Ava Lavender, as well as her family, expected to be born
both normal and alone. Instead, she was born with a twin who
doesn't communicate well, and she herself has wings. Some,
like Nathaniel Sorrows, claim she is divine, an angel.
Others think she must be some sort of weird recluse or
freak. To Ava, she is just herself, a girl with wings that
can't fly. However, Ava can't control what others think of
her, and soon Nathaniel's admiration of her supposed
divinity turns to obsession, and a tragic turn of events
leads to a night that no one will forget.
THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER by Leslye
Walton is unlike anything I've read before. The prose in
this story is hauntingly elegant, and it captures you from
the first page. The story it tells is even more profound and
moving and like the title implies, full of utter sorrow and
inexplicable beauty. It leaves you with a feeling almost
like that of a bird's wing- hollow, but purposefully so in
order to fly. Ava's tale and the tale of her family leading
up to her is historical and superb, and the layers found
within each character will blow you away.
The themes throughout the novel show the often ambiguous
definitions of love, family, and pain, and they are executed
astoundingly. If you enjoy doing character studies, pages
and pages of work could be done on a single character in
this novel. The plot builds excellently, and I love how you
get to see the many generations that lead up to Ava. I do
have a love/hate relationship with the ending (really love,
but I stubbornly favor clear endings), because it is
definitely open to interpretation, not in the way a book
might end for a sequel, but in a very questionable way. I
can't deny that it perfectly fits the book, but the curious
part of me is begging to know the correct way of
interpreting it.
Overall, I don't think that THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROW
OF AVA LAVENDER is for everyone, because the writing style
is very different, but for me, I love it. I find Walton's
style to be absolutely beautiful, and I will never forget
the characters in this book. It is definitely one to be put
on my favorites shelf.
Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion
of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.
Foolish love appears to be the Roux family
birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny,
Ava Lavender. Ava — in all other ways a normal girl — is
born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her
peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her
peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world,
ill-prepared for what she might discover and naive to the
twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel
Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession
with her grows until the night of the summer solstice
celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and
feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga
build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye
Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology
of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically,
exquisitely human.
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