Book Review | For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Teddy Crutcher has been awarded Teacher of the Year at the exclusive Belmont Academy and he’s bursting with pride. He wants to push his students to their fullest potential. Even if it means getting rid of pesky colleagues, spoiled kids and annoying parents – by any means necessary.

Zach is a smug little bastard who has no appreciation for anything or anyone except himself. That’s why he didn’t get an A.

His paper was good. Damn good, in fact. If Zach were a better person, he would’ve received a better grade.

For Your Own Good is dark, funny and deliciously deceitful! Teddy is not a good guy by any means yet through his humorous narration, I couldn’t help root for him. The book unravels Teddy’s personal life bit by bit, showing a portrait of a man on the brink of madness. His plants’ experiments that started out with a little harm soon snowball into something big, and he keeps having to clean up the mess. People are dropping like flies, others are getting arrested and I had no idea what’s going to happen next. I was torn between feeling sorry for the innocent people and wanting Teddy to get away.

It’s amazing that in a book about a villain, I found other characters that are more annoying! Like Fallon, Teddy’s former student with a grudge; Sonia, a well-meaning fellow teacher; and Zach, one of the popular students.  The plotting is clever, creating suspense and bringing believable conflicts that lead to surprising outcomes. The book also portrays the politics of prep school and the pressures from demanding parents. It shows the power teachers have over students’ education, even after they have left school. I was slightly dissatisfied with the ending though the epilogue is a brilliant touch. Not gonna lie, this book gave me flashbacks to all the bad teachers I had in school. But I had a blast reading it!

If you love psychological thrillers, dark academia and a charming antagonist, add For Your Own Good to your reading list!

CW: suicide

About the author: Samantha Downing

Photo by Valentino Mazzariello