While I appreciate and know that this book is pleasing to others who care about the subject, I personally did not. I found it honestly a little dull and the way the dialogue was written made it feel very flat. I wanted to like it more.

Thank you to Atria Books and Washington Square Press for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan follows the motley assortment of characters working at a storied but downtrodden museum in New York. The book takes place over a single twenty-four hour day. Shifting narration between several characters, it blends the day’s hectic events in vignettes, never resting on one character for too long. Major players include Diane, the museum’s director, Shay, the chief of security, and Benjamin, a newly hired film curator.

This book does a wonderful job at creating a sense of frenetic energy—the choice of punctuation framing, the quick vignettes that switch between character, and the way that individual flashbacks blend together creates a picture of a very frenzied day. Admittedly, the punctuation choices do make it somewhat difficult to read on an eReader, but after a few pages the style becomes more intuitive. It enhances the sense of chaos.

This book also does a pretty clear job of lambasting the status quo in the museum industry; sucking up to the Uber wealthy, lack of diversity, mistreatment of employees. The scenarios of the plot, and more directly, some of the characters make some salient points about the dark side of prestigious art institutions as inefficient, elitist, corporate machines that alienate common viewers.

The thing that the book did slightly less successfully was land on whether or not it was a plot-driven work or one that was more character-driven. While certain characters are more important to the main plot arc, they were given equal weight to the more atmospheric characters. It seemed like some of the story lines existed only to add chaos and suggest more problems with the organization. Certain stories seemed to never braid in to the main narrative, and yet seemed to get overly weighty sections of the story. The sections with Clive and Iona, for example, didn’t really seem to have as much plot values for the 24-hour cycle, and seemed like they were added to have more intrigue without payout.

Ultimately, I did think that the book was pretty engaging and that the characters did have a really interesting plot lines. At time the pacing was a little inconsistent, and the background could be given too much weight compared to more central issues. 3/5!

For starters, thank you so much for the arc!

I unfortunately did not connect with this book. The blurb was so intriguing to me which is why I requested the arc in the first place. I just think that it was a bit all over the place. To me, it didn't live up to my expectations. I felt nothing for these characters. I feel like I had to pay extra attention which sometimes isn't bad but I just didn't want to with this one. I'm giving it a 3 stars because I feel like someone else might like it. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace.

While I enjoyed reading this, I felt it wasn’t an easy read. There are a lot of characters. I had to reference the list of characters a lot. I enjoyed this, but I’m not sure most will. It was funny at times and thought provoking.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the ARC for this book.

However, it just was not for me. I had to DNF this at 10%. I personally do not like the way the dialogue was written. In the first chapter, I was a bit confused when trying to distinguish when dialogue was happening or narration was happening. Then, a complete shift in how dialogue is presented in the next chapter. I don't understand why some authors don't use quotation marks to outline dialogue? It's far less confusing for the reader that way.

I tried to push through it because the premise seemed really interesting, but I could not connect to the characters. I had trouble following the plot, and I did not enjoy how it was written. I also had issues with how the author wrote fat characters. The brief mentions of them rubbed me the wrong way. All in all, while I appreciate the opportunity, I had to DNF.

This book had so much potential. The story itself is so interesting, but there is SO MUCH going on. There are a lot of characters (thankful for the list up front), but then we go through all of those characters hour by hour. The style itself is hard to read. You need to pay attention, but if you don’t pay attention closely you’ll miss something or else forget the small details if you wait too long.

I was so excited to start this book after reading great reviews on Netgalley but after multiple tries to start this story and the way this novel was formatted, I was just unable to get into it and was unable to finish it. This has nothing to do with the writer/writing themselves, as the prose was interesting and the cast of characters showed promise, it just wasn't for me.

This book has an extremely confusing format. While taking place over the course of 24 hours, there are no real chapters and you are constantly bouncing from a load of characters. I enjoy character driven stories, but this didn’t work for me. I couldn’t connect to a single person.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

A twisty turney mystery, all wrapped up in one day at a museum. It was a bit confusing at first, with a breakneck pace and concept, but I ended up really enjoying the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books (Washingtons Square Press) for a copy of this ARC! This book was a crazy ride from start to finish!

When I read that Mona Awad blurb this book, I knew immediately that I had to read it and after perusing the first few pages and seeing a character list was provided, I knew I was in for a wild ride.

Diane Schwebe is the director of a famous New York Museum. Supporting her are a whole array of other Museum workers: Chris, her steadfast and reliable assistant; Henry, the Museum’s lawyer; Shay, the Museum’s head of security, and many more. Friends of the Museum takes place over the course of 24 tumultuous hours on the day of the Museum’s annual Gala - meant to woo donors for their continued patronage. But as tensions mount over the course of the day, each of the characters break in their own way, one of them with their life.

This book was such interesting concept, both in topic and design. There are no chapters, which may be dismaying to some readers. Instead, this book is laid out in a sort of minute-by-minute breakdown that span approximately 24 hours. Another thing unusual about this book is the way McGowan tackles dialog. There aren’t quotation marks and words are often intermingled with action. It’s like a whisper of a screenplay that’s been novelified. It took a little bit getting used to but once my brain wrapped around the strange approach, it felt more organic and realistic than what you normally get in a book. This book is a masterclass in storytelling - specifically showing not telling.

This story also follows a very large cast of characters. At first I was concerned that I’d never be able to tell them all apart but McGowan does an incredible job of giving each character their own voice. By about half way through the book I had a strong grasp of who each person was. That said, I appreciate that the beginning of the book starts with a quick summary of the cast because I referred to it often (I thought this would be annoying but surprisingly it didn’t bother me much). These characters are all riddled with flaws, weighed down by their personal and work-related dilemmas.

I also really enjoyed the atmosphere. Over the course of the day you can feel the stress building across all the characters as they suffer mishaps both in the workplace and in their personal lives. This story is an incredible pressure cooker of a novel, a delicious slow burn tension that you can feel is building up to some sort of tragedy and McGowan does not let down. This story is gritty, uncomfortable and unapologetically human.

This book will not be for everyone. The departure of traditional dialog and chapters will no doubt worry some, as will the massive cast of characters. But I strongly encourage readers to push past these concerns and give this story a try. It’s a fantastic book!

Rating: 4.5/5
Review will be published on my website on April 7th, 2025 at the following url:
https://mishmashedmagic.com/bookblog/friends-of-the-museum-by-heather-mcgowan

I was really intrigued by the idea of this, but honestly, it was a bit hard to follow. There are so many characters and different perspectives that I got lost a few times, especially with how the dialogue jumps around. I'm not the biggest fan of a character-driven plot and it felt a little chaotic and hard to stay engaged.

While I think the setting of a museum would be ripe for conflict and story - somehow, these characters, over one day, began to lose me one by one. It was so difficult to track who was speaking when due to the nature of how this was written, and perhaps for someone else, it would have landed better.

Holy crap this is SO GOOD!!!!!! This is so fun and engaging and unlike any book I’ve read. Set over the course of one day, you’re immediately drawn in. I was worried there would be too many characters but I did feel like it worked. It took a bit to get them all straight but then I was following. As an anthropology major, this totally worked for me :)

This book has far too many characters and side characters that jumble the plot. The book is a real slog that takes more than a hundred pages to get into. While you empathize for our fraught director, you lose the impact of her plot with all the side characters.

A meandering slice-of-life novel told from many perspectives over the course of a single day. This is the type of book made to showcase both the absurdity of normal life, and the everyday tragedies humans endure. It thoroughly accomplishes that. The story is firmly grounded in its setting, a (unnamed but large) New York museum, and revolves around a major gala being hosted on the day in question. We follow a wide cast of museum employees as they go about their personal daily duties and contemplate their own lives and relationships.

I sometimes found this a little hard to follow, partially because stylistically this book is very unique. In keeping with the high art mentality the narrative is handled almost more like a screenplay than a work of literary fiction. The focus on the character studies of each narrator is far more present than any descriptive prose. I wasn’t initially expecting this but more and more felt it suited the story as I read on.

Each scene is woven together throughout the day strictly chronologically (practically minute by minute) as narrative is passed carefully back and forth. Because of this you’re thrown pretty quickly into the workplace politics and personal problems of each character while the more overarching plot lines of scandals surrounding the museum’s management take awhile to slot together. That said, at around a hundred pages in, the many POVs do begin to coalesce and from there the book starts to fly by. Overall I have to say this book was fascinating- If I felt it had a rocky start it was because there’s a lot of ground work that went into establishing the many minute details that eventually make the crux of the plot. I’d definitely recommend this, and I feel like it’ll be one that continues to pop back into my mind randomly for a long time to come. Wonderfully written.

DNF I was having trouble connecting with the characters and the story itself. The writing felt clunky. I might pick this up again eventually because the premise is interesting to me but for now it’s just not hitting.

Maybe I’m in a reading slump or maybe this author just isn’t for me, but this felt tedious to read. I gave myself a few days to read this and I just wasn’t finding myself excited to get further and further into the story. There were personally too many characters for me and I just wasn’t thrilled with this

Witty and smart page-turner! I loved reading through each character's perspective on the unique environment that is a museum staff.

DNF @20%

The premise of this book sounded so fun, but it was not at all. I had no idea who was talking or what was going on. There was a significant amount of swearing which wasn't really needed. I felt like I hadn't gotten to know or care about any of the characters by this point in the book.

The concept of this book had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, the execution fell short. The novel centers on a group of employees working at a prestigious museum, following their daily routines as they maintain the institution and go about their jobs. While this kinda seems right up my alley, (no plot just vibes/crazy shit), I just found myself distracted and struggling to stay engaged.

A museum is such a rich and dynamic setting, yet the characters felt underdeveloped, and the museum itself almost served as a mere backdrop. I'm just left feeling quite puzzled and unsatisfied with this book. The writing style was rather flat, and the formatting was confusing at times. I found it difficult to follow conversations or even know who was speaking at certain points.

It just wasn't for me. The fact that I have so little to say about it, given how much I usually talk about books, basically tells you everything.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.