Chmakova, Svetlana - Nightschool: The Weirn Books, vol. 01-02
Mon, Nov. 16th, 2009 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterAdmin note: Still v. behind on everything. Am reading things, but haven't had a lot of energy to follow closely or comment or reply to people, apologies.
Alex's sister Sarah works at the Nightschool, a school for witches, vampires, and assorted other supernatural beings that exists in the same place as a normal public school. When something starts acting up at the school, Alex ends up enrolling to try and get to the bottom of things.
This is an extremely bad summary of the series. Alex is a witch, as far as I can tell, with an inky familiar (called an astral) who can shapeshift. And for some reason, she's involved in some rather dire prophecies. There are also Hunters in this world who I think target supernatural creatures even though some of them may also have powers. And then, of course, there are the kids in the Nightschool, all of whom Alex is slowly meeting. I still have very little idea who is who and how the world works; Chmakova introduces an extremely large cast in volume 1, and most of the people are on different sides.
Still, I've been really enjoying the two volumes. Chmakova's chibis are, as always, absolutely adorable, and the series often makes me laugh. The very meta sequence in volume 2 was especially awesome. And although Alex is white (I think), Chmakova has a very diverse world without making anyone a token so far. I do wish more of the characters of color had depth to them, but since even Alex is a little lacking in that aspect due to the large cast, I think it'll come with time. I already have some favorites from the snippets of hobbies and personalities Chmakova's shown us.
While the concept of the Nightschool isn't exceptional in and of itself, Chmakova's putting some new twists in there. Nothing is absolutely jaw-dropping so far, but the feel I get is that she's taking a while to set up the very complicated world. And given that I like many of the characters, the art, and the worldbuilding, I'm definitely hanging around for more.
Alex's sister Sarah works at the Nightschool, a school for witches, vampires, and assorted other supernatural beings that exists in the same place as a normal public school. When something starts acting up at the school, Alex ends up enrolling to try and get to the bottom of things.
This is an extremely bad summary of the series. Alex is a witch, as far as I can tell, with an inky familiar (called an astral) who can shapeshift. And for some reason, she's involved in some rather dire prophecies. There are also Hunters in this world who I think target supernatural creatures even though some of them may also have powers. And then, of course, there are the kids in the Nightschool, all of whom Alex is slowly meeting. I still have very little idea who is who and how the world works; Chmakova introduces an extremely large cast in volume 1, and most of the people are on different sides.
Still, I've been really enjoying the two volumes. Chmakova's chibis are, as always, absolutely adorable, and the series often makes me laugh. The very meta sequence in volume 2 was especially awesome. And although Alex is white (I think), Chmakova has a very diverse world without making anyone a token so far. I do wish more of the characters of color had depth to them, but since even Alex is a little lacking in that aspect due to the large cast, I think it'll come with time. I already have some favorites from the snippets of hobbies and personalities Chmakova's shown us.
While the concept of the Nightschool isn't exceptional in and of itself, Chmakova's putting some new twists in there. Nothing is absolutely jaw-dropping so far, but the feel I get is that she's taking a while to set up the very complicated world. And given that I like many of the characters, the art, and the worldbuilding, I'm definitely hanging around for more.
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Tue, Nov. 17th, 2009 02:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Nov. 17th, 2009 05:53 pm (UTC)