Literary Halloween Costume Ideas

So, I think Thing 1 and Thing 2 and Dorothy and her little dog Toto have gotten more than their fair share of spotlighting as far as literature-inspired Halloween costumes go.  Since I'm not dressing up this year, I thought it would be fun to think up some more original ideas for trick-or-treating or just partying as characters from favorite books.


Starting off with the Harry Potter series, the title character of which has inspired more than a few boys and men of all ages to don taped glasses and a lightning-shaped scar, here are some costume ideas which go a little beyond the standard Harry-and-Hermione Party City costumes:

Bellatrix Lestrange (Harry Potter)

Creepy and totally fun to act out, Voldemort's best and last (and only female) lieutenant would make for an awesome and surprisingly easy costume choice.  For those of us gifted with wild, unruly hair, the hairstyle requires nothing more than getting out of bed in the morning-- or a particularly zany wig, if your hair tends to lie nicely.  A long, tattered dress and a slightly crooked wand would complete the look, though a dagger-shaped necklace wouldn't hurt. 

More bonuses: long, tapered fingernails and a good madwoman laugh.  Or maybe some ripped Azkaban prison clothes could provide a different look altogether.  Also worth considering: a homemark Dark Mark!  (Well... if you know somebody who can draw better than the person who drew this one.)

Dobby the House Elf (Harry Potter)

I never expected to have a chance to write his name in creepy Halloween font.  That said, I've never personally known anyone to dress up as Dobby.  This one might be more of a challenge: you'd need some kind of big, floppy ears and a very large pillowcase to wear, unless you were going for a post-Chamber of Secrets Dobby and wanted to spring for a half-dozen hats and mismatched colorful socks.  Much practice on a high-pitched voice would be necessary.  

Moving on from HP, what about the more adult fantasy phenomenon, A Game of Thrones?  

 

Arya Stark, Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister, any number of other characters

  I could definitely see a pre-teen or teenage girl having fun with the tomboyish and rebellious character of Arya Stark-- maybe two sisters could go as Arya and her more lady-like sister Sansa.  I don't know if enough younger people watch the series or read the books, but maybe adult women could pull it off as well.  For Arya, I'm thinking scruffy short hair (or long hair, she has long hair at the beginning of the series), a sword called Needle, and a general lack of deference to all authority.  

Alternatively, if your dog is too big or just too furious to be a Toto, it could be Ghost the direwolf to your Jon Snow.  For Jon, you'd need some dark Night's Watch-looking armor, tall boots, a sword (of course, with a pointy end), and a curly black wig.  Dark stubble is a bonus.     

As far as other Game of Thrones characters go, Cersei Lannister would require a fashionable medieval dress, long blond wig, and one basic facial expression.  The malevolent and sadistic teenage King Joffrey would also be a great one: it's all in the disgustingly selfish attitude.

 

From the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

There are an endless amount of options within this popular YA book series, but there is also the issue that the books aren't popular enough to be recognized by everyone, especially every adult.  A few years ago, my sister and some of her friends made orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts for Halloween and, unfortunately, their costumes led to more puzzled questions than anything.  To do Percy Jackson or one of his demi-god friends right, you'd need some god or goddess-like attributes.  Think a stuffed owl on your shoulder for a daughter of Athena, or a plastic trident and shield for a son of Poseidon.   The huntresses of Artemis would be a good group costume-- a troupe of huntresses--or maybe even hunters-- with bows and arrows slung over their shoulder, wearing blue jeans and street clothes to be accurate to the books.

From Various Other Books

The Twilight-inspired costume I'd most like to see in person isn't another hail-gel-greased Edward Cullen.  Little Jane, played so well by Dakota Fanning in her brief appearances in the movie series, would make for a fun costume.  Black hood and a creepy pendant necklace (have no idea what the pendant actually is).  Then you just need a sinisterly blank expression, some pale makeup, and maybe red contacts (if you were trying for perfection).  The worst thing about this literary costume idea: probably few people would guess who you are despite Twilight's renown.  

 

The Other Mother from Coraline is one of those costumes I'd just love to try.  It would take button eyes, of course-- not sure what would be the best way to work that out in a way that you could see, though I'm sure people have done it.  And then a long black dress, black hair, and some long black fingernails to complete the creepy look.  The button eyes alone would be so eerie! 

Creepy Count Olaf from The Series of Unfortunate Events would be a pretty recognizable costume thanks to the movie adaptation with Jim Carrey portraying him.  I would love to see some guy pull off the perfect Count Olaf-- the sinister yet vaguely silly mono-brow and, of course, the eye-shaped tattoo on his ankle.  A pinstriped suit and jacket would be the perfect clothes to finish the costume... and bonus points for dressing up like one of Olaf's many bad disguises.  Count Olaf and his ever-fashionable, ridiculous girlfriend Esme Squalor might be a good couple costume, too.

Follow Friday (#32)

Happy Friday to everyone stopping by from Follow Friday (hosted by the fabulous Parajunkee and the equally fabulous Alison of Alison Can Read).  For those who don't know, I'm Kat-- reviewer of mostly fantasy, historical, and scifi-esque fiction (often I do venture into other genres, though).  If you leave your blog's link when you comment, whether old follower or new, I'll be sure to visit or follow you back-- I'm generally very good about that.  If you want to follow me, you can do via email subscription, RSS, or GFC.  ;)



This week's FF question is:

What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book?

My answer: Ooh, I like this question.  I won't deny that I kinda enjoy dissecting why I didn't like a book in my reviews, if I didn't enjoy it.  One of my biggest pet peeves is what a lot of people call INSTA-LOVE. 
INSTA-LOVE (n)-- When the hero and heroine of a novel, typically a young adult paranormal romance although the effect manifests to an extent in all genres, seem to instantly fall not just in lust, but in true, eternal wuv with one another upon first sight.  Think the classic Romeo & Juliet meeting scene, but without the classy class-iness. 

Like our featured blogger, I also don't like sudden point-of-view changes within a chapter and agree that excessive dialect can be annoying.  As a Southerner (US), I really dislike it when an author who isn't from the South tries to imitate our dialect and does so incorrectly.  For example, I like the Beautiful Creatures series, but they are occasionally somewhat guilty of this.  


ANYWAY, all writing pet-peeves aside,

I wish ya'll all happy following and a great weekend filled with much reading,

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Genre: historical fiction
Pages: 532 (hardcover)
Published: 2009 by Henry Holt

Synopsis: In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII’s court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king’s favor and ascend to the heights of political power England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

 Wolf Hall makes for a very unconventional historical fiction novel.  Not only does it reverse almost all of our long-held beliefs about the players of King Henry VIII's Tudor court, the style in which the book is written is incredibly refreshing.  No long-winded descriptions of tapestries and family histories here-- to the contrary, Mantel skips the exposition which many historical novels are so fond of and jumps right into the story, leaving us to work out the various relationships between characters.  Her very modern writing style and blunt, clever dialogue are likely two of many elements working skillfully together which has helped this bulky book (and its recent sequel, Bring Up The Bodies) to catapult onto the bestseller lists.

 This is the first book I've ever read which focuses on Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's infamously capable and manipulative chief minister.  In history and in modern fiction, he is traditionally portrayed as something of a villain, but here Cromwell is sympathetic, if only-- in my opinion-- the point-of-view character around which the better-known court dramas surrounding Henry VIII, his advisers, the Pope, and Anne Boleyn unfold.  Likewise Sir Thomas More, the conservative Catholic minister who was eventually executed for his opposition to Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, is not a wise martyr in this book, but an unyielding radical who imprisons and tortures reformist thinkers and "heretics".  I have to say, I was always a fan of More, "The Man for All Seasons", particularly after watching the Showtime series The Tudors, in which he's portrayed as a kindly intellectual with a very cool hat.  Not so in Wolf Hall: here More is as ambiguous as Cromwell, but often much less than kindly.

King Henry VIII is a major player, of course, but I really liked Mantel's portrayal of Anne Boleyn especially.  She is a crafty woman, of course, but her conversations with Cromwell bring new perspective into what the personality of this siren-like lady may have been like-- she seems a little neurotic, always in control but also maybe a little bit mad. Other familiar characters from the Tudor era which make appearances include Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife who was de-throned in favor of Anne, her daughter Mary-- strange and emotionally unstable in this book--, the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, the Cardinal Wolsey-- who was accused (probably correctly) of corruption--, and Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister. 

My pet peeve with this book is its title, because I don't think Cromwell ever visited Wolf Hall even once in the story.  (I'm pretty sure...?)  Wolf Hall was the Seymour house's traditional seat in England, and Jane Seymour herself is yet to be a major character or established on Henry's romantic radar.  Despite the misnomer title, I totally enjoyed this tome of a novel.  Despite its bulk, it turned out to be a rapid page-turner.  The next time you feel like tackling a 500+ page novel, look to Wolf Hall.   


My Rating:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Genre: YA fantasy/ paranormal romance
Pages: 417 (hardcover)
Published: 2011 by Little, Brown & Co

Synopsis:
Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.  And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.  When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone has officially redeemed YA paranormal romance and fantasy for me, just when I was beginning to lose hope in the genres.  The story of Karou, a strange blue-haired girl living in the city of Prague who was raised by partly-human monsters called chimaera, and Akiva, the deadly angelic soldier with a strikingly perfect face and a poisoned past who finds himself bizarrely drawn to this not-quite-human girl he has never met, is utterly unique and utterly thrilling.  No mere "angel romance story", this book is practically devoid of fantasy cliches-- Lani Taylor has created a fantastical world and fantastical creatures all her own from her own twisted brand of angel and demon and alchemical mythology.

The characters-- I really can't remember the last time I got so fond of nearly all the characters in a book.  Karou is my kind of heroine: she collects magical wishes on a necklace and has a half-dozen or more tattoos-- the ones on her wrists read "True Story", which I thought was too funny. She goes to art school, dodges her stalker-ish ex-boyfriend, Kaz, and has her own little flat in Prague.  Yet she is desperately curious to know that truth about the otherworldly activities of Brimstone, her chimera guardian and a sorcerer, who sends her on errands around the world to bring back teeth-- animal teeth, human teeth, teeth collected in unorthodox and probably illegal ways-- so that he can work his mysterious brand of magic.  Karou's best friend Zusana, a fiery marionette-maker who is hardly bigger than a marionette doll herself, is two or three cuts above the token "quirky best-friend/confidante" YA character-- her snark was much appreciated.

The romance between Karou and Akiva was-- as those of you readers who know how I feel about romance in most books can probably guess-- not my favorite part of the novel.  But, there is tragedy involved in their relationship and tragic love *sighs* is so much more romantic, in my opinion, than regular ol' love.  I'm hoping that the next book in the series develops Karou and Akiva's relationship in the present day to a greater extent, as YA desperately needs some more well-developed romance.

Karou's origins are a deep mystery, more to her than her secretive chimaera guardians, who stubbornly guard the truth about how she came to be raised by them in Brimstone's shop.  She and the angel Akiva, who runs across her on one of her teeth-smuggling errands and is instantly entranced by her, sense that Karou is far more than human.  The way the truth of Karou's background unfolds is unpredictable and shocking, and we are left with a cliffhanger-- the book ends before Karou's reaction to discovering who she truly is is ever fully revealed.  I'm actually glad I was late to this book's party, because I won't have to wait long for the sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight, to be released in November.  I definitely hope that fantasy and paranormal readers tired of the same old cliches will take a chance on this book; I'm really glad that I finally did.

Quotes: --"Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”
--“It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry 'Monster!' and looked behind him.”
--“Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?”
--“The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century—or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies. The wind carried the memory of magic, revolution, violins, and the cobbled lanes meandered like creeks. Thugs wore Motzart wigs and pushed chamber music on street corners, and marionettes hung in windows, making the whole city seem like a theater with unseen puppeteers crouched behind velvet.”

My Rating: