The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan Book Review

 

Title: The Astonishing Color of After 

Author: Emily X.R. Pan

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: March 20, 2018

Pages: 480

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

Buy it on Barnes & Noble or Amazon 

My Thoughts

This book was a beautiful debut novel. I loved the descriptive words used, and I just couldn't put the book down. The author captures the struggles of a teenager really well. 

Leigh's way of seeing the world is unique; she feels and sees it described in colors. Axel often asks about what colors she feels like the day of her mom's funeral which was white. After losing her mom, Leigh Sanders' world is a mess. What she needs is her best friend since childhood, Axel, to be at her side, but they haven't spoken since the day of the suicide. 

Once upon a time we were the standard colors of a rainbow, cheery and certain of ourselves. At some point, we all began to stumble into the in-betweens, the murky colors made dark and complicated by resentment and quiet anger.  At some point, my mother slid so off track she sank into hues of gray, a world drawn only in shadows.

Then Leigh receives a box from a scarlet bird telling her to bring it with her when she visits Taiwan. Before she knows it, she's in Taiwan with her father meeting her maternal grandparents for the very first time. With the language barrier and her father leaving soon after arrival, Leigh is now set on finding the bird that led her to there and unraveling the mystery behind it with the help of Feng.

There's no point in wishing. We can't change anything about the past. We can only remember. We can only move forward.

 I love it!

Star Rating: ★★★★★ (5) ♡ 

I know I said it before, but I just love the way she describes the colors in the book! And I keep forgetting it's her debut novel because the way she writes is just beautiful. Who doesn't love the words crimson red or cadmium orange to describe the colors that Leigh sees? Don't they just paint a magnificent picture in your head?

Another thing I love is all the different kinds of food that's described in the night markets. I'm also Taiwanese (my heart!), so I love the food and while reading about all the delicious foods, it made me so hungry.

Travel with Leigh to Taiwan as she explores her mom's favorite places in search for clues left by the bird believed to be her mother. Though no one else seems to see the bird, Leigh is determined to find out why her mom sent her to Taiwan, all in less than fifty days since her mother's death. Happy reading!

About the Author

Emily X.R. Pan currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, but was originally born in the Midwestern United States to immigrant parents from Taiwan. She received her MFA in fiction from the NYU Creative Writing Program, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Bodega Magazine, and a 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Djerassi. The Astonishing Color of After is her first novel. Visit Emily online at exrpan.com, and find her on Twitter and Instagram:@exrpan.