Reviews

The Rising by Will Hill

bart154ce's review

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5.0

Review originally posted at: Bart's Bookshelf.

Following the events on Lindisfarne, Jamie, Larissa & Kate are back at the Department 19 base. While they wait for news about Dracula, they have formed a formidable unit. One of the most successful teams the department has.

Good friends, they are able to anticipate and support each other, and they are becoming more and more respected by the department, particularly Jamie.

But behind the scenes there are secrets in the department and secrets they have about themselves, that will threaten the bonds they are growing.

Then there is the upcoming battle, Dracula is back and his forces are massing. If Jamie was hoping for time to recover, he’s going to be sorely wrong. It’s all action from the start, and as the plot twists and turns, Will Hill just keeps cranking up the action.

Department 19 was one of my favourite books of last year, so when the sequel dropped though my letterbox just before Christmas, I couldn’t have been more excited.

If you thought, the first book was action packed, then you haven’t seen anything yet! There’s so much I’d love to tell you about the various plot lines Will Hill weaves together in The Rising, but I can’t do that without spoiling things for you, it will be much more fun to discover them for yourself. And then there are twists and surprises. My god, are there some twists and surprises! There’s a couple I almost guarantee you won’t see coming!

Thankfully, even though the action doesn’t let up, Will Hill, recognising that coming out of the events of the first book, there’s going to be some angst and ‘issues’ to deal with for them all to deal with, also works on the character building, which provides both a nice balance to the proceedings, and some of the real highlights of the book. Aware that his target audience is teenage boys though, Will Hill makes sure there’s nothing to scare them off Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill [Review] But it’s really nice to see character stuff and growth in amongst all the blood and gore!

As well as cranking up the action by the power of ten, in The Rising, Will Hill also cranks up the enjoyment!

Easily just as good as the first book, and you’ll be begging for book 3 by the end. Well, by the time you’ve recovered anyway…

tannithreece's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

sanoo's review against another edition

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4.0

Overall, it is a good book with action occurring throughout. However, one of the things that confused me were the changes in scene/POVs from the past. It makes it just a little bit hard to keep the plot on its timeline when, for example you have 47 Days to Zero Hour and you get something like USA, 4 Days Ago, but it may only be for me. This was a real problem for me in the first book of the series where it was much worse.
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