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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
The novel is a family saga encompassing the tragic love stories of her mother, Viviane, and grandmother, Emilienne. Emilienne’s tragedies include losing her three siblings, mother, father, and husband. Ava and her twin brother have been sequestered in their home, but when Ava sneaks out at night with her next door neighbor, she begins an adventure that ends in tragedy. This magical lyrical story is a beautifully written novel with much to offer readers. Teen readers may find the pacing and the character-driven plot off-putting. The novel reads more like adult literary fiction than the typical teen novel. With that in mind, there are teen readers for this exquisite piece, but it may require handselling to them.
Review from Booklist Reviews:
Ava Lavender, a typical girl in every respect except for the fact that she was born with wings, sits upon a family tree of doomed lovers. Her great-grandfather, her grandmother, her aunts and uncles, and her mother were either unlucky or foolish in matters of the heart. Family stories have become local legend, and Ava must explore them all to discover the two questions that haunt her: Where did I come from? . . . What would the world do with a girl such as I? What the world eventually does is to foist itself rather viciously on her. Ava is alternately shaped and trapped by her family's saga, and her voice at times gets lost in the telling. But it is a beautiful voice-poetic, witty, and as honest as family mythology will allow. There are many sorrows in Walton's debut, and most of them are Ava's through inheritance. Readers should prepare themselves for a tale where myth and reality, lust and love, the corporal and the ghostly, are interchangeable and surprising.
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