Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Matilda

Matilda Wormwood is a very gifted child, though her parents are convinced she's nothing special. As life beats her down, she gets up time and time again and proves her resilience and intelligence.

Oof. We all collectively owe Danny DeVito a huge thank you for all the changes made from this book to the classic movie adaption. In no short amount, this book heaps on the classism, fatphobia, abuse, and weird guardian/child relationship that the move carefully reimagines or entirely does away with. I feel like I'll never pick up another Roald Dahl book after listening to this one because I know everything I need to about the author after listening to this.

A lot of other reviews went into aspects of these issues, but I just want to say the overarching message I got from this book was that "just keep going forward, it'll work out!" which is definitely not the case for reality. Right now, I'm not sure that's a great message for kids who read this and have their own backgrounds in abusive situations or poverty. I enjoyed aspects of it, and aspects are funny in a lighthearted way, but as an adult reading it, I can't help but have the entire experience clouded by the sheer amount of bias the author threw in. Every villain is fat, ugly, and horrific - one of the bullies at the school has a wart on her nose and is incredibly Jewish-coded - and overall it screams of bias that has unfortunately been present in fairy tales for centuries. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

I really won't be returning to this, and I kind of wish I hadn't listened to it because it's ruined some of the magic of the movie for me. One star goes to Kate Winslet though, who did an incredible job voice-acting and overall giving this story enough life for me to get through it.

Content warnings: Child abuse (throughout), Emotional abuse, Bullying, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Suicide, Death of parent (in past), fatphobia, classism

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spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted

4.5

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charliebella's review against another edition

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4.0

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sassmistress's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.5

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nehanaomi's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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katharina90's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

The message at the heart of Matilda is so hopeful and uplifting. A David vs. Goliath story that encourages kids to fight their bullies and stand up for what's right. But you have to be ok with descriptions of pretty severe abuse and look past countless other issues including fatphobia and body shaming, sexism and misogyny, classism, and ableist language. Re-reading this now, I don't find it particularly funny and have to work hard to connect with the positive message at the story's core.

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