The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis

[rekishi]

In the quiet streets of Prague all manner of otherworldly creatures lurk in the shadows. Unbeknownst to its citizens, their only hope against the tide of predators are the dauntless lamplighters - a secret elite of monster hunters whose light staves off the darkness each night. Domek Myska leads a life teeming with fraught encounters with the worst kind of evil: pijavica, bloodthirsty and soulless vampiric creatures. Despite this, Domek find solace in his moments spent in the company of his friend, the clever and beautiful Lady Ora Fischer - a widow with secrets of her own.

What I liked

The cover is really pretty!

The worldbuilding is wonderful. It's set in the late 1800s in Prague, which gives you a certain evocation right out of the gate, but then the vampires are not vampires but pijavica (meaning leech). The names are perfectly chosen. Everything is correctly and perfectly declinated and pluralized (which, trust me, is not a given in Slavic languages). Prague is described believably and the perfect setting for a novel like this. To make the lamplighters of Prague into monster hunters is a small stroke of genius that I'm massively envious of.

We get insights into several social strata and also explanation of why, e.g., Ora has more freedom as a widow than she would have as a married or unmarried woman.

Domek is a very unlikely hero, which is a relief, and while he falls into a few predictable traps, he comes through and he's a better man than he was meant to be. Ora, a pijavica with morals, is a great character who has her strengths and flaws. Kája and Cord are my favourite characters in the whole book, because they provide some much needed perspective.

We get several nods at m/m and f/f relationships and also why some people can afford them and some can't and how unequal the society is. What's different about this books from many others is that there's no judgement for the inequality, because there is no outside who can judge. People live in their reality and it's upon us as the reader to realize it. That was actually very deftly done.

What I didn't like

It's a debut novel and it shows. This is not a bad thing per se, but the fact is that several of the turns the story takes are predictable, because while none of the characters are caricatures, there are certain story and narrative stereotypes that get fulfilled here. This, too, isn't necessarily bad, but I could have also read this in fanfic. There's at least one chapter that has a single function that could have accomplished with half a paragraph shoved in somewhere.

As I pointed out on my own DW before, this is an English-language novel by an American author with an American education written for English speaking Americans. I think it's important to mention this, because to a European this reads a lot like she did her research (which is fantastic!) and is also showing it off with going a bit overboard on historical scene setting. It makes me not entirely the target audience for the novel, and that's okay, but it took me a bit to realize what exactly wasn't sitting well with me.

One thing I really could have done without: The sex scene. I'm not a prude, but I'd prefer on-screen sex to remain in the realms of romance novels and fanfic. It erred on the side of a strong R rather than NC-17, but I really could have done without and it was neither necessary nor did it work for the overall story (and, imo, wasn't particularly well written either).

Overall, I liked it! It's a great little book to spend some time on that has wonderful worldbuilding and I hope the author will continue writing as her ideas are really great!