Leigh Chen Sander's mother committed suicide. Leigh is certain her mother has become a beautiful red bird and is trying to give her a message. Her mother had always been allusive about her childhood, her family and her life in Taiwan. Her father, so devastated by her mother's death is unwilling or unable to tell Leigh much about her mother's past. Certain that the key to the message her mother was trying to get her to uncover was somehow tied to her family in Taiwan, Leigh and her father travel there.

This is a beautifully written story about love, family, betrayal and forgiveness. The story is centered in the magical realism element of the bird trying to communicate with Leigh. I really have no real words to describe this book other than it is just beautiful. I found it mesmerizing and hard to put down. I loved the language Emily X. R. Pan used and the ways she described the grief of Leigh and her family. I also loved how Pan used the elements of art and music to describe and convey the emotions and moods of Leigh and her friend, Axel. The jacket cover describes it best, " Alternating between reality and magic, past and present, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After, is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, bravery and love."