One Beautiful Year of Normal starts with August Caine receiving a call from an attorney to tell her that her Aunt Helen has died. However as far as August was aware her Aunt had died years before or so her Mum had always told her. August returns to the Southern town of Savannah to try and find out the truth. As she starts to uncover her family secrets, and her already fragile mind begins to splinter, the truth soon becomes something she wishes would have stayed hidden.

One Beautiful Year of Normal was a slow burn story that I found incredibly compelling. The novel took me through the gamut of emotions, parts of it were desperately sad yet there were moments of hope and levity especially during August’s childhood and her one year of normal.

The story is told from a dual timeline as August deals with the aftermath of Helen’s death and then we flashback to the ‘beautiful year of normal’. I really liked the chapters where we found out more about Helen and how life was with her. You sensed how deeply she really cared about August and was willing to give up her own happiness to keep August safe. She was the kind of person I want to be when I grow up, slightly bonkers but with a good heart. I thought the character of August was complex and lots of her actions seemed quite contrary but as you find out more about her background I began to understand more about why she’d act the way she did.

This is a story that covers some dark subjects including mental health, kidnapping and lies, yet they are dealt with in a sensitive and compassionate way with a quality of writing that really stood out. Family secrets and the power of mother and daughter relationships run throughout this book all set against the backdrop of the deep South. This was one of those novels where the setting was almost a character in itself and the heat and tension simmer off the page.

One Beautiful Year of Normal was an emotional character driven rollercoaster of a novel that has stayed with me long after I finished it. I’d highly recommend this debut novel by Sandra K. Griffith.

Big thanks to Emani at Sparkpoint Studio for a copy.