978356403e2b7

So I actually just read this last night for the hell of it; I needed to take a break from Warprize because I'm finding it really hard to slog through because it's just so bad and I could start listing why it's terrible here but I'll save that for when I actually finish it (ugh). I actually picked this up after watching a review citing how bad of a movie the Matilda adaptation was, and that it was too dark for kids which started me thinking about how this reviewer must never have had Roald Dahl read to him as a child because all his books are dark in one way or another. The Witches is terrifying -- it actually gave me this phobia of being trapped in a painting like the poor little girl, that still creeps me out to this day -- and I never liked The Twits personally, that was just gross. The BFG, though and The Magic Finger, Fantastic Mr. Fox and this book are all just so great and they all have that element of darkness to them, and fear. I think that's what makes them timeless, in this case I remembered the story so well from when I was a child I barely needed to read it actually, and the same goes for the ones my mum used to read to me. I think children like Roald Dahl because he doesn't baby them and he doesn't recoil from using creepy or scary imagery. It's not a case of giving them a happy ending to redeem whatever has been done in the book either, because the end of Matilda, I thought, was very sad. I cried when she lost her powers, I thought it was a tragedy but she got to live with Miss Honey, so it was a bittersweet sort of ending for me, an ovet the years it's matured into a happy ending as I think back on it. This book ends with Grandma shrinking down until she's so tiny that no one can see her which is awful, but at the same time she does deserve almost anything they throw her way at that stage. Anyway, this is a great book, I love Roald Dahl, I was raised on his stories and I'm glad I decided to go into the attic to find this one because it's great.

2020-08-24 17:55