I felt uneasy within the first pages of The Cloisters, by Katy Hays. That feeling never went away. Something was very wrong at the Cloisters, a real museum in New York that’s on my bucket list, and with Ann Stilwell, our protagonist. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I got to the dramatic revelations at the end of the book. The tension I felt propelled me through academic rivalry, possibly supernatural discoveries, betrayal, and scheming. This book definitely scratched my dark academia itch.
Protagonist Ann is determined to join the precarious world of academia from a young age. At her father’s knee, Ann learned Latin, French, Italian, and obscure dialects of early Italian like Ferrarese. She specializes in the early Renaissance, a period that’s not as flashy as the high Renaissance or as sprawling as the medieval era. Although her language skills are valuable, Ann struggles to get a job at any museum that will take her away from Walla Walla and the recent death of her father. Ann somehow manages to wrangle a summer position at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art—but that job evaporates when her supervisor jets off for Europe and leaves her hanging. It’s pure luck that she manages to meet the curator of the Cloisters at the same time that she gets the news that there is no job for her at MoMA.
Or is it luck? From the moment that Ann joins the hothouse atmosphere of the Cloisters, working alongside Rachel and Patrick (the curator), my sense of unease grew. Ann, who never had the money for an elegant wardrobe or the inclination to really care about her appearance, accepts gifts of clothing from Rachel. Rachel, who is everything Ann wants to be—cool, rich, respected, desired—quickly becomes Ann’s model for her New York transformation. Then there’s Patrick, a volatile man desperately seeking proof that one can really tell the future with the right deck of Tarot cards. Out in the gardens of the Cloisters, Ann also finds the sexy and probably-a-criminal Leo, who encourages Ann to start breaking rules.
Ann bounces between all three of these characters (although she gravitates strongly towards Rachel). Should she follow her heart with the irreverent Leo? Should she keep to herself and follow the dictates of her boss, Patrick? Or should she continue to reshape herself to follow Rachel’s seemingly effortless trajectory in the rarified world of fine art and academia? I’ll admit that I worried about Ann. I worried that she wouldn’t have the personal strength to make her own way in the world as herself, instead of feeling like she needed to sublimate her personality and turn herself into someone else.
That said, there’s something wrong with Ann, too. She never does what one would expect and her ability to attach herself to others got my hackles up. If you’d like to know what really happens under all the scheming and betrayals and murder in The Cloisters, you’ll have to pick up a copy and read it for yourself. I’m not going to give away Ann’s secrets.
