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Reviews tagging 'Suicide'
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
10 reviews
carolined314's review
Bizarrely inhumane
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, and Child death
Moderate: Pregnancy, Body horror, Sexism, Bullying, Body shaming, Classism, and Death
bree_of_the_woods's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, and Suicide
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Child death
elleisntabell's review
3.75
Weird. Really weird. Well written. Not really what I was expecting. Truly just exceptionally strange, which I guess can be assumed from the title.
The synopsis does not do this book justice. A good chunk of the book, between a third of it and half of it, takes place before Ava is even born. It's not really a book about HER. It's more a book about love and intergenerational trauma but told very strangely. Also, it's quite mature in terms of topics, so definitely check out content warnings before reading if that's something you might need. It can be very creepy and unsettling.
The synopsis does not do this book justice. A good chunk of the book, between a third of it and half of it, takes place before Ava is even born. It's not really a book about HER. It's more a book about love and intergenerational trauma but told very strangely. Also, it's quite mature in terms of topics, so definitely check out content warnings before reading if that's something you might need. It can be very creepy and unsettling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Suicide
cakeroo's review
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Minor: Physical abuse and Incest
dreamofbookspines's review
3.5
CONTENT WARNING: book contains rape, suicide. Not in a way that is unimportant to the story, but you should know these things are discussed in more than a passing manner.
Truthfully I'm torn between three and four stars for this. The writing is fantastic; Walton does a great job with storytelling and use of words to create. But (and this is not necessarily a bad but) it's a really sad book. Like, damn. I picked it up because I thought it would be a beautiful FLB-esque story, and it was, but also with far more grief than FLB includes. (Or if not more, than more thoroughly described grief.)
I picked it up thinking it would be pretty and enjoyable, turned out to be sad but still beautiful. Four stars because holy shit the writing is fantastic.
Truthfully I'm torn between three and four stars for this. The writing is fantastic; Walton does a great job with storytelling and use of words to create. But (and this is not necessarily a bad but) it's a really sad book. Like, damn. I picked it up because I thought it would be a beautiful FLB-esque story, and it was, but also with far more grief than FLB includes. (Or if not more, than more thoroughly described grief.)
I picked it up thinking it would be pretty and enjoyable, turned out to be sad but still beautiful. Four stars because holy shit the writing is fantastic.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Rape
rustmaiden's review
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Murder, and Rape
saa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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? Yes
4.5
If you want a book that really hits you in the feels, this is it. I've been through a rollercoaster of emotions—sad, happy, mad, disappointed, proud—seeing things from different angles.
The characters feel real, and you just wanna know how they see the world, even if you don’t always agree.
There’s deep-rooted pain spanning three generations.
The ending left me scratching my head, but after checking out a Goodreads thread, I’m leaning towards the hopeful take.
The characters feel real, and you just wanna know how they see the world, even if you don’t always agree.
There’s deep-rooted pain spanning three generations.
The ending left me scratching my head, but after checking out a Goodreads thread, I’m leaning towards the hopeful take.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
lilifane's review against another edition
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.
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
julyaphelion's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why people love this book as much as they do. I couldn't stand any of it. All it was was three generations of trauma at the hands of men wrapped up in a little "we're so strange haha" bubble. They WERE strange and had every right to say it, I'll give them that, but the way the entire book is written and the contents of the book had me hating almost every second from about halfway through.
The only reason I'm giving this 2.25 stars is that the author is very good at descriptive writing, and I enjoyed those parts(especially the food), and the last 20-30 pages were really nice. I even didn't dislike the ending as much as I thought I would.
Even with these things, I couldn't make myself like it anymore thank that.
The only reason I'm giving this 2.25 stars is that the author is very good at descriptive writing, and I enjoyed those parts(especially the food), and the last 20-30 pages were really nice. I even didn't dislike the ending as much as I thought I would.
Even with these things, I couldn't make myself like it anymore thank that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Animal death, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia
smc15's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Suicide
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