The Cloisters

The Cloisters is the dark academic fantasy debut from author Katy Hays. Released 1st Nov 2022 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out from the same publisher in July 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats. It's especially handy in this case for finding character and historical artist/artwork names quickly in the text.

This was definitely one of the "it" books for 2022, and it is a compelling and interestingly complex story. Real places and actual historical events provide the scaffolding for a story of fantasy, conspiracy, and paranormal inescapable dark fate. The whole narrative has a distinctly edgy Gothic vibe and readers will find themselves tensing up for jump scares which mostly don't materialize.

The character driven narrative is meticulously and lushly imagined, and more impatient readers (who aren't art history nerds already) will want to bring copious amounts of patience, or resign themselves to slogging through the minutiae including botany, art history, tarot, and the intrigues inherent to medieval and renaissance court life.

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 10 hours and 16 minutes and is well narrated by Emily Tremaine. She has a neutral East Coast US accent and is easy to listen to. There are some slight difficulties with the broad range of non-US accents of some of the academic characters, but overall, she does a good job with both male and female characters of a variety of ages. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording.

Four stars, for readers who enjoy labyrinthine stories. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.