Nullrouted Space - The void is my friend.

2026-03-212026-03-21

Review: Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

A square crop of the front cover of Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. — This cover design for Open Water is rather striking, I love the use of colours and the two characters divided by the red and yellow.

Waiting for the bus in the darkness, you pull on the hoody. It smells like her: sweet like the torn petal of a flower, sweet like lavender plucked from its stem while in summer bloom. You put your headphones on and load up Kelsey Lu’s EP, Church, an album full of orchestral loops designed to reach towards a quiet ecstasy. You could be anywhere right now, your eyes closed, enveloped in her presence, which is heavier in her absence. But you are home, amongst the melody, slipping into percussive breaks, breathing easy.
page 45

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2026-03-182026-03-17

Review: Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

A square version of the front cover of Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise. — Saoirse currently has two different covers, this is the European cover, the copy I read had a different cover. Both have the same painterly art style.

She sits on a chair and stares out at the greyness, at the studio at the bottom of the garden. She tries to ignore the stone in her abdomen, and though it has begun to move, to ripple at times, she cannot think of it as anything other than something inanimate. A heaviness that will sink her to the bottom of the ocean. Nothing can live in this environment, the acidic sorrow inside her.
page 104

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2026-03-142026-03-15

Review: Beloved by Toni Morrison

A square crop of one of the various front cover designs of Beloved by Toni Morrison. — Beloved has had a fair few cover designs over the years since its release, this is one of the newer ones.

There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind – wrapped tight like skin. Then there is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.
page 315

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2026-03-112026-03-10

Review: The AI Con by Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna

A square crop of the front cover of The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. — I rather like the front cover design of The AI Con.

[..] language is so central to our understanding of each other that when we encounter language that doesn’t actually reflect the thoughts, ideas, or communicative intent of another person, it’s difficult not to imagine some humanlike mind behind it.
page 7, Chapter 1: An Introduction to AI Hype, The AI Con by Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna

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2026-03-072026-03-07

Review: We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

A square crop of the front cover of We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian. — It is bothering me a little bit that I couldn’t do the square crop of the front cover We Could Be So Good to show the entirety of the “W” but it’s all…good.

He braces his hands on the edges of the sink and looks at his reflection, surprised to see that he looks normal, almost calm. He feels as if he’s been turned inside out, as if he just learned that a part of his heart is on the outside of his body, in the possession of somebody else entirely.
page 97, Andy

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