The Lights of Prague

Historical fantasy set in Prague? Shut up and take my money.

The blurb says Witcher cross VE Schwab fans, but I'm not sold on that. Witcher, because of the Eastern European setting/names for demons. VE Schwab - I'm guessing is for A Darker Shade of Magic, but I got more Rivers of London vibes (without the humour).

This is an urban fantasy set in 1868 Prague. Our hero Domek is a lamplighter, but lamplighters protect the night streets from demons - mainly pijavice (literally translated as leech, they're vampires). In a normal work shift, Domek stumbles across The Mystery. Of course, our heroine (and love interest) is a pijavica, and also stumbles across The Mystery. If you've ever read a book, I think you can see where the story is going. Just like a good, cosy detective story, all loose ends are tidy and every one (who survives) gets a happily ever after (for now).

Anyway: an enjoyable read, a great debut, a love letter to Prague, and a standalone historical urban fantasy. 

Picking up The Lights of Prague was one hundred percent motivated by the fact that it deals with vampires, or pijavice as they are called here. I'm a sucker for a good vampire read, and I'm even more obsessed when the backdrop is atmospheric. Gaslamp era Prague just called to me. The idea of a world where the light and the dark exist only to war with one another. A world where humans are caught up in a chess game that they aren't even aware they're playing. I was really excited for this book.

Starting with what I enjoyed, the setting of the book is definitely up there. Jarvis does a wonderful job of bringing this dark and lavish Prague to life. It was also so easy to fall in love with Domek. Our monster hunter, disguised as a lamplighter, was so full of life. His morals, his willingness to sacrifice himself for others, endeared me to him right away. I knew that he was the type of character that I could root for, and I was happy for that.

On the other hand, Ora didn't quite hit all of those buttons for me. While she was quite a spitfire, which I appreciated, she was almost too disengaged for my tastes. Her backstory was wonderful. I loved how much depth she had, because of her past poor choices and her lost loves. I was genuinely hoping that she would round out even more throughout the course of the story. Unfortunately, the focus was mostly on “what makes a monster a monster”, and Ora kind of stagnated.

Which brings me to the biggest trouble I had with this book, and that was the pacing. The first portion of this book was almost too slow to hold my attention, but Jarvis' writing was so rich that I couldn't look away. I'm quite happy that was the case, because when the story picks up it really is addictive. As Domek and Ora each are fighting their own battles, they realize that their causes actually align. They may be from two different worlds, but the fact is that both of those worlds have their own brand of monsters.

Even though the pacing picked up though, that was where the character growth all but ended. It seemed like the two couldn't coexist in the story. Ultimately the ending felt sort of flat, and I was hoping for so much more of climax. Thus, the three star rating. However, if there was a second book set in this world I would absolutely pick it up! I'd love to see more of Domek and Ora, and find out how they fare.