Rate this book

Side Effects May Vary (2014)

by Julie Murphy(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

HarperCollins/ Balzer + Bray

review 1: I kind of totally have mixed feelings about this book. It has confused me, feelings wise, which is pretty rare, so I can’t help but be a little impressed.Look, the truth is, I can be kind of petty. And by kind of, I mean totally. I am a petty person when I get rubbed the wrong way or burned. So trust and believe that if I was diagnosed with cancer, spending my last days getting revenge on people who screwed me, would be my first and only priority. Some people might want to try and leave the world a little better than they found it, or spend all their time fighting their hardest to survive. But me? I’d want to make those fuckers pay. Then I could die happy.No joke.So for that alone, I can completely relate to Alice. That doesn’t, however, make me like that little bitc... moreh. And that’s what she is. She’s a total and complete bitch. She seems to think that because she’s got all these feelings and emotions she doesn’t understand, that it makes it okay for her to be a little asshat to people who care about her and think of her more than themselves. She thinks, because she’s butthurt her mom is having an affair, that she gets to alienate people, use and abuse people, and then act like she’s the victim.I wanted to strangle Alice for most of this book.I also thought she had absolutely NO chemistry with the male love interest, Harvey. Neither was he interesting in the least. It’s almost like this is the book of perpetually butthurt people. Everyone has something to be butthurt over, and they all want to whine about it. Look, Harvey, I get it, Alice is a douche, but you’re not a delicate flower who needs to live in a world of sunshine and rainbows. Grow some balls.Still … no lie, at the end of the book, when everything was coming to an end, I was kind of starting to dig on Alice and Harvey. And I have no idea why, because both were severely irritating by that point. I was kind of rooting for them, for what reason I’m still stumped. I really think the end of the book suffers because they don’t get proper resolution, but I wasn’t exactly disappointed. Look, I get it, this book isn’t actually about the cancer. It’s a book about people and relationships. But I really liked the revenge aspect the best, and this book would have been a lot higher in terms of ratings if it had focused on that. I didn’t need Alice to learn a lesson in the end about focusing on fixing herself instead of fixating on getting even with people who wronged her. But maybe that’s just because I’m a petty person, and the whole, becoming a better person through hard work and a reflective nature, doesn’t really suit me. Three stars.
review 2: Not your traditional cancer story. In a good way, and in a bad way. I loved that Alice decided to stick up for herself, and do things that she never would've considered before. Cancer gave her courage, but no hope. It just really bothered me that Harvey was under some sort of spell, and answered to her every wish. There wasn't one thing loveable about her, yet he was obsessed with her. It was really annoying, neither character was likeable. But the drama between Alice and her classmates is what made me finish the book, that was worth the read. less

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