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    Darkest Night
    Darkest Night
    Darkest Night
    Ebook782 pages11 hours

    Darkest Night

    By Will Hill

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    The epic conclusion in the blood-poundingly brilliant Department 19 series, from bestselling author, Will Hill.

    The brave men and women of Department 19 have fought Dracula at every turn, but now Zero Hour has passed and the ancient vampire is at full strength.

    Inside Department 19, the Operators are exhausted and fractured. Jamie, Larissa, Matt and Kate are each struggling with their own demons. When the friends need each other most, they are further apart than ever.

    Outside the Department, the world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Violence and paranoia spread around the globe and, when it finally comes, Dracula’s opening move is more vicious than anyone could have imagined.

    A final battle looms between the forces of darkness and the last, massed ranks of those who stand against it. A battle that will define the future of humanity. A battle that simply cannot be lost…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 4, 2015
    ISBN9780007505883
    Darkest Night
    Author

    Will Hill

    Before quitting his job in publishing to write Department 19, Will Hill worked as a bartender, a bookseller and a door-to-door charity worker. He grew up in the north-east of England, is scared of spiders, and is a big fan of cats. He lives in east London with his girlfriend, where he splits his time between staring out of the window and staring at a computer screen. The latter tends to be more productive.

    Read more from Will Hill

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    Reviews for Darkest Night

    4/5

    36 ratings34 reviews

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    • 2/5
      After reading the summary of this story, I was pretty intrigued and thought it could be quite interesting. Sadly, I quickly realized that the book would not be for me. There were a myriad of things that I did not like about this book: the characters (none of whom I gave a flip about), the jumps in time (which made it even harder to care about the characters, because so rarely did a scene continue on in the next chapter), the rather pompous chapter headings, the fact the vampires can fly (just leap up in the air and fly like birds), and the fact that there are two epilogues.

      The timing and plotting of the story seem a bit weak. As an example of the former, I should like to discuss vampire killing. Readers of YA fiction are probably expecting Jamie, as the hero of the piece to be a bit of a badass. And he is. After only two days of training (upon the conclusion of which he does the best job of like anyone ever on some simulation test thing). And it's not like he was particularly athletic in school. He seemed really average at the outset and then suddenly he has crazy vampire killin' mojo? I just wasn't buying it; yeah, there's a family history for it, but that really doesn't mean anything.

      Not to mention the fact that the whole plot line of it being possible to bring Dracula back to afterlife could have been avoided if everyone were not stupid. Seriously. Spoiler Alert. It occurs to Van Helsing's crew several years later that reanimation from his cremated ashes might be possible, so they go back to Transylvania to make sure he's still there. He is, hurrah! The world is saved. Except that the guys just take the ashes and stick them in a super secure, totally unsinkable room. Which is, of course, breached. Whoever could have seen that clever plot twist coming?!?! What they should have done was dumped the ashes out on a windy day or throne them in the ocean. Good luck finding all of his pieces again.

      In the climax of the story, Jamie finally finds Alexandru, having purposefully walked into a very obvious trap, what with Alexandru having left notes for him and all. Alexandru has killed hundreds of people to get Jamie's attention and make sure he comes. After all of that, when Jamie gets there, Jamie's mother yells for him to run to safety and Alexandru tells him "Listen to your mother, boy" (492). These are not the words of the man who's been writing "Tell the boy to come" all over the place in blood.

      Another frustrating element was his obsession with Larissa. She tries to kill him at their second meeting. Then, he comes to visit her in her cell and has trouble concentrating on saving his mother, because she looks so lovely with her face all covered in blood. Right... I'm not saying he can't be into a vampire, but, seriously, she's not going to be looking her best just then. Being covered in blood just isn't sexy and, as a True Blood fan, I should know.

      For a story with a lot of promise, I thought Department 19 was a major clunker. I was bored pretty much the whole way through (and it's a long way through). Recommended to teen boys with more interest in action scenes and gore than in plot. For me, this is the end, even though a sequel is likely planned.
    • 5/5
      Ever since publisher Harper Collins held a press event at the Cabinet War Rooms last September there has been a lot of talk amongst bloggers about this book. Now it is finally released, is that early buzz justified? Hell yes - every single word of it. It is possibly the best teen action horror story I have ever read and if managed well I can see a very bright future for it, including movie deals, video games and so on, with a franchise that could rival the megastardom of Resident Evil. I think a minority of authors these days write books with the hope that it will be picked up by a Hollywood movie company who will plough millions of dollars into turning it into a blockbuster release - if ever there was a book that deserved that sort of treatment then it is Department 19, although at no point does it feel as if Will Hill has deliberately set out with this in mind. In fact, very early on in my reading of the book it wasn't so much movie treatment I was thinking, but just how easily the plot, characters, monsters, locations, weapons and vehicles would transfer over to the PS3 or X-Box as a superb First Person Shooter.

      The basic premise of Department 19 revolves around one simple question: What if Bram Stoker's Dracula had not been a work of fiction? From this one question we find ourselves joining the dots and the only conclusion we can come to is that if it wasn't fiction then the only possible alternative is that his much loved story is in fact an account of a real life battle between good and evil. Sometimes great books are born from such simple questions, and Department 19 is one of these as it follows the assumption that if Dracula was real, then so were Van Helsing, Harker, Holmwood et al. I can just imagine the excitement Will Hill must have felt as his synapses started firing as he answered every subsequent question that arose, making connection after connection and thereby coming up with the idea for the secret branch of the government that is Department 19.

      What really makes Department 19 something much more than your average action horror is the back story that Will Hill has created. Not content to have his young hero battling all kinds of evil, he makes sure that the reader truly believes in the world he has created. The action occasionally leaps back in time, and as readers we are able to follow the adventures of Van Helsing and gang in the early years of the Department. We also get to find out how Jamie's ancestor, John Carpenter, first met Frankenstein, saved his life, and then the latter making a vow that goes on to be honoured for generations of the Carpenter family. Oh, did I not say that Frankenstein's monster was real as well? Keep up - surely if Dracula was real then Big Frank has to be as well, but this time he is fighting for the good guys. If you trawl back through the Spill The Ink blog you will see photos of some of Will's handwritten notes, showing family trees of his characters, a list of the previous commanding officers of Department 19, a guide to the strengths and weaknesses of vampires, and even a detailed list of authorisation codes for the various members of Department 19. And I am sure that this is just a tiny selection of his notes - the detail the author must have gone in to to ensure that his world seemed real must be hundreds of pages in length, and that's in addition to the research he must have carried out into the various historical aspects of his back story.

      As well as great back story, Will Hill is also highly skilled at other aspects of the craft of writing. This book has a multitude of great characters, some of whom are not fully fleshed out in this first instalment, but promise to be interesting members of the cast in future stories. Best of all, some of the best characters in the story are the vampires themselves (hey... everyone loves a good villain!). These are certainly not the insipid, vacuous blood suckers that we have had to endure in recent years - Will Hill has drawn on the nastiest examples of these creatures to create his monsters for his inspiration, and in doing so has reclaimed the vampire from the girly, fawning Twilight brigade.These monsters are Homicidal (and yes, I meant that with a capital H): think the sheer single-minded evilness of Kurt Barlow from 'Salem's Lot, the ambition of Deacon Frost from Blade, the sadistic bloodlust of Marlow from 30 Days of Night. Nasty, every one of them, and that is what Alexandru, Valentin and their various minions are like. However just as all these vampires from the annals of horror are very different characters, so too are Will Hill's creations, each with their own personality traits and motivations.

      Mr Hill also knows how to write action scenes that leave the reader breathless; over the years I have read many action thrillers, both for kids and adults, and Will Hill's writing of the all-important fight and chase scenes is up there with the best of them. Of course, many of these scenes involve Jamie, Frank et al battling against the evil vampiric hordes, but thanks to the imagination of the author they have a lot more than wooden stakes in their armoury. These vampire hunters are like the British SAS, US Navy SEALs and the Israeli Sayeret Matkal all rolled into one, and they come armed to the teeth with UV cannons, MP5 machine guns, armoured vehicles and best of all, the T-18 pneumatic launcher, aka the T-Bone. One squeeze on the trigger of this marvel of ingenuity and a metal stake explodes from its barrel, with devastating effect for any vampire that just happens to be in its line of fire. But that's not all: said stake has a trailing wire attached to it, which then pulls the stake back into the barrel, and it is reloaded and ready to fire all over again. Genius! How I would love to see Edward Cullen on the receiving end of this weapon.

      On top of all this the dialogue that Will Hill writes also flows well throughout the story, and is never intrusive or unrealistic. It fits the characters, and the various time periods in which we see them. And this is his début novel - I imagine there will be many an aspiring author sticking pins in Will Hill voodoo dolls whilst going slowly green with envy.

      I read a couple of early reviews of Department 19 on here a while back, written by someone as part of the Amazon Vine programme. Said reviewer, at the end of an otherwise cracking review, questioned whether Will Hill's treatment of Stoker and Shelley in their respective flashback scenes showed disrespect to these two authors. Another reviewer questioned the credibility of some of the plot. I think these reviewers take themselves a little too seriously, obviously know little about teen fiction and need to carefully remove the self-righteous rods from their proverbials. To the first I would ask how can an author who has written a book that treats the creations of these two authors with such reverence be accused of disrespecting their characters? I would not be surprised if many kids who have not yet discovered the joys of Dracula and Frankenstein will actually be encouraged to pick up these books for the first time following a reading of Department 19. And to reviewer number two I would proclaim that teen boys (and many, many girls) are going to totally love this book - they won't care about 100% credibility when there is such an exciting, fast-paced, well-written story to hold their attention. At what age did this reviewer lose the ability to suspend disbelief and enjoy a full-on action adventure story for what it is?

      Department 19 is the first book in a series, but unlike many books like this it does bring the main plot of the story to something of a natural conclusion. However, Will Hill very cleverly tacks on a couple of epilogues that have the reader salivating even more for a sequel as he teases us with a couple of very short scenes that in just a few pages set us up for some very exciting plot developments that no doubt will appear in the sequel. I have no idea how many books are planned in this series at the moment, but I am more than happy to keep on reading them for years to come if they are as good as Department 19.

      Back in November some bloggers got a little carried away on Twitter by proclaiming Department 19 to be the next Harry Potter. If I'm brutally honest I cannot agree with this as the secret behind Harry Potter's success was its cross-generational appeal, and it was only in the later books in the series that the plot started to get a lot darker and less kid-friendly, but by then everyone was already hooked. Department 19 will sadly not achieve this broad spectrum of appeal as it is certainly not suitable for younger kids and may create a few premature heart attacks amongst the blue-rinse brigade - it is after all an action horror story with many a gory moment, and any movie made would certainly not get a PG rating. We have also heard many publishers in recent years claiming that this new book or that new book will be the next HP - I remember Chicken House saying something akin to this about the Tunnels series (good, but hardly flying off the shelves HP-style), and I wouldn't be surprised if Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books were also touted like this at some point. However, in my mind Department 19 is far better than all of these, and in this case I feel the hype is very much deserved. I have already stated that another book will have to be pretty darn special to beat Department 19 to the top spot in my list of Books of the Year for 2011 - I am more than happy to be proven wrong as that would mean yet another outstanding book is on the shelves, helping even more young people to develop an enjoyment of reading for pleasure.
    • 4/5
      The best part of this paranormal adventure/horror novel is the historical background stories of "Dracula" characters and their descendants. I also enjoyed the vampires as darker creatures instead of the more recent trends. The book included several well described action sequences and the landscapes/settings are thrilling. Great YA story for teens and adults, but adolescent boys will probably enjoy this series the most.Net Galley Feedback[book:Department Nineteen8608740][author:Will Hill590558]
    • 4/5
      Sixteen-year-old Jamie Carpenter gets up every day and heads off to school to face bullying and taunting from classmates who find him an easy target - after all, his father was a traitor. But when Jamie's attacked and his mother is kidnapped, his rescuer, a hulking gray-green-skinned gentleman with bolts in his neck, reveals a secret world populated with secret government agencies and blood-sucking monsters. Jamie's goal is simple - rescue his mother, but lack of training, mistrust, and agency policy stack the odds against him in this action-packed coming of age adventure.Woven in with Jamie's story are chapters documenting the founding of Department 19, featuring more than a few famous names - Van Helsing, the Harkers, Frankenstein.... and the door is definitely open for a sequel or three. Overall, a page-turning modern-day take on some classic monster tales.
    • 5/5
      Holy crap! This was a great book, so full of action and adventure. Now I am literally dying for the sequel after that cliffhanger! Will Hill, you are one sadistic mo'fo'!
    • 3/5
      Department 19 is a supernatural thriller written by author Will Hill.After watching his father shot down as a child and the kidnapping of his mother, sixteen year old Jamie Carpenter finds himself under the protection of a top secret organization called Department 19, or “Blacklight”- a secret British organization charged with hunting vampires.Jamie’s only goal is to get his mother back alive from Alexandru Rusmanov, an ancient vampire bent on luring Jamie out into the open. He joins Department 19, and with the help of Frankenstein, the immortal monster from Mary Shelly’s novel, and a vampire girl whose trustworthiness is questionable and yet to whom Jamie is attracted to, Jamie sets out to rescue his mother and to exact his revenge on the creature who ruined his life.The one thing I did not like about this book was the side story/romance between Jamie and the vampire girl. I didn’t think that it belonged in this type of action book, and I thought it was playing a bit off of the popularity of Twilight. I for one am getting tired of all vampire books having a romance angle in them.But this was a fast-paced, action packed book. This would be a good book for readers who like action packed novels, and would be suitable for older teens.
    • 4/5
      When Jamie Carpenter is 14, his father is shot by police right in front of his eyes, and it isn't until two years later when Jamie and his mother are attacked by vampires that he starts to get some answers as to whom his father really was, why he died, and what the frightening black shadows on their front lawn were. What he learns gives him reason to be very ashamed of his father, and while he struggles to believe what he is told, a small part of him resists accepting that his father is the traitor everyone believes him to be. During the vampire attack, Jamie is rescued by a former friend of his father's, Frankenstein, who works for a secret British government department as a Blacklight. Unfortunately, Jamie's mother is captured in the attack by the vicious and powerful Alexandru Rusmanov, one of three vampire brothers who were turned by Dracula himself. Jamie is determined to rescue his mother, and he enlists the help of a female vampire, Larissa, who is not the killer people think she is. While on his quest, the story of Jamie's father is revealed through some chapters that are flashbacks to an earlier era. This might be a bit confusing for some readers, since there are actually two stories being told.I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to boys who are decent readers. Department 19 is a gripping read, one that I'm sure will be enjoyed by those who have not yet reached their fill of vampire tales! The second book comes out in April 2012.
    • 4/5
      Department 19: a top secret government agency that deals with the terrifying existence of vampires. Sixteen year old Jamie joins the agency after the brutal murder of his father, but in order to save his mother he must come to terms with his own family’s history and their ties to Department 19.Action, gore and some familiar characters make this a good read for teen boys, even though it’s a bit hefty in length. If you are a fan of Rick Yancey’s Monstrumologist series, you should definitely give this a try.
    • 3/5
      Teenage boys and girls alike should like this novel although I admit it felt more boy-directed. Kind of like Tom Clancy meets Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this book, but the alternating POV and jumping from present day to past made my head spin. I truly feel this one is loaded with promise, but just not compatible with my reading tastes. The premise is a good one. The vampires in Department 19 aren’t sexy and alluring, but downright vicious. If you are looking for action and gore this book is for you. I love that the main character is male. Young Adult needs more male protags. With that said, I usually love guy books, but this one just didn’t do it for me. I’m still giving it a generous 3 stars because I honestly think others will love this. I’m convinced I’m not the target reader for this one. I think my son would totally eat this up, but at just 11 years old I’ll have to wait a few years to let him try it due to the violence and language.
    • 3/5
      I'm going to be probably painfully honest in the fact that, like others, I can't get through this book. It's interesting, but it doesn't grab me and keep me reading until the late hours of the night wondering what's going to happen next. I've been trying to get through this book for a couple of months and I'm still only at page 93. I keep reading it, but there's no depth or a real character connection that makes me care about Jamie. I'm going to continue reading this book until it's finished because I want to give this book an all-around chance. Some other reviewers said it started slow, but got better. I'm hoping that happens in this case. I do think it will take me a bit longer to finish though since I like books that keep me up all night.
    • 2/5
      I think I'm just not the target audience for this book. I don't know who is, maybe a gawky teenage boy? What is the target audience who doesn't care about character development or an engaging story? Zombies, maybe?This is one of those books that makes me kick myself in the ass for having a bit of the OCD. I can't not finish a book. What if it starts getting awesome in the next chapter, huh?Yes, I have issues.I should have known when I posted a status update at page 230, wondering when the story was going to kick it into gear. Yes, I was still wondering this at page 230, because I wasn't even at the halfway point yet. I hate when I don't like a book. But I really hate when I don't like a fatty book. That's like a double waste of my precious reading time.So, why didn't I like it? Oh, let me count the ways...* I didn't give a rat's ass about the main character. That's an automatic fail for me--I need to give a shit about this person I'm supposed to be rooting for.* The characters were all two-dimensional. I need characters that have a bit more substance than a cardboard cutout. The only one with even a smidge of depth was Frankenstein. Yes, Frankenstein. No, not the doctor, the monster. Don't be silly.* I'm not good at analyzing writing style, so don't ask me to be more specific. All I can say is this book was B-O-R-I-N-G. Yes, there was blood & guts & flying evil vampires all that good stuff. And don't get me wrong, I like blood & guts, but I also need an engaging story to fill in all the little nooks & crannies around the blood & guts. I can't tell you how many passages I had to reread because I processed absolutely nothing I had just read. The descriptive passages were especially prone to make me space out. This would have been a good time to decide to become a skimmer. Alas, the bit of OCD rears it's ugly head again. * Badass-ery is not an inheritable trait. So you were a puss who got picked on by bullies all your life, but all of a sudden, you're a vampire killing machine? Just because your great-great grandpa was Van Helsing's ass-kicking valet? Whateva. So if you're a gawky boy who gets picked on by bullies, you might enjoy living vicariously through this boy who learns at 16 that he comes from a long line of ass-kicking vampire hunters. And gets to hang with Frankenstein to boot. Otherwise, skip it.
    • 2/5
      I received this book through Early Reviewers. The first couple chapters were really interesting but I'm just so bored with it now. I have been trying to get through it in order to review it but I just can't get into it. I don't like the flash backs. They are not interesting and don't seem to add much to the story.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as an early edition to review and I was extremely excited to read it....at first. The story starts of intriguing enough with Larissa and Jamie's appearances sucking me right into the story, however about 150 pages into the book it lost steam to me. No matter how much the initial story intrigued me I found myself bored with it, I had a really hard time picking it up to read or even finishing. I finally picked the book back up about 6 weeks after starting it (knowing I needed to review it). After another 70 pages of description and some (very little in my opinion) character development the story started to move along and around page 240 or so, I found myself unwilling to put the book down. I really wanted to find out what happened to Jamie, his mother, Larissa, Frank and the other Blacklight members. I was very surprised to get to the end of the book and find out this is the first in a series, I felt a little cheated to have so little wrapped up towards the end of this book. I liked the story however I'm not hooked. I want to know what happens to the characters but I'm not sure I'm willing to buy the next book to see what happens, the slowness of the beginning really threw me off.
    • 3/5
      Cleverly written novel, Definitely falls in the YA category, I felt a little weird when some of the other characters were introduced but the book progressed nicely and was what I would call an easy read. In all honesty this book left me wanting something more.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure what to make of this book when I started reading it -- in some ways it's much more of an adult book than a teen and it's definitely not aimed at the Twilight brand of vampire fans. Department 19 is, in a lot of ways, a no holds barred version of vampire lore. Hill does a really good job of drawing on vampire (and monster) stories we've either read or heard about and smashing them together. I enjoyed this book a lot and will definitely read the sequel, which there definitely has to be.
    • 4/5
      At first the cover of this book turned me off. Now comes the saying of don't judge a book by it's cover. I thoroughly enjoyed Department Nineteen by Will Hill. This book will take you on an adventure. Jamie Carpenter's life is turned upside down when his father is shot , killed, and branded a traitor by men who look to be in the military. He and his mother are still trying to pick up the pieces when one day he is visited by a girl who seems to be a vampire. Then he returns home to find blood in his apartment and his mother nowhere to be found and is once again put in danger. Then out of nowhere Frankenstein comes to Jamie's rescue. Jamie is taken to a secret compound where he will learn just who his father really was and who that makes him. In Jamie's search for his mother the reader will be introduced to classic supernatural characters in new and delightful ways. This is definitely a wonderful book to read if you are tired of the new wave of "shiny glossified" literature. All ages and both boy and girls will love this book.
    • 4/5
      Dracula meets Frankenstein meets something like MI:6. What an interesting combination! I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. Jaime is a little more emotional for a teenage boy than I would have expected, but the kid has had a rough life his last couple of years. The story didn't take long to suck me in, however there were sections that I felt dragged just because there seemed to be a little too much filler. I'm curious about more of Larissa's story and how Jaime's life is going to change from here on. I will be reading the next in this series no doubt!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. I love science-fiction and this was a great blend of sci-fi and fantasy. I enjoyed the way the reader learns about Department 19 along with Jamie Carpenter. The character Frankenstein was kind of hard for me to believe for awhile but I did come around after you get to know more about the past throughout the book. A different perspective on Vampires and their history in this story. A great read, but not necessarily my favorite book ever written.
    • 4/5
      Pretty good story...but there were a lot of grammatical mistakes that kind of bugged me...and i didn't really understand the whole point of what was going on until like page 400...i guess it just started kinda slow for me...too much going on at once
    • 4/5
      Early Reviewer CopyJamie saw his dad die by a line of gunman in is front yard with suspicious shadows moving along the edges of the scene. Everyone told him that his father was a traitor and a homeland terrorist to England. The other kids were told the same and treated Jamie like he was the traitor. Not feeling up to the bullies one day, he skips school to laze about in a park. But he wakes up to a vampire sparing his life. He rushes home to find his house empty, his mother kidnapped and himself barely saved by a monster from an underground government organization. Jamie is forced to the department where he is the only one who wants to attempt the rescue of his mother. So he suits up, trains, and goes after those vampire scum.That little synopsis doesn't do the story justice. There is so much going on. You can get the family, government and vampire aspect, and maybe a bit of the politics. But the monsters and many characters are taken and extrapolated on straight from Bram Stoker's [Dracula]. Hill knows that story backwards and forwards, and proves that. He even goes into Stoker's history. (Which I know, because of class last semester. . . and if you followed my thread last year, you may remember my dissatisfied attitude towards the book). Anyway, Hill's book spans the time right after Dracula's conclusion into the 21st century, so he's got a decent grasp on some historical bits. I enjoyed the extrapolation, though it was a bit iffy in places. The best part was that there was actually violence and gore! So much of the recent paranormal YA is action or romantic--there may be danger and suspense, but those are pretty kid friendly. Department 19 has evil characters that not only want to kill you, but to tear you apart slowly, savor your blood, and make you watch it done to everyone else. Not only do the vampires want that, they actually deliver. Ah, no sparkles here :DThe only part that bothered me a bit was the romance between Jamie and vampire Larissa. I know--I said no sparkles, and there aren't any. She drinks blood and is violent. She attempts to indulge in revenge. And I really do like her character. But the beginning of their relationship just felt weird. Though, I didn't mind it at the end, once it was established. This is the first of a trilogy that I think has great potential. I can't wait to see how the characters and the department handle what happens during the final battle and the implied situation to come.
    • 3/5
      Wow, there is a lot going on in this book. You have an extensive backstory involving Bram Stoker and Van Helsing, a cast of heroes including Frankenstein himself, and the conflict that comes from our main character, Jamie, falling for Larissa - who should be the enemy. The premise of this book is very original. Most of the monsters are actually "monsters", which is refreshing, but I had a hard time really getting into this book. Although, Jamie is depicted as a typical teenager thrown into extraodinary circumstances, I just did not think he was that interesting. In fact, as the story unfolded I found Larissa far more interesting than Jamie. Also, the plot was somewhat predictable. Having said all that, I think that with some tweaking, this book has potential to become a decent series. Maybe a little less detail in the mundane things going on around Jamie would help. Of course, this review is based soley on my opinion and personal tastes.
    • 3/5
      Three stars is, admittedly, harsh for this book. I wish that there was a breakout for the star ratings, and that I could give different numbers of stars for different components of the book.For example, I would rate the plot as a solid 4. It was fresh, well written and action packed. The writing was intelligent and it flowed very well- something I don't always see in YA novels, especially those involving the supernatural. Then again, Department 19 is as different from the "typical" YA paranormal book as day is from night. First of all, the protagonist is male. Second, it is a nitty gritty, and at times, downright gruesome story that portrays vampirism as in illness, and those affected as evil, bloodthirsty monsters. This all worked for me. There were, however, two things that didn't work for me at all. The first was the collision of all the "classic" horror novel characters. Dracula, Frankenstein, Van Helsing and even Bram Stoker are all featured- and for whatever reason, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes a brief appearance in a speakeasy. Why? I have no idea. Anyway, having Frankenstein and company as a team of monster hunter/slayers made me literally ask "seriously?" out loud. I give that a big thumbs down. I also didn't care a lot for Jamie's attraction to Larissa. It just felt a little out of place, but it didn't bother me that much because I really like Larissa. She's pretty funny, and there is an appeal to her ability to be a vampire, and be good at it (in the killing, bloodthirsty way), while still hating what she is and retaining her humanity. It was a good, believable balance. Two examples of Hill's writing and wry sense of humor:"The turrets and ramparts of the ancient building were black in the cool morning light, spiked and twisted and fearsome. The central spire of the residence of the world's first and most terrible vampire rose boldly toward the heavens, a blasphemous challenge to the authority of God, an unholy blade cutting into the pale blue sky.""Before he joined Blacklight, Elliott had thought the people who believed in things like Echelon were crazy loners who spent all their time wearing tinfoil hats and feverishly posting on the internet."The characters worked well in the novel, well, with the exception of the Motley Crew. I didn't love Jamie, but he was, without a doubt, a teenage boy. A very hot headed teenage boy- which he needed to be to drive the plot forward. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Larissa/Jamie thing, I did enjoy their interactions.Overall, there were two reasons I could only give Department 19 three stars. The first was what I saw as the only weakness in the plot/writing: the collision of too many characters/villains/authors from other works. The second is purely based off of my personal taste and opinion: I had a really hard time getting into the book. I am a very quick reader, and more often than not, I get sucked into a book and I tear through it. I kept waiting for that to happen, because this is a good book- but it never did. When I would pick it up to read, I enjoyed what I read, but I didn't find myself going out of my way to find time to sneak in a couple extra pages. I will probably read the next one, but more because I liked the writing than anything else.Favorite scene: between Larissa and Jamie shortly after she has been taken into custody."Why did you spare me?" he asked.She smiled again. "I didn't feel like killing you" she replied. "That's not really sparing me is it? That's just not feeling like it.""Semantics."
    • 5/5
      Everyone knows that vampires are the big trend these days. So picking up Department 19, one might be subject to believe that it is just like all the rest. But Will Hill’s debut novel is far from unoriginal. He leaves no plot holes, but leaves the reader craving more. His characters feel realistic and it’s not hard to get sucked up in the story.Jamie Carpenter's life is ripped apart first when is father is killed for allegedly betraying the country, and then again when his mother is kidnapped by mysterious creatures and he is hauled off to Department 19, the government's most top secret agency. He is about to learn that he has a stronger tie to Department 19 than he knows.One of the greatest things that the book did for me was the vampires themselves. They drank blood, they were ruthless, they burned in the sun, and they were the disturbing monsters that I would expect vampires to be. Hill reverts his vampires back to how they used to be, which is fresh and a nice change of pace from all the other vampire novels out there.As a lover of Dracula, I found the tie-in to the classic novel in Hill’s book delightful. Dracula can leave a lot of people wondering what happened next after the book was finished, and Department 19 fills this gap. Hill manages Stoker’s characters well, and it is clear he did all of his research before writing his book. Even if someone has not read Dracula, it is easy to pick up on what happened in the story, and what it means for Department 19. And as for those who have, it is a nice treat to revisit Van Helsing and the rest of the gang and find out what happened to them.I hope that Department 19 and the following books in the series really take off. The story takes a classic story, throws in some original characters, and takes the reader to a hidden war that has been going on for decades. I hope Department 19 does not get bogged down and lost in all of the other vampire books, and reaches its potential. The book is unafraid of itself and isn’t afraid to go into the gory details. I would highly recommend it to anyone, even those who do not normally read vampire or fantasy stories. I for one will be picking up the next book as soon as it hits shelves.
    • 4/5
      totally digging this book! A new take on the tale of Dracula that draws you in showing a different side with more background on van helsing, haper, carpenter and stroker. Definitely worth picking up!
    • 5/5
      This was an advanced reader copy that I received for review. When I got this book, and I saw the cover, I was like that is spank! The book is a variety of things, it has family, horror, fantasy, and love. I loved it! This guy can write a story and I fell into easily. The characters have depth and you can relate to them which is always good. The story is just awesome!! I don't like to tell any of what is in these fantastic stories because then what fun is that for you? Pick this up in April when it comes out you will enjoy!
    • 4/5
      Department 19 is a nice first novel by Will Hill. Jamie Carpenter lost his dad and his mother has been kidnapped. He finds himself in the bizarre world of Department 19 and realizes that vampires are real. Hill uses flashbacks to describe the backstory behind some of the characters, but I felt that some of these flashbacks were distracting from the frame story. When Dracula and Frankenstein were introduced as characters, I almost quit reading; however, I stuck with it and was pleased with the remainder of the book. This first book in a new trilogy promises more action sequences and a little romance. I know my male students will like this book, and maybe a few females as well.
    • 3/5
      I'm surprised this got such rave reviews from other people. It seemed generic and predictable, more for 12-14 yr olds than the over 14 crowd. I'm not saying it was a bad book. It moved quickly, was somewhat entertaining (especially when using it to avoid writing a paper) and there didn't seem to be any major plot holes. Still, it wasn't extraordinary and definitely not worth a five star rating (unless you're comparing it to Meg Cabot or Darren Shan, because everything looks better when compared to those two). It's more like average. It was neither great, nor did it suck. And it made me want to read both Dracula and Frankenstein, which I never got to read in school.
    • 4/5
      When I opened my package and saw Department 19, I was thinking, ‘oh god, what did I win’. That just goes to show never judge a book by its cover. The storyline went surprisingly fast, and had me wanting more when it ended. It had a little of everything in it to keep everyone happy; action, romance, suspense, violence, secret government facilities, Dracula and Frankenstein. I can’t wait to read more about Jamie and the rest of the Department 19 gang.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed reading this book. I am so glad I decieded to request it. I could barely put it down. The story line moves quickly and well and the characters are well developed. I can't wait to read another book by this author or wait to let my teenage sons read this one.

    Book preview

    Darkest Night - Will Hill

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