Costume Contest 🧙🏽‍♂️ + Halloween Reads 🎃

I enter a costume contest. Plus, spooky book recs.

Tale 🥇

As I trudged up the steep hill in the cold drizzle, I regretted agreeing to enter the costume contest. It was a few days before Halloween, and the streets were dark and deserted. Even so, I felt conspicuous in my costume.

When I finally made it to the top of the hill, I paused to catch my breath. The venue was just up ahead, and I could see its bright neon lights from the distance. After a few moments, I set out reluctantly towards it.

My friend Mia was already waiting outside the venue. She was impatiently tapping her foot. I braced myself for a rebuke.

“Finally,” she said, glancing at her iPhone. “You’re 15 minutes late.”

“A wizard is never late nor is he early,” I said. “He arrives precisely when he means to.”

Mia ignored the quote.

“And what…” she said, squinting to look closely at me, “Are you wearing?”

“It’s my costume,” I said, indignantly. “I’m Gandalf the Gray.”

I was wearing a pointy gray hat, a silver wig of long flowing hair, and a fake gray beard that drooped. I had completed this ensemble—somewhat incongruously—with a gray hoodie, dark blue jeans, and black sneakers.

Mia snorted.

“You look like a tech bro Gandalf,” she said. “Couldn’t you have found a gray bathrobe and slippers?”

“I’m not going to wander around town clad in a bathrobe,” I said, with all the dignity I could muster. “This outfit is uncomfortable enough as is.”

“You’ve got to commit fully,” Mia chided. “Look at my Alice in Wonderland costume.”

I took a closer look at Mia’s costume. She was wearing a pastel blue dress with a white apron and white stockings with black shoes. Her long blond hair was held in place with a black headband. She looked like she had leapt out of the pages of a storybook.

“Let’s just go inside,” I grumbled. “I’m getting soaked standing here.”

We went inside.

The venue was a Japanese restaurant and bar. Large paper lanterns with inked characters hung on the ceiling, and they cast a red glow everywhere. The walls had murals depicting scenes from Japanese movies and TV shows, and there was even a large Godzilla head mounted behind the bar. The atmosphere was rowdy with loud music and shouted conversations.

We sat down at the long wooden bar and ordered a couple of highballs, nori fries, and chicken karaage.

“How’s work been?” I asked.

“Stressful—like always,” Mia said.

Mia worked at an understaffed non-profit arts organization. I made sympathetic sounds as Mia recounted her difficult work week.

“And you know what’s the worst part?” Mia asked, finishing her tale of woe.

She continued before I had chance to answer.

“They gave the ‘employee of the month’ award to Robert—I did so much more overtime than him!” she said.

“Didn’t you win that award a couple of months ago?” I asked.

“I did,” Mia said. “But there’s no rule against winning it multiple times. It would just be nice to be appreciated.”

Mia huffed. Then, she stood up.

“I’m going to scout out our competition,” she said, and walked away.

While Mia was still prowling around the room, our drinks and snacks arrived. I realized my fake beard—which drooped inconveniently over my lips—was interfering with my ability to eat or drink. I tried to take off the fake beard, but it was looped over my ears where it had gotten tangled with my wig. So I took off my hat, my wig, and my fake beard.

Feeling greatly unencumbered, I tried one of the nori fries: It was perfectly crisp and seasoned.

Mia returned and rolled her eyes at my discarded costume.

“The competition is weak,” Mia reported. “Most of the costumes are low effort—like yours.”

I was too busy stuffing my face to defend myself. We ate and drank in companionable silence for a while.

“Are you two here for the costume contest?”

We turned around to find ourselves face-to-face with the owner of the restaurant—who was something of a celebrity, having competed in various cooking TV shows. He was in his 30s with styled spiky hair, a trimmed beard, and a single earring. He wore his chef’s uniform, which was spotless.

“Yes, we are,” Mia said, hurriedly brushing the crumbs off her costume. “I’m Alice in Wonderland.”

She started to tell the chef about how she’d assembled her outfit by shopping at various thrift stores. He nodded along, looking suitably impressed.

Meanwhile, I rushed to put on my wig, my fake beard, and my hat. I cursed inwardly at the terrible timing.

“And what are you supposed to be?” he asked, glancing in my direction.

“Gandalf the Gray,” I announced, my beard still slightly askew.

“Didn’t he have like a big wooden staff?” the chef asked. “Where’s your staff?”

“My staff is broken,” I said.

The chef made a disapproving sound, clearly missing the reference.

Once he’d moved on to the next costumed group, Mia reproached me some more for my lack of attention to detail. She would’ve likely spoken at length, but the chef returned after a few minutes.

“Congratulations,” he said to Mia. “You won first place.”

Mia looked dazed. He lifted Mia’s arm in the air—like she had just won a boxing match—and repeated the announcement to the room at large. There was a round of polite applause and a couple of drunken cheers.

He handed Mia—who was shaking off the daze—a large envelope.

“Here’s a gift card,” he said. “Come back anytime to redeem it.”

Mia’s grin was dazzling—brighter than the restaurant’s neon signs. I realized with a sinking feeling that this triumph had gone straight to her head. I would be hearing about it for weeks; it would go down in the annals of our history.

The chef then turned to me and patted my shoulder.

“Better luck next year, Gandalf,” he said. “Don’t forget the staff.”

---

Tomes 📚

Lockwood & Co. ⚔

This book series revolves around a small, independent ghost hunting agency— Lockwood & Co.—in London. In this fictional world, London (along with the rest of the U.K.) is battling a deadly supernatural infestation referred to simply as “The Problem”. While ghosts are now commonplace, only children and teenagers are able to sense their presence and combat them. London has many ghost hunting agencies—which are run by adult supervisors and teenage operatives—but Lockwood & Co. is the only agency run entirely by teenagers.

Anthony Lockwood is the suave and swashbuckling leader of the team. He’s gifted with psychic sight and skilled with the rapier. George Cubbins is the bespectacled and plump researcher of the team. He loves spending time in the archives and conducting experiments. Lucy Carlyle is the newest member of the team (and the narrator of the series). Her psychic listening ability is second to none, and she also possesses the ability of psychic touch. Anthony, George, and Lucy work and live together at 35 Portland Row—the cozy Lockwood family home.

The first book in the series—The Screaming Staircase—chronicles Lockwood & Co.’s big break: The haunting of Combe Carey Hall. The agency is on the brink of bankruptcy after a disastrous case, but their press coverage lands them an unexpected and powerful client. John Fairfax, the Chairman of Fairfax Iron, hires the small agency to rid his country mansion of a bevy of ghosts. Lockwood & Co. agree to spend a night in the infested mansion—what follows is a bloodcurdling and gripping adventure.

The rest of the series continually raises the stakes. Lockwood & Co. slowly and steadily rise to prominence by tackling bigger and more dangerous hauntings. The team members improve their skills, and they hire additional team members—while still remaining small and independent. The series introduces a compelling cast of secondary characters: From the perpetually disgruntled Inspector Montagu Barnes of the Scotland Yard to the sophisticated and regal Penelope Fittes, the head of the prestigious Fittes Agency, to the disreputable-but-helpful Flo Bones, a relic scavenger.

Along the way, Lockwood & Co. discover a sinister conspiracy that completely upends their understanding of The Problem. The series conclusion is explosive and immensely satisfying. And though this series is marketed to middle schoolers, it touches on serious themes of grief and loss, friendship and loyalty, bravery and sacrifice.

While Jonathan Stroud, the author of this series, is incredibly commercially successful—his Bartimaeus series sold millions of copies worldwide—the Lockwood & Co. series has always seemed under appreciated to me. I’ve been a fan of the series for years, and I felt enormously vindicated when Netflix launched a TV show based on the series in 2023. Unfortunately, the show was abandoned after the first season, but the 8 episodes—based on the first two books—are definitely worth a watch.

The Dresden Files 🕵🏻‍♂️

This bestselling book series follows the adventures of Harry Dresden, a wizard and private investigator living in Chicago. In the Dresden Files, various supernatural factions—wizards, vampires, werewolves, dragons, fairies, spirits (to name a few)—exist together in an uneasy truce with each other and remain hidden right under the noses of oblivious humans.

In Storm Front, the first book of the series, Harry is hired by Lieutenant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago Police Department to consult on a gruesome double murder. The forensics team is baffled by the seemingly anatomically impossible killings, but Harry recognizes the telltale signs of dark magic. Harry’s investigation leads him to the seedy parts of Chicago, and he soon finds himself entangled with mob bosses, nosy journalists, vicious vampires, and dark mages. Meanwhile, the wizard council—which disapproves of Harry and his detective business—dispatches a surly warden to scrutinize Harry’s every misstep and execute him if he dabbles in dark magic himself.

I was delighted to find a series that combined mystery and urban fantasy—two of my favorite genres. The Dresden Files literary universe is vast—there are 17 books so far with the 18th book due early next year (in addition to several short story collections)—and I lost myself in this series during the winter of 2024.

Harry’s character arc and growth is meticulously plotted, and the constellation of side characters are endlessly fascinating. The series is an absolute rollercoaster with moments of exhilaration and despair. However, I have a particular fondness for the early books in the series, where Harry is mostly focused on keeping his struggling private eye business afloat, with occasional help from his friends.

The Midnight Feast 🌖

Lucy Foley writes atmospheric murder mysteries where the setting influences not only the mood but also the narrative arc of the story. The Midnight Feast is a standalone novel set in the newly opened luxury hotel, the Manor, located on the Dorset coastline. The Manor is bounded by a thick forest on one side and a precipitous cliff on the other side. The hotel has breathtaking ocean views, manicured lawns, and an infinity pool. The pampered guests stay in comfortable cabins, which are situated near the forest, along the cliff, and—for the particularly adventurous—atop the trees. Unfortunately, despite this idyllic setting, the opening weekend of the Manor goes horribly wrong. The novel is sinister and spooky, and the twists kept me turning the pages late into the night.