Tomi Adeyemi won't watch her Children of Blood and Bone film, says she'll never adapt again
The author calls the adaptation experience "the worst thing I have ever had to live through" and rules out future film deals.
What to know
- Adeyemi has stated she will not watch the film adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone and will never allow another novel to be adapted for screen, citing a lack of creative control as the core issue.
- The author previously called the film adaptation experience "the worst thing I have ever had to live through," though she has remained vague about specific details of what occurred on set beyond references to tension with the lead actor.
- Adeyemi released a new novel, The Siren, with her own photograph on the cover as a deliberate statement of ownership and control after years of feeling her image and identity shaped by others' interpretations of her work.
The dispute Whether Adeyemi's complaints about the film are justified grievances about loss of creative control or unrealistic expectations about how filmmaking actually works. · positions read across 18 posts and comments
Adeyemi's frustration is understandable but her public complaints are counterproductive and won't change how the film is judged.
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“Unless there are more details I'm going to assume artistic differences and judge the film based on its own merit. It won't make me uninterested in what the author publishes next.”
Amber4481 · Reddit ↗
Adeyemi likely had unrealistic expectations about how much control screenwriters have in film, confusing collaboration with loss of power.
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“Every time I've heard someone being insistent yet cagey about how they were treated, it's because they weren't given enough power. My guess is she thought she was going to be running the movie and discovered that directors run movies, not…”
LoveAndViscera · Reddit ↗
Adeyemi's public criticism will backfire and actually drive interest in seeing the film.
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“She definitely does but i feel like her actions are going to make more people want to watch the movie.”
amysantiagofan · Reddit ↗
“I felt pressure to be the perfect dark-skinned Black girl, to be 'Oprah good'. This was the biggest YA book deal in history, not just for a female or Black author. And so few of us are given a shot at all, so for the last 12 years there's been this sense of carrying everyone.”
Tomi Adeyemi, Author · The Guardian ↗ · Sep 26
Tomi Adeyemi Author of Children of Blood and BoneGina Prince-Bythewood Director of Children of Blood and Bone filmAmandla Stenberg Lead actor in Children of Blood and Bone film
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlespostscomments
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Adeyemi releases new novel The Siren with her portrait on cover as statement of ownership
Adeyemi's new standalone novel follows Emery, a Black student at Dartmouth College. She places her photograph on the cover—a highly unusual choice—as a deliberate statement of ownership after the film experience. She describes the decision as stemming from needing "people to see me in this one."
“It was an intense choice, and I think it's because I needed people to see me in this one. 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.”
— Tomi Adeyemi -
Unless she has some crazy revelations coming, I think is a case of an author getting wrapped up in the excitement of an adaptation. One that she was allowed to be heavily involved in, only for her to discover what a miserable, maddening process making a film is. A book is written alone, with routine input from an agent and editor. A movie…
2 more of the top 3 · 18 posts in this stretch
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Basically any movie/TV production from a studio is going to come with an NDA of some sort. It could be as simple as reigning in potential spoilers (big one for Marvel, for example), protecting the reputation of the movie before release (so even if production was a disaster, the studio doesn’t want that becoming the dominant conversation in the…
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Stephen King notoriously doesn’t like The Shining. It’s a great book and a great film. Artists can be wrong. Problem is King said something in a print interview after the film was released. No social media. No public hungry for clicks or someone to cancel. It was a different time. (And Kubrick’s behavior on that set needed to be scrutinized but…
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background
Adeyemi tells Guardian she won't watch the film and will never adapt again — In an interview published in The Guardian, Adeyemi states "I still don't plan to watch it" and when asked if she would let another novel be adapted, responds simply: "Never." She attributes the situation to lack of creative control, saying the director makes all decisions whereas she controls every detail of her books.
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background
Adeyemi denounces film adaptation as "worst thing I have ever had to live through" — About two months before the Guardian interview (published Sept 27), Adeyemi publicly criticized the film adaptation experience, setting off wider speculation about what went wrong on set.
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background
Children of Blood and Bone becomes publishing phenomenon — Tomi Adeyemi's debut novel earned a record-breaking seven-figure YA book deal and debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times young adult bestseller list. The story of Zélie fighting to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha became a major literary success.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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4 outlets Tomi Adeyemi on the film of her hit novel Children of Blood and Bone: ‘I don’t plan to watch it’
first by Guardian Culture, 1d ago · also AV Club, Guardian Books, The Guardian
1 more headline
What people are saying 15 voices from 1 site · best of 18 · verbatim
- Today
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I enjoyed the first, was luke warm about the second, and didn't care about the third
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Authors should know, and imo expect, that movie/tv show adapatations will change many things and if they are not ok with that, they should make sure it's in the contract that they have the last say for everything or not sell the rights for their book at all. I'm so tired about authors bitching about adaptations.
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It's not really the authors fault and it's not so people on bookshelfs know what it is as a glance. The website those stories started on don't allow a synopsis, so the title had to be coopted for that purpose. It makes it very easy to tell what started as a web novel and what didn't.
- Yesterday
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It's not impossible for a popular or successful person to plagiarize someone. But if you're going to make an accusation, you should definitely make sure you've got something more substantial than "they used a common phrase I did not invent and was not the first person to use as the title of a book as the title of their book."
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Sounds like someone opted for a money up front deal and doesn't have any stake in the back end.
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I would imagine she’s still under an NDA. What’s funny is that her efforts to undermine the movie would probably be more effective if she just chilled and slow ghosted the project. Speaking of Zendaya, she was one of the producers and starred in Euphoria - said basically nothing of the final season, did the barest minimum promo, collected her…
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I'm not saying that's what I think, I'm saying that's what Tomi might have thought as someone with a sudden breakout book.
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Every time I’ve heard someone being insistent yet cagey about how they were treated, it’s because they weren’t given enough power. My guess is she thought she was going to be running the movie and discovered that directors run movies, not screenwriters, and even they have to negotiate with producers. Ten bucks says this woman thinks negotiation is…
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She’s got a very successful series of books with a high-profile film adaptation. She can afford lawyers, especially if what she says is true. She doesn’t want justice, she wants drama.
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She definitely does but i feel like her actions are going to make more people want to watch the movie.
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I know, I just think when people talk 'monster success' they mean a single book that just seems to be talked about everywhere. Overall, Nora is of course a writing behemoth haha, I just could see Tomi making this mistake to start. And as I said, take a minute, "there's obviously no reason for Nora to do something like this, let me reach out to her…
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Tbf I'm not positive that one's true but a lot of people in the publishing industry have sworn they know it is, it's been going around since her 2nd book.
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Then the line will be “Looking back, this process was so hard, but it was so worth it. Giving away something you’ve worked so hard on can be… it’s almost grieving. My mental health really suffered during that time, and I apologize sincerely to anyone I might have hurt. ❤️ “ If the film is successful, I bet $20 this is what happens.
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Wait, wait, wait…. Just the name? That’s all? That’s all this accusation of plagiarism is over? This unbelievably generic name that I see a million of in the bookstore and instantly know to ignore all of them? Please tell me that’s a typo, or a mistake.
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The fact that she accused NORA ROBERTS of all people of plagiarism was certainly a choice...