the strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender summary

willing to enter Ava’s world on its own terms will find themselves richly rewarded. Using detailed imagery and an almost mythical storytelling style, teenage Ava tells the history of four generations of her family. A must-read for fans of beautiful monsters like Miss Peregrine's. It unfolds like a hauntingly beautiful dream (or is it a gorgeous nightmare?). The heroine's humor and wisdom as she looks back at her life let us know that she is a survivor. She writes of love, betrayal, birth, murder, affection and rape-and wraps them in prose so radiant that readers feel carried by Ava's narrative. Walton presents challenges that most teens will hopefully never face. In a sweeping intergenerational story infused with magical realism, debut author Leslye Walton tethers grand themes of love and loss to the earthbound sensibility of Ava Lavender as she recollects one life-altering summer as a teenager. Readers should prepare themselves for a tale where myth and reality, lust and love, the corporal and the ghostly, are interchangeable and surprising. There are many sorrows in Walton’s debut, and most of them are Ava’s through inheritance. is a beautiful voice-poetic, witty, and as honest as family mythology will allow. This magical lyrical story is a beautifully written novel with much to offer readers. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books This remarkable, magic-laced family history continues and spreads to other members of Ava’s Seattle neighborhood to produce a gauzy narrative of love and loss.

Becky Quiroga Curtis, Books & Books (Coral Gables, FL) It is just as the title suggests, both strange and beautiful, and should be read by every lover of books, regardless of their age. Ellen Klein, Hooray for Books! (Alexandria, VA) This love story by debut YA author Leslye Walton is as rare and perfect as Mona Lisa’s smile. A unique book, highly recommended for readers looking for something a step away from ordinary. It is beautifully crafted and paced, mystical yet grounded by universal themes and sympathetic characters. This multigenerational tale examines love and considers the conflicting facets of loving and being loved - desire, despair, depression, obsession, self-love, and courage. Walton’s novel is both strange and beautiful in the best of ways. It's a story that adults and teenagers can appreciate equally. Walton's novel builds to a brutal but triumphant conclusion. N entrancing and sumptuously written multigenerational novel wrapped in the language of fable, magical realism, and local legend.

The strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender summary