30 books that you can totally judge by their covers

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

The Astonishing Color of After is the fascinating tale of a girl who believes that her mother transformed into a bird after taking her own life. And when Leigh travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents, she vows to find her mother in her new form.

As Leigh uncovers her family’s past, she’s forced to come to terms with her mother’s absence in her life, as well as the guilt she feels over her mom’s death. Pan’s novel covers difficult topics, like grief and mental illness, but it also offers readers a glimpse of hope.

The cover of The Astonishing Color of After captures that hope. Naturally, it depicts a bird — a nod to Leigh’s mother and everything she represents in the story. But the bird on the cover can also represent the freedom that Leigh can reach only by accepting the difficulties that have been thrown at her.

And if the meaning behind the cover isn’t enough to draw you in, there’s also the fact that the coloring is absolutely gorgeous.