Published
by Balzer + Bray (2014)
Ebook
336 pages
Buy your own
Amazon
Book Depository
Ratings
Content: ★★★★
Cover:★★★
Summary
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.
by Balzer + Bray (2014)
Ebook
336 pages
Buy your own
Amazon
Book Depository
Ratings
Content: ★★★★
Cover:★★★
Summary
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.
In this debut novel, Murphy brings to life characters you'll love to hate and hate to love, and an original plot you can't help but get invested in.
Murphy does an amazing job at creating realistic characters with an array of flaws. You will not like the main character, Alice. She's a manipulative shrew who makes no effort to even appear likable. She doesn't want your compassion, and even adds fuel to the fire. You will feel bad for her love interest, Harvey. He knows she's using him, but doesn't care. He gives up his life for her only to be cast aside in favor of a stranger at the first sign of trouble. He lets Alice walk all over him again and again.
Alice is very much the definition of an anti-hero.
This book does everything Me and Earl and the Dying Girl does not. My main complaint for M&E&DG was the lack of attention paid to Cancer. I thought Jesse Andrews (the author of M&E&DY) excluded the character dealing with cancer in order to make it a book about cancer without all the tearjerking bits that are usually essential in books about cancer. Well, Murphy does the same, except she does it right. Alice has leukemia. You read her go through chemotherapy, loose her hair, and become painfully skinny, but that is not what the story is about. Alice does not discover the good inside of her after being diagnosed. Instead, her bitchiness is heightened.
Cancer gives her a life without consequences, the chance to do whatever she wants, and she knows exactly whom to target. Alice is out for revenge.
But Alice knows she doesn't have much time left and she wants to do a few good things she dies, too. From reliving childhood memories to doing something kind, Alice's last year is marked by as many good actions as there are bad. However, Alice's personality remains rotten throughout the novel.
Then comes something Alice was not expecting: remission. Suddenly Alice has to come to terms with the fact that she has her whole life ahead of her, and therefore must deal with the consequences to her actions. She has to go back to school and face her enemies. She has to deal with her feelings for Harvey. But she cannot, so she ignores them instead. Until they can no longer be ignored, that is.
The climax is perfection. The story slowly builds everything up until Alice cracks, and it is so well written, so realistic, and so perfect. My favorite part of the book is everything that happens from the climax until the very last word.
Murphy managed to stir from the cliches and create a great, never-told-before story. Usually ill characters are giving an unprecedented amount of maturity and knowledge, but don't expect to get that from this book. Don't expect to cry, or for it to change your life. However, it certainly does not lack entertainment, great writing, an enjoyable plot, or incredibly realistic character. I am certainly looking forward to whatever Murphy comes up with next.
Have you read Side Effects May Vary? Did you enjoy it?
Murphy does an amazing job at creating realistic characters with an array of flaws. You will not like the main character, Alice. She's a manipulative shrew who makes no effort to even appear likable. She doesn't want your compassion, and even adds fuel to the fire. You will feel bad for her love interest, Harvey. He knows she's using him, but doesn't care. He gives up his life for her only to be cast aside in favor of a stranger at the first sign of trouble. He lets Alice walk all over him again and again.
Alice is very much the definition of an anti-hero.
This book does everything Me and Earl and the Dying Girl does not. My main complaint for M&E&DG was the lack of attention paid to Cancer. I thought Jesse Andrews (the author of M&E&DY) excluded the character dealing with cancer in order to make it a book about cancer without all the tearjerking bits that are usually essential in books about cancer. Well, Murphy does the same, except she does it right. Alice has leukemia. You read her go through chemotherapy, loose her hair, and become painfully skinny, but that is not what the story is about. Alice does not discover the good inside of her after being diagnosed. Instead, her bitchiness is heightened.
Cancer gives her a life without consequences, the chance to do whatever she wants, and she knows exactly whom to target. Alice is out for revenge.
But Alice knows she doesn't have much time left and she wants to do a few good things she dies, too. From reliving childhood memories to doing something kind, Alice's last year is marked by as many good actions as there are bad. However, Alice's personality remains rotten throughout the novel.
Then comes something Alice was not expecting: remission. Suddenly Alice has to come to terms with the fact that she has her whole life ahead of her, and therefore must deal with the consequences to her actions. She has to go back to school and face her enemies. She has to deal with her feelings for Harvey. But she cannot, so she ignores them instead. Until they can no longer be ignored, that is.
The climax is perfection. The story slowly builds everything up until Alice cracks, and it is so well written, so realistic, and so perfect. My favorite part of the book is everything that happens from the climax until the very last word.
Murphy managed to stir from the cliches and create a great, never-told-before story. Usually ill characters are giving an unprecedented amount of maturity and knowledge, but don't expect to get that from this book. Don't expect to cry, or for it to change your life. However, it certainly does not lack entertainment, great writing, an enjoyable plot, or incredibly realistic character. I am certainly looking forward to whatever Murphy comes up with next.
Have you read Side Effects May Vary? Did you enjoy it?