The Friday 56, #70: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

The Friday 56 is a weekly blog meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. Join in every Friday, the rules are simple.

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
*Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It’s that simple.

**Also be sure to leave me a link to your Friday 56 post in the comments!**

“I’ve been told things happen as they should: My grandmother fell in love three times before her nineteenth birthday. My mother found love with the neighbor boy when she was six. And I, I was born with wings, a misfit who didn’t dare to expect something as grandiose as love. It’s our fate, our destiny, that determines such things, isn’t it?”

Leslye Walton’s The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. The writing is enchanting, reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Reading it is like waking from a dream that makes you feel both light and heavy at once. If you enjoy or have ever been intrigued by magical realism, this book is for you.

From my review:

“The Roux family has always been unusual. The matriarch of the family eventually faded away, her children’s touch passing right through her, her daughter was born with a rather keen intuition, seeing signs where others may only hear an owl hoot. And strangest of all were the twins, Ava Lavender with her angelic wings and Henry Lavender, born mute until the day he finally spoke. Each generation of Roux’s has endured the euphoria of youth and the sting of love. Now Ava, secluded for far too long from the outside world, reaches out for freedom, not knowing that her uniqueness has drawn not only curious eyes but possessive ones.” You can read my full review here.