 7.125/10 or 3.5 Stars