The Cloisters is a delicious, atmospheric novel which follows aspiring academic Ann as she begins to work at The Cloisters, a medieval museum in New York. Whilst putting together an exhibition focused on the occult, Ann realises that her workplace and colleagues will introduce her to a much darker world than she previously envisioned.

Hays weaves in historical references and details seamlessly. Whilst this might become tedious and boring to those who don't really care for history or art history, and who care more for a fast-paced plot, the historian in me delighted in the detail and care she had taken. Dark academia books should have details of the academia, otherwise they fall flat, not fulfilling the first basic premise of the genre. Including the history and academic process made the book feel richer and more developed. This book is a slow-burn, but one that rewards the reader with a very satisfying ending.

The public historian in me did want to slap both Ann and Rachel for the way they talked about the visitors to the museum. There are no likable characters in this book, but they are incredibly compelling, well-fleshed out and interesting. I loved the dynamics between Ann and Rachel, it's toxic and twisted, but understandable too. It can be hard to navigate writing a relationship like theirs that feels authentic, but Hays managed it masterfully.

4.5 stars.
Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for the ARC!

If you know me then you know I love dark academia novels and this one didn’t disappoint. The Cloisters sounds like a heaven, a museum filled with old rare artefacts and books. Ann stumbles upon a summer internship there by chance… or was it? Her colleagues Patrick and Rachel are pulling together research around tarot and its origin, can cards really tell us our fate?

With love triangles, mind games, drugs and a death or two, the cloisters is a thrilling novel that any dark academia fan should read

Sinister simmering exploration into the worlds of art, academia and the occult, especially tarot cards.

Ann is finally able to leave the small town she grew up in to work in New York for the summer. When she arrives she fears she will immediately be sent home, but instead is given a job working in an area called The Cloisters which happens to be very relevant to her background.

She senses tensions between the other members of staff and is gradually drawn into the machinations, unsure who to trust.

This writer has a background that clearly shows in this story. It builds suspense straight away. It’s clever, eery and very much a page turner. It has echoes of The Secret History but not in a bad way. It just oozes academia and mixed with the occult and murder means it is a fantastic book.

This was dark, atmospheric and suspenseful: quite frankly, it was everything I wanted in a read. It’s impossible to start this without getting sucked into the world of The Cloisters, and although fiction, I felt I learnt so much from this. Definitely one to add to your shelves for dark, candle lit nights. 4 stars from me, not because I didn’t wholly enjoy this, but because I do seek out this type of novel and as such, they need to be outstanding to break apart from the others I’ve read. Katy Hays is an author I’ll keep an eye out for, for sure.

"The Cloisters" by Katy Hays is described as a novel that blends elements of "The Secret History" and "Ninth House." It's a sinister and atmospheric story set in New York's famed Met Cloisters museum, where the discovery of a mysterious deck of tarot cards reveals shocking secrets within a close-knit circle of researchers.

This book is so so slow
The writing was just so repetitive and I couldn’t get into the story
Not for me.

Although the twists at the end were shocking, it was quite boring throughout.
There didn't seem to be much of a plot, and usually the characters are interesting enough to carry the book but unfortunately for me the characters weren’t gripping enough to make me want to keep reading. I kept putting it down and dreading picking it up again.
I usually love dark academia but this one didn’t work for me unfortunately

This is an atmospheric novel based around the discovery of a mysterious ornate medieval deck of tarot cards that divides and brings together a small group of expert researchers at New York’s famed Met Cloisters museum.

I’ve been trying to find words to sum up this book but it is the rich, heavy, foggy, humid heat of the story that makes everything seem hazy – the lines between what is real, and what is a dream, blurred: the enigmatic gardener who grows belladonna, henbane and other such poisons or medieval medicines, the cloistered researchers experimenting with medieval tarot, the draw of the city and the juxtaposition between an airless sublet and a doorman building apartment filled with treasures. Death. Bereavement. Suspicion. All the while the aspiration of the researchers at the forefront and yet seemingly a mask of a truer ambition.

Breath-taking. Sumptuous backdrop, intriguing objects of art, archives and manuscripts. Full of history and yet, also, the future.

Compelling. Prose that describe an unusual environment beautifully, bringing it to the mind easily both as an organic living place and as a ‘mausoleum.’

Spell-binding. Both evocative and dazzling, the story leads you down paths of intrigue, desperate to solve riddles of both glittering objects, and the people researching them.

Spine-tingling. Sinister, secretive, seductive. Fate is a central theme to this tale, and it leaves the reader wondering about what choices we really do have in life.

I highly recommend The Cloisters by Katy Hays.

This book will be marmite for readers - either they will love the simmering and mysterious tension of the dark academia setting or be frustrated with the slow pace and detailed art world descriptions. Personally I don't know anything about art so much of this went over my head and wasn't into the convoluted mysticism of the search for tarot cards, but I did enjoy trying to piece together enough about the characters to work out what their motivations were, especially Rachel and the several twists towards the end.

It might be lazy of me to parrot some of the praise for this book, but The Cloisters does have a hefty vibe of Donna Tart’s The Secret History. And that’s a good thing. A very good thing.

There is something nerdily sexy about the minutiae of academic research and The Cloisters picks up on this beautifully. The obsession over details of a work really echoes in the detailing of the grounds and gardens of The Cloisters; the attractive cross between intensity and louche-ness of Leo; Rachel’s uptown classiness, self-assurance, intelligence and poise; Patrick’s wealth-backed interest in his collection; the treasure trove of the Ketch Rare Books and Antiques Shop and Ann’s simple small-town background but huge mind. Every single part of this book was deliciously seductive!
One of my favourite reads of the year.

I was promised The Secret History meets Ninth House, yet somehow the story didn't grip me at the start. However, I'm glad I persevered. The story was gothic and atmospheric, and I ended up enjoying it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

An enjoyable read, well written and entertaining. Hadn't read this author before but would consider reading again.

This should have been my perfect read. Dark academia, in my former profession, at my favourite museum. But I was bored. The book felt like it was holding back, so I just didn't feel all that invested.

You know that moment where you see a cover for a book, you’ve heard nothing about it until that moment, but you just know it’s going to be right up your alley? That’s what happened to me with Katy Hays’ debut, ‘The Cloisters’. The more I read into it, the more convinced I became that it was going to be perfect and it didn’t take much convincing for Sarah to agree that it seemed like a perfect fit for an episode of ‘The Dark Academicals’. It’s literally being marketed as “The Secret History for a new generation” - we can’t ignore claims like that.

While comparisons to ‘The Secret History’ are usually a bit generous, we were spot on about the vibes of this one. A round of applause for us!

You can listen to the full episode right here:

INSERT EPISODE LINK

The Secret History meets Ninth House in this sinister, atmospheric novel . . . the discovery of a mysterious deck of tarot cards lays bare shocking secrets within a close-knit circle of researchers at New York's famed Met Cloisters museum.

Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval and Renaissance collections.

There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum's curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.

Relieved to have left her troubled past behind and eager for the approval of her new colleagues, Ann is only too happy to indulge some of Patrick's more outlandish theories. But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.

And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide whether she is truly able to defy the cards and shape her own future . . .

Bringing together the modern and the arcane, The Cloisters is a rich, thrillingly-told tale of obsession and the ruthless pursuit of power.

Once Ann arrives in New York and joins Patrick and Rachel in an effort to locate the origin of tarot in Renaissance Italy, there isn’t a huge amount of plot. The novel is suspended in the sweltering heat of summer in NYC, sheltered by the cool, dark museum, and consumed by their work. It’s slow and introspective with nothing definitive to drive you through the novel, but it’s still incredibly compelling - I was completely absorbed by the atmosphere and the unsettling interpersonal drama between Ann, Rachel, Patrick and Leo.

There are conflicts of class, wealth, and belief in the power and magic of tarot. Patrick, a curator at The Cloisters who is putting together an exhibition of the origins of divination, is having Rachel and Ann search for proof that tarot was used for telling the future in the early Renaissance. It delves deep enough into the academia of it to feel like I was there is The Cloisters wading through research, but not enough that I was drowning in an unfamiliar world. All of this is compounded by this overarching feeling of something looming and the tension climbing towards a boiling point once Ann uncovers tarot cards that will make the exhibition.

I know there have been some criticisms that several questions or elements of the novel were left without a concrete, Agatha Christie style reveal of what happened, but I disagree with that. Everything we needed to know was on page and the rest was inferred - there was nothing missing or frustrating for me at all.

‘The Cloisters’ is a dark, compelling and atmospheric debut that brims with dark academia vibes.

Gothic and Solemn Academia. I admit I was drawn to this novel for three reasons: I miss university (that’s Student Finance), I love the tarot aspect (thanks Samantha Shannon…) and the word “Cloisters” has always been fantastic (thanks Doctor Who).

It was a tough read for me as my first foray into Dark Academia. I don’t know if I was expecting more of The Magicians or The Bone Season but I got neither from this novel.

Ann. What to say about Ann. Now I’ve seen a few people say they couldn’t get with her or her personality drags. I don’t know if it says more about me or Ann that I actually found her a fine protagonist. Though I’m all for flawed and drab if it compliments what is happening around her - which I feel it did.

Patrick on the other hand felt a lot more cookie-cutter and neither him or Leo were sold very strongly despite Hays and Annms best efforts to do so.

Having read The Enigma of Room 622 not long before this, I was prepped for a slow burn. But I admit there was a LOT of moments where DNF sprang to mind, and though I fought the urge I almost regret not dropping it. Unlike the aforementioned mystery, I don’t feel my commitment was reciprocated with enough meat to feel satisfied.

This was such an interesting read! I found myself so engrossed in the story, the characters had such incredible arcs, and I can't wait to follow this author's journey!

Ah I am so glad I was fortunate enough to get this before it was released, because once I saw it in the bookshops, I definitely one I would have picked up, based on cover alone. Gothic vibes, NYC and tarot cards? I am there. Add in a deadly garden?? Sold.
Sadly, the book itself fell a little flat for me. It felt very slow and the motives were revealed far too late in the read for my liking. Premise was great but the details were too much and heavily relied on additional reading.

I was beguiled by this book from the outset, the setting, the tone, the characters all captivated me - entirely my sort of book. So much so that I went and brought my own copy as soon as I could.

It took me awhile to get into this book but as a fan of dark academia I really enjoyed it and the story’s progression. I finished it really quickly as I ended up just being sucked into the story.