The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

by Leslye Walton

A mesmerizing, lyrical tale of the bright and dark sides of love and desire.

Foolish love appears to be a Roux family birthright. And for Ava Lavender, a girl born with the wings of a bird, it is an ominous thing to inherit. In her quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to join her peers, Ava ventures into the wider world. But it is a dangerous world for a naive girl – a world which may view her as girl or angel. On the night of the summer solstice celebration, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air and Ava’s journey and her family’s saga reaches 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.

Reviewed by Alexandra on

3 of 5 stars

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Its a nicely written book, very strange (which is both a positive and negative really). I think I could've liked it a lot more if the narration wasn't first person omniscient as the novel had a lot of pretty details but all in all they never really revealed much about the characters to me so they occasionally weighed the novel down and seemed superfluous. I don't really like generational sagas so that possibly affected my opinion of it, as though I sympathized with each characters tragedies I didn't really feel attached to them. The writing's quite nice, a lot of well thought out sensory imagery and the whole premise is very original.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 December, 2015: Finished reading
  • 26 December, 2015: Reviewed