Side Effects May Vary

by Julie Murphy

For fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell comes this powerful novel about a girl with cancer who creates a take-no-prisoners bucket list that sets off a war at school-only to discover she's gone into remission. When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs. So she convinces her best friend, Harvey, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge as it is about hope. But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission, and now she must face the consequences of all she's said and done. Contemporary realistic-fiction readers who love romantic stories featuring strong heroines will find much to savor in this standout debut.

• ISBN10: 0062245376
• ISBN13: 9780062245373
• Publish Date: 5 May 2016 (first published 18 March 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 15 October 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: Balzer and Bray
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I listened to this book solely based on the fact that it was written by Murphy, who I love. The timeline alternates between when Alice thought she was dying to the time following her death sentence reprieve. The strengths for me were in the emotional impact and the friendship between Harvey and Alice, even if it seemed a little one-sided at times. Alice, though, was tough to stomach at times. Though, I understood her anger at the world, it just never seemed to ease up. Her nick name should have been Hurricane Alice, because she destroyed everyone in her path.

With all that said, it was a very emotional story, and I was rooting for these kids the whole time. Overall, I enjoyed this story.

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[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Having loved Dumplin', I was really eager to read Julie Murphy's other novel, Side Effects May Vary - but also a little wary as Cait of Paper Fury wasn't a fan, and I tend to trust her judgement. However, I actually really enjoyed this!

When Alice finds out she has cancer and it doesn't look likely she'll be able to recover, she decides to get revenge on those who have hurt her. She's calls on an old friend, Harvey, who is crazy about her, to help, and despite his misgivings, he agrees. The girl he is in love with is dying; so he wants to spend as much time with her as possible while he still can, even if it's doing things that go against his conscience. For Alice, her ex-boyfriend, and a girl from school who had constantly given her grief until she went too far, must go down. But once she's ticked most of the items off her list, she discovers she's in remission. The cancer is gone, and she's not going to die. Now she has to live and face what she's done - not just to those she sought revenge on, but also Harvey.

I did really enjoy this book. Don't get me wrong, Alice is an awful girl, and did some seriously inexcusable things, but I still found the story itself intriguing. I enjoyed being exasperated and disgusted by Alice, but I also wanted to see what would happen when she doesn't die. Side Effects May Vary is a dual narrative, told from the perspective of both Alice and Harvey. It also alternates between Then and Now - Then being before Alice is told she's in remission, Now being after. It's not alternating narratives, nor is it alternating chapters for Then and Now, but I still found it easy to follow, as each part is told in chronological order. I really loved getting Harvey's perspective on it all, as well, because although this is Alice's story, Harvey is a major part of her story, and she can't do half the things she wants without him. It was so interesting not only to see the power she had over him because of how he felt for her, but also how he felt about everything that was happening; Alice dying, the things she wanted to do, how his own life was effected.

Although Alice is unbelievably mean, I can kind of understand where she was coming from. She's dying, so why not use the time she has to put people in their place? What consequences has a dying girl got to face? Nothing. And she has absolutely nothing to lose because she's dying, so why the hell not make people pay for what they've done? It's not really something I would do, but I could understand it. And while those she's making pay have done some really terrible things, she's not just spurned on by what they have done, but by something absolutely world shattering she discovers before she is diagnosed. She is angry and she is heartbroken, and then she's diagnosed with cancer. She's full of so much emotion, and she puts that into her revenge plans, because those people she can do something about.

I don't exactly understand why Alice treated Harvey the way she did. She used him, the entire time. She knew how he felt about her, and used that to get what she wanted, manipulating him into doing things he didn't agree with. I can understand that she needed his help, but I don't think she should have gone about it the way she did. Granted, he may not have helped otherwise, but it was just so below the belt.

However, I can kind of understand why she acts the way she does after she's told she's in remission. When Harvey comes back into her life, Alice develops feelings for him, and pretty much tells him so, but she's dying. When she's suddenly not dying, she can't quite accept it. The cancer might come back. The cancer and the belief that she would die has made her realise that things aren't permanent, and with that has come fear. She finds she can't commit or make promises about anything - but Harvey in particular - because she might not be able to keep them. She's half-convinced herself that the cancer will come back, and she's terrified of things ending, so she keeps Harvey at arm's length. It's not easy to explain, and I don't fully understand her, having not been there, but this idea of the lack of permanence has really affected her, and it's like she can't trust things - anything - to last. So don't make a commitment, because it might end. Don't make promises you may not be able to keep. It's almost like she's no longer standing on solid ground, and she's so unsure of everything - and also still dealing with what she discovered early on. It's so heartbreaking to see her like this, even after all she's done. She wants Harvey, she loves Harvey, but she is so full of fear.

I really enjoyed this book, even if I didn't like Alice and how she treated people. I could, in some respects, understand her if not agree with her. Side Effects May Vary was a really interesting and engaging book, and I'm so looking forward to reading whatever Julie Murphy writes next.

Thank you to Harper 360 for the review copy.

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Book reviews & blogging tips

2.5 Stars

=== My review may contain some MINOR spoilers. They're super minor and vague though and won't ruin the book for you. I just vaguely highlight how long the MC is a bitch for and at what percentage she starts trying to not be a bitch. ===

I was disappointed in Side Effects May Vary :( There were two main problems for me: I didn't like the "then" and "now" style of narration (I don't think it worked well here), and the main character quickly became very unlikeable, and that made it hard to sympathize with her.

I'm perfectly fine with then and now narration in many books, but I don't think it fit in this one. The "then" is right after Alice got diagnosed with cancer, and "now" is over a year later when she's in remission. So the "then" is when she's first starting her bucketlist thing, and the "now" is when she starts dealing with the consequences of it. I think it felt jumbled and confusing because we'd read about the "now" chapters when she's dealing with the consequences, but at that point we still have no idea what she actually did to piss people off. So we have to slowly figure it out. I just think it made the story too confusing and even frustrated at times because I had to try to figure it out with little knowledge. Sometimes this style of writing really works, but I don't think it was a good fit here.

And the bigger problem was Alice herself. Alice and I started out okay. I don't think I loved her, but I was open minded and giving her a chance. But she slowly got worse and worse. She kind of turned into a big bitch, and that made it SO hard for me to like her, sympathize with her, or even keep reading (towards the end). It felt like the whole story was about: "see how big of a bitch Alice can be for 95%, then watch her try to redeem herself in the last 5 pages". It just went on waaay too long with Alice being a bitch. Here are a few examples:

When she thought she was dying, she got really close to Harvey and basically told him she loved him (she didn't say it exactly, but it was implied). They were clearly almost in a relationship (they just hadn't defined it). Then as soon as she goes into remission, she completely ignores Harvey and treats him like shit. I felt so bad for the guy.

"Why are you acting like nothing happened between us when something did?"
—Harvey

Harvey was asked to drive Alice home from school since her parents were unable to. Harvey tells Alice this then says he'll bring the car around. He's in the car, waiting for her to get in (he's like right next to her.. she can see him), but she doesn't. He keeps waiting and waiting. Then:

With her back turned to me, I could see Alice had no intention of getting into the vehicle anytime soon. She was talking to Eric Guy. She couldn't talk to me, but she could talk to this asshole. So I honked. For thirty seconds straight. And then one more honk for good measure. Alice turned, and narrowed her eyes at me.

She knows he's ready to go and she just IGNORES him for like 15 minutes. She doesn't say, "Hang on, I just want to finish up talking to Eric." She doesn't say ANYTHING. She just flat out ignores him. He's doing her a favour by driving her home and she's just being a bitch about it.

Then she did just plain stupid stuff like this:

I walked into our room on Sunday night and found Harvey in the process of putting his sheets on the top bunk. I threw my duffle bag on the floor and said, "I call top," and walked out of the room.
—Alice

Maybe that's a stupid, small thing, but it's those stupid small things that built up and pissed me off. Harvey already had the top bunk. He was putting his sheets on it, and she just "claimed it" to piss him off. I wish Harvey had told her to screw herself instead of giving in and letting her have it. Who the hell does that?

Alice used Harvey. She used him to help her complete her stupid bucketlist, then once it was over, she abandoned him.

Being an imaginary friend was a one-way street. If that's what I was to Alice, then maybe she only ever saw me when she needed me. I wondered what would happen when I needed her.
—Harvey

Alice only wanted Harvey when she couldn't have him, and I hated that. She wanted him when she was dying (because she couldn't stay with him), she wanted him when he was with someone else (because it meant he wasn't hers), but then when she actually could have him, she didn't want him.

"You are hollow on the inside, Alice, did you know that?" She asked. "Rotten too. And no one cares. No one cares because you make it so difficult to."

This quote couldn't be more accurate. So clearly Alice's behaviour was intentional on the author's part, but I couldn't stand it.. especially when it just got worse and worse for like 90 or 95% of the book. I think I could have dealt with it if she was a bitch for 60% and spent the last 40% making up for it, but that wasn't the case. She was a mean person and then spent like 5 pages apologizing and that was it. It wasn't enough for me.

I think a lot of people will love this book because there is an interesting story there. Parts of it (especially about the cancer and how people acted) were really powerful. I'm just upset that the author decide to make Alice SO bitchy for so much of the time. She wasn't a nice person. I couldn't see what Harvey saw in her, because she completely used him. I hung in there for a good part of the book, but when I saw that it was still an issue like 75% through, I started getting really fed up and annoyed. I started skimming a bit at that point.

If you think you can deal with a bitchy character, or the above quotes don't bother you, then I do recommend you give Side Effects May Vary a try. Because as I said, it is interesting and I think a lot of people will love it a lot more than I did. But if you can't stand characters with a bit of a bitchy attitude, then you may want to avoid it!