In 'Julie Chan Is Dead,' former influencer Liann Zhang takes a swipe at the industry
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Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today's novel, Julie Chan is Dead, is a bit of a send-up of influencer culture. It comes from someone who knows a thing or two about that world. Lian Zhang spent her teen years trying to make it big as a skincare influencer.

In this interview with Empire's Aisha Roscoe, Zhang says she has complicated feelings looking back at that world. Yes, it can be shallow and vapid, but there's also some real connections that can be made between you and your fellow influencers. That's ahead.

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This message is from Synchrony Bank, who can help you get your do-nothing savings to work hard with their high-yield savings account. Put your lazy savings to work at synchrony.com slash NPR. Member FDIC. Julie Chan is in a dead-end job scanning groceries and constantly getting mistaken for her.

Chloe Van Heusen, famous influencer and Julie's identical twin. They are somewhat estranged, separated as young children after the deaths of their parents. Two decades later, a mysterious phone call from Chloe leads Julie to make a bold, illegal, and morally questionable move. That's the start of Leigh-Anne Zhang's debut novel, Julie Chan is Dead. She's here now. Welcome to the program.

Thank you so much for having me. This is the thing about the book. Julie Chan is not dead. Chloe is. Tell us how this happens.

Yeah, so basically one of them, Khloe, gets adopted by a very rich, affluent white couple in New York City and the other one goes to their aunt. And they don't ever talk except for one moment when Khloe, who has become a famous YouTuber, does this quote-unquote charity video where she reunites with her sister and gives her a house.

and afterwards disappears from her life again. And then Julie receives a call years later, and she goes and discovers her twin sister dead. So she decides to swap lives and take her sister's life and all of her followers and all of her glamour for herself.

It's a bold move to take over anyone's life. This is really complicated because Khloe is an influencer. She's trying to do those cycling classes. I wouldn't have made it. And then there's this clique that Khloe is a part of. Tell me about Bella Marie.

Yeah, Bella Marie kind of serves as one of like the main antagonists of the story, although she kind of starts out as a friend pretty early on. I think readers will catch on that there's just kind of a mysterious wrong vibe about her. But basically, she is kind of an it girl of the internet. And it's someone that the main character, Julie, has known since childhood, you know, seeing her images on Tumblr and reblogging all her photos. And so when Julie gets inducted into this group,

group of women that are influencers, she's so excited to be kind of led by Bella Marie, her internet idol, essentially. Yeah. And the group is the Belladonna's. Is that a reference to the plant? Yes, it's like a very beautiful plant, but it's also toxic. So... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You obviously take a swipe at influencer culture, but I loved the dialogue. It was spot on. Yeah.

You know, in high school, I was briefly an influencer myself, a skinfluencer, as they used to say. And I did notice that a lot of the ways that they speak to each other, there's almost an element of like echolalia between the groups. And to me, it kind of is similar to how it might feel or sound if you were to pull up an Instagram photo and look through the comments, thousands of people being like, wow, you're so beautiful, so beautiful, gorgeous.

We wanted to have you read like an example where they're in the group chat for the Belladonna's. It's called Hot Girls Only, of course. And they're trying to comfort so-called Chloe because her twin has died.

Maya, I can suggest an amazing therapist. She's done heaven's work for my grief. Angelique, we're always here for you. Sophia, think of all the positive memories you have of Julie. Lily, you're in my thoughts. Emmeline, I'm sorry for your loss. Kelly, we are our family. Anna even penned me a poem. Death, everyone will face it at some point in time.

Hope you feel better. There's a great line where someone's like, you know, inserting line breaks into sentences is not poetry. But like the poetry one is the best. I'm glad you think so. Did you like your time as a skincare content creator? Like as a skinfluencer?

It's a very conflicting relationship because I started this when I was a teenager. I think I was 15, 16 because I had awful cystic acne and I would start reviewing product. I just wake up and there'd be like free stuff for me. Like it's Christmas every day.

I mean, I never got as big as the influencers in my book because these people have millions. And if I had millions, I probably would not have written this book. I probably would have. You would have stayed in it. Yeah, exactly. But it started to feel very superficial. And at a certain point, the novelty of free things kind of wears off and it just becomes like accessory.

Not to give anything away, but there is this secretive island retreat. And it does take a bit of a turn here. This gets into a little bit of like campy horror. There's some mysterious substances, possible animal sacrifice, cult-like behavior, a mystical deity. What made you want to go into that territory? Yeah, I mean, personally, I love when stories get like that.

the island scenes and the island setting. I love the idea of

It's kind of like a locked room, but instead of a room, they're in this gorgeous island where you feel like nothing can go wrong, but then everything does. A lot of the times I would see influencers get sent out to these like million dollar brand retreats to like these gorgeous islands. And I always had the question in my mind, it's like they're gone for a whole week, but they only film like one 30 minute video or like two TikToks. Like what happens during all those hours that go unfilmed?

Probably nothing. Probably they're tanning and having fun. Or it could be much darker. Yes. Because that's where my brain goes. Like, that's just what I think about. Yeah. Yeah.

There does seem to be like a push and a pull in the book where, yes, this world can be very shallow, but there's also this idea of like sisterhood and being, you know, supported through hard times. And do you feel like Julie ultimately learns something from all of this? And do you think she's a changed person? I think she...

is a changed person. Although maybe not in the way that some people would like her to change. Some influencers that I've seen personally, who I've followed for a long time, kind of lose themselves to fit into a certain norm. That was kind of what I wanted to mirror, but I would say on a more extreme level. So there is change, but not necessarily the most like

Oh, she really learned her lesson. Like she became a better person. Not necessarily like that, I would say. Not saying too much. Yeah. That's Leanne Zhang. Her new novel is Julie Chan is Dead. Thank you so much for talking with us. Thank you so much for having me. Tariffs, recessions, how Colombian drug cartels gave us blueberries all year long. That's the kind of thing the Planet Money podcast explains.

I'm Sarah Gonzalez, and on Planet Money, we help you understand the economy and how things all around you came to be the way they are. Para que sepas. So you know. Listen to the Planet Money podcast from NPR. On this week's Wildcard podcast, Wanda Sykes says she can have a hard time understanding God. What is the plan, man? You know?

What is the lesson here? Yeah, it's like, oh boy, you are in a pickle right now, God. What you gonna do about this? I'm Rachel Martin. Wanda Sykes is on Wildcard, the show where cards control the conversation. We have that move.

You've probably seen clips from the Jennifer Hudson show Spirit Tunnel on TikTok or Instagram, the ones where celebrities dance down the hallway to a clever song. These videos can reveal a lot. Do they have rhythm? And how famous are they really? We're breaking down the inescapable internet trend. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.