‘Snatchers’ earnest, but uneven

Novels, especially young adult novels, can be hard to write. Most of the time the writers of such works are decades removed from their childhoods and popular culture changes so quickly that when words like “bling” and “crunk” are used, they garner laughter.
The other option for a writer is to revert to their childhood and go from memory, which is what Brandi Worley did in her self-published debut, “Crumb Snatchers.”
Set in 1994, Miley Toussaint is a 12-year-old girl in rural south Louisiana who has to deal with bullies—young and old—as well as peer pressure in the course of one academic school term.
To her credit, Worley has tapped into a hidden genre—black young adult literature.
Following into the footsteps of Walter Dean Myers, Mildred D. Taylor, Virginia Hamilton, Sharon Draper and other black writers who write for black children, Worley sees and is meeting the need for youth literature with “Crumb Snacthers”.
It just lacks consistency.
Throughout the 145-page novella, Worley battles between Miley narrating as a 12-year old in 1994 (present) and as an adult who is speaking as a young girl (past).
“I went over to her house with Huey to wait for her. The smell of chicken hit us in the noses. We walked up to her door…Rev. Smith ate the gristle, fat back and all. Rev. Smith even sucked the bone one Sunday evening. Uncle Sam did most of the cooking out of his house. All the neighbors could smell dinner throughout the neighborhood. He made many people hungry.”
In the beginning chapters, the title character says words like, ‘sauna,’ ‘uncouth,’ and ‘coupled,’ and talks about current events that Miley would not have known as a pre-teen in Louisiana; such as lyrics to Nas’ “Illmatic” album and the UCLA men’s basketball team’s winning record.
To make matters worse, “Crumb Snatchers” is at times sluggish without dialogue.
Although the premise is exceptional—Miley is not over sexualized nor is she concerned with superficial things—Worley lacks the ability to weave a back story and description into the narrative without it dragging on for pages at a time.
Worley’s dialogue for Miley is choppy and repetitive and her character is too one-dimensional, such is the fault of many adolescents who think they are the victims.
In all, “Crumb Snatchers” is an earnest effort made by Worley.