The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender Review

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Author: Leslye Walton

Series: None

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication Date: March 25, 2014

Genre: Fantasy; Supernatural; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 301

Format: Hardback

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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 naïve 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.

Really, the title says it all. This book is so…strange…but at the same time so…beautiful. There are no other words to describe it.

Ava Lavender is not like any other teenage girl. She is different, not just because of her wings, but because of her familial tendency to attract broken hearts. Love is not something that the Roux women do well. Her mother’s kept a tight leash on Ava's life ever since she was little, not letting her do the things normal teenage girls would be doing. In fact, Ava’s never done much of anything. Her urgent need to be normal, to do normal things makes her pretend to be something she’s not. She sets out to find who she is and what her past holds, and, while doing so, learns to love herself for who she is. Then life comes crashing in, bringing Nathanial Sorrows and devastation along with it. But the main question always stays the same: Will the Roux women ever keep love from slipping between their fingers?

This is one of the hardest reviews I've ever had to write. Thinking about this book is almost like dreaming a dream. It’s there, and you can feel it, but you can’t exactly…touch it. It’s hard to explain why it is so difficult to write a review for a book like this. Maybe because it's almost impossible to put beautiful things into words that'll do it justice. Or maybe it's because remarkable things aren't meant to be described-they're meant to be lived. Whatever the reason, all I can say to you is that this book was fantastic in more ways than I can name. 

The book may be titled The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, but it is about all the women of Roux family. Chronicles of unrequited love, star-crossed love, and any other type of doomed love that exists, is all written in this book. The title holds true when it mentions “sorrow”; there is a lot of sadness and tragedy in this book. But at the same time, there is so much beauty. The writing, the characters, the setting, the story–it’s all stunning. I don’t think I've ever read a novel whose title is so perfectly matched with its plot line.

Only a few books ever have the capability to make the reader feel as if they are in a dream. Even fewer can transport them into a fog of fantasy and magic. To make them forget they were even reading anything in the first place. To me, this book was one of those. It seems only the really gifted writer have that ability, and Walton is one of them. I wonder if there is some kind of secret to it all, and, if there is, if I'll ever know what it is.