Side Effects May Vary (Review)

Read the review in spanish (here)

Side Effects May Vary
Author: Julie Murphy
Publisher: HarperCollins/ Balzer + Bray
Source: FFBC
Publication Date: March 18th, 2014.
Pages: 336
Goodreads
Buy: BD | Amazon

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?

My opinon

First we have Alice, this tough girl who really know how to kick an ass and she has cancer, she's dying and she knows it.
Then we have Harvey, he is such a sweet nice boy and he's totally in love with this Alice girl even though he knows she'll break his heart.
Alice has a list and Harvey helps her to finish it before she dies.
They're both the perfect couple and Alice has already assimilated that she's going to die in matter of days.
But then the miracle happens and she gets the amazing news: she's in remission. She will live.
But how can you live a life you though you've already lost?
She will now have to face the consequences of all she've done.

“I knew how to die. It was the living that scared me.”

I really didn't know what to expect from this book and it was awesome. At first I said "Oh, another cancer book, well, I don't know if it will be good after TFiOS but let's see". And it has nothing to do with TFiOS. Alice knows that she is going to die and she faces it in a really cool way, not totally mature (because she wants revenge before dying) but not in a childish scared way, she faces it as a teenager (it kind of reminded me to this movie with Dakota Fanning: Now is good).
Anyway, she did a lot of things she wouldn't dare to do when she had her whole life ahead of her, but she was going to die so she did what she did because there were no consequences. I mean, I totally get it, I would do the same in a situation like that.

“On that cold night in January it all slipped into place for me and she became my everything and my everyone. My music, my sun, my words, my hope, my logic, my confusion, my flaw.”

The problem? She dragged along Harvey with her, and he's such a nice cute boy. It wouldn't have been a problem if she died because they'll both be happy and Harvey would have his memories. But she didn't, she lived and now she has to face the consequences.
The book is narrated in first person by Alice and Harvey, in the past and present. It may sound a bit crazy and confusing but the author really handles it very well and it makes you be intrigued about the actions leading to the present and what's happening in the present too with Alice and Harvey.
It's a romantic book. A bit of comedy, a lot of drama.

"I didn't want the easy kind of love, I wanted the crazy love, the kind of love that created and destroyed all at the same time."

I loved the characters and I loved the way Julie writes.
It was an awesome book that I recommend to anyone who wants to read a dramatic love story when the main character doens't die and has the opportunity to live again.
I really loved Alice and her tough character. She was the perfect girl for fighting against cancer, and she won.
The decisive point for the 5 stars was the end. And it was so fucking good I had to give this book a 5 stars rating.

About the author

Web | Twitter | Goodreads

Julie lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her, her dog who adores her, and her cat who tolerates her. When she's not writing or trying to catch stray cats, she works at an academic library. Side Effects May Vary is Julie's debut novel.

  My rating