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Department 19 by Will Hill
Mar. 4th, 2014 11:25 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Department 6 is the army.
Department 13 is MI5.
Department 19 is the reason you’re alive.
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 …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Will Hill’s debut YA novel is a boy-friendly horror novel whose plot sags in places and raids so many sources – including Dracula, Frankenstein, Buffy and Ultraviolet – that it feels hopelessly derivative. Jamie’s a two-dimensional character, angry but unwilling to listen to anyone, which results in him walking into obvious traps. I was unconvinced by his ability to successfully complete in a couple of days a training program that grown men had to do for months – especially when it consisted of him being pounded to a pulp for much of the time but what really bothered me was that for much of the book there are only 2 real female characters (teenage vampire Larissa and Jamie’s mother). Everyone else is male and Hill goes to great pains to establish the Department as a male dominated organisation based on historical families, all of whom hide their activities from their families. That made me uncomfortable and it’s particularly annoying because Jamie’s mother is basically there to be rescued and Larissa essentially a love interest for Jamie, when the ambiguity woven around her could have led to her being so much more. Ultimately the lack of any decent female characters coupled with the fact that there just wasn’t enough originality here to interest me, means that I doubt I’ll carry on with it.
Department 13 is MI5.
Department 19 is the reason you’re alive.
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 …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Will Hill’s debut YA novel is a boy-friendly horror novel whose plot sags in places and raids so many sources – including Dracula, Frankenstein, Buffy and Ultraviolet – that it feels hopelessly derivative. Jamie’s a two-dimensional character, angry but unwilling to listen to anyone, which results in him walking into obvious traps. I was unconvinced by his ability to successfully complete in a couple of days a training program that grown men had to do for months – especially when it consisted of him being pounded to a pulp for much of the time but what really bothered me was that for much of the book there are only 2 real female characters (teenage vampire Larissa and Jamie’s mother). Everyone else is male and Hill goes to great pains to establish the Department as a male dominated organisation based on historical families, all of whom hide their activities from their families. That made me uncomfortable and it’s particularly annoying because Jamie’s mother is basically there to be rescued and Larissa essentially a love interest for Jamie, when the ambiguity woven around her could have led to her being so much more. Ultimately the lack of any decent female characters coupled with the fact that there just wasn’t enough originality here to interest me, means that I doubt I’ll carry on with it.
