Mona’s Eyes, a recently published novel by Thomas Schlesser, has drawn widespread praise, leading Barnes & Noble to name it the book of the year for 2025. But it is also gaining less positive notice for a reason that has nothing to do with the text itself: its cover.
“I feel like I’m being ragebaited by this book cover,” reads the name of a viral Reddit thread devoted to Mona Eye’s, which is about a girl who journeys through Paris’s museums with her grandfather, fearing that she may soon go blind.
“I feel so ragebaited right now because clearly the main character is named Mona,” the post reads. “Despite the main character’s name, the book cover shows The Girl with The Pearl Earring and not Mona Lisa.”
As the thread’s writer, a Redditor named so_adorbs correctly points out, The Girl with The Pearl Earring (1655) is not held in Paris. The painting, sometimes considered to be Johannes Vermeer‘s masterpiece, is in fact held at the Mauritshuis in the Hague, and has been since the early 20th century.
The cover of Mona’s Eyes can be folded out to reveal a diagram enumerating every one of the 52 works seen by Mona and her grandfather. They are all exhibited around Paris, in museums ranging from the Centre Pompidou to the Louvre, including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. That cover doesn’t include The Girl with The Pearl Earring.
The thread was posted to an art history subreddit with a following that is sizable—106,000 members—but modest by comparison to other Reddit channels. Yet the Mona’s Eyes thread has gone viral since being posted in late December, gaining more than 1,700 upvotes.
While some users have reminded others not to judge a book by its cover, more than a few posters have expressed similar frustration. “Don’t worry, it’s definitely rage bait – because the author is an art historian,” wrote one user. “He knew exactly what he was doing/what he approved.”
Schlesser is indeed an art historian—he teaches the discipline at the École Polytechnique in Paris. He also helps run the Hartung Bergman Foundation, an Antibes-based organization that facilitates the legacy of artists Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman.
As it happens, Schlesser has even responded to questions about the cover of Mona’s Eyes. Queried about the choice of the Vermeer painting by a French Braille publisher, he said, “I didn’t want the cover to feature one of the 52 works that Henry and Mona will see. That would have overemphasized its importance. Instead, I wanted an iconic work of art, a metaphor for the contrast between light and darkness. This painting is perfect. And besides, it’s mentioned on the last page of the book. It’s a good way to check if the reader has finished it!”
