Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf: Day 5

Gather around, morsel mortals! Welcome to Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf, a (typically) annual Halloween feature here on Beauty and the Bookshelf. What Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf entails varies from year to year so that, like a haunted house, you never know what to expect. It is, however, always comprised of two things: it's Halloween and it's bookish.

This year Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf encompasses one of my favorite aspects of Halloween: dressing up. Am I the only one who sees things in a store and is reminded of a book, or thinks that a certain character would totally wear that shirt? What about actually dressing up as your favorite characters? HELLO, BOOKISH HALLOWEEN. Cosplays, costumes, whatever--either way, you can dress up as--you can be--characters from books. And for Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf, I'm going to do just that: put together a series of character costumes (complete with lists of where you can buy everything) just for you. I'll be doing female versions of all the costumes, buuut they can also all be gender-swapped (or some may be gender-swapped), which is super fun! Check it all out...if you dare. (Insert evil villain laugh here, mwahaha.)

And if you've been following along this whole time, thank you. I had fun--and some stressful moments--putting these costumes of sorts of together, and now I want to dress up like all the fictional characters all the time. I just hope you've enjoyed it all, too.

You can find day one--a certain witch with iron teeth--here, day two--a guy with, er, dirtyhands--here, day three--a girl with naturally blue hair--here, and day four--everyone's favorite person who never grows up--here.

Today's costume is...

ASTRID DANE

Astrid Dane, the counterpart to her twin brother Astros--the two rulers of White London in A Darker Shade of Magic. There's something very enigmatic about the two, and I'm slightly obsessed with them. What's interesting is that they're of the villainous sort, but their color is white--white, white, white. Imagine the power of seeing someone who clearly isn't the nicest and everything about them is black and dark--that's the Dane twins, except white and bright. It'd make for a very interesting costume (just be prepared to tell people that, no, you are neither the Snow Queen or the White Queen).

Shirt | Pants | Wig | Cape blazer | Boots | Necklace

I actually really, really struggled to put together's Astrid's costume because I can't freaking find what I want. It's a struggle and I basically ended up giving up. The thing to remember is white white white, except for three things: her necklace, the little jewels in her hair (and sometimes on her wrist, I think?), and the black, pronounced veins showing through her pale as hell skin at the temples and hands. Her look is sleek, and her hair is colorless (though I went with white for effect) and braided, but I went with a looser jacket because, again, I can't find what I want, and also, it's a cape. The boots are a little go-go-ish, but she wears boots and this is the best I can find. I think an Astrid costume/look would be fierce as hell and super cool (I literally picture her sitting on her throne, arms on the arms, a slight smirk on her face, and EVIL), if only I could find all the things.

Care to be evil this Halloween?

BEFORE YOU GO...it's not really Halloween without some trick-or-treating, it? So I have a treat for you: a giveaway. One lucky winner will get their choice of a hardcover or paperback copy of any book that has a character featured on Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf. Enter if you dare, my beasties! (But beware the very important rules.)

-This giveaway is international (so long as The Book Depository ships to you for free).
-No cheating or bending the rules whatsoever.
-No private accounts, giveaway accounts, shady entries, or the like. I check. And if the majority of your account is giveaway after giveaway your entry will not be accepted. Also, one-word, meaningless comments are not preferred (hint hint).
-Winner will have 48 hours to respond to my congratulatory email or else another winner will be chosen.
-I reiterate: no cheating.

a Rafflecopter giveaway