Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Sheets: Collector's Edition

I really enjoyed this one! Parts of it were a little too unbelievable for me, but it's a sweet, sad story and I really enjoyed it. The art style is great and I loved the restricted color palette so much.

Content Warnings

kateyoutka's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't read many graphic novels, but it's always been on my to-do list to seek out more of them. "Sheets" was heartbreaking, raw and real.

Marjorie is a 13-year-old whose mother has died, and her father is consumed by grief. She's left running her family's laundromat and caring for her younger brother while struggling with the typical young teenager stuff: Friend drama, bullies, boys and more.

Wendell is a ghost living in the Land of Ghosts, where he doesn't really fit in with his peers. He's a rule breaker, so he takes a train to the land of the living and discovers the laundromat, which is essentially a spa for ghosts who are made up almost entirely of sheets.

I wished the novel had gone a little more in-depth to some of Marjorie's relationships and Wendell's backstory, but then we got more of that in the two sequels. I think this is a must-read series for teens and adults alike, and the graphics are absolutely gorgeous.

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dinipandareads's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

If you're like me and you pick this up solely because of the cover, and you don't look at the synopsis, you might go into this thinking it'll be a cute story about... Sheets? Turns out, while there are many sheets involved, it's not at all the light-hearted cutesy story that I thought it would be. This deals with heavy themes of death, grief, belonging, and loneliness. It's told from two main POVs, Marjorie a living girl and Wendell, a young ghost boy. My heart hurt for Marjorie and all that she was dealing with—from the grief of losing her mother, an absent father who's lost to grief and depression, and running a family business that's being sabotaged by a nasty man. She's such a resilient character who was easy to empathise with. Wendell was also a character whose story made my heart feel heavy. He doesn't feel like he belongs in the land of ghosts and goes to the human world and lands in Marjorie's family laundromat by chance. The Land of Ghosts and the story behind the community of young ghosts who exist there with Wendell made my heart hurt even more! But I loved the way they still had fun and stuck by each other, even when they didn't always get along. I also appreciated how the author delineated between the living world in colour and the land of ghosts in monochrome. I also think that the heavy themes were handled well and touched on sensitively, if not a bit lightly. I did want a bit more depth to the story, especially Marj's interactions with the other characters in the story like her swim coach and the popular jock who rocks up out of nowhere in the end (although he has some presence from the beginning). I hope that this will be explored further in subsequent books in the series!

Also, thankfully, both our MCs' stories end on a more positive note which signifies that everything is going to be alright. Overall, if you can handle a sadder read, it's worthwhile picking it up for a wonderfully illustrated story about death, grief and belonging. I'm glad I finally read it :)

Content Warnings

brooketreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Overall, I enjoyed Sheets. Wendell is our resident ghost, and I really enjoyed his character. Marjorie felt so sad, which completely makes sense. Her circumstances made me very upset as a mom. Taking care of her sibling and a business, with Dad doing nothing… I get it he’s grieving, but when you have kids, you don’t get to checkout. Final character note, Mr. Saubertuck was absolutely giving me the ick on multiple instances - which again her dad should have been dealing with. The sheet concept may be a little cliche, but it worked for me. I could have taken much more of the ghosts, and the ghost support group. I thought the two MC separate stories at the begging were way too quick, but I understand their individual stories weren’t the major plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for this DRC. Thoughts and opinions above are my own.

Content Warnings

nailartklaudia's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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