diff --git a/CHANGES.markdown b/CHANGES.markdown
--- a/CHANGES.markdown
+++ b/CHANGES.markdown
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+## Changes in 2.5.3
+  - Treat character escapes like `\NUL` as single tokens on `--diff` (see #351)
+  - Allow a `/` at the beginning and at the end of an absolute path that is
+    passed to `--match` or `--skip`
+
 ## Changes in 2.5.2
   - Use module:line:column as default label for describe/it (see #250)
   - Warn if user is affected by https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/13285 (see #329)
diff --git a/hspec.cabal b/hspec.cabal
--- a/hspec.cabal
+++ b/hspec.cabal
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 --
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 --
--- hash: 6935b231b0ab39d6cd6cec5c3e1a562188afb8399a3c60e2be17d1fb7cb8ff1b
+-- hash: 45d945a4e3d6d2f79063973b4940202e9a88a0a9bd716c7844e05001829003ef
 
 name:             hspec
-version:          2.5.2
+version:          2.5.3
 license:          MIT
 license-file:     LICENSE
 copyright:        (c) 2011-2018 Simon Hengel,
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@
     , QuickCheck >=2.10
     , base ==4.*
     , call-stack
-    , hspec-core ==2.5.2
-    , hspec-discover ==2.5.2
+    , hspec-core ==2.5.3
+    , hspec-discover ==2.5.3
     , hspec-expectations ==0.8.2.*
     , transformers >=0.2.2.0
   exposed-modules:
@@ -76,8 +76,8 @@
     , call-stack
     , directory
     , hspec
-    , hspec-core ==2.5.2
-    , hspec-discover ==2.5.2
+    , hspec-core ==2.5.3
+    , hspec-discover ==2.5.3
     , hspec-expectations ==0.8.2.*
     , hspec-meta >=2.3.2
     , stringbuilder