It’s difficult to list, in order, the things I hate. But I can say with no uncertainty that laundry and ghosts are currently tied for first.
Laundry because it’s much too real.
Ghosts because they’re not.
Sheets
The Sheets Series by Brenna Thummler
LENGTH OF SERIES: 928 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Supernatural, Middle Grade, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Oni Press
RELEASE DATES: 28 August 2018 – 5 September 2023
BOOK DESCRIPTION OF SHEETS:
A story of ghosts, family, loneliness, and laundromats.
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for. Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world. When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.
Sheets illustrates the determination of a young girl to fight, even when all parts of her world seem to be conspiring against her. It proves that second chances are possible whether life feels over or life is over. But above all, it is a story of the forgiveness and unlikely friendship that can only transpire inside a haunted laundromat.
My Review
Humans are delicate, too. The teensiest mistake can ruin them, even if you do everything else right. Just because mistakes seem small and insignificant, doesn’t mean they are.
Delicates
Ugh. I wanted to have this review out on Halloween. Clearly, that didn’t happen, lol. So much for that. (Here’s a belated Happy Halloween 🎃👻🐈⬛🧹🦇🕸️ to everyone, by the way.) But it’s here now, I guess. Anyway.
I decided to read the Sheets series because it looked cute, and… honestly, that’s kind of it. But I don’t think I really need to have another reason than that. I mean, that’s my initial reason for picking up most books – there’s something about them (usually their covers) that draws me to them. And this wasn’t any different.
Since there are actually three books in this series (it isn’t just the same book split into three volumes, like The Glass Scientists), and I felt differently about each one, this review is actually gonna be split into three mini reviews. So let’s start off where this series starts off – with the first book in this little series: Sheets.
Sheets
“But this place is home, baby. And once you have that, there’s nowhere you’d rather be.”
Sheets
I rather enjoyed Sheets. It was a solid start to this little series of graphic novels. My favorite thing about this installment – and I guess the rest of the books as well – was how nostalgic it made me feel.
If I put the pieces together correctly based on the information provided, and am remembering that correctly, this series starts in 1998. I was very young at that time, so I barely remember anything, but since a bunch of nineties stuff carried over a bit to the 2000s, it was enough to make me feel the nostalgia. The Gameboys, the lack of cell phones everywhere – all these things awoke ancient memories within me. It was so weird, but it was nice to look back on that time.
The thing that I loved the second most about these graphic novels was how ghosts’ forms come from bedsheets. I absolutely loved that idea – I thought that was so clever and adorable. The ghosts were also my favorite part of the art style.
The characters were also cute. I really liked Marjorie and Wendell’s friendship, but I wished we’d gotten to see them more as friends during the novel, instead of just becoming friends near the end.
Speaking of the ending, it was kind of… eh. Everything wrapped up just a little too neatly, and parts of it didn’t make sense. If being seen by humans is such a huge law in the ghost world, why is it suddenly okay at the end? But I recognized that this series is targeted towards middle grade and younger, so I kind of get why everything was wrapped up so quickly and efficiently.
Delicates
“Everyone has ghosts. I think we all need to learn that there’s no shame in letting them out.”
Delicates
Out of the three graphic novels in this little series, Delicates was unfortunately the one that I enjoyed the least. Don’t get me wrong – I still liked it, I just didn’t like it as much as the other two.
The main reason for this was definitely all the middle school drama. It just annoyed me to read about, likely because I already lived it. I didn’t enjoy middle school drama when I was in middle school and I don’t enjoy it now. And out of all three books in the Sheets series this one definitely deals with it the most, which is why it’s my least favorite. I think that actually kids in middle and primary school will enjoy it for this reason, though, because they’re probably going through this stuff right now.
I did enjoy the new main character introduced, however. Eliza was awkward and quiet, but she really rounded out our main trio in the best way. Unfortunately, like in Sheets, we didn’t get to see as much of this interaction as I’d have liked. We also didn’t get to see too much of Marjorie and Wendell just hanging out as I had expected either, which was also disappointing. Because most of Delicates was focused primarily on introducing Eliza and the aforementioned middle school drama.
I will say that the topics focused on in this installment are important for middle school aged kids, as well as sensitive, so reader discretion might be advised. (Depression and suicide ideation are very heavily implied.)
Lights
It’s much harder to create light than it is to extinguish it.
Lights
Lights was my favorite out of the Sheets trilogy, and it really isn’t that surprising. It was the most “action packed” of the three, and had the most interesting plot to me. It focused on the thing I was most curious about from the beginning: Wendell’s past before he died and the events leading up to it.
This is also the installment where we got to see the friendships play out between the trio that I’d wanted to see since Sheets and that I felt were a bit neglected in Delicates. We also got to see a lot of catharsis playing out regarding parts of the story and between characters, so that was also nice to read.
All in all, I don’t really want to say too much about this one, as it is the last book in this series. But I will mention that I really enjoyed it and that it definitely had a satisfying conclusion for the trilogy.
Final Thoughts
“There’s good and bad in everyone, you know?But the more friends you have in your life… well… the more, uh, brightness you’ll have overall.”
Lights
Regarding this series as a whole, I think the Sheets series is a solid little collection of middle grade graphic novels. I definitely recommend this to kids that age that like cute supernatural stories with a bit of a darker side.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure teenagers and adults might find something (or things) to enjoy about it, whether it be the art, the nostalgia or the ghost story aspect of it. But I definitely think kids will get the most enjoyment out of this trilogy out of everyone.
As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day/night! I hope everybody had a great Halloween, too!
See ya ~Mar
