“Inside a New York City Museum: flirting, fund-raising and fraud . . . Clever . . . McGowan exploits the potential of her workplace setting with ruthless precision, the museum’s staff offering endless possibilities for sociopolitical commentary, interpersonal dalliances, economic hypocrisies and questions of cultural legacy.” 
—The New York Times

“Friends of the Museum is a marvel. I devoured this novel with such pleasure and finished with chills, dazzled by its sheer life. I'm in awe of Heather McGowan's virtuosic talent. The depth of her compassion, her sharp eye and wry humor and, above all, her peerlessly rich and brilliant imagination that can conjure all of life, its singular, jangly wonder, in a day at the museum. One of my favorite novelists writing today.”  
—Mona Awad, bestselling author of Rouge and Bunny

“Friends of the Museum is a gorgeous and very funny whirlwind of a novel, packed with characters aplenty—there are enough of them to justify a “Cast of Characters” list before the novel begins. This is just right for the occasion at hand: The hours preceding a fundraising gala at a New York City museum. Pivoting rapidly from one character to the next, McGowan drums up the frenetic energy required to pull off such a magnificent event. The novel’s commitment to such a range of voices—from the Curator of Film to the Chief Security Officer—reflects the enormous volume of labor and planning behind these major events and institutions. As McGowan intuitively knows, they are also the perfect, insular setting for scandals, of which there are many, all exacerbated by the fact of the gala itself. The demands of the party push each character to their limit; the occasion drains them of pretense and forces their secrets into the carefully curated light.” 
—Electric Literature

“[An] ambitious, lovingly satirical send-up of the art world [with] an addictive rhythm . . . . A capacious story that pulsates with life.” 
—Library Journal

“A fun, immersive read . . . . With energetic prose and setting so deep and fully realized, reading Friends of the Museum feels similar to binge-watching a great television series.”
—The Post and Courier (SC)

“A satirical and incisive look at arts institutions and those who love them, Friends of the Museum is like nothing you’ve read before.” 
—Town & Country

“A clever and risk-taking piece of work . . . . McGowan’s writing style is a combination of the stream-of-consciousness writing of William S. Burroughs and the complexity of a Thomas Pynchon novel.” 
—BookReporter