didnt he do that one, the BFG?

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More maybe?

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach...

I was always a very big Dahl fan as a kid. As an adult I find his writing disturbing and harsh. And I'm still a fan.

Thanks!

I know, right? In Matilda basically her whole family abandons her (in addition to everyone being just outright evil to her), in The Witches the kid stays a mouse forever and in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all kinds of cruelties are inflicted on the children. It's all brilliant though.

Still when it comes to it, I think I'm far more disturbed by  bowlingballhead's writing. I've still only read Wild Children halfway; I had to put the book down for a while. Turns out I'm a lot more sensitive to that kind of thing than I'd like to admit.

"the kid stays a mouse forever"

The cruel part being...?

Wow. I'm MORE DISTURBING THAN ROALD DAHL. Someday that will appear on the cover of one of my books. By your description, you got through Falling From Grace, and it's nice to know that it's as poignant to read as it was to write. The end of Falling From Grace is the most emotionally wrenching part of the book, in my opinion, but I think it's also the story I'm most proud of.

Horrible as Dahl's stories may be, they've never managed to keep me up at night. Falling From Grace, however...

Again, thank you for sending me the books. I feel very privileged.

Gosh. Okay, I meant that story to be *melancholy*, yes, but *scary*?

No, not because it was scary, because it wasn't. I just kept thinking about how unfair it all was all night.

Was it? There is a lot of pain in the story. Flea's fate is definitely the least fair. But suffering is never fair, and when I write I mostly think about whether the ending and the pain justify each other. I confess I do like happy endings earned with blood, but Coo dies happily of old age, content at last that she's lived the life she wanted and found meaning in it - and in her death. Jay suffers, but in the end is saved the way she wanted to be saved, by loving and being loved in turn. Archbishop Alexius was a man whose own hate finally came back to destroy him. And Hind's story isn't over, because the book is about her and you're only halfway through.

I suppose I thought about it as a story of how those treated unfairly by life were saved and found their own meaning for their pain.

Not a Dahl book, but you simply must read 'Harriet the Spy', by Louise Fitzhugh.

Thanks, I haven't read that, actually. It's not famous at all in my country, so for the longest time I didn't even know it existed. I've had plans to read it for a while now, but it's good to hear so many people recommend it!