Department 19: Battle Lines by Will Hill

 

Published: August 29th, 2013

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 72

Copy: Netgalley

Summary: Goodreads

 



Secret government unit Department 19 is recovering from evil vampire Valeri Rusmanov's deadly attack on their base. The Department’s newest member, teenage operator Jamie Carpenter, is tasked with training up a new squad, as his friends and colleagues desperately search for ways to try to stop what is coming.

The timing couldn’t be worse for a coordinated, global attack on a number of maximum security prisons and hospitals—with the already-dangerous inmates now on the loose and turned into vampires. One of the escapees has a deep connection to one of the darkest moments in the history of Department 19 and embarks on a quest that threatens to expose the existence of vampires to the public. And with each day that passes, the regenerated Dracula gets stronger, bringing Zero Hour closer.

In this third installment of the epic Department 19 series, Will Hill delivers higher—and sharper—stakes than ever before.

Battle Lines is the third in the Department 19 series and I am still loving it.  All the old favourite characters are there,  and they continue to grow in complexity along with the story.  The romance between Jamie and Larissa gets a bit of a twist with the introduction of Tim, but it never gets too intense and I applaud the way that Larissa handles things here.

As usual the action is intense and almost non-stop.  Just when you sit back to take a breath and regroup, something else happens.  Battle Lines is violent, but no more so than previous volumes and I have never felt that the violence is there just for the sake of!  The story this time around revolves around escapees from mental institutions, who all just happen to have been made into vampires - but faster, stronger and more vicious than they have any right to be.  When one of them decides to get revenge on Dept. 19 for some imagined wrongs, the excitement heats up. 

With great world building and a complex storyline, this book also includes several adults.  This adds yet another layer to the story, but never takes it out of the YA genre.  I'm sure there are many adults who will enjoy this though.  Not for the faint of heart, Battle Lines clocks in at over 700 pages, but you won't be disappointed if you give it a try.  I do think you need to have read the first two in order to get the most out of it tho' -  Dept. 19 and Dept. 19: the Rising

The next volume, Zero Hour comes out some time next year, and I can't wait.