Avalon is a weirdly unconventional Californian coming-of-age story. 

Our protagonist, Bran, “a grubby Audrey Hepburn in overalls”, is not living her best life. Under the heat of the baking sun, since her early years, she is made to labour hard on the home farm and plant nursery that's barely a veneer for a biker gang's criminal activities. 

Bran’s mother abandoned her to search for enlightenment and live an alternative lifestyle in a Buddhist retreat, leaving her in the care (or lack thereof) of her "common-law stepfather” and extended family. Her father had long since emigrated to Australia, never to make contact again.

Her family, despite Bran’s protestations to the contrary, are cruel and neglectful, so she has pretty much raised herself. 

In the typical spirit of these kinds of reads, socially awkward Bran creates a tight-knit circle of friends for herself - unconventional Jay, intellectual Peter, and high-strung Fifi.

While her friends are all heading off to college, Bran finds her horizons are limited by penury - until she falls for the scholarly Peter. Now, obviously, Peter and Bran form a deep connection, but they’re not able for being together for reasons we may or may not choose to believe.

Bran is an endearing character who takes everything thrown at her in her stride, with a heady blend of naive earnestness, resilience, and dark humour, but the story around her falls flat.

The book is heavy going with lots of philosophical pondering and debate about capitalism, fascism, the power of art, film, and literature, strewn with lots of waffling monologues that often lose both Bran’s attention and the reader’s.

This book was bizarre but not weird enough for that to be a redeeming feature. There was no real discernible plot. I'm not entirely sure I even understand what I read, and for a relatively short book, it seemed to drag, taking me quite a few days to finish. I never DNF, but I sadly was tempted at several points along this read. 2.5⭐

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC. As always, this is an honest review.