The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender.

☆☆☆☆☆

the strange & beautiful sorrows of ava lavender.

Leslye walton.

Publisher Candlewick Press

Publication Date:March 25,2014

Genre:YA Magical Realism| Historical Romance.

Format|Pages:Hardcover|301

Source: Goodreads|Library

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. 

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The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender was unlike any book that I read this past year. It wasn’t just beautiful; it was magical, inspirational, and memorable. Out of all debut books that I read this year this is my favorite. Have you ever come across a novel that after you finished it, you were thinking about it days after? The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender was that book for me; I was unable to get the characters, the storyline out of my mind. I wondered what happened with Ava next, I wondered if she would be okay in the end. What happened with her was horrible and painful. The novel was filled with so many emotions for me: happiness, hope, sadness, anger, fear. It felt that I was going through all the emotions that all characters went through. They felt real. Despite being a story about girl with wings, felt realistic to me by the way that it was written. Hard not to love a book like that. 


The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender was very descriptive, at least in the beginning it was. It had a whole history of Ava’s family, what they went through, the good and the bad times. The descriptions were so vivid and I saw it happening it while I was reading it, everything that happened to her mother, her grandmother and then of course her. I wanted to dislike the people that hurt others but I couldn’t seem to not. Another unique effect in the book, it was hard to dislike anyone expect couple characters. Especially the way that there were described and showed what they gone through, it was hard to not like them. The descriptions are what had you go through all those emotions. The way that attack of Ava was described was heartbreaking, plus the emotions that she went through during it. 


Ava tried so hard to fit it, but how can you when you were born with wings? Though towards the end it seemed like she accepted of what she was. Nicholas, at first I liked him and way he was around her. But reading his journal after time I noticed that he became obsessive, too obsessive over the fact that Ava might be an angel. Only Ava’s twin brother seemed to be aware of the danger but of course nobody listened to him, or understood what he meant. I didn’t both till Ava was attacked and then I got what he was trying to say, he was trying to warn them of danger. About Nicholas. Beautifully written debut, an author who has the talent, the imagination. A book that will pull you in. A story about love, loss, acceptance and hope. The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender a story that will stay with you.