The Gaze of Jude

Jude Dove is seventeen, has a smile for everyone, and a journal she shows no one. Fair enough - what she writes in it would scare you.

Chloé arrives at school in September. No social media. No past. A sketchbook she holds like a shield. Jude watches her for two weeks, then writes in her journal: "Game on."

But it's not a game.

She doesn't know yet that Chloé draws her eyes in secret. Or that her bedroom is in a basement, behind a soundproofed door. Or that what she thinks is a game is about to blow up in her face.

Set in a small French town where Verlaine hangs on classroom walls and the Bac exams count down like a clock, The Gaze of Jude is told in two voices - one that won't stop talking, and one that speaks only in drawings.

It's funny, it's luminous, and then it's the kind of book you finish at 3 a.m. wondering why you did this to your own heart.

🇫🇷 Also available in French as Le Regard de Jude on this profile.

⚠️ Sensitive themes handled with care. Nothing graphic. Plenty of emotional damage.