This is probably Roald Dahl's weakest novel and yet it is still worthy of 4 stars, shows just how good a writer he was.

The problems with this book are too many bad people, the parents AND the head-teacher, if Dahl had focused on just the Trunchball then she could have had more scenes and greater impact on the story. In the end she just feels like a bully, she so could have been more demonic in my opinion....more like the head-teacher I had at school :-)

I might be a bad guy but at times I really wanted to give that goody goody Matilda a slap....and as for Miss Honey, in this day and age alarm bells would be ringing, taking a child out of school to your tiny house hidden away in the woods without informing the head-teacher or the child's parents? Far worse than throwing a girl by her pig-tails. :-) The librarian was a fantastic character, they do seem to get a bad portrayal in books, nice to see a kind one for once.

Finally this book features Dahl's biggest ever plot twist, not sure any other book has made me go "Whaaaaaa???" before.