Review: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

3 Stars

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

I'm guessing in due time everyone will be comparing this to Fault In Our Stars, since anything that is remotely similar to a popular book must be differentiated. 

Well, there's no use comparing Side Effect May Vary to Fault in Our Stars, and not because they have no similarities, it's merely the fact all novels containing the subject of cancer always have vast resemblance. So, what I’m evidently saying is - I will not judge this book based on its originality but on its content. 

It’s hard to break this book into my own blurb because there is not much to summon up. It’s essentially about a girl named Alice who is revealed to have leukemia. She creates a bucket list of things she needs to complete before her death. Forming a close relationship with Harvey is one of them. They were buddies during their younger years, before fate took them to different directions 

“Then we’d drifted. High school did that to you, turned you into pieces of driftwood. And the parts of you that you’d tried to keep in one piece became the property of the wind and water, sending those dear pieces you were not.”

After a while, their relationship begins to blossom again. Once Alice is certain her expiry date will come soon, her doctor exposes she’s on remission. 

Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

                                         2.5 Stars

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Initial reaction when reading the blurb: Yeah, I sooo want to read this! 

Reaction after finishing: mah...

Blurbs are one of the utmost misleading information to be given to a reader. Reading a blurb and thinking it sounds decent is like watching a movie trailer, and thinking the film itself is awesome, primarily based on all the cool visual effects shown in the trailer.


From the rating - it seems as if I enjoyed the Archived. It was entertaining from time to time. The writing was also decent. But as I kept reading along I realized the archive (the main storyline of the whole book) is strikingly stupid. 

This book wanted to be original. 

This book wanted to be unique.

But it simply wasn’t.

“I didn’t want to accept it, but the fact is, they were people. Copies of people. Because the only way to truly record a person is not in words, not in still frames, but in bone and skin and memory.”