Martha is bullied at school because of her clothes and introverted personality, but Scott is also new at this school, and feels sorry for Martha. I mean, it was obvious I liked her a lot, but surely you don't think about somebody every minute of the day and night just because you like them.

Here she decides to break the one rule her parents have always been stern about, Invite No One To The House. Mary`s parents told her that they gave the child to another family, but they didn`t because they didn`t want anybody to know about the child. When Martha realizes what has actually happened with her sister, she and Scott decide to try to contact her, and the suspense kicks into high gear as the kids defy Martha's parents to right a terrible wrong. Ashley- I believe Abomination explores universal themes related to identity, faith, family, friendship, and morality.

Notable reasons for recommending this book: There’s a multi narrative structure and a great final twist. It's a quick read that manages to touch on some important topics and to encourage children to speak out against abuse, bullying and coercive behaviour. Having read Swindells' Stone Cold in school, I decided to read Abomination, which I enjoyed even more! Admirers of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen and Lisa Emanuel’s more recent The Covered Wife will welcome this deftly plotted and thoughtfully realised novel of friendship, trauma, faith and identity. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Goldberg’s fast-paced, engross­ing, emo­tion­al nov­el offers a win­dow into Australia’s Hasidic com­mu­ni­ty, where loy­al­ty and obe­di­ence are coins of the realm, and there is no room for dis­sent or mod­ern ideas. When I wanted to punish her in the evening, she had pushed her chest of drawers in front of the door.

Once a week, a small group of us would get together and drink wine, eat cheese and critique one another’s work. It is a wonderment to me that this is Goldberg’s debut novel as this is as accomplished a book as I have read in awhile. This is the case of Malka Leifer, a teacher at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls’ school in Melbourne, who in 2008 was accused of multiple counts of child abuse.

The only thing that let it down was the ending – the ‘concluding’ part of the story was extremely rushed and didn’t give the reader a lot of closure. That said, it wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous as it is now, and I can’t imagine what it would be like for children today to have to navigate the expectations of the online world in addition to their day-to-day tribulations. They cau­tious­ly begin to rekin­dle a friend­ship at a time when both find them­selves at a cross­roads in their lives.A brilliant portrayal of male friendship, loyalty and faith, of two men coming to terms with their own frailities, memories and values while trying to figure out what makes a meaningful life. In this one, Swindells follows the journey of a very unpopular schoolgirl who is often bullied for her strange clothes.