2.25 Stars ⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for review purposes.

The Gallery Assistant is a thriller about a gallery assistant who cannot remember how she got home from a recent party. This is further complicated when the host of the party (an artist client of the gallery) is found murdered.

I wasn't thrilled with this book. The book takes place shortly after 9/11 and the sections discussing those events felt tonally different from the mystery/thriller sections of the novel. The mystery itself was predictable and relied very heavily on the other characters being deceptive to an unreasonable degree. The exploration of the aftereffects of 9/11 felt very out of place in a novel published in 2025. This book may have its audience, but it is not for me.

I feel weird saying I enjoyed this as one of the plot points in the books has to do with 9/11..but here we are. Chloe was really hard to read at times because of her drinking...but once we read what happened to her that tragic day, I understood what she was doing. They way the author painted a lot of people doing, in different ways.
As to the gallery and murder and mystery surrounding that? That was pretty fast paced and I absolutely had no clue how it was all going to tie in or who our bad guy was. So on that, I top my hat because usually I can guess pretty quick.

The Gallery Assistant was a quick and well written thriller! I have not read anything by her before but I would be open to reading more books of hers in the future.

This was an intriguing plot and mystery with good characters! Taking place in NYC 2001, 9/11 is definitely a big part of the plot. It took me a little bit to get into the story and then I just had to finish it to see what was going to happen, but I found it to be a little underwhelming. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!

The pacing of this book was a little slow for me for a thriller. The 9/11 plot felt very forced in this story. It felt like the author tried to tie it into the story every few chapters but mostly felt like an afterthought.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The art world x New York City x mystery/thriller - with some of my favorite elements, I knew this story would have me hooked! Belli’s writing is incredibly atmospheric - I constantly felt like I was in a haze or a fever dream. Not sure who to trust, danger lurking around every corner, and more secrets to uncover with every page.

Belli perfectly captures the fear and trauma prevalent in the City post-9/11, but also conveys its immense strength. I loved her descriptions of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and its tight-knit community of artisans and small-business owners. Belli’s personal background in the art world adds depth to both her story and her characters, and showcases the incomprehensible wealth that can easily lead to sinister acts.

This was a fast-paced, thrilling story. Chloe is such an empathetic character and I felt like I was racing alongside her to uncover the truth. I look forward to more novels in this genre from Belli!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick read, which I finished during my plane ride!

Notable lines:
“They’d heard Williamsburg was the next cool place, the new Lower East Side, full of underground parties in warehouses and great bars without signs, places you had to be in the know to find. The curious sometimes rode the L train, poked around Bedford Avenue, ate at one of the few restaurants, and then piled back onto the subway looking vaguely disappointed.”

“I remember thinking it captured only one aspect of feeling helpless. Not the despair or anguish or immobility that often accompanied such a state, but the violent anger that was its sister, the rage born of being unable to act, of having all your choices withdrawn against your will.”

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Belli wrote a fast-paced read with solid twists, a worthy setting in post-9/11 New York, and a heroine that you root for all the way as she uncovers the mystery of who murdered Inga Beck. The art world touches were strong, as were the red herrings and the slight romantic subplot.

Welcome to the thriller scene, Kate Belli. We are lucky to have you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unreliable narrators became so prevalent that the trope gave me fatigue. Kate Belli’s The Gallery Assistant appealed to me because of its setting: New York right after 9/11. I’m so happy I decided to overlook my ban because it is very suspenseful. Chloe, the titular assistant, drinks too much, sleeps around and engages in the worst kind of self-destroying behavior. I wanted to slap some sense into her. But then, most of it is survivor guilt, since she escaped from the Towers alive. This kept me rooting for her, even when it would have been easier just to wish for her demise. The author was in NY at the time of the attacks, and it shows. I was also there, and the way the characters feel, their conversations, the paranoia and the trauma of something so horrific, is well captured in the story (Chloe’s thoughts when her train stops in a tunnel because of traffic congestion were identical to mine in such a situation right around that time). I’m not detached enough to know whether this novel will resonate this powerfully with readers who didn’t live through 9/11, but those people can still read this for the story. The plot is a little over the top sometimes, but it’s so entertaining that I didn’t care. The secondary characters are not as well defined, but Chloe is sympathetic enough to carry the novel on her own. The inside look into the art world was also worth reading and, despite some dialogues about the politics of the time, the book stays neutral and will not aggravate those who prefer not to have any political content. Really good.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books.

The Gallery Assistant had promise but didn’t quite land for me. Set in post-9/11 NYC, it’s framed as a murder mystery in the art world, but leans more into trauma and PTSD than suspense. The unreliable narrator angle had potential, but the mystery felt undercooked, and my own theories ended up more compelling than the actual resolution.

Atmospheric and easy to read, but ultimately underwhelming.

*The Gallery Assistant* is a smart thriller that pulls you straight into post-9/11 New York. The writing captures both the glamour and grit of the city while keeping you guessing at every turn. Suspenseful and stylish, it’s a page-turner perfect for fans of thrillers.

This one just wasn't for me! DNF - I'm just not the reader for this book, and that's okay. I didn't love the setting, themes, amnesia trope, con/heist, etc. Those just aren't things I particularly enjoy in stories. If that's for you, then definitely pick this one up.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

What a terrific book.

I recommend to all readers. It took me no time at all it seems. I read nonstop.

I very much wanted to like this book more than I did. The setting and the premise were appealing. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations. There were redeeming aspects to it: Chloe’s PTSD after having survived the terrorist attacks of 9/11 seemed well-researched and tied into the mystery well (her memory losses and drinking helped obscure what had happened on the night of the murder). Ultimately, I feel like the book tried to do too much.

SPOILER: One very minor note: I’m not sure how it was in 2001, but currently the NYU art conservation graduate program is fully funded, so Vik wouldn’t have had to turn to crime to pay for his graduate degree

Really interesting thriller that kept me guessing how it was going to end the whole way through. Chloe survived the 9/11 terrorist attack in NYC but has been left with lasting repercussions and untreated PTSD. She’s works at a high end art gallery and loves her job but her drinking outside of work is starting to affect her job. After a night out with people from the gallery ends with one of their artists ending up murdered, Chloe has zero memory of what happened. Her life starts to become increasing strange and she begins to think the deceased artist left clues as to who murdered her in her paintings. Really fun twisty beach thriller read

This'll be one of those books that it's hard for me to be super objective about because it kinda hits me where it hurts. I don't think I've previously come across a mystery/thriller that also deals with the events of 9/11, and I was wary going in because I was in NYC when it happened (I'd just begun my freshman year of college at NYU...so, yeah) so I got my own trauma, you know?

But reading this felt cathartic, ultimately, as the subject was dealt with very gracefully and sympathetically. I can see that some of the criticism around this book is that the main character is SUCH a mess but like, I get it dawg. I think it captures this specific moment in time extremely well, and I found it really satisfying to be with this character as she climbed out of the emotional hole that she got knocked into after that terrible day.

Would I recommend this as a solid example of the mystery/thriller genre? Not necessarily. I have notes about the pacing and the way some of the elements were resolved, to the point that this was more of a 3.5 on the whole tbh. But I'm rounding up because I'm the sheriff in this town and, well, it's personal. We all get through it the way we get through it, and I thank Kate Belli for tackling this in such an honest way.

My thanks to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity!

This was a slow paced book, and really took time to get into the grit of it all. While its marketed as a thriller, it didnt feel that way for me. It felt more like a fiction with a little bit of darkness and murder, but not a true thriller.

I love when books include the art world, i feel like it gives an extra air of glamour. I didnt expect the 9/11 details, which were a nice touch, but can sometimes be difficult for people to read or get through. I think marketing it with a trigger warning for that would be smart, as alot of readers may have personal tragedies tied to that day.

I figured out the "twists" pretty early, but it wasnt a problem. I still enjoyed getting through the story.

This story about a young woman who wakes up with no memory of the night before and finds herself embroiled in a murder case is given a unique slant by its setting in 2001 New York City, shortly after the falling of the towers. Chloe is a survivor of the World Trade Center attacks who barely escaped with her life and suffers from PTSD, self-medicating by blacking out memories of the day through excess drinking and reckless sexual behavior. The suspense of the whodunnit aspect of the story is enhanced by Chloe's fragile mental state as she navigates the world of high-end art, high-flying socialites, and auction houses and becomes caught in a web of conspiracy as she searches for the truth about a talented artist's death. I found the characters believable the plotting tight and intriguing, and the tension riveting. The place and time of the story and its impact on the situation is particularly well-handled and makes the novel stand out from the current crowd of psychological thrillers.

I tried to read this book multiple times and for the life of me I could not get into it. I had to DNF it around 20%.

Good slow burn suspense novel, I found it quite interesting to be set a month after 9/11 because of that there is a lot of moving parts and tension around it.