The Astonishing Color of After
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
4
(1.7K)
Emily X.R. Pan
A Time Magazine 100 Best YA Books of All Time Selection 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 real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love. "Emily X.R. Pan's brilliantly crafted, harrowing first novel portrays the vast spectrum of love and grief with heart-wrenching beauty and candor. This is a very special book."– John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down
Mental Health
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More Details:
Author
Emily X.R. Pan
Pages
480
Publisher
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published Date
2018-03-20
ISBN
0316464007 9780316464000
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"I loved loved loved this beautifully written book about grief, guilt, 1st love, family, fear and how to move on after loss. The author’s use of magical realism enhances the story in every way. The use of color permeates the descriptions of the daughter’s feelings (the daughter is an artist) and once she meets the mother’s parents, food is often used as a metaphor. In this writer’s hands it makes perfect sense that the daughter is convinced her mother has come back as a bird. This is magical! "
M C
Melissa Craver
"Such an amazing and heartwrenching book, with stunning writing and perfectly executed motifs. The ending felt a bit rushed and genuinely left me with a lot more questions than answers, but it is magical realism so... 🤷♂️. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot.
"
D S
Dutch Smith
"4.5*"
S K
Siya K.
"Beautiful read. A real colorful depiction of life after loss. "
S B
Shelby Baril
"DNF @ 23%<br/><br/>I don't know whether to rate a 1 or 2 star yet. <br/><br/>I really want to rate it one because I ******* hate Axel. But I also don't want to rate it one because I liked the writing and I think the discussion of suicide and depression among Taiwanese women (women of color in general, actually) is very important. <br/><br/>It's going to be a two. <br/><br/>One, I hate Axel. I don't like saying I hate people, but Lord Almighty. Every time I heard his name it was like nails on a chalkboard. I cringed and prayed Leigh would shut up about him and get back to the interesting stuff. Two, why the hell did I know more about Axel and his relationship with Leigh than I did about Leigh? Three, it's slow. It would have gone by quicker if AXEL DIDN'T EXIST. Four, the 'what color' thing would have been cute a few times throughout the series, but every ten pages? Look, I'm an artist too. I have artist friends. Being an artist is not our only personality trait. <br/><br/>Sorry, I'm just really mad I didn't like this book. This seemed like such a good book for me, and I was genuinely interested in Leigh's mother's story. I just cannot make myself read more of it. Maybe I'll come back to it in the future. <br/><br/>As I said before, I actually liked the writing unlike a lot of the one-star reviews I've read. I can definitely see why people don't like it, but I thought it stuck out. I also really felt for Leigh. I wish she would have had just a bit more personality, though. I've seen some people complain about her being mean, but I've been in a similar situation, and lemme tell you, I had anger issues for <i> years </i>. <br/><br/>Overall, I wish this book would have just been about Leigh and her journey and her newfound relationship with her grandparents. It could have been such a good book for me, but, unfortunately, it just fell flat."
A W
Allykay Willims
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