45 pages • 1-hour read
Julie Chan Is Dead
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, sexual content, and racism.
Julie Chan
Julie is the protagonist of the novel and narrates the story in the first-person. She is a young, Chinese American woman who has faced a difficult life. After the tragic deaths of her parents, Julie experiences a lonely and isolated childhood that is further compounded by financial hardship. By the time the plot begins, she is in her early 20s, working a dead-end job, and struggling with feelings of frustration and resentment. These are compounded by the knowledge that her sister, Chloe, leads an extremely different life as a wealthy lifestyle influencer. The novel’s central conflict is driven by Julie’s decision to impersonate her sister.
Julie is intelligent, quick-thinking, adaptable, and good at reading a room. Finding her sister dead, Julie rapidly turns the situation to her advantage and figures out how to make the most of the opportunity. Once Julie assumes Chloe’s identity, she is also able to quickly figure out how Chloe runs her business and even make it more profitable, revealing that she has keen business acumen. Julie’s instant success in Chloe’s role suggests that the difference in their fortunes was largely a matter of unequal access and opportunity. While Julie can be racked with anxiety and guilt in private, she can typically maintain a cool and calm persona in stressful situations, which also allows her to successfully navigate the fraught reality of living a lie.
While Julie is pragmatic and observant in many ways, her need for unconditional love and acceptance leaves her vulnerable to manipulation and betrayal. Before the main action of the novel begins, Julie falls prey to Chloe’s manipulation when she believes that Chloe genuinely wants to cultivate a relationship. Later, Julie will find it difficult to resist the seductive charms of the Belladonnas and Bella Marie in particular. Even though she can tell that there are sinister elements to the group, Julie tends to overlook them because she is enthralled by the love that the group offers. Julie also gradually loses her ability to think critically and begins to conflate the superficial response of social media followers with genuine affection. For example, when she receives a flood of positive comments on an asinine social media post, Julie ponders that, “I understand why Chloe invested so much time and energy into her following now. It bolsters me, empowers me” (104). Julie’s tragic flaw is her need to be loved.
Julie’s character changes significantly over the course of the novel: her character development is triggered by her fateful, spur-of-the moment decision to assume Chloe’s identity. Prior to this decision, Julie is frustrated, lonely, and somewhat bitter: Her sense of having no path forward in life makes her susceptible to making a significant mistake. Once she has made the initial error of assuming her twin’s identity, Julie’s character begins a steady moral decline, culminating in her decision to murder seven women. She becomes increasingly obsessed with maintaining the status she has achieved and justifying the moral concessions she must make to do so. For example, Julie rationalizes increasing the amount of brand sponsored content she produces because she wants to maintain her newly affluent life. She also rationalizes that “it’s not like I’m the worst. Out of the major influencers, I’m at the bottom of the food chain” (143).
By the end of the novel, Julie is barely able to distinguish between reality and fantasy, conflating the public’s prurient interest in a salacious murder trial with true admiration. She acts in a self-sabotaging fashion, posting to social media prior to her trial, even though her lawyers have advised her not to do so. By the end of the novel, Julie has almost completely lost her sense of self and her integrity, fixating instead on the shallow attention of likes and followers. She notes with pleasure that “I am an object of obsession. They salivate for more, hungry” (307). Julie’s character arc ends when she loses her grip on reality.
Bella Marie
Bella Marie is the antagonist of the novel, although this only comes to light towards the end of the narrative. Unbeknownst to Julie, Bella Marie killed Chloe when the latter threatened to reveal the secrets of the Belladonnas. Bella Marie is extremely beautiful, although her icy appearance of light blonde hair and porcelain skin reinforces her aloofness. She is described as having “pale, almost translucent skin, lithe body, and blond, almost white hair” (51), exemplifying a Western ideal of beauty that explains her success and desirability.
Bella Marie is charismatic and confident in part because she has always gotten whatever she wanted. She comes from a family lineage of extreme social and economic privilege and she has solidified her power by earning the gratitude and loyalty of others. Bella Marie is psychologically astute and has keen business acumen: She has successfully cultivated the Belladonnas by choosing vulnerable women with the potential to achieve success. By nurturing them, Bella also gains control, since they see her as the source of their livelihood and success. In addition to the financial implications of supporting their careers as influencers, Bella Marie can also be extremely emotionally manipulative. She showers her friends with love but leaves them afraid of the possibility of her withdrawing that love.
Bella Marie eventually reveals how ruthless and controlling she is: She values absolute control and loyalty to herself, and by extension, to Eto. Bella Marie sincerely believes in Eto because she thinks she sacrificed her fertility to him in exchange for her success as an influencer. She believes she has a kind of divine right to have whatever she wants, and she refuses to have her authority challenged. She killed Chloe to protect herself, and in the climactic scene, she is willing to kill Julie as well. Bella Marie’s gruesome death reflects her evil inner nature; her character does not experience any growth or development, and Julie believes that the only way to prevent her sinister influence from spreading is to kill her.
Isla
Isla is an important secondary character: She contrasts with the other Belladonnas and acts as an ally and sidekick to Julie. Isla and Julie initially bond because they are the only women of color in a group of white women, and because they are more skeptical and critical of the influencer industry. Unlike the other Belladonnas, Isla did not come from a privileged background, and she is genuinely thankful for the financial opportunities that have come from her career as an influencer, especially as a single mother. However, she is also aware of the challenges of the influencer industry and she has limited patience for the self-absorbed entitlement of the other Belladonnas. Isla is brave and outspoken: She openly challenges the Belladonnas when she hears them complaining about how difficult and stressful their lives are. She also has strong moral integrity because despite the terrifying circumstances and being held against her will, she is not comfortable with Julie’s plan to kill the other women. When Isla pieces together what Julie has done, she informs the police. Isla’s character remains consistent throughout the novel, and she retains her moral integrity without being corrupted either by the other Belladonnas or by the vengeful Julie.
Viktor
Viktor is an important secondary character. Employed on the Melnikov island, he comes from a family who has known about the secret of Eto for generations. Initially, Viktor is extremely subservient and loyal. He does whatever Bella Marie tells him and never questions the actions of the Melnikov family, even when their actions clearly seem to be wrong. He even willingly has sex with anyone whenever Bella Marie tells him to. Viktor cannot imagine living independently and is frightened of losing his whole way of life if the Melnikovs ever lost power. Viktor’s submissive and loyal tendencies, however, mean that he can be manipulated by other people as well. Julie repeatedly tricks Viktor: she blackmails him into giving her the axe and into not alerting others when she runs into him on the night of the murder. Later, she dupes him into giving an interview wherein he speaks positively about her. Viktor reports that Julie was the first person who “treated [him] like a human rather than a toy” (302).
Viktor’s character exemplifies what can happen when individuals lose any ability to think critically and passively submit to external influences. He explains wistfully to Julie that “I never thought it was bad. I was just doing my part, what I was told” (300). While Julie’s integrity gradually erodes as she makes moral compromises due to greed and ambition, Viktor lacks the maturity to make moral decisions. He does not enjoy his freedom after it is granted to him: Instead, he seeks out Julie because she is the last person who provided him with a sense of structure. Viktor’s life of complete subservience has left him incapable of thinking for himself.
Julie’s Aunt
Julie’s aunt is a cruel, harsh woman. She begrudgingly adopts her niece after Julie is orphaned, but she never shows any love or warmth towards Julie. She also resents the resources that are required to raise Julie. Julie’s aunt functions as an antagonist for most of the novel: She lays the groundwork for Julie’s fatal flaw because, by depriving Julie of love and affection, she leaves Julie with an obsessive need for love and acceptance. She also does not hesitate to exploit and manipulate Julie after Julie assumes Chloe’s life. The aunt is shrewd enough to immediately deduce that Julie is impersonating Chloe, which does hint that she actually knows Julie quite well. However, she doesn’t care about the decision Julie has made, and simply wants to exploit the situation for her own profit. She functions as an antagonist because she drives the conflict of Julie feeling required to make more and more money, but she is also positioned as a scapegoat. Julie readily blames her aunt for the erosion of her integrity, but she makes many decisions based on her own ambition and greed.
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