Julie Chan Is Dead

Social media is often perceived as a democratizing force, allowing creative and ambitious individuals (including members of marginalized communities) the opportunity to prove their merits and to raise issues seldom discussed in more traditional media. However, Julie Chan is Dead repeatedly shows that social media reproduces and amplifies many of the same systemic injustices found in the offline world. Characters who have access to various kinds of privilege routinely achieve more conventional success than their counterparts without putting in more effort. Through depictions of privilege that span class, race, and conventional notions of attractiveness, the novel critiques a system in which privilege grants unequal rewards and drives some characters to attempt to counteract privilege through sinister means.

Julie and Chloe are born into the same socio-economic circumstances and, as identical twins who share the same genetics, they have an equal starting point in life. However, their lives diverge sharply after the death of their parents: Chloe is adopted by a wealthy, white couple, whereas Julie must live with their aunt, who struggles financially and is also cruel towards Julie. The twins’ diverging lives are reminiscent of twin studies like the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, in which researchers tracked the lives of twins raised in different households to isolate the effects of genetics from those of circumstance in determining life outcomes.