Tomi Adeyemi on the film of her hit novel Children of Blood and Bone: ‘I don’t plan to watch it’

Her debut earned a record-breaking YA book deal – then came her fallout with Hollywood. The author talks about the pressures of success and why she is pictured on the cover of her new novel There is a photograph of Tomi Adeyemi staring out from the cover of her new novel, The Siren.

It is an arresting image: her face fills the frame, unsoftened by a smile, her piercing gaze fixed directly on the viewer. “It’s terrifying – like the Mona Lisa, staring at you everywhere,” she says, laughing. Using an author portrait on the cover of a novel is highly unusual, and a decision that Adeyemi says is a statement of ownership. After 12…