Quotes Show You A Story (ft. Side Affects May Vary)

Since I believe that if you pick certain quotes out a story, you will be shown the story, I have now made a new feature for it. Oh, and this Quotes Show You A Story will be focusing on Side Affects May Vary By Julie Murphy. 

• “Truth and fiction were one big blur.” This quote is very true for our main character, Alice. Alice didn’t know what she wanted to live and what was the truth to her. With how Alice acted you would think she lived in fiction because she did whatever she wanted.


• “But even though we lived the truth, there were some things I would never know how to say out loud.” I think that this quote represents Alice’s relationship with her parents. She almost never asked them about what issues were deeply gnawing at her. I get that most teens don’t have that great of relationship with their parents, but Alice didn’t even try.





• “But just because it was normal didn’t make it cut any less deep.” This describes how Alice lives. She allows herself to be cut at again and again before lashing out to create more “normal” hurt for everyone around her. If you couldn’t tell, I really didn’t like Alice in this story. 


• “But when the girl you loved was dying, it was hard not to let yourself go with her.” This quote is literally Harvey throughout the whole book. Harvey is a wet noodle that has no backbone whatsoever. He does whatever Alice wants him to do and just allows himself to be manipulated and used.





• “Everything had been muffled and blurred, but now it was too sharp and over enunciated.” This explains Alice’s thought process after finding out she was kind of okay. She was shocked, like a deer in headlights, and didn’t know what to do, so she needed some kind of vengeance. Instead of just getting over things that had happened in the past, Alice needed revenge for petty things, and let herself sink to the levels of her offenders. Alice just made me sick with how cruel she was. The whole "I had cancer" gave her some leeway in my mind, but not nearly enough to compensate for all that she did.


• “The older I got, the more aware I became of time, and how I was wasting mine.” Alice really needs to listen to this quote some more in her day to day life. The people who hurt you, they hurt you in the past. You are wasting your time getting revenge on the petty offenses from freshman year.


• “When would my body stop dying and start living?” This quote is one of the many points throughout the book when I really wanted to strangle Alice. Alice enjoys ballet, and she quit because “she wasn’t good enough”, which really bothered me. Alice, you love something, just because you aren't THE BEST of the best doesn’t mean you just quit. You will start living again when you put the passion life deserves back into your life.







• “I knew how to die. It was living that scared me.” This theme becomes evident throughout the course of the book and Alice’s actions. She only knew how to quit, to stop caring, and she no longer understood others or their passion.


• “I’d always hated the idea of saving the best for last.” I think that the author agrees with this statement. The writing was pretty good in the beginning , and the premise was a nice set up for a story, but as the story went on everything was just kind of thrown away.


• “Because in our home, we tell the truth. Even when it does more harm than good.” This quote explains Alice’s statements. She said whatever she thought, and didn’t care what the consequences were. She stooped to very low levels and for no reason.





• “Because, thanks to Harvey, the year I died had become the year I lived.” This shows some of my frustration for how Alice treated Harvey. When she was dying, she clung to him, but when she was healthy, Alice just ignored him. Harvey did so much for her and made sure Alice was always more than okay, and Alice treated him horribly.


• “Without waiting for a break in the music, Alice began to dance, like she was trying to pick up where she left off.” This is how Alice tried to live after she knew she was in remission. She was older and was trying to deal with bad stuff that had happened in the past, and was trying to patch together relationships way too quickly. Alice needed some time to get where she was before, and she wasn't there yet, she just needed some time to get there.

Have you read Side Affects May Vary? Were you as annoyed with the main character as I was? Do you like my new feature, Quotes Show You a Story? Tell me all of it in the comments below.