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.