Such a great graphic novel follow up to Sheets. I love sequels when done correctly and this one absolutely was. It felt like a seamless transition from book 1 to 2. These books have a melancholy feel to them, but I love the message about fitting in and being seen. The only criticism I have of this book is how unattractive some of the people are drawn, Marjorie in particular.

Delicates is the sequel to Sheets, a cute spoopy graphic novel about sheets coming to life as ghosts in a laundromat. Our main character Marjorie has become close to one of these ghosts, a young boy called Wendell. But when she returns to school she's finally accepted by the popular girls and is scared of spending too much time with Wendell in case her secret comes out. Everyone would think she was a freak who sees dead people!!

Similarly, Delicates is a lovely graphic novel which is aimed at a MG/YA(Middle Grade/Young Adult) audience to talk about difficult topics. Whilst Sheets focuses on grief, Delicates focuses on mental health and bullying.

Sadly, whilst Sheets handled the topic with grace and, ironically, delicacy, Delicates seemed a little too forceful. The message seemed to be pushed so hard that at points it was literally on the page. I'm not sure if it's just my age not being the target demographic that meant that I found this so blatant and obvious, but it did mean that the beauty of the message was lost for me. I do, however, think that it is of course an incredibly important message for young people to receive and maybe this delivery method would work for more people.

Overall I've given this read a low 3 stars, and I would definitely recommend for people to pick it up. The art style, in my opinion, is gorgeous and the message positive and important. I just don't feel that it was that well imparted, but as mentioned above I'm not the target audience and this may have paid a part in this.

TW: bullying, suicidal thoughts/mention.

First and foremost, I have to talk about the art style. The characters are drawn in such a beautiful way and they seem like real people. The colors used were very pretty and they made the scenery seem mystical and extremely beautiful.

The story was so sad, but also so sweet and wholesome! The characters make mistakes and they learn to fix them and they learn how to do better. I want to hug them all!!

Hopefully we'll get more books in this series!

Ugh, this book left me with the feels. This is the sequel to Sheets, which I haven't read but would be interested in after reading this. I was easy to follow and you get the general gist of what happens in the first one in Delicates.

Delicates tells the story of what its like not fitting in and being different. Marjorie has the ability to see dead people but hasn't told anyone. Her best friend being Wendell the ghost. Eliza has been held back a year and struggles to make friends and feels like an outsider. Mainly due to her interests of ghost photography.

Thummler does a great job of telling this story with great sensitivity. Being a teenager and feel like the world hates you can be isolating and this is the case for Eliza. She feels like a ghost herself. But through Wendell and Marjorie's friendship, Eliza starts to feel seen again. A great graphic novel which gave me all the feels and reminded me of some great lessons; people don't deserve to be hurt, no matter how different they are to you and ask for help when you need it.

4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brenna Thummler has done it again. A touching story of friendship and accepting yourself and understanding your ghosts. Wow. I guess I can't even put into words how great this story was. The pictures and drawings were just as beautiful as the story and pulled everything in so well. I did read Sheets and while it has been a while since I read it, Delicates did a great job catching me up to speed and reminding me of the events in the past book.

I love that Thummler's characters are so multidimensional and you're constantly learning new sides of them- and I also like that she didn't instantly make Marjorie a good guy in this story- she had her issues that needed addressed too. That's one thing I like about this series and Thummler's writing, even the good guys need work, it's so much more honest to real life this way.

Again, I can't say it enough, a wonderful piece of work.

Once again the colors in this graphic novel have blown me away. The story was so important and touching to read.

I got to read this early through NetGalley for a review.

I like that this follow up to the previous story doesn't over shadow the fact that Marjorie's new "friends" are still bullies and that by standing by and not saying anything when they do mean things doesn't make it any better.

The characters are getting more fleshed out and still there are depths to even the bullies, which doesn't give them an out to their actions.

There are consequences for the actions taken by everyone and how they move forward is important.

Delicates is a sequel of Sheet which I haven’t read but didn’t have any problems getting into this book. Marjorie’s father owns a laundromat where ghosts live. I am assuming in the first book Marjorie meets the ghost and becomes friends. She doesn’t mention about ghosts to anybody because she afraid to be called freak and not fit in. She is in a popular friends group in school and acts like one of them to be accepted.

I don’t think I can say this is a lighthearted story. It handles sensitive topics such as grief, bullying and suicidal thoughts. These are not only teenagers issues, an adult can find himself/herself in same situation pretty easy. Important thing is standing up for yourself and one’s who needs help. This book did a wonderful job handling these topics.

I enjoyed the art work. Sometimes one full page image that gives the wonderful vibe. I should say I didn’t like the how faces have been drawn. Sometimes I couldn’t make it who was who or age. I read from my kindle which I haven’t see the color work maybe that would make the difference.

I received the ARC from Netgalley of this book in exchange of my honest review.

I found Delicates to be even more powerful than its origin story. Marjorie and Wendell return to this story but this time, Marjorie grapples with the truth and fitting in. Eliza is a sweet character in this volume that struggles everyday.

This is not an easy read as it contains bullying and suicidal thoughts. I really think that this is an important read but not a light one.

Thanks NetGalley and Oni Press for the ARC for honest review.
This is the second book of the Sheets series. Well if you have not read the first book like me you'll still find this book interesting.
Plot line: Marjorie lives with her father, brother and ghosts. Ghosts that look like sheets. She tries to keep her ghost friends secret from everyone. Eliza a girl from her school believes in ghosts and tries to capture ghosts on camera. One day she finds Marjorie talking to herself.
Book review:
When I think of ghost stories, fear and violence comes to mind. What I loved about this graphic novel was that it presented these concepts in a different way. With the colourful strips, the artist presented a delicate story of fear, friendship and family.
Therefore readers, do read Delicates with caution.

“Everyone has ghosts. I think we all need to learn that there's no shame in letting them out.”

This graphic novel was beautiful and had the most striking illustrations. The characters tugged at my heartstrings and the connections that they learned to build and the challenges that they overcame were inspiring.
I didn't actually know that this was a sequel to 'Sheets' and I can say that you will still be able to read this one and understand everything that is going on.
If you have a chance to pick this one up I would.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Delicates was such an amazing continuation of Sheets! I enjoyed getting to see more of Marjorie’s story while also being introduced to the amazing character Eliza. This novel discussed multiple important topics including bullying, depression, and trying to be yourself when the world doesn’t want you to be. I feel as though these ideas we’re very well handled and the story did a great job of developing them.

The art style and coloring for this graphic novel was also a highlight! It felt as though it really matched the story. Overall, this was such an enjoyable read and I would highly recommend it!

This is a second installment to the middle grade graphic novel called Sheets. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Sheets, I couldn’t really remember what happened it it (I should have reread it), so the start felt a bit confusing and jumbled. By about a third of the way through though, it got good.

This is about Marjorie who has made it into the popular crowd, but still doesn’t really seem to fit in there. She is not about joining in on bullying the weird kid in school, and she’s secretly friends with the ghosts in her dad’s laundry mat.

Her best ghosty friend, Wendel, is getting lonely being left behind, and starts sneaking out and following her, and Eliza, feeling lonely from being bullied, wishes to trade places. Marjorie has to decide if helping Eliza is worth her social standing, with her friends, and outcasting herself for believing in ghosts.

It is fantastic to see Marjorie and Wendell again-and even more excellent to meet Eliza. This graphic is a great blending of fantasy and the real world struggles of bullying. So very powerful and perhaps the best part is that even those who missed out on book 1, will still find a lot to enjoy here.

For Libraries: If "Sheets" was a hit, your readers will love this one.

Trigger Warnings: Bullying, Depression, Suicide References, Racism

I really enjoyed Sheets. The story was original, and the characters were very relatable. Delicates brings back Marjorie and Wendall as they navigate friendships, bullying, mental health, and the eighth grade. I felt like the characters were a bit one-dimensional, but the art was gorgeous, and the over-arching plot was very compelling. The friendships, and the pains of peer-pressure were very believable.

I felt that some of the character's emotions were only explored at a surface level, which may be because the protagonist is an eighth grader. I would have liked to see more connection with Marjorie's father and brother, and leaned into their family's grief. I also would have liked to see a deeper exploration of Eliza's mental health, and her truly getting help, instead of an offhand comment about how she's going to see a therapist.

Again, maybe this is something for a YA graphic novel to more deeply explore, versus a middle grade book. Though I have read some truly great middle grade that was able to handle these topics deeply and appropriately. I just wanted more.

Full review on my website from February 15th.

Content warnings: depression, bullying, suicidal thoughts.

I was honestly blown away by this graphic novel. I read Sheets and really enjoyed it (I rated it 4 stars) and was expecting a similar experience with Delicates. Instead I got something even more impossibly beautiful and poignant. I honestly cried at the end of this graphic novel, and I can't wait to get a physical copy in my hands so I can read it all over again.

Delicates follows on from Sheets, where Marjorie's family is now successfully running the Laundromat with the help of Wendell and his ghost friends and the ghost-uriser that gets out any stains. All of this happened in the first novel, so these are all familiar characters. I loved seeing that things had improved with Marjorie and Owen's dad, but equally liked that things weren't magically fixed. Marjorie has fallen into a new friendship group ready to start the next school year, and there's a new girl in her class, Eliza, who is repeating eighth grade.

I am absolutely obsessed with the way that this graphic novel handles bullying. I hope school libraries get this in by bulk, because it has such an important message throughout. And while it's frustrating to read, I think having a book where the MC is complicit in the bullying is so, so important because it really successfully shows someone standing up to their friends and challenging their behaviour - something that's not easy to do as a teenager. I absolutely adore Eliza, she's a fantastic and lovable character and the way that her depression and suicidal ideation is portrayed is lovingly done. I wish I'd had this as a teenager so I could have learned to recognise these signs in myself and others.

The ending is poignant and powerful and so, so beautiful. I wept through the last few pages and I probably will again when I reread it. I highly recommend this graphic novel for all ages - there's a lesson to be learned about kindness and care for all of us in here.

So for the sake of transparency, let it be known that I cried while reading a middle grade graphic novel.

Unaware that this was a sequel, I was thrown into this story and the characters without the background knowledge from Sheets. Despite this, my enjoyment wasn't lessoned and I look forward to reading Delicates' predecessor.

Delicates follows Marjorie, who is navigating grief, tricky eighth grade friendships and an entire family of ghosts living in her family's laundromat. Fellow eighth grader and avid photographer, Eliza, is struggling with being an outsider and feeling like a ghost herself.

As the two girls form a friendship, Marjorie, - often under the sharp and honest guidance of her ghostly friends - is faced with confronting the morals and behaviours of her other 'friends' while also trying to help her father and younger brother come to terms with their own grief.

The characters all have their own flaws and there's a lot of lessons to be found amongst these illustrated pages. Delicates tackles some really heavy issues - mental health, trauma, bullying, peer pressure - in a way that's quite accessible and appropriate for a middle grade or younger YA audience.

There was a lot of subtle yet thoughtful mirroring between Eliza's emotions and Wendell's ghost identity. The small parts of Tessi's home life gave our token mean girl a little more depth but I would have loved to see this pushed a little further.

From a visual perspective, I just loved the colour palette of the art and the illustrations were so beautiful.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this graphic novel. I hope there's a Sheets #3 in our future!

I simply gulped this down in less than an hour but it's the kind of thing where you race through once and then go back and linger - especially over the glorious pastel-hued artwork. It's such a thoughtful, well-observed and beautifully rendered graphic novel about growing up and grieving and being an outsider. About how it can be hard to be on either side of the same coin. About living with our own visibility - and invisibility. An absolute treasure.

Full review to follow on Film Stories.

As soon as Brenna Thummler announced she was working on the sequel to Sheets, you could hear a universal squeal of delight across the reading community. I was fortunate enough to have a very good friend suggest Sheets to me and I couldn't be more thankful. Brenna Thummler is now an auto-buy author for me. I will be purchasing a physical copy of Delicates for my library.

This story packs a punch right to your gut and heart. You will be reminded what it was like to fit in at both school and home. It's about friendship, grief, and the effects of bullying. I was truly blown away by the messaging in Delicates.

Marjorie, Wendell, Eliza could never be drawn by anyone else but Brenna Thummler.

This book is for ALL AGES. I highly recommend it to everyone who reads books.

i made the mistake of reading this before sheets... because i didn't know it was a sequel until after i finished reading... but it didn't effect my reading at all and i still thoroughly enjoyed it, the ending was exactly what i needed to hear and therefore has a very personal meaning to me that makes this hard to review.

tws: depression, grief, suicidal ideation, loss of a parent, bullying