The Astonishing Color of After

I'm pretty mixed on this book. The writing of this novel was absolutely stunning. Prose like this is either hit or miss with people but it was a hit with me and I really loved it. It talked about a heavy topic like suicide but wasn't graphic, which was good, but the discussion of depression itself was very surface. I didn't really understand the root of her mother's depression and it wasn't talked about very often. When it was, it really hit home, but if it had been explored a bit more, I think it could have been very impactful, especially from Leigh's perspective. I liked the surrealistic bits of this book at first, starting with the bird, but as it progressed it felt more like it was delving into fantasy and I couldn't tell what was really happening, which made the experience not so much interesting like it had been but just confusing. I think the real downfall of this book was the romance plotline. It felt completely disconnected from the main plotline and it felt almost like two different books. I didn't understand why it was there and the length of the book didn't give enough time for either plots to fully develop. If the romance had been saved for another book and the main family plot had been expanded on more, this probably would have been a 4 or even 5 star book. I didn't really connect with the main character, Leigh; she didn't have any traits, really, just hobbies and other people. I couldn't describe her actual personality to you at all. I found myself enjoying the romance portions of this book a bit more because of this, because it showed who she was at least a little bit more and they were more satisfying. The main reason I wanted to read this book, for the discussion of mental health I heard so much about, was lacking so much that I didn't really want to read those. Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential and some really good moments, but it had a few too many things going on and was underdeveloped.