Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

Hailey Trosclair has a hard life. Living in modern-day New Orleans, her mother has recently had a miscarriage, her father is an alcoholic and her brother has been arrested several times. When her brother, Cyrus, starts hanging out with an ex-con preacher named Moses, Hailey joins him. Moses believes he's on earth to be the Hand of God and takes it upon himself to punish the wicked. As he becomes more and more violent, Hailey and Cyrus start to doubt what he's been preaching.

The book was well-written, if a little simile heavy, and the dialogue was believable. So why only two stars? It's a simple matter of taste. I've never lived a life like Hailey's and while I'm well-aware that there are many out there who do, I had a hard time putting myself into her head. Many of the decisions she makes were simply incomprehensible to me because I couldn't understand her logic. That's not to say her decisions were illogical, they would have made sense to her and were believable, I just couldn't understand them.

This is where the book fell short, because a truly great book can put you in the heads of people who's life you have never lived and allow you to understand their thoughts and hopes and dreams. It was a disappointment.