By Ryan Blaney
Now, I realise that a lot of you read the word “vampire” in the headline, and are currently rolling your eyes, and sighing. And, in truth, they have been over-saturated of late, to the point where they’ve created their own genre of entertainment, like superheroes. But rather than the kick-ass vamps of yesteryear like Christopher Lee’s Dracula, Kiefer Sutherland’s David from Lost Boys, Wesley Snipes’ Blade and David Boreanz’s Angel (not Eddie Murphy that one time, though; we’re not talking about that.), the new species of vampires are watered down versions of themselves that don’t really want to hurt humans, they just want to be loved!
I had the same concerns when I picked up the novel “Department 19” by Will Hill. As soon as I spotted “vampires” amid the blurb, I groaned. But I gave it a chance, and I’m happy to say my faith was rewarded. The sequel is out at the end of this month and I wanted to take a moment to review/big up this book and prove I’m not mad.
Opening Shots
The book opens with an explosive prologue which sees the protagonist, Jamie Carpenter, witnessing his father coming home from work in a panic, only to be gunned down by a squad of soldiers. Flash forward a year later and Jamie and his mum have a fractured relationship. And then a vampire breaks into their house and kidnaps her, tries to kidnap him too but is interrupted by Frankenstein. Yes, THAT Frankenstein. He takes Jamie to the headquarters of Department 19(or Blacklight), which is like MI5, but founded by van Helsing himself to deal with the supernatural. The rest of the novel follows Jamie as he joins the ranks of Blacklight and races against the clock to rescue his mother.
Department 19 reads as a kind of “if Andy McNabb did horror” novel. This is not a book for girls with Team Edward posters on their walls. This is for boys who play Call of Duty and know their Druganovs from their MP5s. It feels acutely modern, comfortably at home in the post War on Terror era we’re currently in. In no other book on the shelves can you read about people disabling vampires by shooting their knees off. Notions of magic are quickly dispelled. Vampires, it is explained, receive their powers from a reaction in a dormant part of the brain that enables extended life, flight, super-strength and other traits, that is triggered by the toxin transferred by a vampire’s bite. And they don’t turn to ash; they explode in a blast of blood and flesh when they die.
Back With A Bite
Horror fans will get a kick out of it as well. Although its market audience is clearly teenagers, Will Hill sees no need to tone down the gore either in the action sequences or in the chapters where we see the grisly aftermath of a vamp attack. Suck your blood? They want to tear you to fucking pieces and pick their teeth with your ribs!!?!
As I mentioned earlier, other monsters exist in this world. Werewolves play a small part in the story towards the climax, but instead of having a West Side Story style rivalry with the vampires, they act as mercenaries in the pocket of the antagonist. Zombies get a brief mention. And Frankenstein is one of the main characters, having worked for Blacklight since 1930. Another of Hill’s strengths is that he puts a clever spin on the classic horror literature from which this tale is derived. In a flashback, we see Bram Stoker meeting van Helsing and encountering a vampire in London. It’s widely implied that Stoker wrote down the story of Dracula, the godfather of all vamps, from reports of the Transylvania expedition. As for Mary Shelley, Frankesntein delivers possibly my favourite line in the whole book.
“That miserable little girl…She gave my pain to the world as entertainment.”
Sounds very like a certain Agent of SHADE, which is all good
Threat Level: Red
The vampires themselves are mainly portrayed as red-eyed sociopaths with no remorse and no conscience to speak of. A handful of them feel like victims of a dangerous condition (some of them even live in a commune in Scotland), but for the most part, they’re portrayed as a genuine threat to humanity, which is exactly how they should be. They don’t stalk around high schools whinging about how dangerous they can be, they yell it down the phone at you. Will Hill’s vampires hearken back to a time when they were the ultimate movie villain, the fundamental badass monster, instead of the angst-filled teenage pretty boys they’ve become.
More Near Dark than Twilight then. Cracking!
In short, after Stephanie Meyer effectively neutered vampires, it’s going to take a lot of work before they can get their credibility back to what it was in the 1990s. But Department 19 represents the first steps on the road to recovery. So if you’re interested in a good old fashioned vampire story that replaces love triangles with SAS style shoot-outs and sparkly vampires with vampires who carve messages into the flesh of dead bodies, then pick up this book, my friends. It’s our only hope.
