Book Review: The Coisters

When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects 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 medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination.

Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers’ more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs.

The Cloisters is the debut novel by Katy Hays, which comes out on November 1, 2022. Atria Book provided an early galley for review.

As a librarian and one who has always been fascinated by New York City, this was an instant draw for me. I even dabbled a bit in tarot cards and fortune telling back in my college days. So, this checked several boxes.

From the opening chapters, one can tell Hays is drawing from her own personal background for her story (she being an Art History professor and having worked in curatorial and research roles at museums and galleries). She employs several technical terms and art history details in the story, but she also makes sure to explain them so the layman reader can easily follow. It is a perk when I can learn from a book as well as be entertained. She also has a very descriptive writing style that pulls the reader into the world and the situations.

The story has its share of characters who the reader will quicky start to suspect what their motives are, just as Ann begins to. Is it passion? Is it profit? Is it power? There is also a tension throughout as Ann goes through her interactions with Patrick (the man in charge), Rachel (a fellow curator) and Leo (the gardner). This ties to the motives as well. It kept me on edge and alert throughout.

The inclusion of a tarot guide in the back was very helpful for those readers who are unfamiliar with the general meanings of the cards.