'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.