Book Title: The Astonishing Color of After
Author: Emily X.R. Pan
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Number of Pages: 480
Genre: young adult, contemporary, magical realism, fantasy, fiction, mental health, romance
Release Date: March 19, 2019
A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng.
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 reality and magic, past and present, hope and despair, THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, bravery, and love.
Favorite Quotes: TBD.. I say this because I have to narrow down my favorite quotes. I have about 7 pages of quotes that I loved from this book. So please stay tuned for that!
My Review:
5/5 stars
“The Astonishing Color of After” has been one of the best books I have read in a very long time. This is one of those books that leaves you in a haze after reading it. Pan has a unique ability to paint the picture of her main character navigating through grief of losing her mother to suicide. Readers never had to guess what the main character Leigh was going through. I loved the way the story flowed. The way it connected past family memories to the present life in order to help Leigh and her family heal and cope from losing her mother.
I loved the use of color throughout the story. It wasn’t written in a one dimensional manner which made this book quite memorable for me.
I had initially started this book back in February and only recently finished this towards the end of September. This quote really hit me because I recently had to say goodbye to my 14 year old shepard mix, whom my family and I have had since she was 2 months old.
Here is the quote:
“There’s still a mother-shaped hole inside me. It’ll always be there. But maybe it doesn’t have to be a deep, dark pit, waiting for me to trip and fall…Maybe it can be a vessel. Something to hold memories and colors, and to hold space for Dad and Waipo and Waigong. And Feng, even though she’s gone.”
Like I said, what I experienced and what Leigh and countless others have experienced is completely different, but the feeling of loss is still very much the same. There will still be moments of grief and pain and remembering the loss of that person (or pet), but the memories don’t always have to be sad and dark but can be colorful and happy.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Even IF a reader may not have lost someone to suicide, one can relate to the characters in experiencing some sort of loss.
After reading this incredible book I am also looking forward to reading more of Emily X.R. Pan’s books
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