I’ll admit that I wasn’t initially sold. Especially in the beginning, the plot is a bit slow and the character exposition feels onerous.  But it lays critical groundwork for a spectacularly told story that leans into how the choices we make shape our path. The characters are complex and you truly come to understand their motivations and desires. I was surprised by some of the plot twists later on, except also not at all because wow they made SO much sense. Reading the final few chapters felt like finishing a puzzle and realizing you’ve got pieces in the wrong spots but now seeing where they actually go. 

The book guide notes at the end of this book call it "atmospheric," and while I definitely wouldn't have thought of that weird on my own, now I know that is exactly what this book was. Very cloaked in a strong sense of place (New York City, but a part of it that isn't often the focus of books, movies and television), and the feeling of The Cloisters. In fact, when they had the memorial for Patrick and all the curators and staff from other museums and schools attended, it almost felt like an intrusion! 

The people in this book were just kinda weirdos - I don't know what else to say about them. I didn't get their motivations throughout most of the book, and even when we got some payoff with Ann and learned that she had actually been the one to hit her father with her car, I didn't get a rush of understanding. Maybe a little more compassion for what she's running from (does the test if her town know it was her?). 

Patrick was also a particularly weird character, I don't think I understood his choices at all. Why did he sleep with 20 year olds? Why did Rachel say she felt like she HAD to sleep with him? Why did he get so weird about the cards? 

I changed my rating from 4.75 stars to 4.0 stars while writing this review - so many things were started as fact by the characters in this book that I don't know why they were fact. They certainly aren't common knowledge fact. 

This is a book about intuition, women in scholarly fields,  art and its subjective nature as well as tarot. It is a story of people: regret, love, lust, loss and a quest for knowledge. It has a weight to it.

A quick read that loses steam once a death occurs, making the lack of characterization obvious. 

I found the artistic/tarot card mystery more compelling than the who-dunnit mystery that takes up most of the latter half of the book.  The art history aspects shined in this story, and as we got away from that, the writing felt rote and unsurprising.

My main gripe is with characterization. The main character, Ann, is drawn with barely any personality, only developing some sense of agency (and cynicism) at the very very end. This comes as a shock, as almost no time is spent in any serious way developing Ann’s personality or showing how she changes because of her whirlwind summer. It all felt very surface-level and unsatisfying. The writing about NYC felt so naive, too.

Admittedly, I skimmed the last third of the novel, just wanting it to be done by that point.

More of a 2.5 star, really. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced digital copy. Sorry it took me so long to get to it!

Dark academia is an interesting genre for me; a former unhappy, mentally-ill academic who 'escaped'; I take an odd comfort in the fact that someone else has seen behind the façade...even if fiction contains a lot more murder than you find in most real departments.
The Cloisters is in a way the perfect Dark Academia book; deep in atmosphere, with secrets & agaendas winding all the way through it.  The pace is slow, so it probably isn't for everyone, but that's purposeful, & it helps build tension all the better.
Definitely a 5* read for me.

Loved the writing style & the history & art references throughout! I appreciated that it didn’t open with a murder, leaving me wondering who would die and who would do the deed. As a tarot-curious person, it was fun to read more about them and catch references! I’ll have to reread this in a few years when I have a better grasp on tarot, though the author does a superb job of explaining meanings as the story goes.

And the prologue? Damn. Gorgeously written, with a similar feeling to the final pages. Would recommend, I hope Hays writes more books! I would definitely read more.