The Astonishing Color of After

The novel opens with Leigh’s conviction that her mother Dory is a bird. In her memory, Leigh revisits the June afternoon when she came home to her traumatized father and the fact of her mother’s suicide.

This shocking event happens on “Two Point Fives Day,” a day that has become an annual tradition for Leigh and her best friend Axel (2). The pair act on their romantic feelings for each other, but Leigh has doubts about kissing Axel because she is afraid of ruining their friendship. Overwhelmed by emotion, Leigh runs away from Axel.

Leigh does not see any more of her mother’s body than the sight of her legs sticking out from the end of the bed. She and her father Brian spend hours looking for a suicide note. They eventually find it in the garbage, along with the antidepressants that Leigh’s mother stopped taking. The note’s crossed-out message says that she loves them, that the pills were not working. Most ominously, it tells them, “I want you to remember” (7). Leigh is not sure what her mother wants her to remember.