This book seemed to come out of nowhere for me, but as soon as I read the description, I knew I needed to read it! Murder + sketchy coworkers + secret tarot cards = a win win win!

In all seriousness, this book was a great little piece of dark academia. It took me right back to my Kansas City Art School days! I felt like I was back studying Renaissance art in the Cloisters (the one in the Nelson Atkinson Museum, not The Met). I immediately loved this book because of that.

As I read this book, I had no idea where it was going to go. I was hoping it would be a bit like The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, but this one was a little less in the fantasy world. I loved the secret acquisition of the tarot cards and would have loved that to have been the main plot and climax, with the story centered around that. Instead, it became more about Ann and Rachel’s dependent relationship and how crazy pants Rachel was. It kind of felt like 2 different books to be honest.

All that said, I did really enjoy this book and I felt like I was sitting in the Cloisters in the middle of a New York summer! I’m giving it 4/5 ⭐️s!

I did receive a digital copy of this book on NetGalley from @atriabooks in exchange for my honest review. I also snagged this one in my Book of the Month box before I read it!

THE CLOISTERS (Susp-Ann Stillwell-NYC-Contemp)
Katy Hays – Standalone
Atria Books, Nov. 1, 2022 – 320 pp.
RATING: Okay/C

First Sentence: Death always visited me in August.

Ann Stillwell has been desperate to leave Walla Walla, Washington. When the opportunity arises to be a summer intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, she is thrilled. When she arrives, she learns things have changed and she ends up being an assistant curator at the magnificent satellite museum The Cloisters, which specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods, all things Ann loves. Soon she learns that her boss and co-worker are fascinated by the occult, particularly Tarot Cards, and the gardener is willing to break the law. But it’s death, both past, and present, that alters everything.
The Cloisters has a fascinating history and is a particularly wonderful museum that should be visited. The author does an excellent job of bringing the museum to life and capturing the work that goes on behind the scenes of the museums. And that was truly the best part of the book. Second to that, was the information on the history of Tarot cards, especially very old sets, and how they were made. Unfortunately, that is not enough to make a good book.
As a mystery, the book fails badly. None of the characters are particularly likable. They are all superficial and highly predictable, as is the plot. The book just goes on, and on, and on. Nothing really happens until about two-thirds of the way through, by which time one doesn’t particularly care. To use the excuse of Fate/Change without any regard for morality is weak in the extreme. It is also false logic.
THE CLOISTERS is an interesting book for those who love art and museums, but that’s about it, and it’s not enough to make a compelling read. The mystery aspect is poorly done and the characters are not interesting enough to want to see again. This is a book where the setting eclipsed the story.

Suspense and spine tingling chills…
Many thanks to Atria and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A fascinating premise, but I ended up DNFing at about 30%. The extensive background on the main character slowed down the story, and the move to the big city, etc. was presented in a cliched way. I'll probably try again, because I'm fascinated by the plot, but it didn't hold my attention this time.

Predictable who-dunit. A quick, easy read; nothing out of the ordinary. Principal players all seemed shallow and character-less. The mysticism didn't seem very mysterious.

I can’t think of enough great adjectives to describe this book. It’s the debut novel of Katy Hays and it’s fantastic. Ann, a young college graduate is anxious to escape her small home town and the death of her father is going to be a summer intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is assigned to the Cloisters, under the direction of of Patrick and Rachel. They are studying the history of Tarot cards and the magical realm of the past beliefs. The story has so many twists and nuisances. Your allegiance switches so many times. Everyone has secrets and an ancient deck of cards may destroy them all. I wanted to read this book continually but with the holidays it was grab when I could. My top pick of 2022. Read it twice before I wrote this to pick up all the little hidden details. Pick this one.

The Cloisters is very gothic in nature. It is a dark and atmospheric novel with flawed characters, all having secrets and bold ambitions. Ann comes to to New York from Walla Walla, Washington to work at the Metropolitan Museum but learns on her first day that the position is no longer open. Fortuitously, the curator of a sister institution is in the office and offers her a job at the Cloisters.

Ann is befriended by a fellow researcher from Yale, Rachel, who is charismatic and talented. They become fast friends with both working for the curator, Patrick. Ann is also attracted to the gardener at the Cloisters, Leo. Tension builds between all of the characters until the death of one of the players. With touches of the occult, academic rivalries, and complex interpersonal relationships, this first novel by author Katy Hays is sure to garnish lots of attention.

The Cloisters is an intriguing novel about a young woman's summer spent working as a researcher at the Met Cloisters in New York City, a medieval style museum and garden. I expected this to be more of a mystery, but I would categorize it as literary fiction, so temper your expectations.

I loved the Cloisters setting and unique relationships Ann builds there. It was such a neat backdrop and I loved learning about her work as a researcher in medieval artifacts. The author delicately teases out the story and characters, and I wanted to know what would happen. There were some surprises towards the end.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for the copy.
Do we have free will or is fate pulling us to the inevitable?
Ann is a scholar of medieval art from a small town and with some luck gains a summer position at the Cloisters in New York. She is researching the belief of fate and tarot cards in history.
This is a slow build but once the stage is set about 50% through the book the mystery and page turning begins. A historical discovery is made and it is a competition for who will make the discovery. Who will obtain the credit and power attributes with it. How far will one person go to obtain the power?

The premise of this book was too enticing to overlook! A dark, academic mystery set in the Cloisters! Yes please!
While I did enjoy this book, the characters felt a little flat, and the plot I was so excited about got a bit predictable from time to time.

So many things made me want to pick up The Cloisters by Katy Hays, the first of which being the gorgeous cover. Combine that with a setting of New York City and a museum along with tarot cards and the overall intrigue of the plot, and I knew it would be good. It was a bit of a slower burn than I was expecting, and I did think it dragged a little bit, but other than that I was really impressed by both the story and the execution, plus the ending is a doozy! I did see one of the major twists coming, but that oddly didn't bother me since I enjoyed the rest of it and the reveal so much. I was surprised that considering there was a guide to reading tarot in the back of the book (so fun) and it is mentioned in the synopsis, that tarot isn't actually discussed all that much in the story. I was hoping for more to come out of that aspect, so I was a little disappointed there.

The Cloisters is a debut novel, and I can already tell Hays is going to go places. I loved her storytelling and I felt entirely wrapped up in the story. I also loved the audiobook and would recommend it if you’re like me and prefer them for slower moving storylines. Emily Tremaine is a wonderful narrator and I thought her skills were perfect for this book. The audio just felt really well done in general and was a very enjoyable experience! The Cloisters has a very gothic feel to it and was also very atmospheric which I loved, and I was fascinated by so many aspects of the story. If you’re looking for a ton of action this is not it, but if you enjoy a slow burn and want to give up playing detective to just enjoy a story, I highly recommend The Cloisters.

Compare a book to The Secret History and you instantly have my attention. But I think that comparing The Cloisters to The Secret History was a mistake, and I think that it does the book a disservice (notice how I don't really say which book is being done a disservice? Yeah...). Spoiler alert: I mean BOTH books.

Ann Stillwell is looking for a change. Langushing in her Washington hometown after the death of her beloved father and living with her increasingly agoraphobic mother, Ann wants nothing more than to escape to a life where she can be an academic and study the Renaissance. When an opportunity to intern at the Met in New York City presents itself, Ann is sold. But when she gets to New York, she's told that her mentor has been called away overseas for research. So, it seems like fate when she's offered the chance to intern at the Cloisters instead, and by the lead curator at that. But it's a different world at the Cloisters, quite different from what Ann thought she wanted. What transpires over a damp and sticky summer is a murderous lesson in ambition, obsession, and self-discovery.

The Cloisters had so much potential, but I was not impressed with the execution. A story that started out as mysterious and intriguing devolved into something altogether average. The twist was predictable. The characters were caricatures, but not in the smartly intentional way they were in The Secret History, and I only compare them because that's what this book was compared to in the marketing. Tartt's book was pretentious (in the best way), intelligent, and subversive in a way that The Cloisters tried to be but failed at being. The social commentary in The Cloisters was surface level, and the character development was pretty much nonexistent until the very end, and even then just barely there. Ann was a very static character, and although I like where she ultimately ended up as a character at the end, it was too sudden and not established by anything throughout the book. Her character went from mousy and naive to "girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep" within a few pages, and it was so unbelievable. It wasn't gradual and organic.

Overall it was the pacing that kept me reading until the end. Dark academia books can have the tendency to be meandering and wordy, and while this book had this at points, the medium pace of the narrative helped balance it out.

3/5 stars. I enjoyed the book but it had spots that were slow moving for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

For fans of The Secret History and The Art Forger, this story follows Ann, a graduate from Whitman in Washington, as she moves to New York and finds herself working for a curator at a museum, researching the history of tarot cards. She befriends the curator’s assistant Rachel, and is swept into a mysterious world of tarot, soon realizing the lengths her friends and coworkers will go for fame and fortune. This book wound the concept/ fascination with fate with suspense very well and I highly enjoyed it.

This is another example of a book that I am glad I picked up without knowing a whole lot ahead of time other than "tarot" and "museum" and "vibes." I'm once again seeing a lot of complaints that this book doesn't live up to x,y,z based on marketing and comps. While those are fair critiques, they say more about the success (or lack thereof) of publicity campaigns, and less about the content of the book.

Do I think this book was perfect? Heck no. Did I enjoy myself anyway? Sure! There's tarot, creepy people, boats, a gorgeous museum backdrop, vibes for days, and a killer! Or killers! Don't let me spoil it for you!

Don't think too hard about this one, just enjoy it for what is is- a dark-acadamia-ish thriller/mystery with some tarot intrigue. There might be a few plot holes or loose ends if you're picking at threads- but I'd say this is a solid book to pick up if you're looking for a thriller with an art history nerd angle.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!

I was excited to be chosen to review The Cloisters, by Katy Hays, but it was not what I anticipated. I struggled to get into the book and even though it did pick up about halfway through, I never connected with the characters or the storyline. I did finish it but didn't enjoy it overall. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really was excited about the premise of this one, but it didn't quite deliver. The plot was not very compelling and the characters were a bit flat/undeveloped. The second half of the book picked up a bit, but overall, I still didn't enjoy it very much.

3.75 stars
An interesting dark academia thriller a la the maidens but I just didn’t connect with the main characters. The tarot storyline was somewhat interesting but not my favorite

From the mysterious world of working in a museum - let alone the Cloisters in NYC - this novel weaves a tail of mystery, deception, and murder. it captured me from the first chapter and I couldn't put it down. I will have to plan a trip to the Cloisters after reading this!

I just couldn't for the life of me. I heard such good things from the bookstagram world and was hoping to enjoy it just as much, but it just didn't work for me. I couldn't even get 100 pages into it. I just couldn't figure out what was happening or why I should be into it.