Review: Dirty Little Angels

Dirty Little Angels
by Chris Tusa (2009)

Livingstone Press, Alabama

I received this ebook from Chris Tusa on Librarything’s Member Giveaway.

Dirty Little Angels is the story of 16-year-old Hailey and her dysfunctional family among New Orleans’ abandoned buildings. Hailey and her brother Cyrus follow the ideas of Moses, a failed preacher; but soon they find themselves trapped in a world of drugs, fear, danger and people with “septic water running through (their) veins”.

The author’s intention in writing the book is to describe the underground world, that sometimes rises to the surface in the worst way, such as newspaper’s chronicle section.
The genre of this book fits in the dark side of our everyday’s life, “as if all the stars had fallen out of the sky.”

The story starts very slow and seems never to take off, so while reading the book you just ask yourself: how many cigarettes do they smoke in this book? answer: “I dunno.”
Something changes when Hailey talks with a terminally ill man and desires to change her life; this changes also the book’s plot: a spark of hope, although the fate of these people is like “dirty angels” (too heavy for flying).
If you accept this low flying enjoy this book, otherwise …

Review: Saving Cicadas by Nicole Seitz

Saving Cicadas
by Nicole Seitz

Thomas Nelson Publisher

Saving Cicadas is a novel about babies: born, adopted, or unborn.
A single mother, Priscilla Lynn Macy, is having another child unexpectedly, escape seems the best solution. But before starting a new life Priscilla needs “a step back in time”: she backs to her family home, where “everybody seems to have found pieces of themselves here”, also with the help of several ghosts who will surprise you.

The narrative of the book is structured with two different points of view (eight-and-a-half year-old Janie and Grandma Mona), this narrative structure does not allow you to know what’s happening and you have to guess until the end.

This novel entertains you and may teach we are not alone: there is always someone whispering to you, because we are not “just like wind rocking … rockers”.

I recommend this book for teenagers who don’t (or don’t want) understand grownups, and grownups who are planning a new life.

Publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Review: Regression by Kathy Bell

Regression is the debut novel of Kathy Bell (Canadian author) and published by Northern Sanctum Press.

This book is appropriate for who loves catastrophic subject, genetics; in a nutshell is a book about how could we save the world?

Adya Jordan (the girl-woman who lived twice, or three times: in the last pages as Dawn Ingram) with the help of a big company (Three Eleven) found out she is the woman who will rescue the mankind from extinction.
Every three chapters the story takes a break and catches up with the journal of Nicholas Weaver, the last survivor of the human race.

The prose is readable and you can either read the whole book, or read it skipping the Adya’s journey in the Island Three Eleven headquarters from page 81 to page 179 (very boring), or read the Nicholas Weaver’s journal only.

Regression looks more like a movie plot than a book (I would suggest the actress Gong Li as Adya): minor characters are just outlined and the connection between the several parts of the book are not linear but abrupt. Maybe in a movie these inconsistencies can be exceeded.

The background of Adya is not original: Adya means Mother Earth, associated with fertility, aura; this conception has been idolized in many societies through the centuries.

From the description I expected a book like The Road by Cormac McCarthy but my first impression was: finally I’ve learned how to grill a steak! (Adya teaches you, see page 141), and nothing else.
I liked just the Weaver’s journal where I found the McCarthy’s soul.

I recommend this book in this reading/watching sequence: first: Regression; second: The Year of the Flood by M. Atwood; third: I am Legend (the movie); fourth: The Road by C. McCarthy and the last but not the least Blade Runner (the movie).

“In any case, time is not a thing that passes, said Pilar: it’s a sea on which you float” (The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood).