Review: Department 19
Author: Will Hill
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks (31st March 2010)
Pages: 490
ISBN: 978-0007354450
From Amazon
In a secret supernatural battle that’s been raging for over a century, the stakes have just been raised – and they’re not wooden anymore.When Jamie Carpenter’s mother is kidnapped by strange creatures, he finds himself dragged into Department 19, the government’s most secret agency.
Fortunately for Jamie, Department 19 can provide the tools he needs to find his mother, and to kill the vampires who want him dead. But unfortunately for everyone, something much older is stirring, something even Department 19 can’t stand up against…
Review
I really, really, really wanted to love Department 19. I’d heard so many good things about it I thought I had to read it as soon as possible. Unfortunately for me it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. If anything it was a book of two halves.
Bits of it were very good and bit of it were for me not quite so. I loved for example virtually every chapter with Jamie in and I loved the idea of their being a secret agency which was looking after our backs when vampires are lurking behind every corner – something that I would certainly hope existed if the time ever came – eek!
But there were bits which for me slowed the story right down and in places I struggled to keep reading. I didn’t like most of the chapters which filled in backstory (although there were exceptions to this).
Having said this I loved Larissa – she immediately jumped off the page and very quickly become my favouite character – If anything I kept reading because of her I just would have like to have seen more of her in there!
I also loved how the story tied in characters from vampire mythology, Dracula’s story for example crops up and I think it will play quite a big role in the next book. we also see reference made to Van Helsing and my favourite monster of the lot (though calling him a monster in this book is somewhat unfair) – Frankenstein 
The story did take some interesting twists which I didn’t see coming and the main evil vampire fairly deserves the title ultimate villain – he was mean and cruel and generally not very pleasant. This leads to an ending which satisfyingly closes all the loose ends while (if you read the epilogue’s) at the same time leave’s a massive cliffhanger for the next book.
I would strongly advise reading other reviews of Department 19 rather than relying on mine as as I said at the start all the other blogs I’ve seen reviewing it are full of praise for it and I think I’m the odd one out :p
You might like to try these Department 19 reviews at:
