By Adelaide Maloney ’22
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is author Leslye Walton’s debut novel. In the novel, a girl is born with wings, grows up, and begins to fall in love. Unfortunately for her, she is from a family that is practically cursed where romance is concerned.
Throughout the novel, this girl, Ava, is the narrator. However, the characters whose stories are being told can shift each chapter, and some characters will only be focused on in one chapter. Overall, this creates a richer lore to support the novel’s narrative and themes, but it can be somewhat jarring. This is especially true of the beginning of the novel. Shifts in character focus may turn off some readers, though they act to enrich and strengthen the story.
Rapid changes of character focus do not last, though. By the time the reader meets Ava, the story has already begun to focus strictly on her. The introduction of the main character creates a natural shift in the novel’s flow, though it is important to note that she is not introduced until over a hundred pages into the book.
This is due largely to pacing. Chapters generally are spread over a broad amount of time. One character may have one chapter to cover their childhood and adolescence, where another will have a chapter to tell the story of one specific year in another character’s childhood. Though this makes time move quickly through the book, it allows for anything relevant to the novel to be mentioned without bogging down the narrative the way slower pacing may. As Ava becomes the main focus of the story, pacing slows.
Overall, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender was an enjoyable read, its story was in-depth and well written, though certain aspects of its structure may be turnoffs to certain readers.
