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.
"To many, I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale. Some considered me a monster, a mutation. To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel," Ava begins in the prologue. Now 70 years old, Ava embodies all the sorrows and experiences of the generations that came before her. Emelienne, Ava's grandmother, was betrayed by the great love of her life, who had a child with her sister, Margaux. Ava's mother, Viviane, falls in love with a man who cannot return it, yet leaves Viviane pregnant with twins--Ava, who was born with wings, and Henry, who rarely utters a word. Viviane has not left the house since, and attempts to protect her children by keeping them with her. Walton deftly handles decades in a few chapters, and assuredly shows the minute details of one tragic night when Ava Lavender leaves the house, and accepts an invitation from Nathaniel Sorrows to step inside out of the rain.
Walton presents challenges that most teens will hopefully never face. 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. The heroine's humor and wisdom as she looks back at her life let us know that she is a survivor. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness