History Literature / Department19

* FauxAffablyEvil: Dracula.
* FiveManBand
** TheLeader: Jamie
** TheLancer[=/=]DarkActionGirl: Larissa
** TheChick: Kate
** TheSmartGuy: Matt
** TheBigGuy: Frankenstein

* AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: Larissa has a lot of fear and hatred for the vampire aspects of her. [[spoiler: Marie Carpenter, too, is scared of what she's become by the end of the first book.]]
* AlternateRealityGame: A goods portion of the marketing campaign and website is done in this style. There are conspiracy videos on the book's website, showing strange sightings and things that are chalk full of FridgeBrilliance. Bonus if you're logged onto Facebook as you check out the main video. It's a mock news report of several children in the area vanishing after "beings with red eyes" were spotted during the night. The site will take your profile picture and those of two friends and place them on the pictures of the missing people. (Can be unintentionally hilarious if you or one of your friends happen to be using a gag image and not an actual picture of him or herself.)

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Dracula, the classic novel by Bram Stoker, is stated to have been fact in book two. Dracula himself is also revealed [[spoiler: to have once been [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Tepes]], a nonfictional person and one of the suspected sources of inspiration for the villain of Bram Stoker's classic novel.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: A flashback in book two reveals that Alexandru was once this to Valentin--before he grew up to be a complete madman, that is. Valentin then relies on ThatManIsDead logic to separate himself from Alexandru.
* BigBulkyBomb: General Allen, leader of the American Department 19, drops one on [[spoiler: Chateau Dauncy,just before the real fight begins]] at the end of ''Zero Hour''.
** Also, in the final battle in ''Darkest Night'', [[spoiler: the combatants nearly get nuked by one of these, before Valentin defuses it.]]
* BittersweetEnding - In the first novel [[spoiler:Jamie's mother is safe, but she's now a vampire. Alexandru is seemingly dead but Frankenstein most likely didn't survive the fall in his fight with a werewolf. Dracula's remains have also been stolen and he has been brought back to life.]]
** For the whole series, the BigBad has been defeated and most of the main cast is left with a fairly optimistic outlook, but not without a significant number of character deaths along the way, including [[spoiler: Frankenstein and Julian Carpenter, leaving Jamie without a father figure.]] Furthermore, the organisations are left [[spoiler: on an uncertain note. Some seem to think that they're losing their place in the world, and whilst this may seem a good thing, the audience have had five books of growing to know and love the characters within them, so it can be a melancholy feeling.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality - So ''very'' much. On one hand, we have secret organisations which can kill vampires - sentient, thinking humans - at will with no trial and no consequences. They lie to the public, and they have ''definitely'' done some horrific things in their past. However, they're facing up against an AxCrazy monster who will literally destroy society as we know it because of hubris and sheer madness.

** Larissa goes from nearly murdering Jamie ''and'' Matt, as well as teasing Jamie and delaying the search for Marie Carpenter for her own ends, [[spoiler: to being a somewhat sympathetic antagonist, to being an ace Blacklight operator and best friends with the very boys she once tried to kill, to questioning everything that Blacklight stands for and going her own way.]] She's also kind of a meta example of AscendedExtra, since the author has stated that he never intended her to be a main character - she was originally going to show up, show Jamie how dangerous this new world is, and then spend the rest of the book sitting in a cell.
** Paul Turner grows from basically a somewhat menacing presence and a piercing stare in the first book to a complex, fleshed out badass with all his flaws and virtues.
* CoveredInScars - Frankenstein. Obviously. [[spoiler:He gains a few more after his encounter in Paris, too.]]

* DarkActionGirl - Larissa

* DisappearedDad: Jamie's dad was killed when he was fourteen. [[spoiler: Not really.]]

* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: Whatever it is that turned Vlad Tepes into Dracula. It spawns from an ancient forest clearing devoid of plant life, looks like a huge structure of shifting black liquid with a SlasherSmile, and is absorbed into Vlad after making a deal with him. Jamie's group finds its clearing centuries later in ''Zero Hour'' while searching for the First Victim, and it returns at the end of ''Darkest Night'' to [[DraggedOffToHell drag Dracula into nothingness before vanishing itself]], but nobody in the series even comes close to explaining what it actually is.]]

** TheLancer / DarkActionGirl: Larissa

* {{Gorn}} - For what is ostensibly a young adult novel, the first book itself becomes fairly violent and gruesome as it goes along. One character has a fountain of blood explode from him as his neck is slashed open and vampires exploding into showers of gore and blood when killed are just some examples. Each installment is more gruesome than the last.
* GoodIsNotNice: In The Rising, [[spoiler: Valentin Rusmanov says that he likes the world and has no wish to see Dracula tear it apart, so he teams up with Blacklight.]] However, whilst he's technically on the right side, he's by no means nice to everyone. In Battle Lines, he's rude and abrasive when talking to [[spoiler: Frankenstein]] and is downright horrible to Kate about Jamie and his mum (despite his later claims that he did it to help her, which could be true, but it definitely doesn't count as 'nice'.)
** Whilst he's a good guy at heart, Paul Turner is not what you'd call nice (to most people, anyway.) He has to make some pretty morally murky decisions throughout the course of the books, and it's hinted that he's done worse in his military past.

** Paul Turner also has this mentality; particular attention is drawn to it in ''Darkest Night'' when he [[spoiler: joins in with the final battle against Dracula, showing 'the job which he had always been so horribly good at.']]

* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: Tim Albertsson,]] handsome, blonde and a complete douche.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Up to eleven. Other nations' equivalents to Department 19 are mentioned more than once in ''Department 19'', and by ''Darkest Night'' the reader has been introduced to leaders and members of several different nations' forces, from America to Russia to China.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''Darkest Night'', when Jamie finds out that [[spoiler: Frankenstein knew that his father was alive and never told him]], when he refuses to speak to the guy for ''six months''.

->''"Battling vampires since 1892. Now it's time to [[{{Pun}} raise the stakes]]."''

** OurVampiresAreDifferent: They aren't TheUndead, they're mutants, and the mutation is spread by saliva. The mutation activates a dormant part of the brain called the V gland and greatly boosts their metabolism, but the latter must be sustained by feeding on blood (not necessarily human). The V gland gives them abilities like SuperStrength, super-speed, enhanced senses, and flight, and drinking blood allows them to heal even quite serious injuries almost instantly. They're also extremely vulnerable to UV light, and being staked through the heart causes them to [[LudicrousGibs explode into a shower of gore]]. They also get StrongerWithAge, [[spoiler: and the older the vampire that turned them, the stronger they start out as]]. Last but not least, they are very much able to enter a house uninvited.

* RetiredBadass/ColonelBadass/BadassGrandpa: Alan Foster from ''Darkest Night''. Volunteers to help take down Dracula.