Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

10 reviews

carolined314's review against another edition

Bizarrely inhumane

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, and Child death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Body horror, Sexism, Bullying, Body shaming, Classism, and Death

jillkaarlela's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Age rating: 16+

This book was not at all what I expected, in the best way. I loved the use of physical wings as a metaphor for general “othering” from society!! I also loved how we got a full deep dive into all of the family’s backstories before we got to the main character, Ava. It really helped to set the scene! This book is very heavy, as it deals with how people handle generational trauma and “othering” from society, so please be advised by the trigger warnings. However, I really enjoyed this! I think there is a lot of wisdom to be taken from this book. 

Trigger warning: violence, hate crime, generational trauma, grief, death, sexual violence, medical content, suicidal thoughts, religious trauma

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Death, Child death, Violence, Rape, Death of parent, and Hate crime

starryeyedlover's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Animal death, Xenophobia, Grief, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The main character of this story is Ava Lavender. At the beginning of the story, she says she was born with wings. Then the story switches to France and focuses on her great grandparents as they decide to move to New York City. The story talks about Ava's grandmother and her siblings and their time in NYC. It talks about Ava's grandmother and her grandfather and their move to Seattle. Ava's mother is born there and then Ava and her brother (twins) are born there. The women from the great grandmother on down and the siblings of the women have strange and unique abilities. Often, the abilities are helpful. Ava and her ancestors view these abilities in a matter-of-fact way. There is a lot of sadness in the family. Often, the sadness is a result of romantic issues. There are some happy times too. I really enjoyed the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

that_story_girl's review

inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Death, and Mental illness

bree_of_the_woods's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I loved this book… and then the last 40 pages happened. It’s a struggle. The writing style is poetic, enchanting, magical. 
The magical realism aspect of beautifully done, and the many minor stories woven into the plot, depicting magic in every day occurrences and the way it impacts the lives of everyone was delicious. It reminded me very much of Alice Hoffman’s writing. 
A tale of generational struggles, love lost and the tragedies that follow four generations of the Roux-Lavender family.  It’s sad, but captivating, and you hope for more for the FMC and her twin. The magical realism portions are never explained, which is fine, but I do find the violence that occurs in the last quarter of the book to be very strong and relatively undealt with by the end. I’m not sure it served a purpose, or was properly resolved. We experience the fallout from the secondary characters, a minor chapter from the FMC, and then it’s all wrapped up quite abruptly from there. Which is what causes me to give the book a lower rating. It had great potential but I’m not sure the ending was the right one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Child death

lauramcc7's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, Child death, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

lilifane's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Please check trigger warnings before reading this book. 

No coherent thoughts, just tears.

I loved it so much. The beautiful writing, the magical realism, the quirky and strange characters, the small-town vibes, the multi-generation family dynamics, the heartbreak, the love, the foreboding, the perseverance, the hope. 

But it was hard to read sometimes because of all the... sorrow and trauma and heartbreak, especially towards the end. I basically cried for the last 20% of it. But I still love this book with all my heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual violence, Death, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Rape, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Sexual assault

bronteide's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was gripping, and I liked family sagas in general, so I liked to see how the characters changed as time went by. But there were many plot holes, too much talk about sex and very uncomfortable to read descriptions of female body. A lot of character's actions were super strange. And of course, the climax was the thing that ruined it for me. Despite all the darkness, until that scene I thought that this book would become a comfort read for me, but now... no. and all the events that happened after the climax?

like, she recovered from the trauma so fast and it made her a better person?? srs?

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Misogyny

awells96's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death and Stalking