Dust & Grim
by Chuck Wendigon October 19, 2021
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Horror
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
From a bestselling author: Miss Peregrine meets The Graveyard Book in this middle grade adventure about rival siblings running a monster mortuary.
Thirteen-year-old Molly doesn't know how she got the short end of the stick—being raised by her neglectful father—while Dustin, the older brother she's never met, got their mother and the keys to the family estate. But now the siblings are both orphaned, she's come home for her inheritance, and if Dustin won't welcome her into the family business, then she'll happily take her half in cash.
There's just one problem: the family business is a mortuary for monsters, and Molly's not sure she's ready to deal with mysterious doors, talking wolves, a rogue devourer of magic, and a secret cemetery. It's going to take all of Dustin's stuffy supernatural knowledge and Molly's most heroic cosplay (plus a little help from non-human friends) for the siblings to figure it out and save the day... if only they can get along for five minutes.
Bestselling author Chuck Wendig's middle grade debut is equal parts spooky, funny, and heartfelt—perfect for Halloween and year-round reading!
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- A creepy fall story that’s not too scary but just enough to give you a chill.
- Siblings just meeting and learning how to be siblings.
- All kinds of different paranormal races.
- A squad of characters that’s easy to fall in love with.
- Florg. Just . . . Florg. Trust me.
- The sort of cemetery that you’ll definitely want to explore.
- Erm … unless you have a strong sense of self-preservation? Then . . . maybe not.
- Mysterious not-wolves that usher in an even curiouser mystery.
Many thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and TBR & Beyond Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.
When I saw that Chuck Wendig had ventured into middle grade books, I absolutely knew I had to give this one a try! Plus, it’s comped to The Graveyard Book and it has the most charming cover. There was obviously absolutely no way I could resist all of that!
Dust & Grim sweeps the reader into a modern fantasy filled with unexpected twists on paranormal creatures, siblings learning how to be siblings, and a whole squad of characters you’ll absolutely love. Oh, and there’s Florg. Trust me, you won’t want to miss Florg.
This book was a ton of fun! It nailed the spooky fall vibes as far as the horror goes, while being more paranormal than outright scary, and includes a delicious amount of humor that’ll have you chuckling along with the antics of these characters. Oh, and the characters? Ridiculously fun squad that probably isn’t quite what you’re expecting (I know I wasn’t!). The only character I didn’t love was Molly (which is a teensy problematic, since it’s from her point of view). This one also definitely needs to be a series, since it leaves quite a few unanswered questions, but I’m not seeing anything that suggests it is? I’m really hoping for more Molly and Dustin, though!
The narrative voice in this is irreverent and funny, sure to catch the attention of middle grade readers and make them chuckle.
There were more than a few scenes that caught me by surprise and I ended up snorting out loud. I love when books catch me off-guard like that with their humor! Molly is definitely snarky, and there are times when her humor borders on childish, but hey, haven’t we all gotten caught in a mood and wanted to reply with “your face” at some point in time? Just me? Anyway, Molly’s narrative voice is very natural and easy to get into, which I’m sure will win over plenty of young readers!
It’s not just Molly who’s funny, though. The entire cast, with their big (and unusual) personalities all come together to provide some very humorous situations and banter which nicely offset the more serious undertones of the actual plot.
She shuddered. “That’s weird. You should stop that!”
“Sorrrrrry,” the forest answered.
Well, at least it’s a polite menacing voice.
Dust & Grim is filled with all sorts of paranormal goodness . . . but some of it might just catch you by surprise!
I love the way Wendig subverts expectations in this book by playing with the traditional forms of paranormal that we’ve come to expect from books. Trust me, these side characters aren’t quite what you’d expect, and I loved that! Especially the vampire. But I’ll say no more on that.
These side characters, though! They’re larger than life and quite a bunch together. I wish they had a bit more screen time, because I absolutely loved them and wanted to get to know them better. I enjoyed my time with this group, though!
“But regular people can be monstrous, too.”
“Bingo, kiddo.” Marsha went on to say, “Monstrousness isn’t because of who you are, but because of the choices you make.”
At the heart of this story is a very touching display of sibling bonds between two orphans who are just discovering what it means to be family.
By which I mean Molly and Dustin, of course, who were separated as children (for reasons this book doesn’t really go into). At first, they don’t really know what it means to be a sibling, having never really had the opportunity. There are a lot of touch-and-go scenes, where they’re not quite sure what to do with each other or how to interact and plenty of misunderstandings and hurt feelings. This felt so real and true, which only made the scenes where they finally figure it out all the more heartfelt and sweet! Sibling bonds is one of my favorite tropes in general, so I absolutely loved the journey Molly and Dustin take to get there.
She shrugged. “I don’t think anyone knows how to do their taxes. They sure don’t teach it in school.”
“I guess that’s good. For me, not the country.”
Florg. Just Florg. Florg is a force unto himself and absolutely my favorite part of this book.
When Florg speaks, you listen and pay attention, okay? Nobody knows exactly what Florg is . . . or why Florg is . . . but none of that matters. Trust me, you will absolutely not regret meeting Florg. From his very first introduction, I knew he’d be my favorite character, and he didn’t disappoint!
Molly’s character felt a little inconsistent, and she seemed to flip-flop back and forth so hard that I sometimes had trouble keeping up with her.
Part of this, I’m sure, is meant to be characterization. Goodness knows children her age have their moments of utter irrationality (and honestly . . . don’t we all?!). Molly certainly acts every bit the 13-year-old she’s meant to be. I was rather confused about her age while reading it (because I’m apparently bad at checking blurbs before picking up a book), especially since she acted so young but was also emancipated and talking about going to a fashion design school (which I had assumed meant college). I’m not sure how she became emancipated without a guardian, a place to live, and any sort of income, especially that young, so I’m still kind of confused on that point?
In any case, it wasn’t really her childishness that irritated me (though, make no mistake, she’s definitely childish), since that seemed to fit her character and her journey. Rather, it was the way that her personality seems a little bit all over the place.
She’s reluctant to trust Dustin because she’s just not that sort of person, but for absolutely no reason whatsoever, she blindly and wholeheartedly trusts the uncle that she’d never known about who randomly appeared after her father passed. All at once, she’s mad that Dustin doesn’t welcome her with open arms because she’s his sister, but yet the very first thing she does is demand the cash value of half the estate and even suggest that they may need to sell the business in order to pay her share, and then continue to make demands and threats about suing them.
At one point, someone tries to explain to her what an iconoclast is, and she snaps that, “I know what it is. I read books.” Which okay, reading books does not mean you automatically know what an iconoclast is, number one. But number two, there are simple words that she should know the meaning to that she seems not to. Like she says that when she was in sixth grade, she thought it was a corpse of trees, not a copse of a trees . . . which is an utterly adorable story and characterization that I absolutely loved . . . except that the iconoclast scene absolutely sours and ruins it for me.
Wendig tries to fold these traits into Molly’s character arc, but he doesn’t quite manage it convincingly enough for me, at least. I think middle grade readers will be able to more readily relate to Molly’s indecisions and conflicting emotions, but it wasn’t quite tied together enough in a logical fashion for me personally, which left her feeling like the weak link as far as characters go in this book.
“It’s fennel,” Dustin said, eating diligently and delicately.
“You’re fennel,” she said, a sudden, childish outburst that didn’t even make sense but felt good regardless. With some regret, she realized she should’ve gone with Your FACE is fennel, or perhaps for maximum rudeness, Your BUTT is fennel.
There are so many (too many?) unanswered questions left at the end of this book, but I’m not seeing anywhere that says this is going to be a series?
It might be intended to be a series and I’m just not finding anything about it. However, this book needs to be a series. There are too many overarching questions that just simply aren’t addressed to have a satisfying ending as a standalone. The big quest for this book wraps up nicely, but there are so many plot threads and the book tries to do so many things that it just wouldn’t have been possible to tackle them all. Which is fine . . . if there’s going to be more books in the series! (I hope there are, because I had a lot of fun with this one and would absolutely love to read about more adventures with Molly and Dustin!)
About Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Star Wars: Aftermath, as well as the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, Zer0es/Invasive, Wanderers, and the upcoming Book of Accidents (July 2021). He’s also worked in a variety of other formats, including comics, games, film, and television. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his books about writing. He lives in Pennsyltucky with his family.
You can find the full tour schedule here.
October 4th
The Bookwyrm’s Den – Review & Favorite Quotes
Nine Bookish Lives – Promo Post
October 5th
Sometimes Leelynn Reads – 15 Reactions While Reading Dust & Grim
The Book Dutchesses – Promo
October 6th
Twirling Book Princess – Promo Post
Rajiv’s Reviews – Review
October 7th
Books and Babble – Review & Favorite Quotes
October 8th
Lit Lemon Books – Review, Favorite Quotes
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October 9th
Stuck in Fiction – Promo Post
RobinleaBookBird – Top 5 Reasons to Read Dust & Grim, 15 Reactions While Reading Dust & Grim
October 10th
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