3.5 stars. First half is a slow burn (a very SLOW burn), but once the main event of the novel happens, it picks up considerable speed and the ending is great. Morally ambiguous characters which at first seem very straight forward, but end up in some interesting places. I guessed at a couple of things, but there's a twist in here that I didn't and I found that really compelling. It's not completely spelled out, but if the reader is paying attention, the answers are there.

2 stars for the first half and 5 for the second half - average out to 3.5 in total.

Ann is leaving WallaWalla for good and taking on a summer job in NYC. When original plans go awry she begins her work at the Cloisters where she meets her new boss Parrick, associate Rachel and gardener Leo. Haunted by a rare set of tarot card, Rachel and Ann draw closer when Patrick is found dead. Who could be responsible and can the tarot cards help?
I'm a sucker for the historical and was drawn in immediately by the title and beautiful cover. While the story was a good read with a couple of twists and turns and that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is wrong, it seemed a little disjointed in places but not so much that you stop reading. A good read for those who like dark academia and have an interest in tarot.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the advanced readers copy.

Ann Stilwell is a motivated and driven young woman, looking forward to a summer internship as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But when she arrives, she learns that she will be reassigned to work at The Cloisters, a museum and garden full of medieval art and historical, sometimes poisonous plants.

Feeling isolated after the recent death of her father and her lack of friends from back home, she is drawn to Rachel, the beautiful girl she will be working with in her new position. Ann and Rachel will be working for the charming and lively Patrick Roland, curator of The Cloisters. His current project is focused on Tarot Cards and fortune telling. Can tarot cards really tell us the future? The team seems divided on the answer, and when ambition for the project turns deadly, Ann must uncover the truth. But is she willing to do what is right, even if it means giving up her future career?

The Cloisters is a deeply dark, atmospheric book that roped me in right from the first page. As I read, I truly felt as if I was walking the halls of The Cloisters along with our protagonist. This blend of dark academia and magic was perfectly balanced and kept me on the edge of my seat. With mystery around every corner and a good number of twists and turns, I found this book a very easy and quick read - since I couldn't put it down!

My favourite part about this book was how well it drew me in and really made me feel the eerie, dark vibe of this gothic museum. I felt on edge and never sure who I could trust. It was very well written and incredibly intriguing. My only real criticism is that after being drawn in initially, it took a while to pick up so it did feel a bit slow at times, and had me wishing that some of the events in the book took place sooner. But The Cloisters has a very strong ending with a few additional twists and surprises that I truly didn't see coming.

This is a book I really enjoyed and would certainly recommend to others. I would give it a 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5!

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

Loved the cover and the setting of this book! As an academic I enjoy "dark academic" books and this setting and topic grabbed me. I got into the book easily and it held my interest until the last quarter where it just felt formulaic and expected. Otherwise a good read!

This was a very imaginative read. I enjoyed getting into the characters heads through the scope of Ann's point of view. The tarot cards became a character in it's own right.
Complex storytelling weaving the people of the Cloisters together into a larger story.
A great read for people who love character driven stories. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read the ARC copy and to that of the author Katy Hays for the fabulous novel.

The plot unravels slowly, almost teasing you along. But once the action starts to accelerate your mind will be blown.

Thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster Canada and Atria Books for providing my with a eARC of this book to read and review. I love gothic thrillers and dark academia so this book is right up my alley.

The MC Ann Stillwell graduates from college and is desperate to escape the small town of Walla Walla, and the painful memories of her deceased father. Her area of study is the early renaissance and ancient languages. After being rejected for multiple summer internships her mentor secures her a position at the Met in NY. When she gets there, it turns out that the position at the Met is no longer available, leaving her with no prospects. However, a chance encounter and a bit of luck she secures a position at The Cloisters. The Cloisters is a medieval museum, with many academics working there. Her advisor and his student Rachel are involved in studying tarot cards, and a underlying theme of this book is fate. Can we predict fate? Is the future fixed or malleable.

Overall this book had good and bad parts. I liked all the details of the museums, research of the tarot and fate. However, I disliked the meandering slow burn of the plot. The twists weren’t as dramatic as I would expect in a true gothic novel. No “gasp out loud” moments.

Overall a interesting book, even if the twists were somewhat anti-climatic.

I found the subject matter of this book very intriguing. Tarot cards, museums, secrets and deception. All makings for a great read. As the book progressed I enjoyed watching the main character, Ann, progress from a somewhat naive girl from Washington state into a jaded young woman in New York. Woven through the story of Ann's work at The Cloisters are the secrets of the tarot and how Ann falls under the spell of the deck. Unfortunately I did not like the ending to the book I found it too abrupt and thought it could have been concluded in a better manor.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Cloisters in exchange for an honest review!

The cover of this book was what caught my attention and the comparison to Secret History and Ninth House. I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. Ann starts a summer job in New York, working in The Cloisters, there she becomes friends with a woman named Rachel and studying the history of tarot cards and fortune telling. But, not everything is as it seems down in The Cloisters.

This is a dark academia/mystery story. It is a great book as a debut and I look forward to reading more books by Katy Hays!

My attention was immediately caught by this book at the mention of tarot with the ability to tell the future. It didn’t end up being quite what I expected, as this bit of the blurb had me expecting there to be a supernatural twist to the book, but it did not disappoint at all despite the fact that this didn’t end up being the case. Though there was no real hint of the supernatural as I had expected, this book ended up being so good in a very different way.

Ann leaves her small town to start a job at the Met, however is taken by surprise when she arrives just to find out her position no longer exists. However, she is taken in by Patrick, who works at the Cloister. Here she meets Rachel, who she works directly alongside, and Leo who works as a gardener. She and Rachel become close friends, and Leo intrigues her from the start.

Their work becomes even more interesting when a mysterious deck of tarot cards is found, and Patrick believes they are an extremely old set that would be significant to their research. However, despite this belief the cards are determined as otherwise, though Patrick can’t let his obsession go and continues to dig further into them. Then Ann discovers something very important about the tarot cards, someone at the Cloisters is murdered, and further mystery ensues.

This book ended up having a lot of unexpected intrigue and I was very wrapped up in the plot by a few chapters in. Though I didn’t feel too much attachment to the characters, it still was an overall very interesting read and I really ended up enjoying it. I highly recommend this book to anyone has any kind of interest in tarot cards and mysteries as this book won’t disappoint.

3.5

The atmosphere and tone of The Cloisters promised sinister, dark academia vibes. And while it did deliver that on the surface, upon reflection I am left in wanting of more.

The characters were all fairly surface-level, with their characteristics reinforced solely through their (sparse) descriptions or the main characters’ observations. Rachel was often described as magnetic, charismatic and effortlessly chic, but I didn’t get that energy from her actions - I found she came across controlling and at times, insecure and manic. Ann was supposedly becoming more and more obsessed with their research on the tarot, but it was thoughts of Rachel and Patrick that seemed to take up all her time.

I did really enjoy the sense that Ann was getting into something bigger than she was expecting, and that there was a big secret something waiting for her to discover. And I loved the atmosphere of the museum; Katy Hays nailed the gothic ambiance.

As for the ending, I found that the twists were subtle, not shocking, but I still enjoyed how it all came together.

Fresh from graduating college and overshadowed by her father’s recent death, Ann Stilwell would do anything to escape her humdrum hometown in pursuit of meaningful scholarly work, so when she receives an invitation to a summer internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art it seems just the opportunity for a new start. On arriving for her first day a mix-up leads Ann to work within The Cloisters, a beautifully lush and labyrinthian Gothic museum devoted to the study of medieval art. Among her team are Patrick and Rachel, two highly intelligent and skilled researchers dedicated to their field. Between their intimidating experience in the art world and the critical observations of the scholarly elite, Ann can’t help but feel undeserving of the opportunity she’s been given. And as Patrick’s obsessive interest in the history of fortune-telling through tarot reading takes an intense turn, Ann begins to question where her devotions lay. With mystery, murder and obsession soon enmeshed with those closest to The Cloisters, Ann must decide how to play her own cards to find the truth before it’s too late.

Dark academia is a genre I thought I’d enjoy in theory but for the most part observed from a distance. Hays’ The Cloisters was, for me, an excellent dive into the genus of literature, turning its eye on the world of medieval art history and one of the more unpopular and eccentric fields of study. I loved the author’s attention to detail and exploration into the history of tarot which made for a very informative and compelling focus in the book. The writing itself was beautiful and lushly atmospheric, the prologue alone being one of the most absorbing I’ve ever read, hooking you immediately.

I also felt the characters and plot were intricately layered and kept you guessing. Insightful observations into morality and the ways in which it was represented in different characters made for a very interesting and varied reading experience. Ann herself, an innocent and docile observer into this level of academia and early adulthood, is given her own nuance and darknesses enough to make you question where your allegiances as the reader should be.

This was a wonderfully absorbing read. Many thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the experience of reading this book - it was atmospheric and gritty and when it hooked me in, I was sold, I was along for the ride. I'm genuinely excited to read more by this author and I think this is a standout debut novel.

Where I was bogged down was the start - the pacing is a touch too slow, which I usually enjoy in terms of slow burn building of the plot - but it took me until about halfway through. to be really committed to what's happening. If the start picked up a touch faster and gave me more reasons to be invested , this could be an easy five star read.

I love museums, I love tarot, and I love mysteries. So I thought this book would be totally up my alley. But I'm 16% in and tapping out. The story and the writing style just aren't hooking me at all. The pace is super slow, the narration felt bogged down by details that didn't really interest me, and as fascinating as the concept seemed to me at the start, I just found myself bored. If I hadn't been reading this for review, I might've tapped out even earlier.

I can imagine other kinds of readers being drawn into this story, but it's not for me.

+

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was such a fascinating, addicting read.

Part thriller, part occult mystery, I was sucked in from the very first chapter and basically read the entire book in one go. Full of twists, turns and deadly secrets, I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a fun twist on the typical "researcher finds out a secret that will change history" thriller genre. Is that a thing? It's probably a thing.

Plus, this cover will look beautiful on any shelf!

Thank you to Netgalley for my #arc

I love novels set in museums, libraries and universities. Is "Dark Academia" a genre? A sub-genre?
This novel is set in New York, more specifically, The Cloisters. Google it; it looks absolutely beautiful.
Our protagonist Ann Stillwell is brilliant. She has mastered several languages (several of them dead) and is gifted at translating. These skills have taken her to New York, where she, by sheer coincidence (or is it?), gets a job researching and acquiring rare tarot cards.
At first, Ann begins to notice strange events and behaviour happening around her, but when a dead body is found in the library, she realizes that the job she has so gratefully been offered isn't everything that it seems.
The novel had me invested enough that I quickly devoted an entire day to finishing it. The characters were interesting (especially Ann and her backstory). Still, it was the various settings that I found particularly intriguing, and I found myself wanting to visit New York to find rare book stores and antique shops.
The Cloisters is Kay Hays's debut novel, which is a good one. I will keep my eye out for more of her writing in the future!

Thank you NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Katy Hays for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will confess, I felt myself struggle to be pulled in to the story until 60% of the book was read. The personalities of the characters were all very surface level until this stage. I barely felt like I knew Ann at all, and the book was written from first person perspective. If you can make it to this stage of the book, however, that's when things really get spicy and exciting.

The level of detail involved in this novel is very in depth. You can feel yourself transported to NYC and all of its more historical surroundings. As Ann did her research, I felt as though I were in the room with her.

Ann moved far away from her home town in the hopes of escaping the haunting loss of her father, leaving her mother behind in their family home, filled with all of his things.

Ann finds herself working at The Cloisters instead of her originally assigned program. She ends up fast friends with Rachel, the other girl working on research of the Occult for their boss Patrick.

As she dives head first into researching medieval occult and the history of tarot, things start to go wrong around her. When a dead body is found, suspicions run high. Ann turns to the cards for answers, she finds they tell her more than she bargained for.

Mystery, betrayals, murder, and some sizzling romance to add the cherry on top. This book was a unique, chilling read that gave me 'beware of the paranormal' chills. Well done!

I found the pace to be slow in the beginning and it took awhile to get to the “whodunnit”, more than 50%. I would have liked to have more mysticism and about the tarot cards themselves. It read more like a standard mystery than the dark academia that I thought it was going to be. Nonetheless, once it got there, it was an enjoyable mystery to see unravel.

4.5/5

While this was a bit of a slow starter, once I was halfway through I finished it in a day.

The Cloisters deals with the competition and privilege of academia and how wanting to break into the upper echelons of academia can lead to murder and other morally ambiguous choices. I loved how the reader discovers the machinations of this world alongside the protagonist and how it turns out that the protagonist might be unreliable in the end. Ann was a character I found myself relating to and emphasizing with, but I would have loved more exploration of the support character. Ultimately they felt like support characters the entire way through and while we are meant to explore the plot through Ann's eyes, the ending may have had packed more of a punch or been more emotional had Leo and Rachel been developed more.

The integration of tarot in an academic setting was a clever way and unique way to explore the spiritual without the novel being fantasy. It was quite refreshing to read a book that dealt with something spiritual in a very recognizable and modern setting. That aspect of the story is what drew me in originally and kept me reading the whole way through.

This was a slow burn of a novel but it worked well with this story. This book was an education and a very interesting one at that, you can certainly tell that the author put a lot of research into writing this story. I don't normally read this type of book but my goal for 2022 is to step out of my comfort zone and am I ever glad I did as I really liked this. It is very dark and has a gothic atmosphere. I liked the take on women's friendships and the fact that Ann is just coming into her own in New York City. All the characters are well developed but Ann really shone in my eyes. And of course, the setting was a character too.

The writing style will keep you turning the pages, it was so beautiful, lyrical, and intelligent. The mystery of the whodunnit almost feels secondary to the character's relationships, especially Ann and Rachel's, and it still caught me by surprise. I especially enjoyed the tarot card storyline and found it to be completely unique and so very interesting. If you enjoy books with a dark academia theme, literary suspense with gothic vibes, murder, and a mystical feel you will find plenty to like about this one.