Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
A novel by Leslye Walton

“To many I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale.” So opens Ava Lavender’s account of her life, one which necessarily begins with the mysterious and odd history of her family: from her great-grandparents, to her prosaic grandmother and her grandmother’s ghostly siblings, to her fanciful mother, and finally to herself and her twin brother—the former born with wings and the latter seemingly without a voice. Ava traces her lineage—defined as it is by lost love—in an attempt to answer “the two questions that would haunt my every winged step: Where did I come from? And even more important: What would the world do with such a girl?” When Ava reaches her own chapter of the story, about halfway through the novel, it becomes clear that this second question is one her mother and grandmother hoped never to see answered. Yet, after spending sixteen years confined to her own home, Ava is ready to face the world, regardless of the consequences. Between its lyrical prose and fantastical plot, this magical realist tale is absolutely entrancing. And the overriding theme of the story—“Love makes us such fools”—hits just the right note, both melancholy and hopeful.

— Susan W. Davidson, Main Library

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