Synopsis :

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?

The story :

Julie Murphy tell us the story of a dying girl named Alice and her childhood friend, Harvey, who have a crush on her and don’t want to see her dying. This book is about cancer but also revenge, second chances, highschool relation, love, family and remission.

The characters :

Alice is dying and she’s a badass heroine, who has to learn to live again after having lost the hope to live. Sometimes she makes bad decisions and you want to hit her but after that you think about how love and health can change a life. You understand some of her reactions. With Alice we experience humor, love, pity and regret. She uses Harvey for years and he’s allowed it with no complaint, hoping that one day she might return his feelings. She isn’t always likeable but it’s not a problem because she’s human. I think that to understand Alice’s reactions it’s necessary to have crossed the same events as her but sometimes she can be a bitch.

Harvey is the childhood friend, he’s so nice and my heart aches for him because Alice is hard on him since her remission. His love for Alice is raw, deep and it’s charming. I love this boy because he’s not a bad boy and sometimes Alice didn’t deserve his love. I like Harvey but sometimes I would have liked that he is more inflexible with Alice, that he’s less allowed manipulate. Because of Harvey I have hope for Alice because his love for her is the most important thing, she just has to become aware of it.

My review :

Side effects may vary is one of those books that creates characters so interesting that they become a part of you. It’s witty, raw, honest and brutal but writes beautifully. It’s amazing to see that this book makes you smile, cry at the same time.

The book is in dual POV, Alice and Harvey, and dual time, before the remission and After the remission. Thanks to this point of view we have an overall view of the story and it’s a thing which I appreciate.

Julie Murphy captured something authentic, she makes you feel all the things. I like her narrative style and I think that for a first book it’s a great challenge.

It’s a book about having your life handed back to you after being told that you had an expiration date, it’s a psychological book who talks about revenge, making amends and taking risks even if this risk is lost everything you love.

It was just a great book and you think about it for days after reading it.