An enigmatic and unsettling first novel that brilliantly illuminates some of the darker interconnections between politics and fiction. 

This is the story of one woman’s fascination with another. On one side, M.V., a blonde, dazzling actress at the height of her career suddenly vanishes without explanation. On the other, a woman stifled by the monotony of her everyday life becomes obsessed with M.V’s disappearance, to the point of traveling to the set of the actress’s final film, Terreur. Their stories intertwine in an organic, seamless narrative, and as one gazes at the other, she begins to uncover the liberating power of the female gaze and the transformative force of fiction. 

With Terror, Ariane Jousse weaves a tale about cinema, its glamour and mystery, while also crafting a profoundly sensitive debut psychological novel about the gifts that female icons can offer us, when we are willing to truly see them.

“I wanted to tell the story of a woman who manages to save herself by observing another woman. Initially captivated by the disappearance of an actress she knows almost nothing about, the heroine of my novel gradually becomes fascinated by the actress’s last role and the way the film’s director conceived it. Contemplation becomes identification and action, reigniting the life of a woman terrified by the world around her. Terreur highlights the dual emancipatory power of the female gaze and fiction. This novel is both an homage to women who observe and to women who are observed. “