Abomination is a condemning look at a religious faction in which the families do not have television,
computers or cell phones. The church encourages abusive punishment of children, and dictates what the
parishioners may wear, along with how they behave.
Twelve-year old Martha is not allowed to have friends, and can never invite anyone into her house...they
might learn of the Abomination that lives in the basement. Her older sister Mary was expelled from the family
at age 16 for unspecified bad behavior, and now sends an occasional post card to Martha, which is promptly torn
up by their father, and then retrieved and saved by Martha.
Martha is bullied at school because of her clothes and introverted personality, but Scott is also new at this
school, and feels sorry for, and befriends Martha. Soon the other kids are bullying him too, because of his
friendship with her.
Though Martha is required to feed and care for the Abomination, the identity of this creature is not revealed
until near the end of the book. When Martha realizes what has actually happened to her sister Mary, she and Scott
decide to try to contact her, and the suspense kicks into high gear as the kids defy Martha's parents in order to
right a terrible wrong.
Swindells has crafted a compelling novel with great characters and a fast action plot that will keep you
reading to the last page. That I could see the end coming fairly early in the book did not diminish my reading
pleasure.