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

click to begin

Youtube

Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is rincey reads. Today i'm going to be doing
a book review on the astonishing color of after by Emily X.R. Pan. This is a brand
new release. It's coming out this week or just came out this past Tuesday and I
loved it so much that I wanted to film a review of it immediately.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through edelweiss and
then I also received this physical copy from Book of the Month. So I was able to
read it ahead of the pub date. And yeah, it's one of my most anticipated reads of
the year and it did not disappoint me, which is always so great. So in this
story you are following Leigh Chen Sanders who is half-asian half-white. At the
beginning of this story we find out that her mother has committed suicide and
Leigh is extremely, obviously, distraught over that. But she's also extremely upset
because at the time when her mother was committing suicide, she was at her best
friend's house who was also her like longtime crush, Axel, and they were having
their first kiss. So while she's grieving over her mom she also becomes convinced
that her mom has become a bird. Like literally she thinks her mom has become
a bird. And she thinks that her mom has left her a package filled with things
that are either from her grandparents or sent by her grandparents and she thinks
it's a sign that she needs to go to Taiwan and meet her maternal
grandparents for the very first time. So the story just follows Leigh as she
deals with her grief, as she learns a lot about her mother's side of the family,
which she didn't know anything really about. And you also follow her as she
tries to figure out what exactly her mom is trying to tell her and lead her towards.
So like I said, I really, really enjoyed this book. This is a debut young
adult book and I think that it is just so well done. I will say off the bat that
there are obviously magical and magical realism elements to this book. So if that
is something that you generally don't enjoy, you are definitely not gonna
like this book because it is very heavy. But I do enjoy magical realism books so
this was a book that I was completely okay with. But there are so many things
about this book that I really enjoyed. I think that
the way that Leigh deals with grief and even just the way that everyone in this
book deals with the grief and the loss of her mother is handled really, really well.
There's a lot of like just complex emotions that are tied up in grief and
you are forced to confront when someone you love passes away. Especially when
they pass away in a situation like this where you wonder if there's something
you could have done or if there are things you should have noticed or
changes that could have been made in order to prevent something like this
from happening. Emily X.R. Pan does a really great job of
discussing things like depression and suicide and the complexities that come
with that. Even sort of beyond that there are also a lot of other really great
topics being discussed including what it's like being an artist and also like
following something that's not a typical or traditional career path when your
parents might want otherwise from you. There's a lot of discussion in here
about the conflict between Leigh and her dad and sort of their strained
relationship at times. There's also discussions in here about friendship
when you're a teenager and friendship when you have a crush on your friend and
things like that, too. I think that it was all just handled really, really well.
There parts in here that made me want to cry. There are parts in here that felt
just so real and relatable. This book is a little bit on the longer side and
honestly I had no problem with that whatsoever. I flew through this book.
I cared so much about these characters. Seeing how Leigh's relationship with all
of these different characters of balls and changes over time as she learns
about her family and learns about her past and her parents' pasts a little bit.
It's just handled really, really well. Like this book was so surprise-- like
surprising in the way that like you never really know how good a book is
ever really going to be. Especially a debut where you're like I think it's
gonna be good it sounds really good. But until you actually read it, you don't
know. And this book really lived up to my expectations in a way that I didn't
think it could almost. Again if there's anything about this book that I think is
going to put people off, it's going to be the magical and magical realism elements
in here. There are scenes and situations in here
that require you to suspend disbelief and
kind of just go along with the ride. And if you're not willing to do that then
you're not gonna be okay with it. And they don't like over explain
everything that happens in here. Which, again, I was completely okay with because
to me that's not really the point of the story. The point of the story is about
this girl who is grieving the loss of her mother and learning how to sort of
deal with this life now that she's been dealt these cards and learning how to
sort of heal herself and heal her family and figure out what the next steps are now.
So yeah, in the end, I think I gave this a four out of five stars. I would
probably rank it more like a four and a half out of five stars. I really enjoyed
this book. I highly recommend it. If you've had this one like on your maybe
list in terms of books to check out, I would say definitely go for it unless
again you are someone who doesn't like magical or magical realism elements in
your books. But again, I think the way that they talk about things like grief
and depression and the way the relationships are handled in here,
I think that it's still really worth reading.
So yeah that is my quick review on the astonishing color of after. If you've
read this book, definitely leave a comment down below letting me know what
you guys thought of it. Or if you have any questions about the book,
definitely leave those down in the comment section as well and I will be
happy to answer those for you. So yeah that's all I have for now and thanks for watching.
March Wrap Up Part 1 #FridayReads | March 9, 2018 2018 Reading Goals 17 Favorite Books of 2017 February Wrap Up Part 1 Cook With Me | Cranberry Brie Bites December 2017 Wrap Up Part 2 February Wrap Up Part 2 An American Marriage by Tayari Jones | Book Review January Reading Wrap Up Part 1

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

Latest Posts