Title: The Cloisters

Author: Katy Hays

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Gothic

Publication Year: 2022

Synopsis

When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she hopes to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a Gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.

There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, including Patrick Roland, the museum’s mercurial curator who specializes in the history of tarot; Rachel Mondray, Patrick’s beautiful curatorial associate and sometime muse; and Leo Bitburg, the gardener who nurtures the museum’s precious collection of medicinal and poison plants.

Relieved to have left her troubled past in rural Washington behind her, Ann longs for the approbation of her colleagues and peers and is happy to indulge their more outlandish theories, only to find that their fascination with fortune-telling runs deeper than academic obsession. Patrick is determined to prove that ancient divination holds the key to the foretelling of the future. And when Ann stumbles across a breakthrough in the form of a mysterious and previously-believed lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards, she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship, and ambition.

Then there is an unexpected and devastating death, and suddenly everyone becomes a suspect. As the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide if the tarot cards can not only teach her about the past, but also about her future.

My Thoughts

I was with this book for the first 25%, but it lost stars for a phoned-in ending that was designed to shock, and for the character making statements about herself that zero of her thoughts and actions supported.

I give it credit for an interesting historical premise and a twisty mystery filled with morally grey characters. Also, for centering the history of tarot. While I expected tarot to play a bigger role (especially once the MC started doing readings for herself regularly, though apparently without giving the results much thought), I appreciate the detail about Hermetic imagery in the cards.

Are academics really this cutthroat over things the rest of the world probably wouldn’t care about? Or is that just a Dark Academia trope? I have no idea…the only things I murdered in college were pints of ice cream and my dating standards.

OK, one more piece of credit: If I ever make it back to NYC, I’m definitely visiting The Cloisters museum. I was curious before, but this book really highlights its appeal.

Have you read The Cloisters? What did you think?