Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

9 reviews

booksareoxygen's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Delve into a seemingly normal private school as one event unravels into a collision of past and present as you spiral speeding towards a conclusion that seems equally impossible and inevitable. 4/5 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, and Infidelity

islesbiyana's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

Minor: Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Suicide

leahp87's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Vomit

valpuri's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Infertility, Grief, Body shaming, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Stalking, Confinement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Alcohol and Forced institutionalization

rachelibrarian's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

sunsetcity's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Toxic relationship

shelfofunread's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 For the students and teachers at Belmont Academy, life should be good. The elite private school has a track record for producing illustrious alumni and excellent GPA students. Parents can be assured their children will be granted a wealth of opportunities and the staff – and can suitably influence decisions, either directly or indirectly, should that not be the case. The staff are exemplary; none more so that Teddy Crutcher, Teacher of the Year.

Scratch below the surface of Belmont Academy, however, and you’ll find a simmering hotbed of professional rivalries, student resentments, briber, corruption, secrets and lies – all of it ready to go up in flames with one strike of the match. When a prominent member of the school community collapses during a retirement party, apparently poisoned, it isn’t long before the carefully constructed facades of Belmont Academy – and those who work and study within its walls – begins to go up in flames.

For Your Own Good, Samantha Downing’s latest psychological thriller, is a page-turningly compulsive examination of several characters who I suspect many readers will love to hate. Told from several different perspectives, we get to see Belmont from the perspective of a wealthy student, a long-serving teacher, a bitter ex-alumni and, of course, Teacher of the Year himself, Teddy Crutcher.

Teddy was, for me, a deeply unpleasant character to be inside the head of. It is clear from the outset of the book that he has several axes to grind at Belmont and a chip on his shoulder so sharp it could cut people (and frequently does). Underneath it all, Teddy just wants what is best for people, but how he judges what is ‘best’ – and the actions he takes to ensure the ‘best’ outcome for his students and co-workers – is deeply disturbing.

To be honest, I didn’t really like any of the characters at Belmont Academy. Samantha Downing has created a really toxic environment in Belmont Academy – and has clearly had a great deal of fun filling it with equally toxic personalities to create a really tangled web of motives and opportunities. Unusually for me however, the inherent unlikability of the characters didn’t stop me from wanting to know what happened to them. For Your Own Good is the true definition of a page-turning read and Samantha Downing really keeps the tension high with plenty of twists and unexpected revelations right up until the final pages. I definitely see what was coming and was often left reeling from a character death, shocking reveal, or sudden turn of events.

And whilst all of the characters were, in their own ways, quite unpleasant and difficult people to be around, I found their perspectives unique and interesting. Teddy, for example, operates using a weirdly twisted logic and seems to genuinely believe that his extreme methods and personal vendettas are in the best interests of those he targets. Another character is wholly motivated by revenge – and whilst her investigation of Teddy is undoubtedly uncovering the truth about him, you’re left wondering whether she’s doing the right thing for entirely the wrong reasons. Similar uncertainties can be found within all of the characters and, for me, it definitely elevated the novel above the realm of the run-of-the-mill psychological thriller.

For Your Own Good won’t be for everyone – if you need a sympathetic viewpoint character, you might want to steer clear – but for fans of psychological thrillers there is much to enjoy here and readers already familiar with the work of Sarah Pinborough, Louise Candlish, and J P Delaney would do well to check out Samantha Downing’s latest! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Murder, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Mental illness, Medical content, Infertility, Drug use, Cursing, and Bullying

nadyar's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Toxic relationship

chessakat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So first up: you are going to probably hate *almost* everyone in this book. If that is not your flavor (it's not my favorite flavor, but I can tolerate it occasionally), I just wanted you to know that going in.

This is a multi-POV suspense novel set in a rich private high school. I think I read that and assumed boarding school, but it is not, in case that matters to you. Folks start getting poisoned and/or dying and multiple people could have done it! But who? That is the main driving plot point. 

I liked it fine? It was fine. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. A few things were surprising in the end, and there was a decent amount of tension spread throughout. But so many of the characters were just despicable (or the mainly despicable ones were given so much POV time) that it just sort of left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Toxic relationship, and Stalking