The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

By: Leslye Walton / Narrated By: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Kinda Iffy?

I dunno—Maybe I’m continuing a precedent set last Sunday with starting reviews off with a 3-star review, but sue me: I like the cover art… Why, it’s just as lovely… no WAIT! Uhm, sooo much more lovely than the book itself…

Don’t get me wrong; author Leslye Walton has a true gift for language with some beautiful imagery, and gosh knows the premise is compelling as heck. It’s just that? Nope, execution through words, through imagery, through conceptualizations: All fine and dandy, and all just great.

It’s just that I couldn’t find a story to save m’ life, and I’m starting to think that Magical Realism is often thought of, and even MORE often executed by just tossing in, willy nilly, something like, oh say, oh I dunno, oh how about a pair of wings… and then calling it a day? How about that, and we’ll just go ahead and call it Magical Realism cuz ain’t it a fine thought, and isn’t it dazzling when there’s a pair of wings involved? How can that NOT be MAGIC?!

Ahhh no, and tsk tsk, and various other barely audible mutterings cuz here’s what we have: Our narrator is Ava Lavender, and it opens with her musings about being Different, quite possibly a Monster, nobody coulda thunk it cuz heavens knows where-all her glorious pair o’ wings came from. And off like a shot, we’re waaaay back into the family Roux with the Matriarch Maman’s struggles, then onto Ava’s Grand-mère, Emilianne’s struggles with filial love coming to disasters, so many disasters, Vivianne (Ava’s mother) and her disastrous romantic love, and finally to the (Also disASTrous! How maaany disasters in love can we have? PLENty!) lusty obsession a seemingly pious older man would have for a girl with …wings… (She’s an angel, obviously!).

Tho’ told from Ava’s POV for the most part, there’s a disturbing amount of third person omniscient, and lots of third person limited, so we’re all over the place. ‘Tain’t completely off-putting because, again, Walton writes some lyrical prose indeed. But who does that? Shall weeee do it, cover a vaaast amount of characters who are Magical Realism cuz there’s a whimsical stutter here, an impressively prescient autism spectrum disorder there? And let’s make sure that Ava’s story isn’t gotten to until over halfway through, oh let’s not!

I think Alice Hoffman’s Nightbird is a far more successful outing into that delightful world of all that is Off, all that is Wonderful… and all that is a Pair of Wings and what they COULD be if done correctly. Make no mistake, Hoffman doesn’t have Walton’s way with language crafting, but at least, dude! the young man that had the pair in Nightbird did stuff like, oh say, FLY with them!!! Yeh, Ava and James are both homeschooled cuz they’re soooo different, but at least James flew at night.

Alas for Nightbird, that particular Better Story was somewhat unfortunately narrated. Here, the smooooth Cassandra Campbell does the honors. I’m thinking she has a magical voice and that she can manage any type of character, be they French or odious next door neighbor who happens to have a rather Unhealthy Preoccupation with a Young Woman (Really, she’s just a girl… kinda beYONd your normal creepfest there). Dunno, maybe Campbell butchers the accent, but she sounded right fine to me. Sadly, the one thing Campbell can’t do too well is Action. Her voice, the manner she conveys all is just far too smooooth. Happily? Well, there’s precious little Action to be found here… so huzzah?

Wrapping up this review, I’m noting that I’ve not given you either a Setup or a What Happens; that’s because neither is to be found here. I’m serious.

Impeccably written but with poor choices as far as crafting a story goes.

Stellar narration but for an inability to convey Action.

Hey… couldn’t Ava have done more than flutter her wings?

Hey… couldn’t this have been about more than Will I Let Love Doom Me? -which- sounds awesome, but in actuality? Over 8 1/2 hours?

Ain’t much…