The first AVA in the fictional town of Climax Creek, North Carolina. The War that Saved My Life, written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, is a novella, approximately 20,400 words in length. Ava is going to take my anger out on my surfboard with some very mean looking waves. When Ava assured Boyd that her relationship with Raylan was platonic. Brigg's heard Ava's stony feet grind on the couch, he'd go bananas.