When I started Department 19 it felt like a very well done but pretty standard hero’s journey story: Young teenager discovers a secret government department hunting vampires and of course he’s got a place in it.
What’s evolved over five books is something much richer and much darker – the final volume should be humanity’s war against Dracula – a war for its very survival. But humanity has to face a darker enemy: itself. Humankind has done horrible things in the name of – or under the cover of – war, and despite being a YA book, Hill doesn’t shy away from humanity’s horror.