Ripped From the Pages

Before you break out the pointed hat and green face paint, or steal the spare broom from the cupboard, dive into these witchy reads for some inspiration to innovate this most classic of Halloween costumes. Want that quintessential dark, atmospheric occult feel? Venture into the dark woods in search of witches with Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching, or strike a deal with a demon prince to avenge your eviscerated sibling in Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked. Prefer your witchcraft with a twist of dark academia? Grab a copy of Leigh Bardugo’s The Ninth House and choose your magical house in a process that has nothing to do with singing hats and everything to do with whatever creepy magic shit you get up to in your free time. (House Book & Snake represent. It’s all about that necromancy)

Forget the plastic fangs this year. Move away from the silk capes, but hang on to those tubes of fake blood. These vampire books put Dracula back in his grave and will take your vampire costume in new, frightening directions. For starters, pick up copies of these fangtastic (not sorry) new anthologies: Vampires Never Get Old edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, which contains eleven stories about all kinds of different vampires, and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz which celebrates the vampires of the African Diaspora. Two anthologies, so many unique vampire concepts sure to put some new (un)life in your costume design. I wanted to recommend Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno Garcia as well, which introduces readers to a variety of vampire subspecies whose appearances and powers are influenced by where they come from and the vampire line they descend from. But sadly it is out of print. But HAPPILY, Tor Nightfire has already announced that they are “resurrecting” Certain Dark Things in May of 2021!

If you want to cut holes out of an old bed sheet I will never stop you, that’s classic. But may I recommend taking it up a notch this Halloween? The saltwater-soaked, wrathful ghost of The Deep by Alma Katsu might entice you to find your best Titanic gown look-a-like and throw some seaweed over your head. Plus this beautiful, emotional historical read makes a great companion for the darkening days of autumn. Pop culture crossover points if you drag a prop door frame behind you and sob like Leonardo DiCaprio just slipped through your fingers. (Too soon?) If you want a plethora of ghosts to choose from for inspiration pick up the Echoes anthology, edited by Ellen Datlow. It’s 816 pages of ghost stories written by a host of popular authors. That’s a lot of ghosts, and a lot of costume ideas.

Grab your claws and splash on some Eau de Wet Dog, because a werewolf costume is as classic as it gets. But if watching The Wolf Man on loop isn’t inspiring your costume design, pick up one of these amazing, toothy horror treats instead. Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones is a genre favorite, and probably one of the best werewolf novels of recent years. It’s a gristle between your teeth violent, dark, emotional story about a boy trying to find his place in the world and in the pack. In Romina Garber’s Lobizona, Manuela Azul is also on the hunt to discover her own story and her true heritage as she uncovers a hidden world of brujas and lobizones and struggles to find her place in a society where her very existence is illegal.