I could not for the life of me get into this one. I ended up DNF about 60% in. I’m so sorry- here are the things I liked and didn’t.

Things I liked:
- Tarot cards
-Atmospheric
-Unique story line and setting

Didn’t like:
- Lack of characterization
- Didn’t know what was going on the whole time

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 on goodreads! Read With Jenna picked a good November book with THE CLOISTERS! the setting of this one was a total vibe and a complete character in itself—dark academia meets NYC meets summer meets magic, tarot cards and tragedy 👀🔮🏛🫣

it was a very slow burn and i wish i knew that going in—what is teased in the synopsis happens almost more than halfway in. but the ending of this one was wild—the last 30 pages or so had a few twists that left me 😦🫢 it was maybe a bit too chaotic and random in hindsight, but in the moment i was along for the ride!

along with the setting this book also had such interesting and unreliable narrators. it was so hard to know what was the truth or who you could trust… i was so impressed with the character (and setting!!!) development knowing this was the author’s debut.

very unique story and definitely worth the read! such a good fall book too. this was a BOTM add on that you should consider snagging in future months!

thank you to Atria for the gifted early copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a dark but intriguing story that was perfect for autumn!
This definitely scratch the Magical Realism itch if you are a seasonal reader like me.
Ann goes to The Big Apple to start her career in art. Through a series of circumstances she finds herself working with Patrick at The Cloisters. Soon Ann and the reader recognize that more is going on around their research on Tarot cards than meets the eye. There is the illusive and dangerous Rachel, who survived a boat accident that her parents did not. There is also Leo, the handsome and charming gardener who grows poisonous plants at The Cloisters and pockets some for devious purposes. Lastly, Patrick--he is determined to find the true Tarot deck that instilled the belief that humans could sense what was to come.
This novel is a slow build, but I found it captivating. The characters are flawed, dangerous and not to be believed. It makes you wonder where the magic went in the world and if there is still pieces of it waiting to be found.

As a librarian, I love any book that features an archive. And this novel does that, which in and of itself is interesting. But something is askew with this particular group of curators and archivist, and the slow spin in which this story unravels kept me engrossed. Well worth the read!

This review was originally published on NetGalley.com. I was given an ebook freely by NetGalley and the book’s publisher in return for a voluntary and honest review.

The Cloister
By Katy Hays

This is a debut novel by Kathy Hays, will teach you about yourself. If you don’t already know by now if you’re patient or how you feel about academia you will learn. I don’t mean to scare you, but to give you a warning smile.

The title and back cover was all I needed to know I was going to read this. I’ve visited The Cloister in NYC twice. The most recent was in September of this year. I studied Medieval history and love this museum of four different cloisters.

Needless to say I was slurping up the pages like soup at your favorite diner on a cold December day. When it’s heat travels down your body and rests gently in your stomach. This book has an atmosphere all its own.

The characters are as vague as candlelight in a stone church near midnight. You think you understand them and their motivations but you don’t see it all.

So if you don’t mind sitting down with a slow churning story with never truly defined characters under the umbrella of a museum, art and the occult this is for you.

If you’re looking for popcorn fun entertainment and maybe a juicy fling thriller look elsewhere. If you want to see what kind of reader you are, give it a go.

This was a solid three star book for me. The museum setting and dark atmosphere atmosphere were enticing and I find the mystery intriguing if not predictable. However, the characters felt one dimensional and relationships trope-y.

Absolutely loved the setting of this book, The Cloisters in NYC. The novel is well-paced and intriguing, the characters well-drawn, the storylines are engaging and the focus on medieval and renaissance fortune-telling art is fascinating. This one is a must-read for me!

This was way too much history, not enough story. It was so dry. Definitely had lots of dark academia vibes, but it was really missing a lot of the story I needed to get out of it.

Truly a book for dark academia lovers with an NYC twist. I was enthralled from page one, not just by the fast-moving plot that feels slightly sinister as you wait for what’s around the next corner but also by the beautiful descriptions of the Cloisters, the city, and the disconcerting mix of moving from one to the other as the main character goes to work each day. While I was slightly let down by the conclusion (I was expecting bigger and scarier!), this book ultimately succeeds in its subtlety and almost hypnotic pacing.

Having heard about this book through the Jenna Bush Hager Book Club and all the hoopla with the conversation & cocktail event in New York with the author, I expected to love this book. I enjoy a good, well written mystery, I like art and spending time in museums and galleries, so the Cloisters was going to be my perfect November read. The book is described as "haunting and magical" and a "gripping debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat". Unfortunately, I found it to be none of the above description. It started slow and stayed slow until more than halfway through. The three main characters were unlikable; and if I don't care about the characters, I lose interest in the book. The plot evolves around a set of 15th Century tarot cards and if the cards have the power to tell the future. Well, there's nothing new about that; people today still hold that belief and pay for tarot card readings. I really wanted to love this read, but other than the great book cover (hence the second star), nothing in the Cloisters intrigued me. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

4⭐️

<b> What if our whole life—how we live and die—has already been decided for us? Would you want to know, if a roll of the dice or a deal of the cards could tell you the outcome?</b>

Ann Stilwell seeks to escape her life in Walla Walla following the death of her father, who taught her her love of language and art history. Against her mother’s wishes, Ann leaves for New York to work with a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art For the summer. When she arrives on orientation day, she finds out that her supposed mentor is no longer available, and the Met no longer has a spot for her. In a stroke of good fortune, the curator of The Cloisters, Patrick, interrupts the meeting and takes Ann on.

During the orientation, Ann meets Rachel, a Yale student who will be working with her for the summer at The Cloisters. Ann is immediately captivated by Rachel, as are the other students. At The Cloisters, Ann also meets Leo, the gardener who tends to the plants and the two begin a casual relationship. Their work at The Cloisters focuses on finding the first tarot deck used for divination purposes. Ann does not immediately believe that a deck of cards can predict the future, but participates in a reading one night at Patrick’s and begins to feel the pull of the cards.

Ann later makes a groundbreaking discovery when she accompanies Patrick to retrieve a few tarot cards from a dealer: one of the cards has a false face that is stuck to the true card with a bit of flour and water. She hides this information and the card from Patrick, and reveals the card to Rachel. Ann has grown close to Rachel, and spends time with her at her family’s camp on the lake and they translate something that Ann found in her father’s notes related to the tarot cards. Ann and Rachel’s friendship continues to strengthen and the two move in together and plan to work together to present their findings. But as they dig deeper, terrible things begin happening at The Cloisters, including the death of Patrick.

This is a cutthroat dark academia that has so many twists and turns towards the end! Rachel’s character is super suspicious and a little weird all throughout the book, but I loved her and Ann. Leo was my least favorite character, and he’s very carefree about everything in a way that was a little annoying. Overall, this is a very cool and interesting topic as well and a very fun read.

<b> We are, you see, both masters of our fate and at the mercy of the Moirai—the three Fates who weave our futures and cut them short.</b>

Ann leaves for New York and a summer job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She's grieving the death of her father and feeling smothered by her needy mother so the job is a godsend and a plus for her graduate school application. When the Met job falls through she is seemingly in the right place at the right time. The Curator from the Cloisters just happens to drop by when she's receiving the bad news and he immediately offers her a position there. Ann falls in love withe Cloisters and becomes enthralled by her boss and Rachel who is also interning. Rachel is wealthy and takes Ann under her wing. Leo, the museum gardener, is the bad boy she quickly becomes attracted to.
But all is not as it appears. Research about the use of Tarot cards for fortune telling during the Renaissance is the focus of Ann and Rachel's work and it's the passion of their boss. When the two women make a groundbreaking discovery that is followed by the curator's mysterious death Ann must face the the reality of what happened and her own future.
The premise of the plot is interesting but quickly becomes predictable., The characters never come alive. They're stereotyped and one-dimensional - small town girl meets rich coworker and hunky guy. There was only one surprise that came at the end but it didn't save the rest of the book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to review this title

Unfortunately I really struggled with this one. The setting was promising, and I do love slow build reads, but something just felt disconnected in this novel. I still think it's worth having in the collection because of dark academia, and while it didn't work for me, it can work for others.

I have to admit that partway through, I wanted to put this book down but I am so glad that I didn't. the ending was superb! I never thought too much about tarot cards or how far they went back in history. It really makes you think about the future and how much is fate and how much it is our own doing. Rachel pretty much thought she had everyone's fate in her hands but she really didn't know who she was dealing with. Ann was more than meets the eye.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for a copy of this book for review.

Loved the cover of this book and the idea set forth in the book jacket, but I feel that the book didn't completely deliver. It is definitely a slow burn in this book and the character of Rachel is well done as a creepy psychotic rich girl friend. I also liked the atmosphere of The Cloisters and all of the descriptions of the gardens and the museum. I just wanted Ann to be a little more like Rosemary in Rosemary's Baby. Still a good read and a couple of good twists at the end.

A solid 3 star read.

The dark academia vibe and setting of the Met Cloisters was really interesting and kept me reading this book. The plot? Not so much.

It wasn’t bad at all, but just felt very anticlimactic. The research into tarot could have been explored more and used to add more to the plot, but it often felt like a distraction to parts of the story. Was it supposed to pay attention to it or not? Did it matter or not? I’m still unsure.

The friendship between Ann and Rachel had underlying tension, but that was never truly fleshed out and by the time we got to the ending, I was just read for that relationship to come to some sort of definitive moment.

I really did feel like the setting and this world were intriguing and they ultimately kept me reading. It was a decent read for the end of summer and is one that does have me thinking of the characters’ secrets after I finished the story.

The Cloisters was an intriguing debut and I’m curious to see what the author pens next.

Wonderful mystery story. A woman with secrets to hide, is selected to intern at The cloister in New York. Her speciality is medical and tarot cards. She meets her fellow worker and becomes friends. Her boss is looking for a lost set of cards to present at a large conference.
As they work, she finds she is being manipulated by fellow workers. The end will surprise the reader.

I chose not to use names in this review as they could reveal the mystery

QUICK TAKE: I don't think dark academia is really a genre for me. I struggled with this one, and it ultimately wasn't for me.

This didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I liked it well enough but the murder mystery part is lacking. I would have like to see more information about the history and reliability of tarot cards. The characters were well drawn but the plot fell short. I would read more from this author.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

The Cloisters by Katy Hays is the perfect "dark academia" read to add to your TBR for the fall. The lead character, Ann, is offered a chance to intern for the summer at The Met. Once arriving in NYC, Ann is assigned to a gothic museum called The Cloisters. Ann finds a deck of tarot cards that may help predict the future--thus sending her into a whirlwind of looking for answers. This was a wonderful book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-galley.