The Tamesis
mona’s eyesThomas Schlesser’s recently published novel “” has received critical acclaim, with Barnes & Noble naming it the 2025 Book of the Year. But it also received less positive attention for a reason that had nothing to do with the text itself: its cover.
“I think the cover of this book makes me angry,” reads the title of a viral Reddit post. Eye of Monatells the story of a girl visiting a Paris museum with her grandfather who fears she will soon go blind.
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“I’m so angry right now because apparently the main character is named Mona,” the post read. “Despite the main character’s name, the cover of the book shows a girl with a pearl earring instead of the Mona Lisa.”
As the post’s author, a Reddit user named so_adorbs, rightly pointed out, girl wearing pearl earrings (1655) was not held in Paris. The painting, sometimes considered a masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer, has actually been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since the early 20th century.
The cover is mona’s eyes Expand to reveal a chart listing each of the 52 works that Mona and her grandfather viewed. They are on display in museums across Paris, from the Pompidou Center to the Louvre, including Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci. This cover does not include girl wearing pearl earrings.
The post was posted to an art history subreddit that has a large number of followers (106,000 members), but not many compared to other Reddit channels. However mona’s eyes The post has gone viral since being posted in late December, racking up more than 1,700 likes.
While some users cautioned others not to judge a book by its cover, many posters expressed similar frustrations. “Don’t worry, this is definitely outrage bait – because the author is an art historian,” one user wrote. “He knew exactly what he was doing/what he approved.”
Schlesser is indeed an art historian—he teaches the subject at the Ecole Polytechnique. He also helps run the Hartung Bergman Foundation, an Antibes-based organization that promotes the legacy of artists Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman.
As it happens, Schlesser even answered questions about the cover mona’s eyes. When asked about the French braille publisher’s choice of a Vermeer painting, he said: “I didn’t want the cover to be one of the 52 paintings that Henri and Mona would see. That would overemphasize its importance. Instead, I wanted an iconic work of art, a metaphor for the contrast between light and dark. This painting is perfect. And, it’s mentioned on the last page of the book. It’s a great way to check if the reader has finished it!”
