History Literature / Department19

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/department_19_8799.jpg]]

* BadAss - ''Many'' of the characters, notably Frankenstein.
** WorldOfBadass: There are of course the [[EmpoweredBadassNormal vampires]] such as Larissa and [[spoiler:Jamie]], as well as Frankenstein, but even the [[BadassNormal human operators]] count.

** 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.

* TheDragon - Valeri.
* EnsembleDarkHorse - [[spoiler: Valentin]], without a ''shadow of doubt''. Everybody loves him, and the author has even expressed some measure of surprise over this, [[spoiler: given that he's basically murdered countless people with little to no remorse shown.]] He's just so suave about it.

* {{Gorn}} - For a young adult novel, the 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.

* {{Doorstopper}}: All 5 novels are well over 500 pages, with ''Darkest Night'' over 750, but all are quick reads.

* {{Doorstopper}}: All four novels are well over 500 pages.

* BigBadassBattleSequence: The battle at château Dauncy in ''Zero Hour'' and the final battle in Carcassone in ''Darkest Night''

** WorldOfBadass: There are of course the [[EmpoweredBadassNormal vampires]] such as Larissa and [[spoiler:Jamie]]]], as well as Frankenstein, but even the [[BadassNormal human operators]] count.

* TeenGenius: Jamie becomes one of the most famous and respected members of Department 19 at the age of 16, and Matt Browning is shown to have an IQ of 196 when he [[spoiler: joins the Department in the second book.]]

* 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 CompleteMonster who will literally destroy society as we know it because of hubris and sheer madness.

Book two, ''Department 19: The Rising,'' was released in August of 2012. The plot is a race against the clock to track down Valeri Rusmanov before [[spoiler: Dracula can return to full power.]] The third book, ''Department 19: Battle Lines,'' was released in August of 2013, and the fourth, ''Zero Hour'', was released in June 2014. ''Darkest Night,'' the fifth and final book, was released in June of 2015.

* BigBad: [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Tepes]], but best known as Count Dracula]]

* BigBulkyBomb: General Allen, leader of the American Department 19 (called NS9), drops one on [[spoiler: Chateau Dauncy,just before the real fight begins]] at the end of Zero Hour.

** For the whole series, [[spoiler: Dracula is defeated, along with most of his followers, a cure for vampirism exists, and the main characters are all contemplating where to go next - Matt and Natalia plan on Oxbridge, Kate can spend time with her dad, and Larissa and Jamie have a wealth of options open to them. However, both Frankenstein and Julian Carpenter are dead, leaving Jamie without any real kind of father figure to help him deal with these losses and those of countless other Blacklight operators. Blacklight and their counterparts are left on an uncertain note, with them finally being open to the public and their dark, bloody pasts all but exposed. It's remarked that there might not be a place for them in the world anymore, and whilst this might seem good, we're had five books of growing to love the characters within it and the camaraderie of it all.]]
* 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 seriously horrific things in their past. However, they're facing up against an AxCrazy CompleteMonster who will literally destroy society as we know it because of hubris and sheer madness.
* CanisMajor- The werewolves. [[spoiler:Frankenstein of all beings becomes one in the sequel.]]
* CharacterDevelopment - Oh, so much. We get to see Jamie progress from basically a moody, petulant teenager to a man who's confronted not only external horrors, but the problems within himself.

** Valentin Rusmanov is referred to in the first book as one of the three brothers originally turned by Dracula, and is painted as nothing less or more than a monster. However, in the first book, we're shown a polite, reasonable man who shares a nice conversation with John Carpenter in a Berlin cafe. [[spoiler: Then he defects in the second book, and from then on it's a rollercoaster. We see his reasonable side, his usual affable, suave persona, and then in the later books other interesting points arise, such as the stories of his childhood and the brief but interesting mentions of his unwillingness to betray Paul Turner. A complex man indeed.]]

* GovernmentConspiracy: Up to eleven. Other nations' equivalents to Department 19 are mentioned more than once.

* 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 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 still...)]]

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

* TheMole - [[spoiler:Thomas Morris in the first book.]] In The Rising, [[spoiler:it turns out Richard Talbot is one as well]] and in Battle Lines [[spoiler:it is revealed Richard Brennan was one as well,]] however in Zero Hour [[spoiler:it turns out he was not working for Dracula as expected but was instead part of a Russian project called Safeguard and was a manipulated spy for the SPC (Russian Department 19).]]

** Zombies are also mentioned but not seen, yet...

* NonActionGuy: Matt. Even when basically every operator ever goes out to fight, he's excused because he's not a soldier, he's a scientist.

** In The Rising, [[spoiler:Valentin Rusmanov defects and joins Blacklight to help them stop Dracula. However, this doesn't mean he is necessarily 'good'.]] In Zero Hour, [[spoiler:he messily kills a vampire couple who destroyed his home and a load of Valeri's followers placed in a house to stop him. It's really gory.]]
** Just because Dracula spends the second book feeble and recuperating doesn't mean he can't [[spoiler: send out mooks with the plasma from his fangs to turn vampires, and then recover to be an immensely powerful whirlwind of rage.]]

* ParentalSubstitute: Frankenstein is a father figure to Jamie. [[spoiler: He and Marie even have a conversation in Zero Hour]] about how many Jamie appears to acquire, with the more obvious (Frankenstein, Valentin and Cal Holmwood) to the rather more surprising (Paul Turner) being listed.

* TellMeAboutMyFather: Invoked almost word for word by Jamie to Frankenstein in the first book, and what follows is a great flashback chapter.

* BadAss - Many of the characters, especially Frankenstein.

** Paul Turner grows from basically a somewhat menacing presence and a piercing stare in the first book to a complex, fleshed out IronWoobie with all his flaws and virtues.

** 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 a kind of 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.

** Also, in the final battle in ''Darkest Night'', [[spoiler: the combatants nearly get nuked by one of these, before Valentin diffuses it.]]

Book two, ''Department 19: The Rising,'' was released in August of 2012. The plot is a race against the clock to track down Valeri Rusmanov before [[spoiler: Dracula can return to full power.]] The third book, ''Department 19: Battle Lines,'' was released in August of 2013, and the fourth, ''Zero Hour'', was released in June 2014. ''Darkest Night,'' the fifth and final book, will be released in June of 2015.

* TeenGenius: Jamie becomes one of the most famous and respected members of Department 19 at the age of 16, and Matt Browning, (the Rising spoiler) [[spoiler:is shown to have an IQ of 196 when he joins the Department in the second book.]]

* 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 Vlad Tepes, a nonfictional person and one of the suspected sources of inspiration for the villain of Bram Stoker's classic novel.]]

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Vlad Tepes, but best known as Count Dracula]]

** 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]]. Last but not least, they are very much able to enter a house uninvited.

Book two, ''Department 19: The Rising,'' was released in August of 2012. The plot is a race against the clock to track down Valeri Rusmanov before [[spoiler: Dracula can return to full power.]] The third book, ''Department 19: Battle Lines,'' was released in August of 2013, and the fourth, ''Zero Hour'', was released in June 2014.

TeenGenius: Jamie becomes one of the most famous and respected members of Department 19 at the age of 16, and Matt Browning is shown to have an IQ of 196 when he [[spoiler: joins the Department in the second book.]]

* AxCrazy: Alexandru is a textbook example.

* 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 Vlad Tepes, a nonfictional person and one of the suspected sources of I spraying for the villain of Bram Stoker's classic novel.]]

* {{Doorstopper}}: All three novels are well over 500 pages.

* MonsterMash - From the get-go, we're gived vampires and [[spoiler:Frankenstein]]. By the end of the novel, werewolves join into the fray.

The premise: Jamie Carpenter's life will never be the same. His father is dead, his mother is missing, and he was just rescued by an enormous man named [[spoiler:Frankenstein]]. Jamie is brought to Department 19, where he is pulled into a secret organization responsible for policing the supernatural, founded more than a century ago by Abraham Van Helsing and the other survivors of {{Dracula}}. Aided by [[spoiler:Frankenstein's monster]], a beautiful vampire girl with her own agenda, and the members of the agency, Jamie must attempt to save his mother from a terrifyingly powerful vampire.

* BadAss - Many of the characters, especially [[spoiler:Frankenstein]].