Dust & Grim, by Chuck Wendig

When Dust & Grim, by Chuck Wendig came out last October (2021, Little Brown), it missed the cutoff point for that year's Cybils Awards by just a few days, and so I didn't read it last fall.  I'm glad I went back and filled in that gap, because I enjoyed it lots!  It's a fun fantasy full of monsters.

When Molly's rather wretched excuse for a father dies, a lawyer uncle she's never met shows up, and encourages her to fight for half of her (also dead) mother's estate.  He takes her to his mother home, where her older brother, Dustin is running the family funeral home business.  She is not welcomed at all, and in fact her brother and her mother's friend, an active participant in the business, make it clear they don't want her.  So she is rather sore and cross about it all.  Why did her mother pack her off with her father in the first place?  If she can get her half of the inheritance, it might be enough to make her dream of become a costume maker come true--she's not so much a co-player, but a co-designer, with a wardrobe full of personas she can slip into when her own rather sad shell of a person isn't enough.

It quickly becomes clear to Molly, egged on from a distance by her uncle, that there are secrets galore in her mother's house and the little woods on the property.  And indeed the family business is most unusual--it is a funeral home for monsters.  Although monsters is not the preferred term, as this excerpt makes clear:

“We're a funeral home for monsters,” Vivacia said

“Viv!" Dustin said, scandalized.

“Fine. The supernatural,” the woman corrected. To Molly, in a lower voice, she said: “Monster is a bit of no-no word. We prefer not to use it, and they certainly prefer us not to use it. But we need common ground here, and I hope it helps you to understand.”

“Monsters,” Molly said, repeating the no-no word.

“The supernatural,” Viv corrected again.

“The nonstandard citizens,” Dustin said sharply."

When Molly discovers the supernatural, magical cemetery off in the woods, again egged on by her uncle who's playing on her anxieties expertly, she gets hold of the key to its gate and all heck breaks loose.

And Molly, gradually growing into a semblance of a sibling relationship with her brother, feels horribly guilty and responsible.  Caught in a struggle to save the cemetery from being drained of its magic by a monstrous creature she's helped set loose in it, she finds not only nightmares but for the first time the comfort of being part of a team, part of something more than her lonely self.

There's a fun array of magical beings, fun references to the nerd culture that fills Molly's mind, and there's heart to it, too, as Molly and her brother painfully build a real relationship.  I did find the resolution to the conflict with the magical being rather facile; the baddie was so tremendously powerful that the key to its defeat felt like a letdown.  But I will forgive that for the fun of the whole set up!  It felt like the author was enjoying the writing of it lots, and that enjoyment comes through clearly.

A good one for the older MG range (11-12 year olds), who still enjoy the monsters of younger fantasy and aren't yet in the mood for the romance of YA, and who might be D. and D. players.