JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“Snowbunny”
by Steven Morgan
2 of 5 Stars
“Snowbunny” by Steven Morgan had me scratching my head from beginning to end – and not in a good way. Snow, the main character, is a white girl trapped in Urban Fiction Hell. Every stereotypical character made their appearance in “Snowbunny,” from the drunken, abusive stepfather to the smack-talking whore to the uber-rich drug dealer to the neck-rolling gold digger. They and more were all present without adding substantial depth to the story.
Morgan “Snow” Chambers is a white teenager, born and raised in Springfield, IL, who generally hates Black men while being sexually attracted to them. Her father was killed by a drunk driver, who was a Black man. Her mother got caught up with an abusive Black man who raped Snow, killed Snow’s mother and then killed himself in front of Snow after she regained consciousness. Parentless, Snow hops on a bus to Miami and starts a new, adventure-filled life – at the tender age of 16.
Again, I have to say that “Snowbunny” was extremely confusing.
The book meandered from one plot twist to another in a way that made reading it difficult to follow. For example, the streetwise whore, Rhonda, takes Snow under her wing as soon as Snow gets off the Greyhound bus in Miami. Later, in Rhonda’s hotel room she tells Snow that the reason she is helping Snow is because Rhonda told God that she would help the next white person who fell unexpectedly in her lap. That situation reminded me of some of the plots in the old, 1970s blaxploitation movies. The same curiosity that made me wonder why some of the actors demeaned themselves was the same curiosity that made me wonder why the author gave that reason for the hooker to take care of, for all intents and purposes, a random white child.
“Snowbunny” needed an honest group of beta readers to point out the various inconsistencies with reality. I’m not suggesting that “Snowbunny” needed to be a realistic portrayal of life as we know it. I’m speaking more about how Snow aged from being 16 to 17 in less than a year without having a birthday. I’m speaking about how Snow could get a legitimate job using her ID when she was younger than 18 and had no parent or guardian to vouch for her. Also, I found it incredible that no one was looking for a white girl whose mother and boyfriend were dead in the home Snow ran away from. Her ID should have thrown up some red flags, right?
An editor was also needed to smooth out grammar and punctuation issues. There are a few misused and/or misspelled words and way too many misused quotation errors. Instead of quotations partitioning the dialogue from the narration, the quotation marks surrounded the whole phrase which ended with punctuation marks of the first part of the phrase.
For example: “Alright, have fun and I’ll see you soon, right, he confirmed?””
These types of errors, both grammatically and plot-wise, slowed down the ease of reading “Snowbunny” and made it difficult to settle into a reading groove. Flipping every once in a while from present tense to past tense also made things confusing. Poor editing totally wrecked what could have been an emotionally raw and redeeming story. Snow’s dealings with the world could have been intriguing in the Urban Fiction setting.
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