For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing: A Five-Star Read

I love dark academia books. Give me a story about the pressures of school combined with twisted behaviors, over-the-top expectations, and some intriguing characters, and I’m sold. These books make me feel a little better about my own high school experience.

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing is one of these books. Teddy Crutcher, reining Teacher of the Year at Belmont Academy, is determined to give his students what they don’t even know they need: a lesson in getting what you deserve. He is the epitome of ‘I know best’ behavior and has a very different view of how best to create a nurturing learning environment. Besides setting hardcore expectations for the classroom, Teddy targets the students who seem to have it all already.

Take Zach, for example. Teddy sees this wealthy student as far too comfortable with his status at the top of the school pyramid. Even Zach’s helicopter parents don’t faze Teddy despite their insistence that Teddy give Zach an opportunity to move his grade from a B+ to an A. That type of parental smugness and veiled bribes exacerbates Teddy’s vendetta against Zach, and he makes it his mission to set up the boy for hard life lessons. From unrealistic extra credit assignments to a general disdain in the classroom, Teddy is determined to break Zach. But, the boy has to comply as his parents are already fuming because of Zach’s failure to obtain “perfect” grades.

Then there’s Fallon, a former student who was ready for greatness in college, but she needed a lesson in curbing her moxie and confidence. Teddy saw those as grievous personality flaws and made it his mission to push over-achieving Fallon in her place. Unfortunately for her, that looks like destroying her dreams of attending an Ivy League university.

And Teddy doesn’t stop there. He finds his fellow teachers like Sonia Benjamin to be far too lenient for Belmont Academy’s elite status, and he’s irked by math teacher Frank Maxwell’s overly optimistic viewpoint. Plus, Teddy despises other parents, including Ingrid Ross, mother of golden child Courtney and president of the Collaborative, Belmont Academy’s parent-teacher association. None of these adults are up to Teddy’s standards, and he’s determined to teach them as many lessons as he does his students.

Those lessons are dark. Teddy goes beyond assigning extra work in his English classes. His view of education is a hard line: you will never be as good as you already think you are. As For Your Own Good progresses, Teddy exacerbates his behavior and even more lessons come to light, including ones that end in death.

“Being loved is one thing, being hated is another, but there’s nothing worse than being ignored.”

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing
(Page 335)

What I Enjoyed About For Your Own Good

This thriller hit all the marks of a great dark academia book:

• Devious characters: Alongside Teddy, there is a wide roster of complex characters who are devious in their own right. The adults and students are multi-faceted with their behaviors and motivations.
• Twists and turns: Samantha Downing takes her readers through a wild ride of fast-paced chapters and plot twists. For Your Own Good grows from a story about a teacher on a mission to a commentary on parental expectations, teenage pressure, and the thin line between good and bad behavior.
• Multiple points of view: With so many interesting characters, For Your Own Good is well-suited for a multi-POV approach. We see Teddy’s behavior through his own eyes, and we experience the after effects from the viewpoints of Zach, Sonia, and others. Their interpretations add more layers to the psychological thrills in the book.

My Final Thoughts About For Your Own Good

I tore through For Your Own Good in April. It’s an addictive thriller in an academic setting, bringing darkness to the elite world of Belmont Academy and its population. This is a fast read with compelling, yet contemptible, characters and actions. I wholly recommend it.