The Cloisters by Katy Hays is an excellent read for fans of dark academia and magical realism. Ann Stillwell, desperate to leave the town she grew up in and move on from the death of her father, moves to New York to work for the Met for the summer. When a mix-up happens, she instead finds herself working on a research project at the Cloisters, a museum dedicated to European Medieval art and architecture. She and her colleague, Rachel, are helping the curator research tarot cards from the early Renaissance era. But Ann learns that there’s more than just visual art that makes the cards intriguing.

I really enjoyed the Cloisters, even though it was a slow build up. The main question put the reader is whether our fates are sealed or things happen by chance. The author (or main character, at least) seems to lean toward an unalterable future, with tarot cards and astrology being an insight into what it will be. I differ on this opinion, but the book was enjoyable nonetheless.
The main characters were complex and interesting, each one with positive and negative characteristics. In fact, I wasn’t very fond of the main character, Ann, by the end of the book, even though I felt empathy toward her situation. But despite not being the most likeable characters, their motivations and the conflicts they faced were believable. Ann’s relationships to each of the people in her life is intricate and meaningful to the story.

The whole atmosphere of the book is eerie. Hays uses the claustrophobic heat of summer in New York City to her advantage for this, giving Ann a reason to spend even more time in the coolness of the Cloisters. The surrounding of historical artifacts, manuscripts, and architecture adds to the overall dark academia feel. Add to that the occult theme of the characters’ work and the unhurried plot, and you’re overwhelmed with the expectation that something very dark is about to happen at any minute. The foreshadowing alone in the story was enough the keep me reading, but the author also kept just enough details from you to make you feel the need to get to the end and discover the full picture. I was genuinely surprised by the twists at the end.
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Very atmospheric, with an ominous air hanging over every page. You can feel something is about to happen just around the next corner and eventually it does. ( )

This one was up and down for me. It's really a 3.5, but I rounded down because the ending went from a bit of turbulence to an emergency crash landing real fast. I loved the setting, all the art history, and I didn't even mind the pacing, which I've seen is probably most people's issue with the story. It is certainly a book that takes its time, but I also feel like that has a lot to do with the fact that it is less about the murder itself and more about the concept of fate vs free will and the slow-turning world of academia.
Where the book fell apart for me was narrative voice and ham-fisted handling of the themes. I didn't actively dislike our main character, but the slow unravelling into "unreliable narrator" territory felt more like she took a flying leap off a cliff into a cult-like belief in the unyielding hand of fate upon our lives and tarot's ability to intuit that fate. All can be explained, I think, by the fact that this is a debut novel, so I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt and go for four stars. But the ending just really fell apart for me in epic proportions when this thoughtful academic romp turned into a bad tele novella. ( )

“What if our whole life—how we live and die—has already been decided for us?”

So this book gave off the creepy ominous vibes pretty early on and I was in love. I always find that I enjoy the academia type stories more than I anticipated and this one having tarot cards as the focus was really cool. I think what I enjoyed most about this one was that even though it had this supernatural element... the motivations were all so normal. Ambition, love, betrayal, power, envy, anger all of them played a crucial role of the story and the unfolding of events. Ann is very much motivated by her desire to be an academic and Rachel becomes someone she clings to and trusts because of the power she radiates.

Ann is very skeptical of the importance that Patrick places on the tarot cards at first but I love how we gradually see her perception shift, almost to fit her motives. The book really highlights the stark contrast between the idea of fate and choice and I loved the way it did. I have to say that at times the book felt like it was dragging just a bit and I really wanted some action to happen. I was a little disappointed that the tarot cards weren't providing a bit more of an occult element but like I can forgive it because of the way things played out.

The book really saved all its shock for the end. I have to admit that I didn't see the ending coming and I truly loved the shock reveals we got. I enjoyed all the ways that ambition and obsession played out in this story. I love that it kept the creepy vibes going the whole time but I feel like some elements could have been explored a bit more. Overall though it was a really good read and now I am on the search for more stories with tarot cards at the center. ( )

Ann Stilwell leaves Washington State hoping to be an art curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Instead, she is assigned to work for Patrick Roland at The Cloisters, a Gothic museum, alongside Rachel Mondray. Rachel quickly takes Ann under her wing, esp. after Ann discovers a 15th C artifact, a set of Tarot cards. Ann becomes very interested in reading Tarot. Ann also falls for Leo Bitburg, the Cloisters gardener, who has a secret.
When someone dies, the museum and the staff are all questioned. Ann questions everything she thought was real, and realizes that she doesn't really know those around her. ( )