I loved this just as much as the first one and find that in can be so relatable to others. Great job!

Thank you, NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is so important. Going into this book I don't know what I was expecting. I have only ever enjoyed 1 graphic novel so I didn't want to set my expectations too high. I think that everybody should read this book it covers some very important topics and themes that everybody should read about.

I loved the diversity in this novel I don't think I have read a book with this much diversity ever. There were people of color, people with disabilities, and people that struggled with their mental health. I think that everybody should give this book a go because it discusses so much in so few pages.

Trigger Warning: suicidal thoughts

The sequel to Sheets. Marjorie is finally starting to be accepted at school but what if they find out about her secret ghost friends?

The feels start before the story even begins. The book is dedicated to "anyone who feels lost, hurt, or alone. You matter." Wow. It has the same color scheme as the original so lots of bright colors. When Wendill was feeling upset and out of place everything was in shades of blue. The book was so emotional and amazing.

Sheets was a huge hit in my classroom and Delicates will be equally loved.

Delicates continues the story of Marjorie and her ghost friends who live in her family's laundromat. The story started in the first book 'Sheets' which unfortunately I haven't read but will definitely seek out now that I've read Delicates. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book which is a quietly beautiful story of friendship and acceptance.

Marjorie goes on a journey of growth and learns by the end of the story that popularity is no substitute for meaningful friendship. Delicates looks at grief, bullying and loneliness in a way I think would speak to young adults and adults alike without talking down to either audience. My favourite characters were Eliza and Wendell the ghost who were so lovable and gorgeous! In the end Marjorie and Eliza save each other which was sensitively and thoughtfully conveyed throughout the story. The artwork is lovely too with colour used expertly to convey emotion and mood.

I would definitely recommend this graphic novel and think that everyone would take something from it. If you can, I would also recommend reading Sheets first so you can get the most out of the reading experience and get to spend even more time with these wonderful characters.

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

Delicates is the beautiful sequel to Brenna Thummler’s “Sheets.” Delicates brings us to one year after Sheets and Majorie is trying to be a normal middle schooler and spend time with her Ghost friends. There is also Eliza, who feels like a ghost.

The art in this graphic novel is so beautiful. The two page spreads blew me away, every single time. The images are simple, but they really say so much. I love the solid colors and the moodiness to the whole story.

I love how it explores the process of grieving and trying to get your life on track and finding your identity

It’s whimsical and heartfelt. I really wanted to cry towards the end. A definite must read!

The next book in the Sheets series does not disappoint. Similar in tone to the first one, another great story... unfolds.... see what I did there?

Marjorie finds herself accepted by the popular crowd. But that means hiding who she is, who the ghosts are, and not being friendly to someone ( Eliza) who wants to be her friend. Is it worth it? Wendell feels awful, as does Eliza and things take a turn for the worst.

I enjoyed this story and found that anyone can relate to it. One has to mold oneself into what they aren’t in order to keep the status quo sometimes. Of course you can just be yourself, but you might lose other things you hold dear, especially when you are young. Highly recommended.

Everyone can relate to Delicates in one way or another. Heartwarming story about the issues with fitting in and making friends. It also touches on suicidal thoughts and how to handle them. I did not enjoy it as much as the first one but it was still a lovely read. The art is top notch again. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

I'm just going to start by saying that I haven't read the first book! I requested the ARC without realising it was a sequel, and then when I realised I thought why not read it anyway. Although I probably missed some context, it didn't impact my enjoyment of the book! It was easy to get into the story and connect to the characters without too much background.

Delicates follows Marjorie, an eighth grader who is trying to fit in with a new group at school, who also happens to have ghosts in her laundry room. We also meet Eliza, a black neurodivergent girl who is convinced ghosts exist and tries to prove it by photography, but Marjorie's group constantly make fun of her for being different.

Initially I thought it would just be a light, shallow graphic novel but I was very wrong. Delicates was a heart-warming story that discussed many subjects like identity, bullying and grief in a way that would be accessible for younger and older readers despite some dark topics. It resolved nicely and I loved the hopeful ending. While it might not be a new favourite, Delicates was a fun graphic novel with lots to say.
Also, the art style and palette was stunning!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. So beautifully illustrated. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to a ARC copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

A moving, poignant story about bullying, depression, pain, friends and being a teenager. Delicates delicately deals with such sensitive topics.

I read this in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. This is the second book, but reads clearly even without reading the first instalment. I’m keen to read more work by Brenna Thummler.

I really enjoyed Sheets and was excited for the sequel. This touches on bullying and mental illness in high school. I love the ghosts and how it compares being a ghost and feeling like a ghost in real life. The images are lovely and it is an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot. It dragged a bit in the middle, but I felt the same way about SHEETS. Wendell is obviously my favorite character. This book talks about bullying and kids that just follow the bully because they are popular. I’m rating this 3 stars because of how I was not really invested, but I did enjoy the story.

This is one of those rare cases when the sequel is better than the original. I received an ARC of Sheets back in 2018 and still remember how beautiful the artwork was so I knew I had to request a copy of this as soon as I saw it. The color palette of these books is god-tier. Truly stunning. I don't remember the storyline of the first book all too well but Delicates will be sticking with me for a while. I don't know many people who haven't experienced being bullied at some point in their lives so I feel like most can relate to Eliza's character. This book portrays the effect bullying can have in an honest way and teaches the harm of staying silent. An important read for all ages.

Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*4.5 Stars*

In Delicates, sequel to Sheets, we find Marjorie in a better place, albeit not a good one. She's not sure she fits in with her "friend" group and doesn't know where she stands with any of them. Thankfully, she still has her ghost friends at home but that's not so easy either when they are no so content since she's not home as much.
Eliza is not feeling great either. She's always been lonely, her schoolmates regularly bully her and all she wants is to photograph a ghost to prove they're real... and maybe become one? She already feels invisible anyway.

Delicates was a great addition to Sheets. I loved seeing Marjorie and her ghosts again and really enjoyed getting to know Eliza. Eliza hit hard for me. I really felt for her and saw myself in parts of her.
The real great thing about this graphic novel is how deep the connection to the characters is. I often feel when I read graphic novels that I can't connect fully with the main characters because they can be so plot driven, they gloss over the characters. That sure wasn't a problem here. I felt so much, I even teared up a couple times...
It also mentioned some very important topics and it did it so well too. And yes, standing by and letting someone bully someone else is also bullying.
Also, I really like the art. It's so unusual, in a great way.
Anyway, buy these books, read these books, and enjoy.

I've not seen this discussed anywhere, and I've looked through other reviews and can't find anything; so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Eliza, a new protagonist added to the Sheets graphic novel duology, is autistic.

Autism can appear in a variety of ways, as it is a spectrum, and I'm by no means an expert. But, there are key behaviours which Eliza shows that makes me think she might be. The first is repetitive behaviours; she is obsessed with photography hobby of finding ghosts, to the point where she goes to the same spot every morning to take photos, and then heads to the darkroom (which has strict procedures) afterwards. Whilst she doesn't lack for intelligence, she struggles with social awareness, often talking over or interrupting conversations to suit what she wants to talk about. She doesn't openly talk about her feelings, and she struggles to make friends.

I know there has been an outcry for more Autistic Rep, and Autistic Own Voices in 2020, and I believe Thummler has done a fantastic job at showing how jarring the world can be for those on the spectrum, without laying into heavy stereotypes or generalisations.

Delicates is a charmingly sad, with a heartwarming ending, graphic novel about isolation, bullying and suicidal thoughts. The pastel artwork is stunning, and the content is handled with such care. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I'll be keeping an eye out for Thummler's future works.

This was wonderful in every way, the author has done an incredible job of conveying such powerful emotions and telling such an important story.

Thank you Netgalley and Oni Press for the early copy.

This graphic novel is the second book in the series “Sheets”. I read that it could be read as a standalone and it is true, but if you want to understand everything at the beginning, I recommend reading the first book. Of course, I didn’t read the first volume so I had a few questions about the characters and about what happened to them previously.
It was a really nice story, talking a bit about grief but mostly about bullying. It is a quite important and heavy subject but it was nicely dealt with. The author managed to still make it a pleasant and easy read. I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were likeable and I am glad Marjorie followed her heart in the end. It seemed like she had to take care of many things in her household. So many responsibilities for a teenager who seemed also lost in her life, she was really brave. Eliza is also a very interesting character, courageous too. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just say that her attitude at the end was quite admirable. The drawings are gorgeous and very colourful, detailing every character differently. It was very pleasant to look at.
I really want to know the story about Wendell and the other ghosts so I am going to add Sheets to my Wishlist now. I recommend this graphic novel.
4/5

I really enjoyed this sequel to Sheets, the artwork was just as great as the previous one and I loved the storyline. It felt like the perfect depiction of what school is like, though I found it difficult to imagine the ages of the kids (I mean how difficult is it to mention their age instead of saying they're in 'eighth grade'?!) But yeah, I think I might have enjoyed this one a bit more than the previous one.

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

I was thrilled when I found out there was another Sheets story in the making! I loved, loved, loved recommending the ghosts in the washing machine and I know the readers loved it too.

In Delicates, we meet again with Marjorie and Wendell. Our girl is now "friends" with Tessi, meaning she basically does whatever Tessi asks her too, even if this means she's got less time to spend with her ghostly friends. She has also a crush in one of her friends, Colton, whose attitude does not entirely understand. But that's eight grade, isn't it?

And finally, we also meet Eliza, a young girl with a passion for ghost-photography, who is being bullied by Tessi and the others because she feels different to the rest of them in an age when everybody wants to blend in and be almost invisible. The problem comes one this desire pushes one too far.

I really enjoyed Delicates, because I think it understand all the topics that need to be touched. The tone for this is amazing, the conclussion feels both realistic and earned, and all the ghostly conflicts get to the heart of the reader.

I'm so impatient for March 2021, because I just need to start recommending this book. I know it's going to be a huge success and that is going to be what some people really need, whether they are in the eighth grade or not.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

Wow! This was way deeper than I thought it was going to be. Really good middle grade graphic novel that covers social issues like bullying and suicidal thoughts.

How crazy rare is it to find a book that is exactly what you want so many books to be? One that not only exceeds your expectations, but turns out to be exactly what you've been looking for? This was that book for me.

Delicates takes the opportunity of a sequel to delve deeper into the world, characters, and themes of the original Sheets. This book was certainly darker than the first, and it also felt much more realistic and even better at capturing the very real anxieties of teenagers.

This book reminded me of the film Eighth Grade (which, yes, I also loved) in that it addresses some serious issues children and teens face that their media often seem to ignore. Sometimes you don't just feel bad at school-- you feel awful. You don't know whether it's worse to have bad friends or none. How do you get out of that horrifying, empty space where you're branded cringy, awkward, a social pariah because of some unknowable thing in how you act?

This book sees Marjorie suddenly not just friends with the popular girl who previously degraded her but also a potential girlfriend to a popular guy! Or is she? It seems like they're together sometimes, and other times he's flirting with everybody else. And there's this girl, Eliza, who takes ghost photography--whatever THAT is. And Marjorie, obviously, can't let this girl blow her cover. Of being a normal person who doesn't believe in ghosts. But how can she walk that line of not letting her friends bully Eliza... and not being a social pariah herself?

Delicates handled this with immense grace. Marjorie isn't always perfect, and Eliza is the best example of someone who is hated 'for no reason'-- she's a black, neurodivergent teenager who singlemindedly believes in things others don't and doesn't know how to moderate that to interact with others. She also, notably, 'doesn't care what guys think about her', according to some other students. Twenty years on this Earth and I have never seen someone capture so easily why some people are 'randomly' chosen to be bullied. It's not random. It's targeted, and it's often predictable. And how long has it taken for me to read a warm, empathetic portrayal of a teenager who's been held back a grade?

Marjorie and Eliza's relationship isn't explicitly romantic or platonic, and I LOVE that. You can read it either way, and it's great either way. Women ought to be able to stick together and rise above their differences in all circumstances-- again, how many times have we all said we want more women supporting each other in fiction? And here it is, not just for adults, but in a book for teens. I needed this so much as a teenager.

I'm struggling to describe the whole book because EVERYTHING was on point. Plot, characters, art style, everything. Some of these panel layouts are just so inspired I had to take a moment to take them in. Thummler improved immeasurably since her last book and I am so excited for the next one! Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC!