Abomination

by Catch Tilly

I'm not dead.
My first thought when I open my eyes to the brilliant white room at Zepail and the feeling like life has been dragged from my bones. It probably has, because the last thing I remember is black-fire and pain and Zanar's healing strands fragmenting as Dad shot death from his hands.
'I'm not dead,' I say to the boy collapsed beside me on the floor.'
'Early days yet.' Zanar lifts his head to survey the door-less room. 'That's part one of our plan achieved.'

Locked in a room sealed with magic and on trial for murder, seventeen year old Uriel is hoping for justice. Instead she's named "Abomination" and forced to run to the forest. With Zanar, disowned Heir to the World, the dragon's who are her relatives, and the newly made Lord of Deep Forest she might be safe.
But Uriel's father is the Death Lord and when he threatens her friends she has to act. With a psychotic pet dragon, a half-broken healer, and an ability to move through death, Uriel's about to face down her dad, and the winged monsters who stand behind him.
The odds aren't good.

240 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2020

About the author

Catch Tilly is a former high school teacher now working as an author and script writer. It was after hearing students comment how realistic and empowering they found Morgan and Stormin’s story presented in a play on
bullying that she decided to write Otherwise Known as Pig. She is married with five children and has an MA in creative writing.

Reviews

[Becca Fitzpatrick (bookscandlescats) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an enjoyable read! It's a YA Fantasy that had me hooked from the very beginning. I really enjoyed the writing style, and thought the overall plot was fantastic.

Thank you so much to Catch Tilly for sending me a copy of this one!

[Mark Holgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, engaging, and fabulously imaginative. Memorable characters and a world to get lost in. :)

[Ellie Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abomination is actually the second book in Catch Tilly’s Shadowalker series but has been written in a way that if you haven’t read the first book (like me) it is ok. I have previously read Tilly’s work Otherwise Known as Pig and loved it so I was very excited to receive a copy of her latest fantasy work.

As a lover of all things fantasy and science fiction I simply fell in love with the world of Meldin. There are a host of characters that make up this world including fantastical beasts, shape-shifting humans and strange and unusual creatures. The plot was well thought out and was engaging from start to finish.

Meldin is such a unique world and Tilly has crafted it perfectly. I sometimes felt like there were too many unusual names for characters and places but that is a very small criticism. The addition of the notes section at the end was a welcome surprise and really solidified this book in the high fantasy genre for me.

[Valerie Volk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovers of fantasy sci-fi will find this book a delight. In it, Catch Tilly continues the story she began in ‘Shadowalker’, set within her created world of Meldin, peopled by strange creatures, shape-changing humans, and fantastical beasts. The elaborate plot carries the reader along with increasing suspense from chapter one’s arresting opening: “I killed a man” as Uriel copes with a Death Lord father, dragons who are her kin, in a world whose gorgeous descriptions have a stunning impact. But a word of caution: I found the intricacies of the plot and the plethora of strangely-named characters confusing on a first reading. I’d recommend keeping the excellent notes at the end and the invaluable cast list close at hand to get maximum enjoyment from this book - but it’s worth the effort! (And I don’t usually read fantasy …)

[Claire Belberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex, war-riven world, compelling characters and a myriad of monsters - welcome to Book 2 of the Shadowalker Series.

Uriel Taleri knows almost nothing of herself except that the Death Lord is her father and that she has inherited on appalling ability to kill. These two facts mean she is always running for her life. Yet her friends on Meldin believe in her and continue to risk their lives as she races toward a foreseen future in an attempt to prevent more war and death. Throw into the mix a starship, a black dragon and the mysterious Forces, and you have a fast-paced, mind-bending fantasy about love, death, friendship and identity.

This is a book to read and re-read, rich in psychedelic description and a deeply wrought mythology. It's fun, frantic and memorable.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that you have to pay attention the whole time, which is annoying as I mostly read books at night. I found myself having to constantly reread passages to double check people's names or where they were. All of the names are of types of people and the people themselves are only explained once so if you can't remember what each thing is you have to go back to the explanations.
Luckily the author thought this through and there is a key at the end of the book that serves this exact purpose.
Overall a good book, but it does end on a cliff hanger - the same as the first book in the series - which means I will now need to get the last book to find out how it ends.

[Dimity Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the first three pages, and I don't want to put this book down, but I will, only because I want to re-read the book that precedes it, Shadow Walker, before continuing on what looks like an hell of a ride. Abomination will have to wait...but not for long!

It was worth the wait. Abomination, done and dusted. Once again, Tilly takes us on a perilous journey through Meldin, a world that is as familiar to her as reality. The plot is fairly straight forward. Uriel, the Death Lord's daughter, isn't at all like her dad (or at least she hopes she isn't). He is a psychopath, thinking nothing of killing thousands just to power his escape ship. War is on the horizon. Uriel and her best friend, Zanar, the disinherited Lord of the World, are on a mission to undo the wrongs of the past and to call the Death Lord to account for his crimes. En route they meet some extraordinary allies and some deadly enemies, and discover facts about their origins and destinies that will make all the difference to their quest.

Tilly's characters are unique, funny and heroic. Best of all, there's a hint that we might see more of them in the future. I hope so, because as best friends go, Uriel and Zanar really are the best.