Marjorie Glatt’s life hasn’t been the same ever since she discovered a group of ghosts hiding in her family’s laundromat. Wendell, who died young and now must wander Earth as a ghost with nothing more than a sheet for a body, soon became one of Marjorie’s only friends. But when Marjorie finally gets accepted by the popular kids at school, she begins to worry that if anyone learns about her secret ghost friends, she’ll be labeled as a freak who sees dead people. With Marjorie’s insistence on keeping Wendell’s ghost identity a secret from her new friends, Wendell begins to feel even more invisible than he already is.
Eliza Duncan feels invisible too. She’s an avid photographer, and her zealous interest in finding and photographing ghosts gets her labeled as “different” by all the other kids in school. Constantly feeling on the outside, Eliza begins to feel like a ghost herself. Marjorie must soon come to terms with the price she pays to be accepted by the popular kids. Is it worth losing Wendell? Is she partially to blame for the bullying Eliza endures?
Myself and Courtney read Sheets on our reading retreat last year, and we decided to pick up Delicates on our winter reading retreat this January. We both read this in one sitting, sat in a lovely cafe, and it was joyful. I love these graphic novels and they have such beautiful artwork. When me and Courtney read them together, we are constantly pointing out our favourite pages. Some of the panels are entire pages or even double pages, and the colour palettes are stunning.
In the first volume, we follow Majorie as she becomes friends with a ghost, and both of their stories are woven into the book, with both points of view. This second volume does still follow our ghost, Wendell, but also follows Majorie as she becomes friends with Eliza, who is a fellow pupil at Majorie’s school.
I loved the introduction of Eliza. Not only did it give the opportunity for a new and complex storyline, but Eliza also is really into photography. It’s been years since I’ve done any film photography or developing, but this book, along with discussing photography with a friend, brought that love back. I even purchased a new film camera to carry around with me!
This book got a lot darker and more emotional towards the end than I expected, especially as the characters are only in their early teens. I would recommend checking out content warnings before picking this one up! However, I really loved how this book manages to weave through these complex and emotional storylines on top of the beautiful artwork. I think it’s hard sometimes to relay such emotion in few words and in artwork, but this one does it so well.
I really loved this second instalment to the story and I’m looking forward to picking up volume 3, Lights.
★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
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