Review TW: child abuse, trauma 
 I read it again. The first time I read it, I was Matilda's age. I read it multiple times through my childhood, I don't know how many. I am now Miss Honey's age. I read it in English for the first time. 
 I can relate a lot to Miss Honey as an abuse victim. I used to relate more to Matilda. 
 Somehow after fighting this much and standing for myself, I am now tired by this, and now I am scared, and everything hurts. I kept standing up for myself; now I'm terrified to stand up for others. Or myself. But I'm trying to enjoy the little things I can gather in my life. 
 Somehow this book is very important to me. 
 It's not too triggering because things are depicted as more... cartooney? and far away, like in a fairy tale, as well as the fact that it centers on the abuse victims and not the abusers' point-of-view and does not dwell on it. There's humor, some of it problematic, but the humor is not against the abuse victims like in my life: it's a mockery of the abusers! For once! Even while they are abusing you, well abusing the characters, it kind of textually takes away some of their strength and power to mock them! 
 In the end, the victims "win" and there's a fairy tale happy ending with no fairies. By that I mean, even if none of the capable adults and authorities did anything, the abusers ran away. Miss Trunchbull (view spoiler)[runs away because of Matilda's powers and she saves herself, other children and Miss Honey. (I relate this to when, after getting no help during many years from adults and authorities despites needing it, after even being mocked and having my abuse explained and justified to me, I made my mother stop hitting me myself.) (hide spoiler)] Her psychologically abusive parents (view spoiler)[run away because somehow the law applies to stealing cars and selling them, but not abuse. (Feels a bit like IRL, except if IRL the law had come for my mother because she did illegal things I would have had MORE problems, but isn't the whole "no more parents, saved by magic, sudden happy ending" thing a big dream amongst abused kids?) (hide spoiler)] 
 I've also been abused at school and, in my life, even if people did it to me "publicly", they still make it so that only people who don't care, agree or can't do anything see it. I would say nobody ever physically abuse openly every single kid in their school, but I know many people depict the abuse in such books (or what I've lived) as unrealistic when I've lived very similar things, so I'm pretty sure I'm wrong: somewhere on earth, it's probable that someone does it even more openly than my own headteacher, school nurse, and random assholes did! and to more kids. It has just not been my experience. 
 I think the humor and fairy tale tricks which help me read this book and feel less bad is also what makes people feel like it is unrealistic since it makes the abuse feel remote. (In the same way, reading at 3 isn't unrealistic. Telekinesis is, however! I'd also like to think that happy endings as a whole aren't unrealistic, I'm sure some people have lived actual happy endings after being abused and I'm really trying to make one for myself.) 
 Somehow my brain searches for a metaphor to make this book a perfect analogy with my life, but it's not meant to be so. 
 But I find that this book helps with my trauma. Making the bad parts of abuse remote, making abusers laughable, making it far away; but making the victims' point of views and emotions close to mine. 
 This book gave me hope as a kid that the abuse could end and things could get better like they did for Matilda. Now it gives me hope: most of the abuse already ended. Things can get better like they did for Miss Honey. 
 (And, somehow, I like that it shows that Miss Honey (view spoiler)[had priorities in her life (teaching, making even a small positive change in these children's lives) that kept her from getting help for herself... like I did myself, even if I would have been better off. (hide spoiler)] I sometimes feel silly about that even though I know why this or that thing was my priority, etc. So that's nice.)