The Cloisters

A Novel

By: Katy Hays

Narrated by: Emily Tremaine

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick

This instant New York Times bestseller that is “captivating in every sense of the word” (Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author) follows a group of researchers uncovering 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 she 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 haunting and magical blend of genres, The Cloisters is a “masterwork of literary suspense that surges to an otherworldly conclusion” (Mark Prins, author of The Latinist).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Katy Hays. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Great Book!

I took the recommendation from Jenna Bush-Haggar from Hoda & Jenna. I enjoyed every moment.

Excellent academic novel

Loved this book. Academic novel. strong female leads, interesting characters overall, slightly supernatural narrative (involving tarot and the cloisters), great mystery, lots of twists and turns, great narrator (the author). Reminded me of Secret History (which I am inspired to re-read not having read it since it came out). I read it in two days.

Surprises all around

Didn’t see that coming!!! Had to pick my jaw up from the floor after reading the ending. Good even pace all the way through with just the right amount of suspense to keep one engaged.

Glad story was relatively short.

Didn’t like the lack of knowing character history until near end and major events had sparse explanations and details. Main character shows she is a narcissist like the friends she judged when she herself should have been the one in jail.

Cloisters

It was very different than what I thought it was going to be. It was interesting but would have loved more facts about the Cloisters.

Very much enjoyed the story

Thought it was well written, historically, interesting, and with detailed character development. Did not enjoy the way it was red.

It’s a shallow swim at times, but the deep dive at the end is satisfying.

I had a hard time finding sympathy for any one character as they all seemed a little two dimensional and under developed. But the descriptions about the Cloisters and the history of Tarot gave it enough glue to keep me listening.

Narration needed more inflection. Leo needed to sound more Leo, Rachel more Rachel, etc. Still, a good story.

Captivating but disappointing

I enjoyed the way the author developed each character and the surprise ending. The only disappointment was there was no positive character that triumphs in the end. All the main characters had no redeeming virtues.

It was okay

I stopped listening to this one several times, took forever to finish it. Unfortunately not a big fan of the narrating..it was kind of bland and there was no excitement. Also the relationship between the main character and Rachel is bizarre.

Okay, but not surprising

A good delving into human desire, but not a page turning murder mystery. If you are good at imaging the suspense of a psychological thriller this might be of interest for you.