Check out this amazing book-accurate Hester Shaw cosplay

Using incredible, movie-quality prosthetics, a truly horrific and fiercely accurate version of Philip Reeve's original vision for Hester Shaw has been stunningly brought to life in the real world.

What immense dedication and dark imagination shown by the talented make-up artist, Anna Langham. This is exactly the level of visceral storytelling that drew readers to the Traction Era in the first place.

Back before the film was released, one often wondered if director Christian Rivers was prepared to be as boldly unglamorous as this effort with his massive Hollywood movie production. We all strongly suspected the on-screen Hester's scarring would be heavily toned down from this amazing, terrifying look to appease mainstream audiences. And sadly, as history shows, we were entirely correct.

To understand just how perfectly Anna nailed the aesthetic, here is the exact, brutal description of Hester's destroyed face directly from the first pages of the original novel:

"A terrible scar ran down her face from forehead to jaw, making it look like a portrait that had been furiously crossed out. Her mouth was wrenched sideways in a permanent sneer, her nose was a smashed stump and her single eye stared at him out of the wreckage, as grey and chill as a winter sea."

Not a bad effort re-creating that absolute wreckage, eh? It perfectly captures the "portrait furiously crossed out" vibe that Tom Natsworthy so vividly describes when her red scarf first slips down in the Gut of London.

The make-up designer Anna Langham, who miraculously achieved this transformative work, wrote of her intense design process on Instagram:

"This entire look was sculpted by myself and covers from forehead to chin, eyebrows are pieces weaved and stuck with Snappy G glue. The scar runs from forehead to jaw and therefore the nose, left eye and mouth had to be meticulously recreated. I absolutely LOVED Prosthetics at @bathacademyofmediamakeup and it is something I wish to continue working in for a very long time.

I painted the piece using light washes of silicone paint and illustrator palettes and worked incredibly hard to create a realistic and natural skin texture and colour which would seamlessly match Tegan's neck and normal skin tone."

Note the spot-on lore detail of Hester's iconic red scarf being included to frame the prosthetic.

Anna also passionately noted the deeply personal inspiration behind her grueling two-and-a-half-week build:

"My full face Prosthetic brilliantly modelled by the wonderful Tegan. I worked for 2.5 weeks on this piece alone. It is heavily inspired by my absolute favourite book character #hestershaw from #mortalengines. I have been intensely dreaming to design and create a look for her ever since the age of 7, and this is finally my hand-crafted Hester scar."

We highly suspect Anna has a very fine, long career as a special effects make-up artist ahead of her! Mr. Reeve would undoubtedly be very happy with this brutally honest version of Hester for sure! It captures the exact 'Captain Ahab' energy he intended when he first put pen to paper.

Hungry for more Traction Era creativity? Here are some more incredible Hester Shaw costume pictures created by the dedicated fandom.