--- description: Find out why 'The Astonishing Color of After' by Emily X.R. Pan is on TIME's list of best YA books of all time. title: 'The Astonishing Color of After' Is on TIME’s List of the 100 Best YA Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c78e08c11ddfb5a/698a1bbc22fb85025ee2c677/the-astonishing-color-of-after-best-YA-book.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2021 # The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  When a red bird arrives and speaks her name on the night before her mother’s funeral, 15-year-old Leigh Chen Sanders is certain it’s her mother, who died by suicide, reborn. Soon after, the bird visits again and leaves behind a mysterious box that prompts Leigh to travel to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents—from whom her mother had long been estranged—and find the bird again. Heartbroken and lost, Leigh must come to terms with the truth about her family’s past in order to reconcile her grief. Rife with magical realism, mystical flashbacks and all the traditional hormone-spiked realities of teen life, Emily X.R. Pan’s best-selling debut novel, published in 2018, moves across multiple timelines to bring forth a poignant story about a young woman’s journey through love, loss and acceptance. —_Megan McCluskey_ **Buy Now**: _The Astonishing Color of After_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780316464017 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316464015/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time-books-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0316464015&linkId=331b86d6d07604ef15cf17e154b2cc32 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-ya-books/6084671/the-astonishing-color-of-after/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-ya-books/6084671/the-astonishing-color-of-after/"},"headline":"The Astonishing Color of After","datePublished":"2021-08-11T11:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:52:52.046Z","description":"Find out why 'The Astonishing Color of After' by Emily X.R. Pan is on TIME's list of best YA books of all time.","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-ya-books/6084671/the-astonishing-color-of-after/","keywords":["Books","Lists","best YA books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c78e08c11ddfb5a/698a1bbc22fb85025ee2c677/the-astonishing-color-of-after-best-YA-book.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c78e08c11ddfb5a/698a1bbc22fb85025ee2c677/the-astonishing-color-of-after-best-YA-book.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-ya-books/6084671/the-astonishing-color-of-after/","name":"The Astonishing Color of After"}}]}] ```