Side Effects Books in Order

Side Effects sits a little apart from Jen Calonita's better-known series. It is contemporary, emotional, and much more family-centered than glamorous or fantastical, even though it uses a weird, memorable gimmick. The story follows Whitney Connolly and her siblings after their mother's death and their father's disappearance, when the whole family is hanging together by a thread.

Whitney's medication causes musical hallucinations.

That detail gives the book its hook, but the real story is about grief, money trouble, sibling strain, and the panic of feeling like the adults have vanished. Whitney is not carrying this alone. Her older and younger siblings are all dealing with the fallout in different ways, and the multi-voice approach helps the house feel full, tense, and a little chaotic.

Once the family starts trying to track down their father, the story becomes part emotional drama and part road trip. The search matters, but so does the question underneath it, can this family stay together long enough to survive what has already happened to them? That gives the book a different energy from Calonita's camp, celebrity, or fairy-tale stories.

If you are looking for a polished fantasy series, this is not that. If you want one of Calonita's more unusual projects, though, Side Effects is worth knowing about. It is driven less by world-building than by a stressed-out family, a strong central voice, and the strange way humor and hurt can show up in the same scene.