The department was organized by none other than Abraham Van Helsing and his friends from Bram Stoker's Dracula years ago when they found out after killing Dracula that he was not, unfortunately, the only murderous vampire on the loose. It turns out, Jamie's dead father was once an employee of Department 19 and the boy now has a right to be a member of this organization too. Hannah There is plenty for a boy to like in this book - there is action, blood and gore, weaponry, some familiar characters from several beloved gothic horror stories, interesting historical flashbacks.

It is a complex tale linking several parallel strands; the main character, Jamie Carpenter is coming to terms with the death of his mentor and the fact that his mother was ‘turned’ into a vampire at the end of the first book.It made me realize that this isn't a game, or a film, where the good guys win in the end and the bad guys get what's coming to them.

You get attacked by a beautiful vampire girl while the second oldest vampire in the world takes your mother hostage and drives you into the arms of the most highly classified department of the British government, where you find out that pretty much everything you thought you knew, about your life and everything else, was a lie. I dislike it when someone reasoning for not telling the main character some information goes like this - I am going to mention this important thing/secret here , but I am too busy to tell you now/You will not need this information/It is dangerous to tell you.Teen' and 'Vampire' doesn't always mean 'sparkly'; this Young Adult thriller injects some blood and thunder back into the vamp mythos…a fast-paced and intelligently thought-out story. It didn’t seem to bother me when I was younger and reading about girls in Christopher Pike’s books, but it does now. 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. Dracula – the first vampire who was thought to have died over 500 years ago – is rising and when zero hour comes he will be able to reign chaos over the world.

Even though I liked the presence of other fictional characters - Van Helsing and his crew - Frankenstein somehow felt like an overkill. The best action horror story I have ever read’ BOOKZONE FOR BOYS‘'Teen' and 'Vampire' doesn't always mean 'sparkly'; this Young Adult thriller injects some blood and thunder back into the vamp mythos…a fast-paced and intelligently thought-out story. 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. Department 19 is a secret Government agency that Jamie soon becomes embroiled with as his mother is taken by a vampire. 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.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? Sometimes I felt he came off a little younger than his age, but it didn’t bother me much because I know teenagers can mature differently. It's a gory, violent, action-packed thrill ride that will appeal to boys and girls, teen and adult audiences alike. I liked that he wasn’t easily accepted because it made him question and argue in ways that I don’t think he would have otherwise. However, as what happens with omniscient 3rd person POV, the reader can sometimes feel disconnected from protagonist.