Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy; a review

At the recent PTA Live 2014 – held in a cinema for goodness’ sakes (next year, what could it be held in?), it was another highly book-buying-enabling evening, and one of the titles recommended (but at the same time ; not loved by all readers) was Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy.

It was described fleetingly as ‘yes, a cancer book; but not The Fault in our Stars! NOT TFIOS!’ lest anything post 2014 where a teenager has cancer be anything else written by John Green.

From what I skim read over on GoodReads and blogs re: Side Effects May Vary there seemed to be lots of aggravation over the main character. I didn’t read too much into it because I feel as if books, and interpreting the characters can be quite a personal thing. So much like a movie review – I went into it still just as curious to read it based on the blurb and the premise alone.

The blurb;

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, who 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 archnemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger). 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 caused irreparable damage to the people around her—and to the one person who matters most?

Julie Murphy’s Side Effects May Vary is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

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At its heart is Alice and Harvey; with their story told in a non-linear timeline. I feel as if its told in this manner – because if told in a chronological order, it might have seemed altogether sugary and more than that, syrupy. It would have seemed altogether too predictable to have seen how Harvey’s love grows for Alice, and how he takes care of her while she’s at her most vulnerable. If the story were linear; I feel as if thats what the story would have been about. It would have been the romance of Alice and Harvey .

On the flip side; the moments we have where we see through Harvey’s eyes are all the more wondrous, as we see exactly how he sees Alice, even with all her imperfections glaring. He doesn’t shudder, nor cringe at her diagnosis or diminishing health. His love only grows as she becomes sicker. Yet, Alice isn’t defined by the cancer.

This isn’t a cancer book. Its not even a revenge book, which one might gather from the tag line.

That in itself is a feat. The relationship between Alice and Harvey is written so powerfully, you’re not focussed on her cancer. You’re not flying through the pages because you’re becoming more and more smitten with the love story that is Alice & Harvey. You’re not even reading it because you’re hoping to see bad things happen to those that have hurt her.

This isn’t an easy read, and Alice isn’t at all the damsel in distress. She doesn’t make good decisions for most of the book. But that makes her all the more relatable. That at least, made me want her to live all the more. That makes the world we’re reading all the more one we immerse ourselves in because we’ve known an Alice. We know a Debra. We know a Dennis. Damn it, I don’t know a Harvey but I hope I do one day. He’s a sweetheart. And the kind of friend you want to be holding your hand when its dark and you’re at your weakest.

Have you read this? What did you think? Would love to know if you were one of those readers that hated Alice!