Review Detail

My love affair with magical realism continues. There is just something that’s more fantastical about the real world we live in being filled with these odd strains of magic than the most epic of fantasy worlds. Magical realism sends my mind into paroxysms of joy and imagination. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is very much what its title says it will be: strange, a bit sorrowful, and immensely beautiful.


Most of the time, I’m a character-focused reader. If I’m not bonded strongly with the characters, I’m generally not going to care that much what’s happening. Every so often though, either the writing or a mind-blowingly clever plot will draw me in and engage me almost as much as character can. That is what happened with Leslye Walton’s gorgeous prose. Her writing charmed me immediately, complex, full of scintillating vocabulary, and perfectly matched with the tale being told.

Walton’s tale is, admittedly, a strange one. Magical realism is often pretty light, with just one or two small elements, but Walton’s world is quite magical. See, it all centers on Ava Lavender’s family tree, which consists of oddly remarkable people. One of her ancestors turned into a canary and another has an absurdly powerful sense of smell, so much so that she can even smell emotions. Ava herself is born with a pair of wings. Probably you can tell if magical realism is your thing or not. Either you will be frustrated because none of this is explained or you’ll want to imagine that such things could happen in the world you live in.

The narrative itself is odd as well, all told in the first person as though Ava is looking back on her life and telling the reader what happened. What makes this odd is that Ava knows about things she couldn’t possibly have known about, which is another sort of strange magic to the tale. To talk about herself, Ava goes back to her greatgrandmother and works down through the family tree.

Much of the novel is spent talking about Ava’s mother, possibly even more time than is spent on Ava. The blurb makes the book sound like it centers on Ava, and it both does and doesn’t. I get why they did that (to market more directly to YA audiences), but it’s certainly misleading. Everyone in the family is equally interesting to me, though, so I didn’t mind jumping from character to character.

In fact, I think what happened in some of Ava’s plot line is probably the only thing that left me cold. Her story with Nathaniel Summers was uncomfortable, and not necessarily in a good way. However, I really loved everything else, wanting to absorb the beauty of the book into myself. Also, both Ava and Viviane’s ships are completely adorable slow burns with guys who do not fit the typical love interest stereotypes.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender will likely appeal to those who enjoyed the films Big Fish, Practical Magic, or Chocolat. I hate comparison marketing, but I was thinking of all three and comparisons can be helpful if they’re true. So I just hope you all don’t think I’m bonkers.