Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl

TW/CW: child abuse; also, would recommend googling Dahl before reading-he was a questionable individual

Matilda is about a young girl, Matilda, who is an incredibly gifted student; she has read multiple unabridged classics and has done math problems before she is in kindergarten. However, Matilda has very abusive parents who don’t care about her well-being at all and discourage her reading constantly. When Matilda starts going to kindergarten and finds a safe authority figure, her teacher, Ms. Honey, Matilda might finally be on her way to a better life. While I don’t like Dahl at all as a person and I hated the only book I’ve read by him (the horrible Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), I decided to check out Matilda for two reasons: the Harry Styles song (Don’t laugh!) and because Matilda’s character has resonated a lot with multiple autistic people I know. Overall, I enjoyed parts of it. I love Matilda’s character and totally think she’s autistic; she has so many traits, especially with her being considered “gifted” and hyperverbal at a young age. She was a very funny character, too.  I liked the chapter where she snuck her neighbor’s parrot into her house. However, there are some disturbing parts of the book; the abuse Matilda receives from her parents is awful and so is the abuse she and her classmates receive from their principal Ms. Trunchbull.  Even though child abuse is an awful thing that people should be aware of/write about, I was very disturbed by Ms. Trunchbull’s actions (throwing one student over a wall and forcing another to eat until they are sick), as it seemed that the author might have thought these things were funny.  I don’t like the awful sense of humor Dahl seems to have in general and have a hard time understanding why people enjoy it.  Also, this book has been banned by multiple schools/libraries for parents thinking the kids in the book are “defying authority figures”. Last time I checked, I’m pretty sure when you’re a kid being abused by adults, you’re more than allowed to try to break away from their abuses; that’s literally one of the weirdest reasons I’ve heard of a book being banned.  The book has been made into a movie that came out in the late 90s and a musical that got turned into a film a couple years ago.  Both were very well received, and, interestingly, the actress who played Matilda in the 90s movie also happens to have the ever-increasing chronic health condition POTS. Overall, Matilda can be cute and heartfelt but yet can be a very disturbing read too.

“So, Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”