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 hooked on this story and characters whose destiny seemed so pre-determined? The answer for me was Tusa’s stark and confronting writing style, one like I’ve never read before. I found his use of metaphors such as ‘the black worm holes of his eyes’ and ‘little cobwebs of grief’ both refreshing and haunting.

In this novel Tusa does not shy away from the harsh realities of the lives of some in the community. He poses the age old question of what’s right and wrong, and shows us how the answer to that question is different for each and every one of us, depending on the situation we’re in and our experiences and role models up to that point. A story about the darker side of the human psyche and the strength of the human spirit – one well worth reading. ( )

This short story is packed with raw, real feeling and emotion that emerges from a teenage girl living a life within a dysfunctional family and equally dysfunctional urban surroundings. An inner strength of this young girl bubbles up despite the many negative influences, opportunities to fail and outright bad decisions. The local environmental realism of this story quickly immerses the reader in dark, working-class side-street neighborhoods of New Orleans where daily living is difficult at best and routinely dangerous. This is not your typical ‘feel-good-happy-ending’ tale but has the tenor of authentic, out-of-control deluge of true human existence. ( )

Lifestyles, a marriage of different classes, drugs, sex, dysfunctional family, murder, poverty, consequences.

This book was a WOW!!!!

A lifestyle I know exists, but difficult to imagine living like that. The book is excellently written. It is about a dysfunctional family living in the slums of New Orleans...a non-working father, two children, and a mother who can't work.

A lifestyle and life cycle that continues over each generation. It allowed the reader to experience that lifestyle many families endure and one that is not pleasant.

You will love the book, but it isn't a cozy, curl up read...it is "real" life with the awful things that happen to unfortunate families.

Thanks, Chris Tusa for allowing me to read your on-line copy...it was great. ( )

A good read. 4 out of 5. At times the dialogue seemed unrealistic. Although the rest of the book was good. I enjoyed the New Orleans slums theme as well. 4 out of 5. Read this book. ( )

Chris Tusa
(published March 2009)

I received this book from The Library Thing as an early reviewer book. The edition I was given is an e-Book. Because it's an e-book, it did take me quite a while to read this book. I don't do well reading books at my desktop, and I don't have an e-reader ( or what ever they're called) I'm a pretty Low-Tech gal. Anyway, I decided tonight to buckle down and finish reading this book that the author was kind enough to send me.

Dirty Little Angels is about a family that is falling apart. The father has lost his job, the mother has been on leave from her job as an R.N. for quite awhile and suffers from a back injury, depression and a long ago miscarraige. Hailey (the narrator) and her brother Cyrus are suffering from a lack of attention from their parents, who are emotionally unavailable to their children and themselves. There isn't a lot to like about very many of the characters in this book. Thankfully, Hailey has moments of kindness that shine through some of her twisted actions. She has been praying to God to help her family, but things are just getting worse instead of better. The one constant that she seems to have is Verma, an older friend of the family.

Hailey's brother Cyrus and Hailey become involved with an odd, twisted "holy" roller type of minister who is filthy-grimy and has a twisted sense of justice. Hailey is also becoming involved with her friend, Meridian's boyfriend. Meridian doesn't seem like a very nice friend throughout the novel, neither is Chase - Meridian's boyfriend and Hailey's lust interest. Hailey doesn't seem to have much support from anyone but Verma and her brother Cyrus, who is having a hard time himself making decisions and mistakes.

Hailey and Cyrus become involved in something that changes their lives, as well as affecting other lives. Anymore information on this would be a spoiler. Bad things happen to both of them, as well as to Verma - the incidents aren't connected. Other than they are just more horrible things happening to those in Hailey's family and around her in a long line of horrible happenings. Just like in real life, no one in this novel (set in the slums of New Orleans) seems to get a break.

Even though I didn't really care for any of the characters, I did enjoy reading the novel. I didn't care for the characters, because they weren't people that I would have wanted in my life, although they are like some of the people that I've come across. While I couldn't really agree with Hailey's choices I could empathize with why she made some of the choices that she did. She lacks attention, her mother seems to care only for her own self, her father is distant though he does care for his kids. Hailey ends of seeking attention, the worst kind of attention from the wrong people. She ends up paying a price for this. Both Hailey and her brother end up doing some rather horrible things to others. Hailey does a horrible thing to herself.

It was nice, though to see some kindness coming from Hailey to an unexpected person. She befriends an older man dying of cancer in the hospital, the husband of a friend of her father's. There's more to that story, but it's spoilers also. She visits and cares for Verma, who goes in and out of the hospital with complications from diabetes.

This book had some grittyness and at first it seems a little depressing. There isn't much value in life shown by the characters, but in the end there is a ray of hope shining through, even though there is quite a shocking ending. ( )

The book picked up towards the end and got very good. The author's skill is very evident in his building up towards the climax, albeit, a somewhat predictable one. For much of the book I picked out the usage of the pattern "As something happens, something else happens" and I think Tusa might have used it a few times too many for that to have a lingering presence in my mind. In general I think the author could have tried the limits a bit more in terms of words selection. It feels conservative.

The book paints a picture of a problematic Southern household with an appropriate language and tone, I think. Dialogues might have been a bit too logical for me, as I don't think people on average speak with such complete, well-thought out sentences. Otherwise it has a fantastic overtone of what place in life should be occupied by religion, one that people struggle with in teams of its integrity and its applicability to the "real" world?

First book I've read about the modern-day Southern US (New Orleans). Great read! ( )

A very short work, packed full of drama and emotions, Hailey is a teenager encased in turmoil in New Orleans. Her mother is depressed having recently lost a pregnancy, her father laid off and tomcatting around, putting his marriage into jeopardy, her older brother making poor decisions on a daily basis, and herself not exactly the picture of reasoned judgment. Yet she’s trying to keep it together without any inclination of how to do so. Meh. Thought it needed to be longer (it's only 150 pages or so) to deal properly with the emotions it raises. ( )

This novel is about Hailey, her dysfunctional family and her friends who live in the slum underworld of New Orleans. Her unemployed father is too picky about possible re-employment and so is usually to be found in the pool hall. Unless he is in the arms of his waitress mistress. Her husband is terminally ill with stomach cancer. Hailey visits him in hospital and lightens his dying days. Her mother is a devout Christian who works as a nurse. Or did until a miscarriage a few months ago made her feel completely worthless.

So, Hailey's family world is directionless and pointless. So she turns to her elder brother, Cyrus, and her good friends for guidance. As a group they find leadership in an ex-con, Moses, who lives with his aged mother. He dreams of opening a drive-through church in a disused bank building.

One night Moses, Cyrus and a friend go drinking in another part of New Orleans. There they kidnap a boy who they believe is a child molester. They take him to an isolated spot and severely beat him up. He later dies and they worry about being identified as his killers.

Hailey's world falls apart and comes to a very surprising conclusion.

I enjoyed this book which is a good, engrossing read. ( )

This is an ebook I received from the member giveaway. It is a simple, quick read. I finished it in a couple of hours. The book takes place in a small town near New Orleans. It is about a sixteen year old girl named Hailey, her family and their messed up lives. I think the writing is geared more towards young adults, but it is a bit too vulgar. This is not a book I would recommend to other readers. ( )

Hailey Trosclair finds herself powerless. At risk is her brother, her home,the marriage of her parents, even her mental health. In reaction she turns to a Christian deity despite her revulsion of her mother's self-righteousness. She seeks control over her life with some most un-Christian acts done in the name of God.

Perhaps she is an embodiment of the U.S. south and how it lives in a country that is walking away from Christianity while at the same time it finds itself trapped in its Judaeo-Christian traditions and restrictions. Hailey, like the south's spotted history, is praying one minute, performing heinously the next.

I'm surprised with how "Dirty Little Angels" gripped me. I ended up reading most of it in one setting. Chris Tusa's characters seem full of southern charm at first, but many of them end up giving me chills with their afflictions buried just below the surface. Definitely worth another read.

"In my family, it was as if you had to be dead to get noticed."

Hailey has a father who has lost his job and is drinking, a mother who lost her inheritance when she married her father and has recently lost a baby, and a brother who has lost his faith in God.

What has Hailey got to lose? Her respect? Her virginity? Her "best" friend? Her soul?

Tusa paints a disturbing picture of poverty and lack of family values. This book is hard hitting and thought provoking. A book that takes you into the depths of despair and will not let you go. ( )

I loved Chris Tusa’s novel, “Dirty Little Angel’s”. It illustrates a prevalent problem in our inner cities, all over the United States, that we have not figured out how to solve. It shows the daily lives of these individuals, the extremes they are exposed to, especially as it relates to young teens. We get to share these lives, briefly and vicariously, through the author’s book. However, we are the lucky ones. We can close the book, push away the pain and violence, and go on with our lives. ( )

Dirty Little Angels is the debut novel of Chris Tusa, a writer I have never heard of or come across until obtaining this book. In my opinion, this book is a realistic look at life drama novella. A novel such as this is just a clear insight into what life is actually like for many people in the slums. I count it as a 'novella' as I do not believe a novel to be a novel unless it sums up to at least two-hundred pages, whether I'm right in thinking this I don't know but I feel a novel is proper book, I've been taught to recognize a novella as a 'short novel' which this evidently is. However, I do not count this book as anything less of a book because it is very short, I'm just stating my views, that's what a review is right?

I won received this book from the member giveaway program right here on LibraryThing, it was given as an eBook and I only had chance to read it at very short periods, but I still managed to read it in three flat-out reads easily. Dirty Little Angels is catagorized in a very different genre to anything what I have read before, I didn't expect it to be jam-packed full to bursting point with action from start to finish and my expectations were correct. The story simply tells the troubles and woes of an intelligent University student Hailey Trosclaire (An odd last name, I've never heard of the sort) who gets caught up in her dysfunctional family's habits and terrible decisions.

For a novel such as this, one which is intended to be realisitic and relate to real-life situations does not make great sense, the expansive channel of characters Tusa created in Dirty Little Angels were far too complex and diverse to fit in with the story, they were over the top and would have worked in many other genres but this one. But I liked reading it, it was short, easy to read, related to real life but was not as creative as it could be, Chris Tusa needs to go in to more depth with his plot, needs to match the diverse characters to a suitable story. ( )

I can not be apologetic. I flat out didn't like this book.
I was just never convinced. And if you wont convince me, at least give me a prose that makes the journey worth it. I got neither.
The credit I will give him is this. We are often subscribing to a notion that there is a certain age a person goes through where life is irrelevant, than nothing that is going on can be of any consequence. It is often far from the case, and if you in that age group you are handed a sad little book by Salinger and told to stop bitching.
I was happy to see somebody attack that. But at most, this book graze the opponent. The characters, despite all the horrendous things they go through, are in terms of thoughts and reactions to events, the kids Salinger accused us of being. The only moment those awful events the protagonist goes through have any real relevance to the story is when it is necessary to move the plot to its next point. It hurt almost as much as it helped. ( )

As I read through this short novel, I kept coming back to the same thought: what a great framework for a movie in the style of "Thirteen" or even "White Oleander". Smooth transitions and brutal reality kept me drawn to it, reading the whole story in nearly one sitting, but I was left wanting. The author provided haunting descriptions of each scene, but moved through each too quickly. I wanted more. It was like someone was telling telling me the story second hand...giving me all the most important details but forgetting to really draw me in and make me feel like I was part of the story instead of just a bystander.

All in all, a good read, but I want more depth. ( )

This is an easy read, fast pace work of fiction set in pre-Katrina New Orleans focusing on the lives of one family and their interaction with others.

"Dirty Little Angles" is not a cozy, murder mystery, but a realistic look at the harsh world some face among crack houses and abandoned buildings. There is no "happy" ending, just another twist in this coming-of-age story.

The protagonist is a 16-year-old named Hailey Trosclair who narrates the story of her family and a number of friends they deal with on a daily basis.

Author Chris Tusa tells the story in such a way you feel you are walking the streets of New Orleans side by side with Hailey.

While dealing with school life and teen-age worries, Hailey attempts to keep her family together using the only means she knows.

The story contains sex, violence, betrayal, heartache, addiction, depression, love, and murder. The plot will take you on a roller coaster ride of highs and lows experienced by Hailey and her family.

The dysfunctional Trosclair family will have you shaking your head and wondering 'what else is going to happen now.' ( )

This is a tightly written, very descriptive book. As I was reading it I could almost smell the cigarette smoke wafting through the air, and taste the dust rolling through the air from gunning the engine on a gravel road.
Hailey and her brother Cyrus set their own destiny, surrounded by friends and family that have problems of their own.
This is not a "pretty" story, but you will read it in one setting, wondering if Hailey can survive. ( )

When I finished reading this book I was depressed, disappointed and ready to move on. However I began thinking back through the story, what the characters experienced and what the author was trying to say, and I am now convinced that the experiences from this book will stay with me for many years.

The trials of the main character, Hailey, are heart breaking. An above average teenage girl trapped in a situation from which escape is unlikely, Hailey's life is disintegrating around her. Her parent's marriage is ending, she is forced to take on the role of caretaker for both parents, and her criminally minded brother repeatedly exposes her to dangerous situations and individuals.

The saddest lesson that Hailey learns is the deadly harm she exposes herself to when her relationships extend beyond the superficial. She uses the only tools she has (her body and her dignity) to try and regain her balance, with deadly and tragic consequences. ( )

Book Review - Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

I read this book with a bit of trepidation. From the description I was intrigued by the characters, but I had a feeling the story would not have a happy ending. As soon as I was done reading the book I thought to myself; “Well, I knew it wouldn’t be pretty, I don’t know why I read it”. As I sat there pondering what I had just read, I realized how much I had come to care about the main character, a teen named Hailey. The author did a great job of drawing the reader into her life and into the thought processes going on in her head. I was drawn into her life through the first person telling of the story. Even though Hailey is fictional teen she represents many teens all over the country that have been basically forgotten in life’s struggles. Families have difficulties, circumstances jack you around, and unless you want to always be a victim, you need to take your destiny into your own hands. This is what Hailey did at the end of the story.
While her choices of how to take control of her life may have been unusual, she finally understood she had to make those choices on her own. In spite of the sad circumstances and choices she may have made, she was finally taking what little control of her life that she could. In that respect I liked the ending, because she made that decision and acted on it, even though it was in a different way than you would have guessed.

I enjoyed this book although the story was dark and at times painful. The story follows 16-year-old Hailey as she becomes increasingly aware of the dysfunction in her family and learns of the betrayal that can come from friends and lovers. I look forward to reading Mr. Tusa's next novel! ( )

Chris Tusa brings his poetic skills to bear on a bleak coming-of-age story set in the seedy side of New Orleans. The beauty of his language contrasts painfully with the ugliness of the subject. In all, an excellent book and a very quick read.

Full review available here. ( )

A quick read that gives a blunt, raw look at a young girl's life in the slums of New Orleans. Depressingly vivid and full of beautiful detail. It offers the reader a brief glimpse of a heartbreakingly broken family and the desperation with which a sixteen year old girl tries to repair it. ( )

It's a book of polluted and wasted youth. The reader at first feels sorry for Hailey and her twisted dysfunctional family. The dark imagery and symbolism in the writing suggests that violence and cruelty are an accepted part f life. Her unthinking betrayal of her friend with her friends boyfriend are typical of teenage selfishness and imaturity - of a life devoid of loyalty - except to immediate self gratification.

It is a story of a young girl who because she has never been given true values in life values life, friendship, ethics and morality even less, with tragic consequenses. The people who should take care of her, mould her, love her , nurture her are all in some way polluted and evil themselves. Her mother wallows in self pity, sloth and filth, living in the past, shirking her responsibilities, not training her to be responsible with money. She uses God as an excuse to be a victim, to not take control of her life, interpreting her religion to suit her own warped sense of morality and helplessness. Her brother, a degenerate youth himself tries to help her - but he is too young and polluted himself to have much effect.

Here father is a lazy, cheating no good hero who by his very feebleness forces his children to take care of him, fight his wars for him and against him. His apathy and inconsistency as a parent seems to give room for them to seek out strong but evil influences like Moses.

The terrible environment this child lives in shapes her life and leads her to making some dreadful mistakes You only shudder to read of.

The plot is filled with subdued violence, all the more menacing for its hidden malice.

I enjoyed it very much. Could not put it down to the very last unexpected end - I finished this book in 4 hours - and was still hoping for more. ( )

Reading Chris Tusa's Dirty Little Angels is like delving into a story by Flannery O' Connor--the characters are flawed and corrupt, their world is rotten with moral decay, and they are looking for God in all the wrong places.

Hailey, a tenth-grader with more to worry about than math tests, is caught in the midst of her family's decline. Depression grips them all and there is nothing to be done about it. Her mother's miscarriage, her father's unemployment, and her brother's delinquencies only add to Hailey's sense that everything is falling apart making the roaches buzzing in her head shred her mind to bits.

Looking for answers, Hailey finds her brother's friend, Moses Watkins, and ex-con who wants to hand out drive-thru salvation for the good people of New Orleans.

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The story is gritty and dark. It's not what I usually read, but I was intrigued by the summary when Mr. Tusa asked me to review the novel. I had read a few reviews that noted the frequent use of metaphors in the story; it can be distracting at times, but at times it adds to the reader's understanding of Hailey's confusion (the state of her decaying sense of self).

I would recommend it to someone interested in fiction about life's hard knocks. I would not classify Dirty Little Angels as Street Lit, but it might also appeal to someone interested in this genre.

As I said, it is a dark novel--there is violence, poverty, and self-destruction. It can be hard to read and the characters are often hateful, making it hard to sympathize with their plight, but they are realistic in their flawed, emotionally impoverished state.

Gricel @ things-she-read.org ( )

In Dirty Little Angels, Christopher Tusa uses a fascinating subtext to tell the grim story of a tenth-grade girl’s violent coming of age. Set in present day New Orleans, the novel’s plot plays out like a Greek tragedy, with characters, themes and imagery aptly and cleverly drawn from classical mythology and given modern twists, often completely upending original interpretations.

The main character, sixteen-year-old Hailey Trosclair, shifts roles depending upon the situation at hand. She appears like a goddess of healing when she visits the dying husband of her father’s mistress in his hospital room, cheering him with genuine kindness but also showing that something is amiss by lighting a cigarette for him (a cancer patient). She becomes like the daughters of classical Greek literature who help and guide their fathers when she tries to break up her own father’s extramarital affair with the waitress/stripper, Iris. Later, as her psychological and moral breakdown take firm hold, she dresses as the monster Medusa for a costume ball; the snakes clipped to her hair become chilling indicators of Hailey’s mental illness and rage. The line between monster and girl is blurred by the fact that Hailey is otherwise dressed like a teenager going to prom, with a beautiful gown that she and her mother shopped for together, and an expensive salon hairdo; despite her downward spiral, we can still catch glimpses of her innocence. When she accompanies her brother Cyrus and his seedy acquaintance, Moses Watkins, as the two men commit brutal acts of revenge in the name of their misguided notions of justice, Hailey takes on the role of goddess who helps heroes. Through this role, she is put in a dilemma that no young person should ever have to face, and she makes a shocking decision. With no Perseus or Heracles to save her, and, like Sophocles’ Antigone, no gods to answer her prayers, Hailey takes matters into her own hands, becoming a “hero” herself, though a seriously flawed one. It’s interesting to note that Hailey’s name is a variation of “Haley,” the Scandinavian name meaning “hero.”

Tusa seems to have skillfully chosen names (many with Greek or Roman origins) for most, if not all, of his characters that have meanings which evoke the essence of the person named, or are so incongruous with the actual person, that the character becomes a parody of his or her own name. At every turn of the page, there is something below the surface for readers to ponder. Ritual animal sacrifice, oracles, the gods’ wrath manifested in weather, reversal of fortune, rivalry of sisters (Meridian takes on this role since Hailey doesn’t have a sister), paternal and maternal rejection of sons and daughters, the downfall of the hero (or heroine) and internal psychological and religious struggles are all themes first made prominent by the ancient Greeks in their writings and dramatic performances, and all have their part in Dirty Little Angels, rendering the story more richly and deeply told.

The novel is not overly intellectualized, however. Even with its biblical and classical literary references, it is very much grounded in the reality of an alienated, 21st century urban teen’s life. Dirty Little Angels packs a wallop in one easy read.

Though the book could have used more careful editing to reduce overused phrases like “old and abandoned,” such minor flaws seem trivial in relation to the overall talent of this fresh, new author. I eagerly await Tusa’s next novel. ( )