Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing my review of the graphic novel, The Sad Ghosts Club Vol. 2. You can read my review of volume one here.
If you haven’t read one of my graphic novel reviews before, I review the illustrations and story seperately, although of course these are always going to be connected.
Synopsis
Ever felt anxious or alone? Like you don’t belong anywhere? Like you’re almost… invisible? Find your kindred spirits at The Sad Ghost Club. (You are not alone. Shhh. Pass it on.)
When two strangers meet at a party and realise they both feel different from everyone else there, they start the The Sad Ghost Club – a secret society for the anxious and alone, a club for people who think they don’t belong.
But when a third ghost wants to join the club, things get a bit more complicated. Can the two ghosts overcome their insecurities and uncertainties in their new friendship, and find a way to welcome new members to the club?
Stunningly illustrated, this is Volume 2 in a new graphic novel series, for fans of Heartstopper and Jennifer Niven, and for anyone who’s ever felt invisible.
Illustration Review
There is a simple beauty to this art. It manages to capture the idea of being unseen apart from by other ghosts, and not completely fitting in, in an elegant way. The visual representation of mental illness as something that makes us both standout from everyone else around us, yet also fade into the background, is something that hit my heart hard, and really captures the way living with a mental illness feels. At least in my opinion.
Story Review
This picks up shortly after Volume One, where the Sad Ghosts Club had been founded by two uncomfortable spirits at a party. They decide that, given the support they find from one another, they should expand, and make sure that other sad ghosts know they’re accepted too. This is a great idea, but of course, things can never be completely simple, especially when everyone is trying to balance out their symptoms.
For me, the most powerful thing about this series is that there isn’t any big drama. It’s an everyday kind of comic, where things seem like small events, but are demonstrated in a way that show how these things feel when you’re already struggling with your mental health. We need more everyday representation, because while big dramatic events are the ones that might make a full book easily, it’s the everyday stuff that we’re struggling with, and showing this helps people have a level of empathy we all deserve.
In this volume, there’s a show of what appears to be jealousy at first glance, but at second glance – with deeper exploration in the following pages – is more clearly insecurity. The idea of having to cope with more people, as well as being compared to them, when you’ve just got used to one other person is something I can really relate to with my mental illnesses.
It’s a tender memoir to living with a mental illness, to the hopes of trying to find someone to relate to, and the difficulties of life changing day by day. There’s a sense of companionship not just within the story, but with reading it; a powerful reminder there is someone out there for all of us to be seen by, no matter how alone we feel.
Thanks for stopping by for this review today. I really hope that if you’re reading this and happen to need a hug, it feels a little bit like one. Please remember to reach out for help if you need it, whether to your own Sad Ghost Club, or to professionals.
And On She Reads 