Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 1 | 2009 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
| 2 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 2 | 2009 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
| 3 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 3 | 2010 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
| 4 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books, Vol. 4 | 2010 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
| 5 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1 | 2020 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
| 6 | Nightschool: The Weirn Books Collector’s Edition, Vol. 2 | 2020 | Svetlana Chmakova | Buy |
Nightschool: The Weirn operates in a world where the supernatural runs parallel to ordinary human life, and a secret academy opens its doors each night for students who cannot attend regular school: vampires, witches, and weirns, a rare category of being with a powerful soul guardian called an astryn. When a young girl named Alex goes searching for her missing sister, she stumbles into the dangerous politics of the nightschool and uncovers secrets that put her at the center of a larger conflict.
Chmakova brings the same expressive linework she uses in her middle grade work here, but the tone is sharply different. Nightschool is darker, faster-paced, and more action-oriented, with a plot that builds toward a genuinely surprising conclusion. The four original volumes move quickly, and the Collector’s Editions released a decade later offer a polished way to experience the complete arc in two sittings.
The series holds up as a strong example of the manga-influenced YA graphic novel format that was popular with American readers in the late 2000s, and its supernatural worldbuilding has a specificity that rewards close attention. Readers who enjoy urban fantasy with a school setting will find a lot to like here.