“Thanks to Harvey, the year I died had become the year I lived”

I really wanted to like this one, I loved Dumplin’ and enjoyed last year’s Ramona Blue, but Murphy’s debut novel was lackluster. Going back in time with an author is always tricky since most people improve with age & time so I will try to be kind.

Sixteen year old Alice was diagnosed with leukemia about a month after discovering her mother was having an affair. Alice was skipping school with her soon to be ex-boyfriend, Luke, and discovers her mom nearly naked with another man. Luke and Alice break up after he tells Alice’s frienemy (/his new girlfriend) what they saw and Alice makes a plan to exact revenge on both of them before she dies.

In the present day Alice discovers her cancer, which was terminal, is in remission. This complicates her life since she was living like she was dying and now has to live with the consequences.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Then and Now style of narrative, it threw off the pacing, but that isn’t why Side Effects May Vary failed for me- it was Alice. Alice is the worst. I appreciated Murphy making Alice an imperfect cancer patient since we so often hear stories of people who find out they have cancer and become inspirational angels on Earth before they die but Alice was awful. She used Harvey, her best friend and the other narrator, and anyone else she could suck into her black hole of anger. She used cancer as a reason to burn the world and she didn’t care who was hurt in the process.

“You care for me?” My jaw twitched. “Alice, I- I care about our principal, and my boss, and the lady at the donut shop who gives me extra donut holes. But I love you,” I spat. “And you know what that feels like? It’s like a fucking cheese grater against my heart.”

Also, Harvey was such an enabler! He had no backbone whatsoever and Alice used him to exact her revenge on all the people she felt had wronged her. When she finds out she is in remission she drops Harvey like he’s a model who just turned 26 and she’s Leonardo diCaprio. But when she calls he comes running! Because he is the second worst.

This had loads of potential but overall missed the mark for me.