Although this month is Black History Month, and I feel quite regretful of not reading a novel written by an African American writer, I feel happy with one of my selections from this month. I am usually not the fan of YA books especially if there is little to no romance (I just LOVE a good romance!), but this book changed my perspective.

Essentially, this book revolves around the protagonist Leigh whose mother has recently committed suicide. Leigh is left with a father who doesn’t seem to know her at all, the mystery of who her maternal grandparents are, and the grief surrounding a death she did not see coming. This story is the tale of a teenager who is trying to find themself in the memories she either never remembered or was never there for. This is the story of Leigh trying to remember the red bird.

One of the first things that I really liked about this book was the many flashbacks of the past. I enjoyed being able to read about memories that came to Leigh’s mind at very intentional times throughout the novel. There were moments where you could tell that the flash backs were helping to paint the picture of how her mother committed suicide. I also enjoyed that the many setting of this novel was set in Taiwan. The description of the places she traveled and the different ways in which the author was able to describe the colors Leigh saw through her vantage point were very unique. Finally, I enjoyed the mini slow burn romance between Leigh and Axel. It was fun to be a fly on the wall when it came to reading about their many memories together. At times I found myself speaking out load hoping that the author revealed a blooming relationship between them before the end of the novel.

Even though this book was really, really good, I found several parts of this book that annoyed me. for starters, the concept of color was very prevalent throughout the story, and I completely understand that the author couldn’t keep using the same name for a color to describe things, I found it highly annoying of how many times I found the author using bigger and more complex words to describe a color. It’s probably because I don’t have that great of a vocabulary. I found myself pulling out the dictionary a few too many times. Another aspect of this book that I found annoying, and frustrating was Leigh’s view of Feng. She was very harsh and downright mean to her due to this out of Feng’s control, such as being native Taiwanese, allowing her to speak the language and having a close relationship with Leigh’s maternal grandmother. It felt very forced, and it was unrelenting at times.

At the end of the day, I can only speak of really great things about this book. I think this is a book that I wouldn’t mind reading again. I gave this book a four out of five stars for the way this book not only helped Leigh understand death and grief, but it made a great impact on my understanding about death and grief from the person who is left to carry the weight of it all.