Tomi Adeyemi has opted to feature her own face prominently on the cover of her new novel, The Siren. The striking image, which captures her with an unsmiling, intense gaze, serves as a deliberate assertion of ownership. Adeyemi admits the portrait feels “terrifying – like the Mona Lisa, staring at you everywhere,” but she chose it because she needed to be seen as the sole architect of this new project. After twelve years immersed in the world of her debut success, Children of Blood and Bone, and the subsequent distress surrounding its film adaptation, she is determined to reclaim her personal narrative. After 12 years spent inside the world of Children of Blood and Bone – the first book in the YA trilogy that made her a literary star and its film adaptation which has become a source of profound distress – Adeyemi wanted this book to belong unmistakably to her. “It was an intense choice, and I think it’s because I needed people to see me in this one,” she says. “I’ve had so much success, but it was also done in a way where so many people’s interpretations were put on to who I was.”. So for the last 12 years there’s been this sense of carrying everyone.”, and so few of us are given a shot at all. Readers would tell her what the book had meant to their children. “You have no idea what this did for me,” they would say.
The 33-year-old Nigerian American author acknowledges that her career has often been defined by the expectations of others. Her 2018 debut, which secured a historic seven-figure advance and reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list, transformed her into a symbol of Black YA literature. Adeyemi describes feeling an immense pressure to be the “perfect dark-skinned Black girl” and to represent an entire generation, a responsibility that felt overwhelming after more than a decade of intense professional grinding. Her 2018 debut, became a publishing phenomenon, netting a major seven-figure deal and debuting at No 1 on the New York Times young adult bestseller list, children of Blood and Bone.
While her debut, inspired by West African mythology, was celebrated for placing a dark-skinned protagonist at the heart of an epic fantasy, the experience of having it adapted for the screen was reportedly agonizing. Although she co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming film—starring Viola Davis, Idris Elba, Regina King, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, and Cynthia Erivo—the process left her in a state of deep personal conflict. In July, she took to TikTok to describe the production as the most difficult experience of her life, detailing instances where she left set in a state of physical distress and panic.
Adeyemi maintains that she has no intention of viewing the finished movie when it premieres in January 2027. She emphasizes that the film is no longer her domain, noting that while she retains total control over the smallest commas in her books, film direction involves constant external influence. Regarding the specific tensions surrounding the casting and production, she remains guarded, choosing to focus on her own resilience rather than the public discourse or the fallout that occurred on set.
Before achieving literary fame, Adeyemi’s path was far from certain. Raised in a first-generation immigrant household that prioritized traditional, high-achieving careers like medicine or banking, she faced significant internal conflict before committing to writing. Even after graduating from Harvard and securing a fellowship in Brazil that would eventually inspire her first novel, she endured years of rejection, including 63 turn-downs for her initial manuscript, before finding global success with Children of Blood and Bone.
Today, her perspective has shifted. She views her influence with pride, noting how she has opened doors for diverse protagonists across various genres. When told by her publisher that she had changed the landscape of literature for future generations, she found comfort in the progress she initiated. Now, with the release of The Siren, she is moving away from epic fantasy to explore a more contemporary story about a student at Dartmouth College. She describes the lead character, Emery, as a reflection of her own younger self, a vulnerable expression of the person she was before the fame.
Reflecting on her choice to speak out about the film production, Adeyemi feels it was a necessary step for her own well-being. She explains that she could not continue moving forward without addressing the pain the project had caused her. By focusing on her new work and the creative autonomy it represents, she is attempting to distance herself from the, at times, traumatic experience of seeing her vision modified by Hollywood. She remains committed to the idea that her work is her own, defined by her choices rather than the interpretations of others.
