for your own good book review

The Lit Bitch

Anne Mendez, Book Reviewer

Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

I absolutely loved Samantha Downing’s first novel, My Lovely Wife . In fact, I even read it twice because I thought it was such a great read and my book club loved it too! Her second novel He Started It , just didn’t grab me like the first one. I haven’t read it yet but the description just didn’t sound as exciting or interesting as My Lovely Wife sounded when I first heard of it. But when I saw this one was coming out—her third thriller—the description sounded so excellent and I just couldn’t pass up!

I love novels about darker academia and this book sounded like it would be a perfect summer thriller read so it was an easy yes for review from me! I also saw that it was recently announced that Robert Downey Jr and HBO Max have teamed up to option this stunning new thriller for the streaming service in the coming year!

If that bit of news doesn’t grab your attention then I don’t know what will! I was already interested in this novel based on the name Samantha Downing but adding in one of my favorite actors to potentially produce and create this book into a series sounds absolutely irresistible to me! I cannot wait to see what the vision is for this book when it comes to the HBO Max series, after reading the book I think it’s going to be a perfect book to bring to the streaming service! You should definitely run out and secure a copy of this book now, it’s going to be a hot read this summer!

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with the death of a school parent that’s looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential.

All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way.

It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school—complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson… ( summary from Goodreads )

Bodies are dropping, Ivy League admissions are rolling in, and unexplained poisonings are on the menu at New England’s prestigious Belmont Academy.

Academic excellence comes at a high cost in bestselling author Samantha Downing’s forthcoming thriller,  FOR YOUR OWN GOOD  (Berkley Hardcover)– on sale in a month, on July 20 th .

As announced this morning in  The Hollywood Reporter , Robert Downey Jr. and Greg Berlanti’s team at HBO Max (also behind  The Flight Attendant ) are teaming up to bring bestselling author Samantha Downing’s newest twisted thriller onto the small screen.

In  FOR YOUR OWN GOOD , the very person who has the power to shape a student’s future knows it. Teacher of the Year Teddy Crutcher doesn’t just push his students to their full academic potential—he wants them to learn how to be good people. Much better than their privileged, meddlesome, entitled parents. After all…it’s for their own good.

Amazon and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films are adapting Downing’s debut, My Lovely Wife ,as a feature for the streaming giant.

Advance Praise

“Downing’s thrillers are… an awful good time .”  – Entertainment Weekly

“[Downing is] a writer who  deserves to be a superstar .” –Criminal Element 

“…the  new queen of fiendish ingenuity .”  New Orleans Advocate 

“… dark and bold .” – Shelf Awareness

“Downing’s mind is  truly twisted —and we love her for it.” —Hello Giggles

“…immersive, albeit  chillingly dark .” — Booklist

“…one  bold and fearless  author…” —CrimeReads

When I read My Lovely Wife for the first time, it was love at first page. I instantly fell in love with Downing’s prose and characters. I felt uneasy throughout the book and the nameless narrator was chilling. So my expectations were high going into this third book. As mentioned before, I haven’t read the second book she wrote, mostly because I was afraid it wouldn’t stack up the the debut. The debut was solid and sometimes the subsequent books just don’t measure up—-well after reading this book I can firmly say that is NOT the case for Downing. I actually think this book was executed better than even her debut novel and now I am on the hunt for the second book she wrote so I can devour that one too!

This book boasts a lot of characters in it’s plot which at first might be overwhelming for readers but for me, I found a lot to immerse myself in. The characters are all interesting, layered, and none are really all that straight forward which makes them fun to read about. As an educator myself, I love reading books about the darker side of academics especially when it comes to elite prep schools. The world of academics is so crazy even at public schools, and worse in the elite private sector. Now you are talking about families with money, influence, and entitlement which only makes things even more competitive so this book had a lot to hook me and draw me in but also for me to find relatable! I loved the setting and the characters so much! You should read this book simply for that reason alone!

Downing could have written a book purely on darker academics alone, but throwing in a little murder made it even better. At it’s heart, this is a murder mystery and one readers won’t soon forget! I loved the mystery and was engrossed in all the details of the story. I read it in a couple of days and was sad when it came to an end because it was such a great read. This book definitely lived up to the hype for me and cemented Downing as a new auto buy author for me! If you only pick one thriller to read this summer, let it be this one! I have even recommended it to my book club for a fall read and I think I will read it again because it was just that good! I don’t want to give away too much of the plot and story so I will simply say that the characters and plot/setting are excellent and you will not be disappointed! Easily 5 stars for me!

Book Info and Rating

Format 384 pages, Hardcover

PublishedJuly 20, 2021 by Berkley

ISBN 9780593100974 (ISBN10: 0593100972)

Free review copy provided by publisher, Berkley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: thriller, mystery

WHERE TO BUY (AFFILIATE LINKS)

Share this:.

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

One thought on “ Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing ”

Wonderfully enthusiastic review, Anne.

Charming comments go here! Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

How did that book end? Book spoilers to jog your memory.

Samantha Downing | For Your Own Good

The Book: 

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing Published July 20th 2021 by Berkley Date read: July 26, 2021

The Characters: 

Teddy, teacher at Belmont Zack, his student Sonia and Fallon, other teachers

Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Plot (from Goodreads ):

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with the death of a school parent that’s looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential.

All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way.

It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caroline (@howdidthatbookend)

Teddy was poisoning everyone, but multiple times others got blamed. He didn’t mean to kill Ingrid; that coffee pod was for Sonia. When he poisoned the milk, he drank a little bit to get suspicion off of him, but his goal was to kill the headmaster.

He killed Fallon by causing a carbon monoxide leak in her house.

Zack figures everything out and tells the FBI, but Teddy talks himself out of it again.

The Twist: 

Frank knew as well, and poisoned Teddy as well. He wasn’t as clever and easily got caught, but it led to the FBI finally realizing the truth about Teddy.

The Ending:

The review: .

Samantha’s thrillers are unlike any other. She does such an amazing job of writing unlikeable characters. Teddy is certainly one I loved to hate. He’s obviously despicable from the first chapter, but I instantly needed to know more.

She also did a really good job of changing my opinion of other certain characters throughout the book. Ones I disliked in the beginning I loved by the end, and vice versa.

I loved how each character suspected someone else, almost in a circle of suspicion. The reader never really knows which narrators to trust and which ones are unreliable, since they’re all completely convinced that they’re the one doing the right thing.

Teddy’s milk obsession was the perfect device–somehow I found it so gross, even though milk is totally innocent. Who knew a milk addiction would be the thing to make a sociopath even more creepy?

QOTD: Do you drink plain milk? I usually don’t, but occasionally crave it with really gooey brownies.

We're trying to grow our mailing list. If you join us and stick around, you will automatically be entered into two giveaways as a token of our thanks. And that's just the start!

Thank you! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

• Pingback: July Wrap-Up | Bookends

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

 Yes, add me to your mailing list

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

• Crime, Thrillers & Mystery

Your Amazon Prime 30-day FREE trial includes:

Unlimited Premium Delivery is available to Amazon Prime members. To join, select "Yes, I want a free trial with FREE Premium Delivery on this order." above the Add to Basket button and confirm your Amazon Prime free trial sign-up.

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, you will be charged £95/year for Prime (annual) membership or £8.99/month for Prime (monthly) membership.

Buy new: .savingPriceOverride { color:#CC0C39!important; font-weight: 300!important; } .reinventMobileHeaderPrice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPriceSavingsPercentageMargin, #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPricePriceToPayMargin { margin-right: 4px; } -8% £11.99 £ 11 . 99 FREE delivery Saturday, 25 May Dispatches from: Amazon Sold by: Mozdo

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. For a full refund with no deduction for return shipping, you can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition.

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Save with Used - Very Good .savingPriceOverride { color:#CC0C39!important; font-weight: 300!important; } .reinventMobileHeaderPrice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPriceSavingsPercentageMargin, #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPricePriceToPayMargin { margin-right: 4px; } £0.57 £ 0 . 57 £2.80 delivery 28 May - 7 June Dispatches from: Emma's Book Store Sold by: Emma's Book Store

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

For Your Own Good: The most addictive psychological thriller you’ll read this year Hardcover – 19 Aug. 2021

Purchase options and add-ons.

SOME LESSONS CAN BE DEADLY . . . The unputdownable new thriller from the author of international sensation and Richard & Judy pick, MY LOVELY WIFE 'Dark, sly and delicious . . . totally original - and totally compelling' JP DELANEY, bestselling author of PLAYING NICE ' Samantha Downing is totally the real deal. Wry and dark and witty and clever' SARAH PINBOROUGH, bestselling author of BEHIND HER EYES 'Wonderfully dark and twisty. I raced through it, desperate to know how it would end' BA PARIS _______ Teddy Crutcher won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy. Everyone thinks he's brilliant. Only you know the truth. They all smile when he tells us his wife couldn't be more proud. But no-one has seen her in a while. They're impressed when he doesn't let anything distract him - even the tragic death of a school parent. Even when the whispers start, saying it was murder. You're sure Teddy is hiding something about what happened that day. You're sure you can prove it. But you didn't stop to think that when it comes to catching a killer, there's no place more dangerous than just one step behind . . . _______ 'An irresistibly tale tale of parents, pupils and poison: the American dream turned suburban nightmare' TM LOGAN 'A brilliant psychological black comedy with a really fresh feel, packed with sly observation and outrageous twists' DAILY MAIL PRAISE FOR SAMANTHA DOWNING 'Wow! My Lovely Wife is a stunner - full of twists, well-drawn characters, and riveting suspense' Harlan Coben 'The next Gone Girl ' Marie Claire 'The twist at the end of the first chapter made me read through the night' Jane Corry

• Print length 400 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Michael Joseph
• Publication date 19 Aug. 2021
• Dimensions 16.2 x 3.6 x 24 cm
• ISBN-10 0241446880
• ISBN-13 978-0241446881
• See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product description

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Michael Joseph (19 Aug. 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241446880
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241446881
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.2 x 3.6 x 24 cm
• 8,115 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• 12,118 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• 59,073 in Thrillers (Books)

About the author

Samantha downing.

Samantha Downing is the author of the bestselling novels For Your Own Good, He Started It, and My Lovely Wife, which was nominated for the Edgar, ITW, Macavity awards in the US, the CWA award in the UK, and the winner of the Prix des Lectrices award in France.

Her latest novel is A Twisted Love Story. It was released on July 18, 2023.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• UK Modern Slavery Statement
• Sustainability
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell on Amazon Handmade
• Sell on Amazon Launchpad
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect and build your brand
• Associates Programme
• Fulfilment by Amazon
• Seller Fulfilled Prime
• Advertise Your Products
• Independently Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Instalments by Barclays
• Amazon Platinum Mastercard
• Amazon Classic Mastercard
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Payment Methods Help
• Shop with Points
• Top Up Your Account
• Top Up Your Account in Store
• COVID-19 and Amazon
• Track Packages or View Orders
• Delivery Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Amazon Mobile App
• Customer Service
• Accessibility
• Conditions of Use & Sale
• Privacy Notice
• Cookies Notice
• Interest-Based Ads Notice

• FTC Disclaimer
• Recommended Reads

Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

USA Today   bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school—complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson…

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with a few mysterious deaths on campus that’re looking more and more like  murder  or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is pushing these kids to their full academic potential.

All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way. If not, well, they’ll get what they deserve.

It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing is a devious mystery that is darkly entertaining.

Teddy Crutcher is finally Teacher of the Year at the prestigious prep school where he has worked for several years. He has an overly inflated opinion of himself that sometimes rubs his students and fellow teachers the wrong way. Teddy has decided to bring student Zack Ward down a peg or three and he is resentful when Zack’s parents come to their son’s defense. For his part, Zack detests Teddy but he gives in to his parents’ pressure to request the extra credit assignment to bring up his grade. Meanwhile, Teddy’s dislike of a fellow teacher takes a dangerous turn when someone unexpectedly dies. Unfortunately, a student’ he likes becomes the prime suspect and Teddy just has to try to divert attention away from her and then someone else ends up dead. The walls really begin to close in when someone from Teddy’s past seizes the opportunity to exact some well deserved revenge on him.

Belmont Academy is the perfect setting for this intriguing and deliciously fun  mystery. Teddy is nursing plenty of resentments that he does not hesitate to act upon. Once he decides he needs to teach someone a lesson, he creatively (and cruelly) devises a plan that he relentlessly follows much to that person’s detriment. When bodies begin piling up at the prep school, Zach begins to suspect Teddy is the most likely culprit. What happens next is a bit of a comedy of errors when his path crosses with someone else who has their own reasons for destroying Teddy. What will happen to Zach after he inadvertently gets caught up in another person’s plan to teach Teddy a rather diabolical lesson?

For Your Own Good is a zany mystery with a clever plot and interesting characters. The storyline unfolds at a brisk pace as Teddy sets a plan in motion that results in very unexpected consequences. The students are well-developed and they are typical, albeit extremely privileged, teenagers. Teddy is an over-the-top, crazy character that leaves readers on tenterhooks as he puts one outrageous plan after another in motion.  Old and new fans of Samantha Downing are sure to enjoy this outstanding mystery.

Comments Off on Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Filed under Berkley , Contemporary , For Your Own Good , Mystery , Rated B+ , Review , Samantha Downing , Suspense

Comments are closed.

• Search for:

Copyright © 2011-2023 Book Reviews & More by Kathy. All Rights Reserved.

The Bibliophile Chronicles

Book review: for your own good – samantha downing.

Teddy Crutcher won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy. Everyone thinks he’s brilliant. Only you know the truth.

They all smile when he tells us his wife couldn’t be more proud. But no-one has seen her in a while.

They’re impressed when he doesn’t let anything distract him – even the tragic death of a school parent. Even when the whispers start, saying it was murder.

You’re sure Teddy is hiding something about what happened that day.

You’re sure you can prove it.

But you didn’t stop to think that when it comes to catching a killer, there’s no place more dangerous than just one step behind . . .

The story follows Teddy Crutcher. A teacher at Belmont Academy. Teddy has one teacher of the year and will let absolutely nothing distract him – not even the sudden death of one of the pupil’s parents on school grounds. Even when one of the pupils is arrested for murder. Is the pupil really responsible or does Teddy Crutcher know much more than he seems to?

Regular Features

Author spotlights, "bookreporter talks to" videos & podcasts, "bookaccino live: a lively talk about books", favorite monthly lists & picks, seasonal features, book festivals, sports features, bookshelves.

• Coming Soon

Newsletters

• Weekly Update
• On Sale This Week
• Summer Reading
• Spring Preview
• Winter Reading
• Holiday Cheer
• Fall Preview

Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, for your own good.

• About the Book

USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school --- complete with interfering parents, overeager students and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson.

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn’t be more proud --- though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with a few mysterious deaths on campus that are looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is pushing these kids to their full academic potential.  

All he wants is for his colleagues --- and the endlessly meddlesome parents --- to stay out of his way. If not, well, they’ll get what they deserve.

It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

Audiobook available, read by David Pittu

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

• Publication Date: April 26, 2022
• Genres: Fiction , Psychological Suspense , Psychological Thriller , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Berkley
• ISBN-10: 0593100980
• ISBN-13: 9780593100981

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

Read an excerpt from Samantha Downing's new page-turner For Your Own Good

In the third chapter of For Your Own Good , the latest thriller from best-selling author Samantha Downing ( My Lovely Wife ), we meet Zach Ward, a junior at Belmont Academy. His parents have just returned from meeting with his English teacher, Teddy Crutcher, about the grade on Zach's paper. The meeting did not go well for Zach. Teddy doesn't like Zach because he's wealthy, entitled, and smug. But is he really all of those things? Decide for yourself in this exclusive excerpt. For Your Own Good hits shelves Tuesday.

Excerpt from For Your Own Good, by Samantha Downing

Upstairs in his room, Zach Ward works on a history paper while chatting online. A text from his father interrupts him.

Come downstairs please.

He didn't even hear his dad drive up, much less enter the house. Zach types a message to his friend Lucas.

Gotta go. I'm being summoned downstairs.

Lucas replies with an exploding-bomb emoji.

Zach heads down, reminding himself that, no matter what happens, it's better to keep his mouth shut. Except when necessary. Whatever his parents have done is already over. No need to argue about it now.

"In here," Dad says, waving him into the living room. He's still in his work clothes, minus the suit jacket. Mom looks exactly the same as when she left this morning, minus the shoes.

Physically, Zach is a combination of both his parents. His thick hair, jawline, and dimples come from his dad. The eyes are his mom's, includ- ing the long lashes. The best of Mom and Dad. A genetic jackpot, and Zach knows it.

"Have a seat," Dad says.

Zach sits on the couch, while Mom and Dad sit in the chairs on either side of him. This makes him feel a little trapped.

"I met with your English teacher this evening," Dad says. "Your mother was stuck at work."

"Although I caught up with him afterward," she says, giving Dad a pointed look. "So we both talked to him."

"Mr. Crutcher is an interesting man," Dad says. Zach says nothing. He's not taking that bait.

"We had a very good talk about your paper. He showed me his rubric assessment, and I brought up some points he may have missed. He agreed with most of what I said." Dad pauses, letting Mom pick up the story.

"My conversation with Mr. Crutcher wasn't very long, but he did seem amenable to rethinking his position on your paper," she says. "I think he understands that even teachers can be fallible."

Crutcher admitted he was wrong? Not likely. But Zach has no doubt his parents believe it.

"All in all, I think we were able to come to an agreement on your paper," Dad says. "While he's unwilling to change your grade at this point, given that you already have the paper back, he is willing to give you an additional assignment. Extra credit, basically. That way, your grade can be raised from a B-plus to an A-minus without causing a rift with the other students."

In other words, Crutcher said no. Not surprising to Zach, given how much his English teacher hates him. It's so weird, because teachers always like him. He's never had a problem until Crutcher.

He's also never had a B—plus or otherwise.

"We think this is the best possible outcome," Mom says. "Your GPA will remain intact, all with nothing out of place happening."

Zach nods, trying not to smile at how she phrases it. They would've loved nothing more than to convince Crutcher to change the grade. They couldn't—and won't admit it.

Like Dad says: Failure can be an illusion.

That's just one of his many sayings, which he calls Ward-isms. Zach's been hearing them all his life. Most are stupid.

Both his parents are looking at him, and Zach realizes they're waiting for him to speak.

"Thank you," he says.

"You're welcome," Mom says. "You know we're always willing to help." Of course they are. Anything to keep him on track to the Ivy League. This time, however, he didn't want their help. He didn't want them talking to Crutcher, didn't want them asking to change his grade. The B-plus wasn't that big of a deal—not on a single paper. It wasn't his semester grade or anything.

No , they'd said. We can fix this.

But their idea of fixing had resulted in more work for him, not them.

And Crutcher probably hates him more than he did before.

"Did Mr. Crutcher say what the extra assignment is?" Zach asks.

"He did not," Dad says. "He's going to mull it over, and I assume he'll let you know directly."

"If he doesn't, let us know," Mom says. Zach nods. Sure he will.

"And let's review that assignment together before you turn it in," Dad says.

Another nod. That'll never happen.

Dad's phone buzzes. He takes it out of his pocket and nods to Mom, then walks out of the living room.

"Have you eaten?" Mom says.

It's eight o'clock at night—of course Zach has eaten. Alone, as he does most nights. "Yes," he says.

"Good." She smiles, patting Zach on the knee. "I guess that's it for now.

Keep us updated about Mr. Crutcher." "I will."

Zach walks out of the living room, passing by his father in the hall. Dad is yelling at somebody about something Zach doesn't care about. He doesn't bother eavesdropping anymore. Dad's conversations got boring a while ago.

Back upstairs, he checks online for Lucas. Gone. He looks for a couple of other people but can't find anyone, so he returns to the history paper he was writing. It's hard to concentrate, though. His mind keeps wandering to that extra assignment and how much time Crutcher will give him to get it done.

Even though it's early, fatigue sets in quickly. Between Crutcher and his parents, Zach feels like he's been batted around like a pinball in their game.

He picks up his phone and texts his friend Courtney.

My parents suck.

The reply comes a minute later: Not exactly breaking news. I wish they'd stayed out of it, Zach says.

Your teenage angst does not make you a unique snowflake.

Courtney is watching old episodes of Dawson's Creek again. She likes to do that when she's high.

Zach doesn't bother answering her. If he continued the conversation, Courtney might refer to his parents as "parental units" and Zach might throw his phone out the window.

He lies down on his bed and stares up at the modern, asymmetrical light fixture Mom chose for his room. He hates it. He also hates the fur- niture, the carpet, and the walls, which are all in varying shades of grey. Every time he walks into his room, it's like stepping into a gloomy cloud. Less than two years. Twenty-two months to be exact, and then he'll be out of Belmont, out of this house, and away at college. Doesn't even matter where at this point.

Shut up and smile.

Not one of his dad's sayings. It's a Belmont saying, one all the kids know. It's how they survive.

From FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, by Samantha Downing, published by Berkley, an imprint of The Penguin Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2021 by Samantha Downing.

Related content:

• Emily St. John Mandel wrote a new book in quarantine — see the first look
• Stephen King discusses his new thriller Billy Summers

Related Articles

Book Review: For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing

No one writes characters more twisted, unlikable, and delightfully fun than Samantha Downing. Every single book of hers is a surprise and delight! In For Your Own Good , a teacher at a prestigious prep school may be taking his lessons a bit too far, but of course it’s always for the good of his students…right?

About the Book | For Your Own Good

Teddy Crutcher is an English teacher at Belmont Academy and the most recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year award. Allison is his wife. Sonia Benjamin is another English teacher and an alumna of Belmont Academy. Mark is her husband. Frank is a math teacher. Joe is the school custodian.

Zach Ward is a student at Belmont Academy. He is close friends with Courtney Ross, another student at Belmont. Ingrid is Courtney’s mother and the president of the PTA at Belmont. Lucas is another friend of Zach’s. Fallon is an alumna of Belmont Academy who has a grudge against Teddy.

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest. He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while. Teddy really can’t be bothered with the death of a school parent that’s looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential. All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way. It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost. USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school—complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson… ( Synopsis from Goodreads )

Review | For Your Own Good

As a doctoral student myself, I’ll give pretty much any mystery or thriller set at in an academic setting a try. Add to that an auto-buy author for me, Samantha Downing, and there was no way I was passing up For Your Own Good !

Samantha Downing has said that her own high school experiences inspired For Your Own Good , which is set in the fictional preparatory school of Belmont Academy. The pressure to fit in with other students, the pressure to get good grades, and the pressure to set yourself for a good future—those are hallmarks for many of us when we remember our school years, and they certainly ring true for the students of Belmont Academy.

No one is more committed to helping their students achieve excellence than Teddy Crutcher. Teddy is not your average teacher, though. He’s won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy, he loves helping his students be their best selves, and he is most likely a complete psychopath. Teddy uses…unconventional teaching methods. But of course, he only does it because he knows what is best for his students, right?

As the book opens, Teddy is meeting with the father of junior Zach Ward over a B+ Teddy recently gave Zach on a paper. Zach is attractive, comes from a wealthy family, and beloved by students and teachers at the school. Teddy sees it as his job to knock Zach down a peg and teach him a lesson. Teddy’s utter disdain for Zach is presented comically, as even in his own private ramblings he admits that Zach is quite intelligent and talented, while the lower grade is related to Zach’s privilege in life, not his academic performance.

Downing also narrates some chapters from Zach’s perspective, and we learn that Teddy’s opinion on Zach couldn’t be further from the truth. Zach is a hard-worker, smart, privileged young man who is (like many of the students at Belmont) being crushed under the weight of pressure from his parents to get the right grades, get into an Ivy, and have a successful career. Zach is close friends with another student, Courtney, and I found it fascinating how Teddy had the opposite opinion on Courtney as he did Zach, despite her also having the same privileged background.

Downing presents Teddy’s dichotomous thoughts about Zach and Courtney to great effect. With Zach, Teddy feels it is his duty to knock him down a peg, despite his stellar performance. With Courtney, Teddy wants to actively help and support her, though this is largely because her mother is the president of the PTA and was active in awarding Teddy Teacher of the Year. Teddy is so delightfully, grotesquely self-serving. His opinions on any given person are solely related to whether they help him or make him feel less than.

One particularly interesting character is an alumna of Belmont named Fallon. Fallon is introduced to us through Teddy, who regularly receives heated emails from his former student. We learn that Teddy sabotaged Fallon’s chance at getting into college by writing a letter of recommendation implying she cheated in his class. Fallon’s character adds tension to the book, as the reader can see that this is the direction Zach is headed toward with Teddy set on destroying his future. As the story progresses, Fallon begins to play a larger and unexpected role in the story that I quite enjoyed.

I found Teddy to be a completely captivating character. He’s arrogant, vindictive, spiteful, devious, intelligent, delusional, quirky, and manipulative. As a character, he’s often unintentionally hilarious (I was particularly tickled by his tendency to reward himself with a glass of 2% milk despite his lactose intolerance) and at times he can even be somewhat sympathetic, despite his atrocious actions.

No one writes compelling villains the way Downing does. Like some of her other villainous characters, Teddy’s actions, behaviors, and thoughts are often despicable. Yet he is presented in such a playful way, the reader can’t help but have tiny moments of rooting for him, only to then remember all of the things he has done and quickly reverse. By the end, I was rooting for his demise but unsure if it would come. Downing always surprises at the end of her books, so no outcome is off the table.

A delightfully wicked book that I couldn’t put down!

About the Author | Samantha Downing

Samantha Downing is the author of the bestselling My Lovely Wife , nominated for the Edgar, ITW, Macavity awards in the US, the CWA award in the UK, and the winner of the Prix des Lectrices award in France.

Her second book,  He Started It , was released in 2020 and became an instant international bestseller.

Her third thriller,  For Your Own Good,  was released in the US on July 20, 2021 and was an instant  USA Today  bestseller.

A Twisted Love Story   was released in the US on July 18, 2023.

Share this post!

You May Also Like

Book Review: Good Half Gone | Tarryn Fisher

BOOK REVIEW: Still Lives by Maria Hummel @mariahummel2 @counterpointllc @bookofthemonth #bookofthemonth #botm

Book Review: If I Disappear | Eliza Jane Brazier

One comment.

Jonetta | Blue Mood Café

Delightfully wicked is the perfect description, Mackenzie💜

Let me know your thoughts!! Cancel reply

GoodeyReads

reviewing fantasy, romance & more

Book Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆ Audience: Thriller Length:  373 pages Author:  Samantha Downing Publisher:  Berkley Release Date:  July 20th, 2021 Image & Other Reviews on:  Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with the death of a school parent that’s looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential.

All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way.

It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

WELL THAT WAS TWISTED.

What a fantastic audiobook. Really brought the whole story to life and I devoured this easily.

But also, wow, was this a wild read. Every few chapters I was surprised by who was murdered next. I like that I got the POV of many of the characters. Nobody was exactly redeemable or likable in this tale, and yet, that really worked for this story. I didn’t know who was going to do what next and I like that aspect for thrillers.

I’m not sure how I felt about the ending? I guess I thought it was be more of a punch. Instead it turned out to be a little bit of a let down. Things happened that needed to, but not in the way I expected.

Very dark and sinister. Full of dark academia and morally grey and just plain bad souls. It’ll definitely keep you on your toes. Twisted obsessions turned murderous. Leaving many in their wake.

Overall audience notes:

• Language: a little
• Trigger/Content Warnings: murder, poisoning, loss of loved ones, catfishing, extortion, blackmail

Instagram  ||  Goodreads

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

The anti-smoking crusade and the tyranny of public health.

by Jacob Sullum ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

A somewhat predictable libertarian attack on antismoking efforts. Gadflies can perform an important service when public debate is one-sided. In this volume Sullum, a veteran journalist and senior editor of Reason magazine, assumes this mantle and boldly leaps into the ongoing tobacco wars but is only partially successful. On one hand, he presents a thorough overview of the history of tobacco use and efforts to restrict it, is straightforward about the dangers, and makes a serious effort to shift the grounds of debate from public health to political freedom. On the other hand, he’s too willing to focus attention on his opponents rather than on the issue, replicating the ad hominem and straw-man attacks for which he criticizes the antismoking movement. Sullum’s argument is that efforts to eliminate smoking are tyrannical and run roughshod over the traditional distinction between other- and self-regarding actions that classical liberals use to distinguish between behavior that should and should not be subject to public control. This is a legitimate concern that has been shoved aside too easily, and his charge of collectivism should not be dismissed as quaint and archaic. However, after clearing the smoke away from the fundamental issue of political values, he asserts his libertarian position rather than arguing for it. Without recognizing that some individual behavior is appropriately restricted, identifying the criteria that distinguish that behavior, and assessing where smoking falls in relation to those criteria, Sullum is just circling the issue his book needs to address. If, as Sullum sarcastically concludes, “freedom is the most pernicious” risk factor for disease and injury in the eyes of antismokers, a more disciplined analysis of smoking in relation to freedom is badly needed. (8 pages b&w photos) (Radio satellite tour)

Pub Date: April 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-684-82736-0

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Free Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

Share your opinion of this book

More by Jacob Sullum

BOOK REVIEW

by Jacob Sullum

A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

by Howard Zinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979

For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History ). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0061965588

Page Count: 772

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

GENERAL HISTORY | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | UNITED STATES | POLITICS | HISTORY

More by Rebecca Stefoff

by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales

by Howard Zinn with Ray Suarez

by Howard Zinn

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Google Rating

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2016

New York Times Bestseller

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

by Paul Kalanithi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2016

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...

A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.

Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Los Angeles Public Library

• Get a Library Card |
• My Library Account

How to solve your own murder : a novel

Annie’s Great Aunt Frances has always been a presence in Annie’s life. A rather nebulous, undefined presence, but a presence none the less. Great Aunt Frances owns the house in Chelsea where Annie has grown up with her mother. Communication from Great Aunt Frances has always been sporadic at best and communication about her from her mother or grandparents has been equally limited. What Annie knows is this: Great Aunt Frances had her fortune told at a carnival when she was 16 years old. That fortune predicted that she was going to be murdered. That fortune so shook teenage Frances that she spent the rest of her life attempting to keep that fortune from coming true. So, it is a shock for Annie when she receives a letter from Great Aunt Frances’ attorney informing her that she has now replaced her mother as Frances’ heir, and that her presence is required at Gravesdown Hall on Frances’ estate in just a few days.

Annie makes her way to Castle Knoll, the small village adjacent to Gravesdown Hall, and meets with her great aunt’s attorney. They make their way to the estate and are joined by the others whose presence was requested: Frances’ stepson, Saxon, who was asked to appear, has been detained, his wife, and another attorney who is representing the interests of a development company who is very interested in Frances’ estate. When they enter the library for the meeting with Francie, they find her quite dead near her desk.

The next day, when Frances’ will is read, her attorney explains that Francie was still convinced that she was going to be murdered and, as a result, recently updated her will to name Annie and Saxon as her only heirs. Whichever of them can solve the mystery of who killed Frances within a week, will inherit the entire estate. The other person will inherit nothing. If neither of them is able to solve the murder, Frances’ estate will be sold to the land developer and the proceeds from the sale will go to the Crown. 

Alone, in a strange village, surrounded by strangers, some with a clear motive for refusing to help her, Annie must solve a recent murder with possible origins decades before she was born. . .

Debut author Kristen Perrin tells a tale with one foot firmly planted in the past and the other in the present. She alternates chapters, allowing Frances to tell her story from over half a century earlier through a journal kept while the events were unfolding. The rest of the story is told from the perspective of Annie, Frances’ Great Niece, who has been thrust into the mystery and feels a responsibility to both her Great Aunt, Mother, and the residence of Castle Knoll to find the solution.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a page-turner, with plenty of atmosphere, macguffins, red herrings, secrets, and revelations to propel along the plot. And she seems to leave just enough wiggle room at the end to intimate that readers may get the chance to join Annie, and possibly Great Aunt Frances, on another case, which would be a delight.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a charming debut that will leave readers wondering when Kristen Perrin’s next book will be available. 

• Book Bundles To Go
• Branch Periodical Subscription List
• Freegal Music
• L.A. in Focus Videos
• New York Times Digital
• New Books by Genre
• Staff Reviews
• Resources for Readers
• Submit a Suggestion
• Online Resources
• Indie Author Project
• Submission Policy
• Language Collections
• Libby (Overdrive)
• Career Conversations
• Children Chatting
• Poet Laureate
• Read Freely
• Government Documents
• High School Diploma
• Behymer Collection Index
• Bookplate Collection
• Business Magazine Index
• Business & Economics Reference Works
• California Documents Index
• California Fiction Index
• California Index
• California Prints Index
• Casey Fashion Plates
• City Directories Index
• Cookery Ephemera Index
• Environmental Impact Reports
• Genealogy & Local History Index
• Gladys English
• Government Documents - Business
• Japanese Prints Index
• Library Images Index
• Lummis Autograph Collection Index
• Menu Collection
• Native American Index
• Obituary Index
• Orchestration Catalog
• Play File Index
• Public Art Index
• Series and Sequels
• Short Story File Index
• Theater Program Collection
• Toy Movable Database
• Turnabout Theater Archive
• LinkedIn Learning
• Online Learning
• Aerial Photographs
• African -American Literature (PDF)
• African-American Ingenuity
• Bilingual English-Spanish Material (PDF)
• Book Reports
• Census Tract Maps (PDF)
• Financing New Business (PDF)
• Food and Drink
• History of Your House
• Holiday Cookery
• Image Locator
• Job Hunting and Money Guides
• Literary Criticism Locator
• Map Collection
• Maps of Los Angeles
• Military and Industry Standards and Specifications
• Obituaries in LA County
• Philosophy Research
• Play Locator
• Poem Locator
• Representative Maps in Los Angeles History and Growth
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases
• Sheet Music Locator
• Short Story Locator
• Small Business Research (PDF)
• Treaty Research
• Valuation of Collectibles
• Vital Records
• Student Success
• Shades of L.A. Oral Histories
• Web Resources
• ADA Services
• Adult Literacy
• Ask a Librarian
• Overview & Permits
• Cell-Ed Pathways
• Resources & Links
• Small Business Help
• Book a Librarian
• Community Outreach
• Explore L.A.
• Free Take-Home Covid-19 Test Kits
• Health Matters
• Homeless Resources
• Jobs, Money & Small Business
• New Americans
• Reentry Resources
• Reserve a Computer
• State Park Pass
• Veterans Resources
• Wireless Printing
• Voter Information
• Babies & Toddlers
• Big Read 2024
• Bilingual Events
• Celebrations
• Expedition L.A.
• One Book, One County
• All Branches
• Art, Music, & Recreation Department
• Business and Economics Department
• Children's Literature Department
• Computer Center
• Appointment Request Form
• Californiana
• Gifts/Donations
• Introduction to Special Collections
• Photographs
• The Rare Books Room Story
• History & Genealogy Department
• International Languages Department
• Literature & Fiction Department
• Low-Vision Service Centers
• Popular Library
• Science, Technology, & Patents Department
• Social Science, Philosophy & Religion Department
• Teen'Scape
• Historical Portraits Project
• Goodhue Building
• The Literate Fence Quotations
• Themes and Inscriptions
• Tom Bradley Wing
• Central Library Docent Tours
• Central Library Virtual Tour
• Rates & Occupancy
• Holiday Closures
• Become a Friend of the Library
• Join the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
• Make a Donation
• Shop The Library Store
• Agendas and Minutes
• Agendas & Minutes Archive
• Board Members
• Borrower Services
• City Librarian
• Connect With Us
• eCard Registration
• infoNow (Ask A Librarian)
• Change of Address
• Suggest a Purchase
• Technical Problems
• Your Library Story
• Library Card Pre-Registration
• Verify Student Success Card
• Solicitud de tarjeta electrónica
• Pregúntale a un bibliotecario
• Formulario de cambio de dirección
• Sugerir una Compra
• Solicitud de tarjeta
• Diversity and Inclusion Apprenticeship
• Jobs & Business Opportunities
• Perform at LAPL
• Press Release Archive
• Press Images - Branch Libraries
• Press Images - Central Library
• Rules of Conduct
• Staff Directory
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Angel City Press
• ¿Qué hay de nuevo?
• Títulos recomendados
• Kids & Parents
• Online Privacy Policy

Advertisement

Supported by

Are Plants Intelligent? If So, What Does That Mean for Your Salad?

A new book, “The Light Eaters,” looks at how plants sense the world and the agency they have in their own lives.

• Share full article

By Elizabeth A. Harris

Zoë Schlanger was a reporter covering climate change — a daily onslaught of floods, fires and other natural disasters — when she started wading into botany journals to relax.

There, she found something that surprised her: Researchers were debating whether plants might have an intelligence of their own.

Take corn, for example. It is one of several types of plants that can identify a caterpillar’s species by its saliva and send out plumes of chemical compounds into the air, summoning the insect’s predator. Alerted to the caterpillar’s presence by these compounds, a parasitic wasp arrives and destroys it, protecting the corn.

“One of the big debates is whether or not there’s any form of intention with plants and whether you need intention for something to have intelligence,” Schlanger said. “But one could argue that it doesn’t even matter if you can find intention in plants. What matters is watching what they actually do. And what they do is make decisions in real time and plan for the future.”

Schlanger spent the next several years exploring plant behavior for her book, “The Light Eaters,” which was published this month. On a recent walk through Central Park — past hydrangeas, hellebores, hyacinths and a Broadway softball league game between team “Hamilton” and team “The Lion King” — Schlanger described some of the astonishing things plants can do, and how learning more about them has informed her work reporting on climate change, which she now does for The Atlantic.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

What are some surprising things plants can do?

I am most drawn to the ways that plants manipulate animals to their benefit.

Yellow monkey flowers are able to lie to bees about how much pollen they have in their flowers to dupe them into showing up. Bees have this screening process where they’re sampling the volatile chemicals coming off the flowers, and those chemicals will indicate how much pollen is there for them. The monkey flowers have come up with a way to not have to go through the very expensive, energetic work of making all this pollen, but just emitting the volatile chemicals. The bee shows up and there is nothing there for it, but the flower gets pollinated anyway.

Or there’s the whole world of sexually deceptive orchids, which I think is so cool. There are some that grow one really unusual petal: this long strand, with a little bulb at the end of it. Male wasps will arrive and cling to it because it’s exuding almost the exact same pheromone as a female wasp.

I like it when they summon a predator. That’s just crazy.

Back in the ‘90s, researchers realized that corn and tomatoes were able to sample the saliva of the caterpillar eating them, and then synthesize chemicals that summon the exact parasitic wasp that would come and inject the caterpillars with their larva. So the wasp comes, puts loads of larvae inside of the caterpillars. The larvae hatch and eat the caterpillars from the inside out and then glue their cocoons to the outside of the caterpillar. So then you just have these husks of caterpillars, covered in wasp cocoons.

Yeah, it’s a very creepy, bristly image. But the plant is trying to save itself. It’s eliminating a certain number of these caterpillars by summoning the exact predator to come destroy them. You can think of that as a plant using a tool. I mean, I don’t know about your feed, but mine is full of videos of things like crows using sticks as tools.

The algorithm has found you!

Absolutely. And obviously these crows are brilliant for doing that, but then what does it mean when plants are doing essentially the same thing, but to living organisms? They’re releasing chemicals that cause an animal to do something. Does that animal believe it’s doing this of its own free will? Is this a zombification of other animals, or is it more of a collaborative mutual exchange where the wasp gets something out of it? It’s hard to tell the difference between manipulation and collaboration in nature.

When scientists talk about “intelligence” in plants, what do they mean?

There are all of these calculations plants are constantly making by taking in every aspect of their environment and adjusting their lives accordingly, and it starts to look an awful lot like what we might consider intelligence — in a totally alien life form. That’s kind of how you have to treat it. Intelligence won’t show up in the way we expect ourselves to be intelligent. It’ll show up in ways that are evolutionarily appropriate for plants.

So no one is saying the plant is going to write a poem or do your math homework?

Not yet! Although researchers who study plant communication talk about syntax in plant communication and, in a way, sentence structure. But they’re talking about chemistry, chemical compounds floating in the air that have meaning.

What about the way plants sense the world? Do they interact with sound?

There’s some research happening now where scientists are playing tones for plants and realizing certain tones make plants produce more of certain compounds. There’s a tone that, if played for enough time, will make broccoli ramp up its antioxidants. In alfalfa sprouts, other tones will cause the plant to produce more vitamin C. One could see how — if they figured this out better — you could adjust the nutrition content of crops just by playing tones.

There’s also a whole world of playing tones to plants that causes them to produce more of their own pesticide, which is interesting when you think about how much pesticide we use to grow our food crops.

Have you changed your own behavior after spending so much time thinking about this? Do you have trouble eating salad now?

Obviously we’re animals that need to eat plants. There’s no way around that. But there is a way of imagining a future with agricultural practices and harvesting practices that are more tuned into the life style of the plant, the things it’s capable of and its proclivities.

This opens up the world of plant ethics. What does our world look like if we include plants in a moral imagination? There are lots of cultures that are already based on this. Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of “ Braiding Sweetgrass ”) writes a lot about this, how Indigenous science leaves a lot more room for questions about plants that are centered on respect and mutual interest.

What do you want people to take away from this book?

In thinking about plant intelligence, what we’re really thinking about is how much plants are active participants in their own life. They have some sense of agency, even if it doesn’t look anything like our own agency. I think that is really humbling. Everything wants to keep living. That has really helped me come back to climate reporting with more of a sense of what we stand to lose from climate change. Every single species is this ingenious biological feat that would be so foolish to extinguish.

  More about Elizabeth A. Harris

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

An assault led to Chanel Miller’s best seller, “Know My Name,” but she had wanted to write children’s books since the second grade. She’s done that now  with “Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.”

When Reese Witherspoon is making selections for her book club , she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, who died on May 14 , specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope , spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

“The Light Eaters,” a new book by Zoë Schlanger, looks at how plants sense the world  and the agency they have in their own lives.

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Color Scheme

• Use system setting
• Light theme

How to navigate London’s wondrous (and very big) V&A Museum

Even for someone who loves getting lost in museums – especially “everything museums” like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – London’s Victoria and Albert Museum might have been my Waterloo. The statistics are daunting: 5,000 years of artistic production with more than 60,000 works on view (from a collection of some 2.8 million) in about 150 galleries beneath 21 acres of roof.

The V&A typically draws around 3 million annual visitors, but even on the busiest days, the museum has the space and setup to largely avoid the sense of competing with the crowds. Since visiting the permanent collection is free (some exhibitions cost up to 20 pounds, or about $25), once you’re in the door you can just start wandering. Step right for medieval mosaics and Renaissance tapestries or go deep for 1940s Paris fashion, Baroque sculpture and, beyond that, Buddhist art.

It’s easy to spend an entire day in the V&A. Here’s a plan for making the most of your visit. But first a bit of background.

An eclectic treasure trove

If the British Museum is known as Britain’s attic – an abundance of artistic and cultural relics from the realm and around the globe – then the V&A is the country’s classroom. It, too, is a trove of exemplary works, from exquisite Raphael drawings to groovy 1970s plastic radios; Coptic tunics to Alexander McQueen couture gowns; vividly hued Islamic tiles to a bunch of grand English beds. These objects were displayed not just to delight connoisseurs, but to provide great art and ideas to educate British designers, manufacturers and workers in good taste and technical prowess.

The museum was the pet project of Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, who had seen firsthand that British manufactured goods were not always top of the class. By displaying applied arts (textiles, ceramics, glass and other manufactured objects) alongside fine arts (architecture, painting and sculpture), the new museum would democratize aesthetic appreciation and inspire better designs for better products.

Originally known as the South Kensington Museum, the V&A opened in 1857 in temporary structures while new buildings were constructed. Incorporated into the new museum were libraries and schools for science and art, including one for women. The leading artists of the time, such as Frederic Leighton and William Morris, contributed to its décor. Such was its embrace of modernity, that the world’s first museum exhibition of photography (the medium was “invented’ only in the 1820s) was held here in 1858.

Though Prince Albert died in 1861, the museum continued to expand. In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the cornerstone of a grand new entrance wing along Cromwell Road and renamed the complex the Victoria and Albert Museum.

If that sounds fusty, it’s not. More than 165 years after its opening, the V&A’s pioneering spirit hasn’t faded. Its fashion blockbusters, like “Naomi: In Fashion,” celebrating model Naomi Campbell (opening June 22), are must-see shows. And its outreach programs, studio classes and parties engage the public as few museums do. Recently, the V&A’s reach has been growing, with offshoots such as the Scottish V&A Dundee, a kid-centric Young V&A and two new museum buildings – one featuring nearly 250,000 works – opening in East London in 2025.

Many contemporary artists and designers claim the V&A as among their favorite museums, and one to which they return again and again. Though neither artist nor designer, I, too, claim the V&A as a favorite museum and have visited dozens of times, often for less than an hour just to wow my young kids with the monumental plaster casts of European monuments or even just to get out of the rain.

But I knew there were still sections I’d never visited. So, after an absence of three years, I spent a day there and came up with a game plan for others to navigate those vast halls.

Get there at 10 a.m., when the doors open, so you can breeze through the ground-floor galleries while they are still virtually empty and then head to more remote parts.

Since fabrics are fragile and fade, the fashion exhibits are changed regularly and there’s always something fresh and engaging to see. From there, wind past the entrance through the arts of Asia, from the elegantly simple furniture of Ming China to the intricately carved lacquerware of Japan, to the eye-poppingly vivid blue tile reliefs and stunning silk carpets such as the 16th century Ardibil carpet from Persia.

Then into the Cast Courts, three huge galleries packed with full-size reproductions – plaster and metal casts – of sculptures and building fragments from around Europe. Exact copies of medieval tombs line the floor while masterpieces like Michelangelo’s David, Trajan’s Column and Renaissance church facades rise toward the ceiling. One can easily get stuck here, awed by the scale and charmed by the concept of corralling massive replicas from across the centuries into a playground for architecture buffs.

From there it’s an easy slide into the adjacent medieval and Renaissance galleries, which cover Europe from 300 to 1600, and where the colorful fourth- and fifth-century tapestry fragments on view or the radiant gold-backed mosaics from Ravenna, Italy, reveal that the Dark Ages were not entirely devoid of light and color.

The later galleries reveal just how connected and sophisticated many parts of Europe were in the Renaissance. Exquisite regional products – metalwork and armor from Germany, shimmering lusterware ceramics from Spain, tapestries from Brussels – became sought after on an international marketplace.

Carving your own path

In such a sprawling museum, there is no single logical or even chronological path to follow. For many, that’s part of the V&A’s appeal: the quirky juxtapositions one encounters roaming it’s six floors (the ground floor is numbered zero, so the “fourth floor” is actually the fifth level; the V&A also has a minus-1 basement level).

So on my visit, once the galleries started filling up at midday, I took the elevator to the remote fourth-floor ceramics galleries and then made my way to the lower floors.

On the fourth floor, it feels as if virtually everything ever made of clay or porcelain – Ming, majolica, Meissen, you name it – is displayed in floor-to-ceiling cases, including stacks of Chinese bowls salvaged from a ship that sank in 1400 off the Malay Peninsula.

Just when you think one can’t stretch the clay any further, you get to a display about Josiah Wedgwood and his innovative Jasperware that became the rage around the world in the 18th century. (The V&A also has an outpost in Stoke-on-Trent dedicated entirely to Wedgwood). The remaining fourth-floor galleries showcase furniture from the past 600 years.

The third floor offers a similar range of media and epochs – from international glass in all its facets to architectural models. One might expect Venetian Murano glass to reign supreme, but the quirky and colorful 18th-century German enameled glass, as well as green-hued glasses and goblets adorned with blobs of glass steal the show.

On the second floor, a network of long galleries offers deep dives into religious stained glass, small-scale bronze sculptures, English paintings and drawings, as well as tapestries. Nearby, gorgeous murals by Frederic Leighton push the V&A propaganda in themes like “The Arts Applied to War” and “The Arts Applied to Peace.”

Also on the second floor, the Photography Center recently expanded its galleries to become Britain’s largest photography exhibition center. Part of a display called “Design: 1900-Now,” features a recent acquisition: a store-bought snorkeling mask that had been adapted by an Italian designer into a functioning oxygen mask during the darkest days of the COVID crisis in 2020.

In a country famous for its crown jewels, the V&A’s spot-lit jewelry gallery packs in everything from fifth century Byzantine bracelets to jaunty 1970s body jewelry. Standouts include the Townshend jewels – a virtual encyclopedia of gemstones, from colored diamonds to opals, each set in individual rings and displayed in swirls of brilliant color.

And finally, stretching almost across the entire second floor is a display of every imaginable type of ironwork. Seeing these works, such as the monumental 19th century Gothic Revival choir screen from Salisbury Cathedral, calls to mind the Goethe quote that “architecture is frozen music.”

Take a break then keep going

Even if you’re not hungry, head to the ground level to the Refreshment Rooms, the world’s first museum cafe, which opened in 1868. Designed by the leading talents of the day – James Gamble, William Morris, Philip Webb, Edward Burne-Jones and Edward J. Poynter – the original decoration remains largely intact, a snapshot of Victorian modernity. Back in the day, each room had a different menu and proposed clientele, but today, for about 10 pounds, visitors can choose from a buffet of hot English fare, quiches, sandwiches, beer, wine or soft drinks, and take their meal into whichever room they find most pleasing.

Back in the galleries, I had saved what I considered the best for last: some two dozen British galleries (spread between levels 1 and 3) that tell the country’s history from the Tudors to the Victorians through paintings, furniture, clothing, musical instruments, textiles and truly fabulous beds, including the Great Bed of Ware, a massive four-poster built in 1590 for an inn. It measures nearly 11 feet on each side, supposedly able to accommodate four couples. Centuries-old graffiti covers practically every plank, and its fame merited a mention in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”: “… as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware.”

And then finally, the most extraordinary works in the museum, shown in a cathedral-like space: the famous Rafael cartoons for the tapestries that were created to adorn the Sistine Chapel in 1515-16. Commissioned by Pope Leo X, Raphael painted the designs on paper, which would have been used as the guide for the weavers to follow. Now owned by King Charles III and considered among the greatest works of Renaissance art, they were created as part of a manufacturing process, so it seems wholly appropriate they are on loan to the V&A, where fine art and manufacturing go hand in hand.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

5 good questions to ask about Medicare Advantage Plans

Some seniors aren’t sure where to start when choosing a Medicare health plan.

More From Forbes

Figma guyver 1 ultimate edition toy review: thoroughly superb.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

This is arguably the best Guyver 1 figure available at this scale.

The classic manga and anime Guyver has had a slew of excellent action figures over the years, but this new figma Guyver 1 Ultimate Edition is something else entirely.

The original manga by Yoshiki Takaya started back in 1985 and dealt with a high school kid called Sho Fukamachi stumbling upon some ancient alien technology called a Guyver unit . The Guyver unit engulfed him and Sho was bound to this very powerful alien power armor and was subsequently known as Guyver 1.

This is because there were three Guyver units discovered by the mysterious Cronos Corporation . The latter being a front of sorts to bioweapon research and the creation of Zoanoids , people that can transform into powerful beasts with a variety of unique abilities.

What follows was an epic narrative that not only dealt with Sho battling legions of Zoanoids to protect his friends, but also revealing the dark history of humanity’s creation at the hands of mysterious aliens.

For me, I was first exposed to the Guyver back in the 90s, when the OVA series was released on VHS in the UK. Set across 12 episodes in two 6 episode parts, the OVA worked as a sort of video comic that followed the events of the manga via succinct episodes, with each tape covering one episode a piece (this was also quite expensive back in the 90s).

The Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000: Boost Your Games For Less

These days, I can see all of Takaya’s influences for the Guyver , from the litany of tokusatsu shows with various kaiju villains to stuff like Kamen Rider . However, back in the 90s, I knew none of this and so Guyver felt very fresh.

What also blew me away was the quality and craftsmanship of the designs. Not only of the increasingly freakish Zoanoids but also of the almost perfectly elegant Guyver units.

At the end of each episode of the OVA, you saw wonderful figure adverts of vinyl garage kits for each of the various Zoanoids and Guyvers seen in that episode. It was a nice way of explaining each of the unique designs you saw in the anime, but it also made me badly want those vinyl garage kits, especially of the main Guyver units.

You also get the extra parts for the High-Frequency Blades on the arms.

Years later I found out that those vinyl garage kits were made by Max Factory, a legendary garage kit maker who would later be absorbed into Good Smile Company and work on the designs and sculpting of various figures.

Naturally, Guyver popped up as one of the properties Good Smile Company offered and the early Guyver figures were decent but pretty basic. Later we also got a nice, if a little small, figma version of Guyver 1 and I picked that up too.

However, this new Ultimate Edition figma of Guyver 1 is something quite special. More inline in terms of the size of the earlier Good Smile Company figures, it’s sculpt, detailing and finish are on a completely different level.

One of the alluring aspects of those old Guyver vinyl garage kits was their shiny finish. The subsequent Guyver figures lacked that and the detailing wasn’t as fine either.

By contrast, this new figma is just so well done though. The main armor parts have that lustrous finish the old vinyl garage kits had and the detailing is very accurate to the original designs as well.

Furthermore, the articulation is much more thorough than on the older figures. While this figma comes with a stand, you really don’t need it at all. The joints and weight distribution mean this figma holds dynamic poses very well.

You also get a bunch of extra parts, for the High-Frequency Blades on the arms, as well as dormant Guyver unit and a nice head part that allows you to do the famous pose of Sho pulling some of the face armor away (show above). In addition, you get a bunch of various hands and the chest opens up to reveal the Mega Smasher. The latter is also painted a lot more accurately to the anime now, rather than just be a flat color as on the older figures.

Apart from that, this is just a really nice figma and easily the best Guyver 1 figure at this scale to date. It may have taken something like 30 years for a proper Guyver 1 action figure to be released, but we’re finally here and Good Smile Company has done a genuinely amazing job.

The figma Guyver 1 Ultimate Edition is available from Good Smile Company for 12,800 yen (or around $82).

figma Guyver 1 Ultimate Edition

figma Guyver 1 Ultimate Edition Gallery

Manufacturer: Good Smile Company

Released: May 2024

Price: $82 (approx)

Disclosure: Good Smile Company sent me this figma for the purposes of this review.

Follow me on Twitter , Facebook and YouTube . I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv .

Read my Forbes blog here .

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Kindle Store

Kindle Books | Kindle Unlimited | Deals | Prime Reading | Kindle Vella | Amazon Charts | Newsstand | eBooks with Audible | Your Books

Best sellers

New Releases

Best Sellers in Amazon Original Books

• Last 30 days
• Last 90 days
• Coming Soon
• Kindle eBooks
• Kindle Newspapers
• Kindle Short Reads
• Kindle Singles
• 4 Stars & Up & Up
• 3 Stars & Up & Up
• 2 Stars & Up & Up
• 1 Star & Up & Up
• All Discounts
• Today's Deals

Limited-time deal: Great reads come with great deals starting from $0.99 on Kindle See all

Limited-time deal: Up to 80% off, discover reads from Amazon Editors’ picks on Kindle See all

Kindle Exclusive Deals See more

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices