"The baby was a white fist of flesh..." From the opening line of Dirty Little Angels the prose of Chris Tusa captures your attention. Sentences drift off the page and slap you in the face..." I imagined the stitches in her stomach, tiny black mouths puckering between the folds of her belly."
Set in the slums of New Orleans, we feel the poverty and the acceptance of circumstance as 16 yr. old Hailey loses her innocence living in a world everyone is trying to save her from. From her older brother Cyrus who's pretty good with a pair of brass knuckles and knows his way around the law, to Verma the old black woman Hailey helps after school, they all want better for Hailey, but can offer nothing but empty words and little hope. Along with Cyrus and Verma there are a cast of down trodden characters that include her drunk father and selfish mother who turns to religion to try and save her dysfunctional family. Sex, drugs & violence all play a roll in Dirty Little Angels, but it's the incredible flesh and blood characters that keep you turning the pages. It's a gritty story with a raw energy and an unexpected ending. And by the time you turn the last page you are asking for more!
Visit the pages of Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa and hang out with Hailey, Cyrus and their friends in the run down, barren places they call home in a New Orleans no tourist ever gets to see.... you won't be sorry!
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