Book Review: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?
When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.
Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most?

After my last review on We Were Liars and thinking that ‘May’ said ‘March’, I triple checked and yes, Side Effects May Vary is out today! A little bit longer for us Aussies though. Before reading this book, I’d read multiple negative reviews on it and only a few positive reviews. So I went into this book thinking that the main character Alice would be the biggest bitch in town. But here’s just a different opinion.

She wasn’t THAT big of a bitch. Maybe knowing that beforehand kind of softened the blow. I think that readers expect too much out of characters. We say “oh, I wish she would stand up for herself.” But now, when Alice does, she’s suddenly a bitch? Even though she did go too far, I still think we should give her a chance. She didn’t let anyone get in her way. Also, because of all this, I think the character development was pretty amazing. The story is meant to be about how she recovers herself after being a huge meany because she thought she was going to die.

Side Effects May Vary is written in two perspectives AND two time settings. There’s Harvey (who is of course infatuated with Alice) and there’s Alice. And there’s Then and Now. ‘Then’ being the time she still thought she’d be dying from cancer and ‘Now’ being her story after she knew she was living. I think these four different types of chapters were executed extremely well. Julie Murphy’s writing is absolutely fantastic and she makes sure that you can’t stop reading. I never had any confusing or trouble remembering things from other parts.

The only downside is that I never felt extremely connected to any of the characters. I could understand her pain but I couldn’t feel her pain. I also couldn’t understand why Harvey is so in love with Alice. Like seriously, wtf? It reminds me of Beautiful Disaster. The girl doesn’t realise how lucky she is. However, the ending was wrapped up perfectly. It had just enough to be satisfying but still left some imagination space. Totally made me grin!

So it’s up to you. I understand why people hated it but I think if you want to read it, just remember what the story is meant to be about. I really would recommend it because it’s nice and short! Not the usual cancer book but still pretty damn amazing!

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