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Jul 03, 2011

Linda rated it:

I was also asked to read and review Chris' book. The story is centered around a lifestyle that I cannot connect with, but I was drawn to the way Chris described things. I like his writing style, except for a couple of times when a metaphor got too repetitious, like when Chase's "little red doll mouth" came up several times.
Bad language, sex, and violence always reduce the rating for me. I read to be entertained, not assaulted, although I must say that I have read worse and wa More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Ezinwanyi rated it:

This story was about a sixteen year girl, Hailey Trosclair, who didn’t seem to have much direction in life. She basically hung out with her older Brother Cyrus, and another girl named Meridian. She was a product of depressed mother and wayward father, so they did not pay much attention to her nor guide her. She eventually tries to get attention by trying to act older than she was and making some foolish decisions.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this book. Usually after I read a book, some More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Zeek rated it:

Sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair lives in a world in the grip of poverty. With a Mom who's never recovered from a miscarriage and a drunk, unemployed father who has no ambition to find a job, she has little example to lead her out of such a life.

In Dirty Little Angels, we follow Hailey as she navigates the bitter options presented to her. With little regard to consequences, she makes choices that lead her to an inevitable crisis of the mind- a crisis that forces her family to finally More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2011

Jamie rated it:

Dirty Little Angels is a very startling, very engrossing, and, at times, very disturbing work. Written from the perspective of a young girl, it provides an insider's viewpoint into a very specific and fairly closed culture - that of the lower class in New Orleans. Since the book has no omniscient narrator, details in the lives of the characters - their race, the setting, events of the past - all come out very slowly and much more organically than in most novels. The result is a picture that buil More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 11, 2009

Severa rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. It was very well written and had a great message to it. Though I'm not even close to being religious like some of the characters were(I can proudly say I am an Agnostic UU). I liked how I could relate somewhat to the main character and cheer her on throughout the book. I loved the ending to the story, it was perfect in many ways, and I recommend this book to everyone! Thank you Chris Tusa for sending me the ebook of Dirty Little Angels, I enjoyed it very much! Keep More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2011

drey rated it:

I finally got around to reading Dirty Little Angels, and boy. It packs a whammy of a story into such a little (anything under 300 pages is "little" to me...) book. Hailey is complicated. Adrift. Unable to do anything to help anyone around her, unable to figure out what to do about her mom's depression, her dad's addiction, her brother's life of violence. Moses, the preacher, is creepy. The kind of guy who'd make my skin crawl. But to Hailey, he offers hope that God might save her famil More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Elisabeth rated it:

Chris Tusa, author of Dirty Little Angels, contacted me via LibraryThing to review his book. I hadn't heard of the book before, but I am happy to have read it and to be in contact now with a talented new author. I enjoyed the story about 16-year-old Hailey, living in a lower class area outside of New Orleans with her family which is falling apart. Her social life isn't great either, as she doesn't seem to really like her best friend, and the boy she has chosen to be with couldn't be a worse fit. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2009

Rrhodes added it

This is Mr. Tusa’s first work of fiction. It’s set in the pre-Katrina Louisiana area. The cast of characters are of the type you’d find on Jerry Springer. You have the withdrawn mother, the drunk, gambling addicted father. You have the violent brother with not much going on in his life. And then you have the main character of Hailey Trosclair. When her mother withdraws from the family, her father begins drinking more. Hailey and her brother are drawn to the Minister Moses. Moses dream is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

John rated it:

Seventy years ago, the poet May Sarton wrote about a debut novel “When one puts it down it is not with a feeling of emptiness and despair (which an outline of the plot might suggest), but with a feeling of having been nourished by the truth.” She was writing about Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but she might have written the same observation today about Chris Tusa’s Dirty Little Angels.

Each story is told from the perspective of a young girl in the American South, t More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Eustacia rated it:

I managed to finish another ebook today. I think my ebook reading speed has increased! ^_^ Anyway, remember how I was complaining about monotony in my reading (that one period of time where I read a lot of chic-lit)? Well, I can safely say that Dirty Little Angels is unlike those novels.

The novel is one of those disturbing ones that you feel compelled to keep reading. It's really dark, due mainly to the portrayal of the lower-income class. I could actually see this as a novel to be st More...

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Jan 04, 2012

Dorothyanne rated it:

Lately I signed up for Librarything http://www.librarything.com/, where I immediately volunteered to be an early reviewer. It is madness. You can skim through books coming out soon and then select ones you are interested in and the authors send it to you in exchange for a review!!! Life is very good. For an addict like myself, it allows me to feed my craze with no payment other than writing, which I should be doing already. It’s like cutting back on chocolate by eating caramels.

True, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 21, 2011

Terre rated it:

Other reviews have called this a brutal, gritty coming-of-age novel, and it is that.
However I feel such a description might place this story in the wrong category. It is a coming-of-age story in the same way Bastard out of Carolina was; basically a story of someone growing up and into the cruelest knowledge that those around her are damaged and not nearly good enough to be ushering a young soul into adulthood.
Hailey Trosclair is a sixteen year old girl in New Orleans whose father More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2011

Rochelle rated it:

The emotion, thoughts and decision making processes in this story are raw and very realistic. The teenage behaviours, mother and boy trouble and struggle with identity was written without any sugar coating. Although personal circumstances are different the internal process that translates to Hailey's external behaviours is very relatable. There is no glamour, no falsity and the author forced me to read in almost one sitting.
Following Hailey exploring her inner self, her outer self and ever More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Angela rated it:

Chris Tusa’s “Dirty Little Angels” follows Hailey Trosclair, a misguided, impressionable fifteen year old through her flirtations with promiscuity, violence and drug use. She has an unemployed, alcoholic father that spends all his time in pool halls and strip clubs, a mother who is clinically depressed after a miscarriage and a brother that introduces her to a whole cast of miscreants. I would recommend to anyone wanting an intimate look into the lives of a dysfunctional family.

As More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2011

Emily rated it:

When I first started to read this book, I found that it was walking that line between darkness and light. It carried you through the turmoil of a teenage girls life as she watched all she knew and loved change, the innocence was stripped away from her and the betrayal she felt not only from someone that was close but, friends and companions throughout the story rivaled that of some memories through my own child hood.

It is a fine read and one I personally commend the author on writing More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 20, 2011

Krystal rated it:

The author really captures the young adult mind-set and feeling in this novel. The novel is very "dark", even depressing; however, the author means to represent a certain reality in many societies. The reader will have to restrain her/himself throughout the book from wanting to shake the characters and tell them what to do, however, this is likely the author's intention. A good author evokes a response in the reader, a quality Tusa has down pat. Hailey makes for a good protagonist, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

JM rated it:

The descriptives Chris Tusa uses in his writing draws the reader into the world surrounding his characters. The life of the southern girl, Hailey, is full or raw reality. Moses, dripping with evil , portrays himself as someone holy, but guides his "followers" into dark crimes. Cyrus, Haileys brother is protective, but really does not know how to lead his own life. Their parents are inept, but you cannot help seeing why, and even feel sorry for them sometimes. This book is well written, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 25, 2011

Lily added it

Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa
Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews

Set in the slums of New Orleans, among clusters of crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers a string of financial hardships and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con. Fasci More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2011

Jessi rated it:

Finished Dirty Little Angels today. Starting to think that I'm just not meant to read fiction, because I wasn't that impressed with this one, either. Written about a girl in New Orleans with a troubled life, Tusa starts out the story with beautiful imagery. The first page of the book made me think of She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb, which was an amazing book. I was disappointed in the end though. The entire story just didn't feel right. People didn't seem to stay true to their motives. For insta More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2011

Norma rated it:

This is a gritty tail told from the eyes of a 16 year old named Hailey. Hailey attempts to put into perspective her alcoholic father, her depressed mom, and her miscreant brother.

This author definitely has a way with descriptions and metaphors. A perfect example would be “I could feel little pinpricks of light behind my eyes, my muscles started to squirm like a black nest of moccasins, and my blood felt like chiggers wriggling under my skin.”

Hailey’s mom spends her da More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Sproe rated it:

Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

Chris Tusa gets the reader involved immediately in the struggle 16-year-old Hailey Troslcair is having in this very different “coming of age” novel. Hailey faces the challenges of coping with a dysfunctional unhappy family, well-meaning but ineffectual neighbors who give advice and friends who turn out not to be much in the way of friends. She does what most teenagers to – tries to fit in with her peers, eager to meet and hang out with her older broth More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2010

Heatherly rated it:

I was recently asked to review a copy of Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa. Off the blurb given it seemed like it might be a decent read.

"Set in the slums of New Orleans, among clusters of crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers a string of financial hardships and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2010

Justin rated it:

This book in many ways is one of the best books I have read. The book is very brief with only 848 pages in iBook but was instantly drawn in to the story and read half of it in one sitting. As far as character development it was somewhat relatable to "let the right one in" as far as the (main)ish character is one that does terrible some would say evil things but gain the most sympathy because until others their situation is based on the situations that they are in. In this situation the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2010

Molly (Surrounded By Words) rated it:

This book had me reflecting on times in my life when I felt disillusioned by faith and life in general, which happens to everyone at some point or another. Chris Tusa did a wonderful job of conveying the confusion and hollowness that comes with that process. I'll admit, I had to let the book marinate for about a week or so before I could give an accurate answer as to whether or not I liked it because my emotions were so raw.

I liked it very much.

I went to high school at my hom More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 25, 2010

Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it:

Disclaimer: I received this ebook from Chris Tusa on Librarything's Member Giveaway.

"Dirty Little Angels" is a short novel, or a long short story depending on how you look at it, which follows the life of 16 year old Hailey Trosclair. Hailey lives in New Orleans, but could live almost any slum in the world. Her father just lost his job, her mother, a nurse, suffers from depression brought on by poverty (and "what could have been if...?") as well as a miscarriage. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2010

Brigida rated it:

Hailey Trosclair is living in a somewhere hell-alike, and she’s trying to get out through God’s way that left not responded. Her family is about falling into bankruptcy, while her mother got a miscarriage, her father is unemployed and didn’t care to get the life back to normal. From then, Hailey and her brother Cyrus lean on a new religious ‘protestor’, Moses. Later, the new religion is something that traps them into a demon world.

Review:

It’s one of the hardest books to r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2010

Bracken rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2010

Rex Robot Reviews rated it:

Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa is not an ordinary novel, it is gritty and sends many messages to the reader. The story is told from the view point of a young girl in the American South. We have Hailey Trosclair, raised by a father who is burdened with unemployment and a mother who is too preoccupied with being miserable. Hailey is forced to endure real life lessons outside of the house- things as mundane as death and shallow as popularity.

Tusa's writing style is magnificent. It is More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2009

Joanne rated it:

Compelling. Tusa’s debut novel Dirty Little Angels is gritty, and really something out of the ordinary.

I usually find myself propelled through a book because I can empathise with the characters or find some parallel to my own life. But in this case, my compulsion to continue reading was not borne from empathy for or a connection with the characters - far from it in fact. On many an occasion I found myself saying in my head, “No, don’t do that!”. I then asked myself why was I so hooke More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2009

Heather rated it:

I was sent a link by the author to read this novel in PDF form and then review it. I was a bit leery of the title and not thrilled to be reading ebook style. For me flipping through the pages of the book is half the joy of reading. But after skimming the summary I decided to check it out before turning this one down. By the time I finished the first chapter I was hooked. I had to spend more time with these characters.

Hailey is a girl of 16 trying to discover who she is. Hailey's cir More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)