Vespertine
#2374.09 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Ongoing 2021–present Reading commitment Low Margaret Rogerson Last reviewed 2026-08-24
Overview
Vespertine follows a young woman training to become a nun who can channel the spirits of the dead, forced to bond with a dangerous, ancient spirit to survive an attack by the walking dead. It is a standalone-so-far novel in a separate setting from Rogerson's other admitted work. Published by Margaret McElderry Books in 2021, the novel is set in a world where holy relics and consecrated nuns exist to combat possessed corpses known as revenants, and follows Artemisia as her uneasy bond with the ancient, unpredictable spirit bound inside a relic pulls her into a much larger conflict between the living and the restless dead. Rogerson, previously known for her Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens, shifted here toward a darker, monastic setting with a slow-burn central relationship between protagonist and spirit rather than a conventional romance pairing, a structural choice that reviewers noted as a departure from her earlier, lighter fairy-tale-inflected novels.
Dark fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Vespertine (2021) core · 4.09 (26,242 ratings); A standalone-so-far novel (nun who can control the dead, possessed by a spirit). The author has indicated a sequel is intended, but no title or publication date has been confirmed; per the standing rule against cataloguing unpublished work, only this one published novel is registered.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Vespertine? Vespertine's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Vespertine finished? Ongoing (2021–present).
- How much reading does Vespertine take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~400 pages).
- How is Vespertine ranked? #237 in this site's official ranking, based on 26,242 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #237?
Ranked #237 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.09 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (26,242 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.02 behind #236, Moribito.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 1 book · Ongoing · 26k ratings · Ranks #237 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Vespertine and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- Krabat Mythic fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.91
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.09 across 26,242 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Vespertine admitted as a new universe accepted 2026-08-24
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-24
Rule: Core Canon = the single published novel, Vespertine (2021).