Project Mirror finally has a face, and it’s haunting in exactly the right way.
The ornate mirror frame feels deliberately anachronistic against the digital ghost floating inside it. There’s something unsettling about classical beauty containing a glitched reflection. The designer understood what I’ve been writing about for two years: we’re all performing for invisible audiences, even when we think we’re alone.
The tagline captures the novel’s core tension perfectly. ‘Beauty is code and humanity is the bug.’ In this world, faces get software updates and aesthetic glitches need fixing. My protagonist believes she’s helping people by smoothing their imperfections, but she can’t see that the system itself is broken.
That ethereal figure in the mirror could be anyone. She’s dissolving and reforming simultaneously, caught between human and algorithm. The blue-green palette suggests both technology and something organic, dying or being born.
I’ve spent months exploring how we curate ourselves for audiences that might not exist. The cover makes that psychological state visible. Looking at it feels like catching yourself performing in a mirror when you thought no one was watching.
The book goes live for pre-orders next month. Strange how seeing your ideas given form makes them feel both more real and more fragile.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
