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Title details for The Cloisters by Katy Hays - Wait list

The Cloisters

A Novel

by Katy Hays
Emily Tremaine
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
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In this "sinister, jaw-dropping" (Sarah Penner, author of The Lost Apothecary) debut novel from the author of Saltwater, a circle of researchers uncovers a mysterious deck of tarot cards and shocking secrets in New York's famed Met Cloisters.
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 at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs.

"A tour de force by an important new voice" (Rachel Kapelke-Dale, author of The Ballerinas), The Cloisters is a haunting and magical blend of genres that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 1, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797150383
      • File size: 295847 KB
      • Duration: 10:16:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 5, 2022
      Hays debuts with a moody and suspenseful story of a floundering art history graduate. Though Ann Stillwell has been unsuccessful in pursuing a grad school offer, she nevertheless lands a coveted summer internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—but upon arrival, she learns the offer has been rescinded. Ann then hears of a vacancy at the Cloisters, where she joins the beautiful and supremely competent Rachel Mondray in assisting head curator Patrick Roland on a research project related to the tarot, which, according to Patrick’s hypothesis, has much older ties to the occult than scholars had previously assumed. Ann is dazzled by Rachel’s wealth, and a quick, intense friendship develops as she is drawn into the research, though she’s increasingly unnerved by Patrick’s fervor and seeming belief in the occult. Hays carefully leaves the supernatural elements open to interpretation, and Ann’s summer is ultimately shaped by a tragedy with a traceably human cause. Readers will be fascinated by the evocative setting as well as the behind-the-scenes glimpses into museum curatorship and the cutthroat games of academia. It makes for an accomplished debut. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Emily Tremaine guides listeners into this sinister exploration of scholarship, the occult, and those driven by a desire for power. Ann's summer job at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art takes a sudden shift when she's assigned to The Cloisters, a museum of medieval art and architecture. There, she encounters a group of driven academics, well-versed in arcane knowledge, botanical drugs, and manipulation. Intelligent but na�ve, Ann discovers a deck of tarot cards from the fifteenth century, which may actually predict the future. Tremaine provides just the right suspenseful tone as Ann becomes obsessed by questions of fate, friendship, destiny, and magic. Tremaine's voice reflects Ann's increasing questioning of her ability to make rational choices; however, she never foreshadows the shocking twists ahead. Engrossing listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Eager to escape her hometown and her oppressive mother, Ann, a researcher of early Renaissance art history, arrives in New York City for an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When those plans fall through, Ann is luckily claimed by the curator of the Cloisters to work as a research assistant. Working at the Cloisters, a museum and garden bursting with medieval wonders, is a dream come true for Ann. However, the longer she's there, the more entwined she becomes in both the research and the people. Listeners who read the novel's synopsis, which promises chilling magic and mayhem, may be disappointed to find that most of this story centers on romantic entanglement and toxic friendship rather than gothic horror. To be sure, gothic vibes, tarot cards, and murder are all here, but the drama is more mundane than spooky. Narrator Emily Tremaine provides a remarkably apt depiction of Ann, capturing her naivete and conveying her increasing sense of being in over her head. VERDICT Listeners looking for drama with a hint of magic may find much to love in Hays's debut, but diehard fantasy lovers would be better served by Donna Tartt's The Secret History or Alex Michaelides's The Maidens.--Danielle Arpin

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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