Evening Everyone,

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Mine flew by in a flash as I was super busy but also very productive so I am definitely not complaining. Today has been a return to some kind of normality, one of the two kids are back in school with the other going back tomorrow. Hopefully this school year goes a lot better than the previous two.

Book 📖

Thank you to @smariedowning and @MichaelJBooks for this advanced copy of For Your Own Good in return for an honest review. For Your Own Good was published on 19th August 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Belmont Academy is home to the richest and brightest children as well as their teacher of the year; Teddy Crutcher. Pushing all of the students to their fullest potential is Teddy’s main priority so when a parent dies on school property, it’s an inconvenience to him.

Other people related to the school as well as students start to mysteriously fall ill and some of them die but even then, Teddy just wants to be left alone to get on with his most important job. Sometimes getting the best out of his students comes at a very high cost.

General Thoughts 🤔

I’m still a little bit overwhelmed by this book, I have to be honest. I feel like there was a lot that happened, but also not very much, I can’t quite put my finger on what it was that gave me that feeling. However, I liked it. I liked that it was clear who the culprit was right from the start and the guessing game was more about if or when he would get caught.

I’m not sure whether or not the plot is believable, but not all plots have to be. I’m fairly sure that nobody would be able to go around doing what Teddy did and so few people be suspecting of him. Especially within a school full of parents with so much money that were as demanding as the Belmont parents were. Whether it was believable or not, it made for dramatic reading and I was gripped, wondering when the next person was going to turn up dead.

Characters 👫👭👬

Zach was my favourite character. I actually felt really sorry for him as I don’t think that his parents gave him enough credit for how mature and intelligent he was. Not to mention how brave he was. I know when I was seventeen I would never have put myself in danger like Zach did.

Teddy was obviously the “baddy” in the story so as a reader I’m supposed to hate him. Of course I didn’t admire him or anything but I did feel kind of sorry for him. He’d gotten himself into such a mess on the back of a lie, I don’t think he could see a way out for himself. I also think he struggled with various different mental health problems and when thrown into a school where all he wanted was to belong and be admired, I think it was a recipe for disaster.

Writing Style ✍️

The story was told from lots of different perspectives and if you’ve read my other reviews, you will know that I love this method of story telling. I do have one slight niggle though. The perspectives changed so quickly and so suddenly that at times I didn’t even realise until I was a paragraph through. I’m always here for sharp and snappy, but an indication that it had happened would have made my reading experience more enjoyable.

Aside from the above, I think that the author did a fantastic job of entwining all of the characters and the events in such a way that kept me guessing and questioning what was going to happen. As far as 96% of the way through the book, I still had no idea about how it was going to wrap up.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

This was an enjoyable read that did keep me engaged and I liked the concept of the plot. If I’d had a whole bunch of free time I probably would have ploughed through this in one sitting. I’d recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a book to entertain them on a Sunday afternoon without having to over-exert their mind.

😍😍😍😩😩