Reviews

Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel by Zachary Thomas Dodson

angus_mckeogh's review

5.0

This book ekes out a fifth star by being so surprising. Several different dystopian narratives wander along and then converge. The recommendation for this novel was an Amazon "We thought you might like this book." I knew nothing of this book, this author, or this story before jumping into it. So I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out being much much better than I had anticipated. Definitely among the top 3 books I've read this year. I'll be looking for this author's next book.

three_seagrass's review

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

avidreadr's review

5.0

Interesting and unique, plus cool book design

cavecibum's review

challenging mysterious slow-paced

4.0

williams_em's review

adventurous mysterious

4.5

geekwayne's review

3.0

'Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel' by Zachary Thomas Dodson is a curious thing. It's a variety of genres that I like and it's a series of print styles that make the book feel like "found" manuscripts. When it was done, I just wished it had been a bit more.

There are two stories at the heart of this novel. One takes place in Chicago in 1843 and concerns a man going West to seek his fortune and to prove his love to the woman he has left behind. The other storyline takes place 300 years later in a city state in a dystopian Texas. In both stories, a man is trying to find his way, and there is a woman he loves who is helping. There are more similarities, but to tell those would be to spoil things.

It's a clever enough collection of old books, letters, manuscripts and drawings. The problem is that the story moved along too slowly for me. Once I figured things out (and it was fairly early on), then it was just getting to the end. The big reveal had already happened for me, but I felt like the novel tightened up towards the end. I like this sort of thing. I've just had other, better experiences.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Doubleday Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

smokyseagoat's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.25

lsparrow's review

4.0

I loved this book and the circular nature to the narrative. An alternate timeline/dystopian tale with the feel of a file of writings and drawings. I did wish that there was more focus on the female characters.

bc288's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

kateempee's review

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

3.0

My feelings at the end of this book are pretty similar to the way I felt when I watched the movie The Fountain several years ago - "well, that was visually stunning, but I can't really tell you what the story was about." This was hovering between 3.5 and 4 until I reached the very end of the book, at which point my rating of it dropped. I expected the varying story lines to All tied together in a different way, I did not expect to spend 20 minutes after completion scouring the internet to find out what the ending meant.

In short, it is great if you want to read something for the visuals and The vibes more than anything else, but not something to read if you really want a coherent plot