Sharp, chaotic satire set over one wild day in a New York museum. The dark humor and art-world absurdity kept me entertained, though the frantic pacing and constant inner monologues could be overwhelming. Still, it’s clever and unique.
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐

This book does a fantastic job of reminding me why I never want to work at a Museum or university again. So much toxic workplace drama, so much stress for no pay! This is a crazy roller coaster of millions of characters with a fantastic but unsettling setting.

Unfortunately I had to DNF about 25% of the way in.

I really wanted to enjoy this but I couldn’t grasp all of the numerous about of characters when I started reading. Would love to give it another chance in the future.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and while the cover is gorgeous and the premise great, I just couldn't do the mental gymnastics to keep track of all the characters over such a short time span-- and I have a PhD in literature! Maybe I'll try again at a later date, but for now it was a DNF at 18%.

I was excited to read this one but had to DNF at about 30%. it just wasn't for me. thank you netgalley & the pub for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a chaotic, fantastic novel. Friends of the Museum is a brick of a book packed with characters that takes place in just 24 hours. As a prestigious art museum prepares for the most important day of their year, the annual gala, the employees face so many personal and professional challenges. Diane, the museum director, is facing the imminent collapse of her career and her marriage, held together mostly by her assistant, the faithful Chris. Henry, the museum's lawyer, is dealing with multiple possible legal issues for the museum, including the probably presence of smuggled artifacts casually being displayed, and is coping with his coming death and the rather terrible legacy he's leaving behind. Shay, head of security, is trying to secure her legacy as well, in the form of setting up her nephew with a mentor as she faces the deterioration of her mind. Benjamin is the new head of film, and his first day of work may prove to be his last, as his debts, his old romances, and his terrible choices all catch up to him. Catherine, a worker in fashion, faces down a decision that will impact the rest of her life. Iona is a conservator whose husband was AWOL for nearly a month and is trying to figure out how to deal with his reappearance as though it was totally normal. Clive is the head of the European wing, a crotchety queer man coming to the realization that he has been terrible in most of his personal relationships. And Nico is a line cook elevated to head chef for the day, trying to find a way to ever move past the death of his wife. Oh, and by the end of the night, someone will be dead.
I know that seems like a lot to keep track of, but it was worth it. This book was so messy, so full of deliciously messy and awful people It balances all the characters really well, and manages to stay remarkably in the present despite being so long. I think that the knowledge from the blurb that one of these people won't survive the night also did numbers for the suspense factor. There are multiple points where the reader is fully convinced that they know what's going to happen, only for things to super not happen that way. It's a delicious, juicy novel.

Friends of the Museum was an absolutely ambitious novel. It was immersive and a downright good time. I found myself unable to put this one down.

Friends of the Museum had a unique concept and some sharp moments, but overall it didn’t quite click for me. I appreciated the chaotic, overlapping voices and the art world setting, but I found it hard to connect with the characters or the story. That said, I can see how fans of experimental fiction might enjoy it. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

My friend works in an art museum and she has THE BEST work drama, and her colleagues are an absolute cast of characters, so I realllly wanted this book to deliver, believe me I did.
Just go ahead and bookmark the character list at the front of the book, because you will need it. There were wayyyyy too many characters, and with that large of a cast, the dialog formatting felt a poor choice, given that it was very difficult to distinguish who was speaking.
Unfortunately I found it frustratingly hard to crack into for such an intriguing and promising premise, and ended up not finishing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Friends of the Museum is a poetic and introspective novel that explores grief, memory, and the quiet solace of art. McGowan’s lyrical prose captures subtle emotional shifts and offers deep reflections on loss and identity. The story’s atmosphere is both haunting and tender, drawing readers into the protagonist’s inner world.

That being said, the novel’s shifting perspectives and nonlinear timeline can be moderately difficult to follow. While this structure adds depth, it occasionally disrupts the narrative flow and may require extra focus to fully grasp the transitions. Friends of the Museum is by no means a "passive" read but if paid the attention it deserves, Friends of the Museum will reward you in kind with complexity, emotional nuance and contemplative storytelling that lingers long after the story ends.

rounded up from 3.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

While I did start off enjoying this book, I ended up DNF'ing at about 37%. I think it had a lot of promise, and I could see this working as a phenomenal tv show. The settings and scenes were so vivid and written so well. It was a bit difficult to keep the characters straight, and that ultimately contributed to why I put the book down. I would be interested in trying again with the audiobook in the future, but the text itself did not hold my attention the way I wanted it to.

It was a very interest. Book and H o w was written. D I a n e call early in the morning by her lawyers. She ran the machine and something was up. They h Had a big party that night at the museum and things started to go wrong. The chapters were done in time frame because it was done for twenty four hours. The museum had some stuff from india which was S t e a l. People also came down with food poisoning This was leading to a lot of problems because they were the cooks. There is many different people in this story. And it was interesting how they all reacted to this craziness going on. Everybody had some kind of problem.And this was addressed in the book. What a very interesting book

3 stars

Everything that can go wrong does go wrong during a day in the life of a prominent New York museum. We follow along for 24 hours of the most important day of this institution's year - the grand donor gala. But with troublesome (and troubled) employees, the art of trying to woo new possible donors, pesky ethical and litigious concerns regarding museum artefacts, widespread food poisoning, and more, will the museum's staff end up surviving this day?

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It was very ambitious in terms of breadth of characters and plot, but somewhere along the line it started feeling far too amorphous and bloated with extraneous character vignettes. I understand why most of them were there - the book does do an excellent job of cramming a TON of personnel, administrative, ethical, and fiscal issues into a crucial 24 hour period during the life of this beleaguered museum. However, coming in at almost 500 pages, it could certainly have benefited from a serious paring back of many of those sections that didn't lend much to the plot beyond giving strange backstory elements to certain characters. Also, I found the physical formatting of the book itself quite distracting. It reads much like a screenplay, but with very little obvious formatting between what was spoken dialogue, inner thoughts, or plot description. I thought I would get used to its format the further along I got into the book but it never quite gelled, unfortunately.

On the whole, I feel like this was a great concept for a dizzyingly strange and off-kilter novel but it all just fell a little flat for me. I have an educational background in museum collection management and conservation so I am intimately familiar with the type of politicking and back-room maneuvering that can happen at cultural institutions. But the sheer amount of different motley characters and plot points introduced throughout ultimately made for a confusing and not particularly satisfying read.

Thanks to NetGalley, author Heather McGowan, and Atria Books for giving me access to a free digital ARC of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided here voluntarily.

A single day documenting the goings-on at a museum is theoretically a great premise for a novel, but what we actually got here is really disappointing.

To begin, this is entirely too long for this type of story. It’s just a lot of information (most of it the petty grudges of a multitude of characters), and none of it culminates in anything meaningful or interesting.

It’s hard to care about the ups and downs of the catering staff, the security employees are insufferable, and the more academic and upper level museum employees are just LitFic stock types.

Theres virtually no humor and no atmosphere (an absolute crime in a book set in a museum); and both things needed to be there for this to be anything beyond a huge cast of characters vying to air their petty grievances.

The premise for this could have led to something really intriguing (or at least entertaining), but instead we got something that feels like a very rough and very early draft.

Friends of the Museum was a messy look at a busy day inside a museum preparing for a yearly gala. While the premise sounded fun and fascinating, unfortunately every single character was absolutely awful. I felt like I was watching a car accident in slow motion, as every single character made the worst decisions they possible could have. The switches between perspectives were hard to keep track of, as the characters narrative voices were not distinguishable. I also was not a huge fan of the dialogue style, it read more like a play, which I don’t find to be an enjoyable experience. Some of the storylines were more interesting than others, and while I did enjoy the mounting tension, I didn’t find that the end implosion was interesting/extreme enough to satisfy me.

This book was pretty boring and had way too many characters. Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me.

I've seen such mixed reviews since the publication of this book. While I admit it was a little bit confusing to follow at the start (simply because of the characters and jobs that are so robust and constant) I really enjoyed the chaos and drama. Perfect publication time ahead of the MET Gala, too :)

I really enjoyed reading this book. My published review is here: https://www.postandcourier.com/features/book-review-heather-mcgowan-friends-museum/article_37d3971d-1277-41ff-a71f-4332b66ef9bf.html

Oy. I REALLY wanted to like this - I worked in a museum for 16 years, but this was 500 pages of slow banter, confusing prose and an ending that was not worth the 12 hours of reading time. With that said, there was some comical one-liners and I was invested enough to read the remaining 2 hours of the book where plot thickened-briefly. Thank you, Netgalley for opportunity to read this title in exchange for my honest review.

If you ever dreamed of having a sleepover at your favorite museum to have unlimited exploring time, you’re my kind of nerd, and “Friends of the Museum” should be next on your TBR. Diane, director of a major New York museum, has been teetering on the edge of sanity to keep the place running for a while. When everything starts to crash down on the day of the museum’s most important fundraiser, she and her devoted compatriots spring into action. (Recommendation sent to WordSmarts.com email newsletter)