The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton, tells the story of three generations of women in the Lavender family.  The story begins with Emilienne Roux, Ava Lavender's grandmother.  Emilienne is strange;  she is very perceptive and can interpret meaning in ordinary events.   For example, she would interpret a dropped spoon to indicate someone will be visiting soon.  Emillienne lives with her parents and her siblings until tragedy destroys her family.  Everyone Emilienne has loved has died or disappeared, so she marries a man she doesn't love him, and they move far away to Seattle.  Emilienne has a daughter, Viviane, who's highly perceptive sense of smell allows her to identify people and emotions.  Like Emilienne, Viviane has her own troubles with love. Viviane has two twin children who she homeschools and does not  allow to leave their home or yard.  Her daughter Avais born with the wings of a bird and her son, Henry, doesn't speak until he is thirteen.  Although he is very intelligent,  he doesn't always express himself in understandable ways.  When her best friend and neighbor, Cardigan, invites her to a party, Ava begins to want a normal teenage life.   She sneaks out with Cardigan sometimes, not realizing that, partly because of her escapades, a very religious man, Nathaniel Sorrows,  believes that she is an angel and has become obsessed with her.  What will Nathaniel's obsession lead to?  Does Ava really need to fit in?