The Cloisters by Katy Hays

On the wheel of fortune, who will emerge on top... and who will die?

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.

Publisher: Atria | Genre: Suspense/Dark Academia/Mystery | Source: Purchased | Rating: 2

Power, toxic friendships, secrets, and lies roam the halls of the Cloisters in this tale that makes you ask, “What are you willing to give up for the work?”

Assigned to the Cloisters by a twist of fate, Ann Stilwell soon finds herself immersed in the world of tarot and the history behind the first known deck. Working closely with Patrick (the curator) and Rachel (associate curator), Ann soon grows close to Rachel who seems to be harboring her own dark secrets. As Ann starts developing a relationship with Leo, the gardener of the Cloisters’ poison gardens, she starts to discover there’s more mysteries than just the artifacts housed inside the museum. When an unexpected death rocks the Cloisters, Ann starts wondering if she truly knows the people she calls friends.

I pre-ordered this one from my local indie bookshop under the impression this would deal with more of a medieval-themed mystery due to it taking place in the Cloisters, a division of the MET that focuses on medieval art. I didn’t realize that it was centered around tarot, I really should have read the full blurb before I pre-ordered it. I ended up sticking this on my shelf and forgetting about it until I pulled the title from my TBR jar in January.

This one wasn’t my favorite and I’m a little embarrassed to say I started reading it on January 28^th and didn’t’ finish it until February 19^th. It was exceedingly slow and unbearably boring.

The characters were horrible people. I couldn’t force myself to care about any of them. They had no redeeming qualities and each time something else was revealed it was worse than the last. They were selfish, greedy, and needed to grow up and take responsibility for their actions, which never happened. Even more annoying was the fact they were rewarded for their horrific behavior.

The mystery was lackluster due to the amount of foreshadowing. There was so much buildup that when it was finally revealed, there was nothing to be surprised about because the author practically outlined it from the start. I also found myself questioning the logistics of certain scenes due to the amount of cameras in the Cloisters.

Overall, I found this book to be boring. Tarot doesn’t interest me and it was almost another character in the book. I didn’t care about the characters and the plot fell flat.