Book Review: The Cloisters by Katy Hays
By Lindsay Quackenbush
Ann Stilwell moves to New York City after graduating from a small liberal arts college in her hometown of Walla Walla, Washington, expecting to spend the summer as an intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On her first day, Ann’s fate changes when her assigned supervisor is gone for the summer. Instead of the Met, Ann is selected to spend her summer at the Cloisters researching alongside Rachel Mondray, a charismatic and darkly intriguing curatorial protégé, and her alluringly eccentric mentor Patrick Roland.
In an endless attempt to escape the tragic secrets of her past, Ann dives headfirst into an ongoing project on the history of divination and the occult. As their research quickly fades into a dark obsession, Ann loses herself in the blurring lines between what is real and what is imagined. Her entanglements with her colleagues mimic this blurring line, as secrets pile up and bind the group together in an increasingly sinister web of contradicting loyalties. Just as Ann thinks she’s decided who she can and can’t trust, the discovery of a mysterious tarot deck and an ill-timed tragedy throw everything back into oblivion. As Ann grapples with the question of whether the future can really be predestined and foretold by a deck of cards, she wrestles with understanding how and why the tragic events of her past and present could be fated from the beginning.
I was excited to read The Cloisters because I love a story tinged with mystery and the occult. I think Hays does a great job of crafting a creepy, gothic atmosphere, and her writing style draws the reader into the intimate and darkly fascinating world of The Cloisters. As a reader, I felt I could inhabit Ann’s world—the sounds, the smells, the feel of her life in The Cloisters. Though I sometimes got lost in the descriptions of the tarot cards and their meanings, I found the blending of academia and occult practices so interesting and enjoyed experiencing the characters’ academic and spiritual journeys.
The central question throughout the novel is that of fate: Are the events of our lives really predestined, or do our choices have some influence on the way things turn out? Though I think this is a fascinating premise, I don’t think we ever come to a satisfying conclusion about what this all means for Ann. As the secrets of the past are revealed in an attempt to explain the behavior of the present, I wasn’t quite able to see how everything connected. Even with the suspension of my own imagination, I found some details too hard to believe. However, I do think readers will be captivated by the world of the Cloisters and will keep reading to find out the twisty ending to Ann’s story.
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Lindsay Quackenbush is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she received her B.A. in English Literature. She currently lives in downtown New York City and is the Publicity Assistant for Zibby Books.