SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The author Tomi Adeyemi has written fantasy all her life. Even before her mega-successful fantasy trilogy for young adults, she lived in a world that wasn't ours.
TOMI ADEYEMI: I've always written fantasy. I've almost never been able to contend with the reality of this world.
PFEIFFER: But her new book, "The Siren," takes place right here in this world. She spoke with Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast, about finally contending with reality.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: No offense to all the big-name authors out there, but there's author famous and then there's regular famous.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA ")
ROBIN ROBERTS: And the first book of the series "Children Of Blood And Bone" just came out. Please welcome Tomi here.
LIMBONG: That's author Tomi Adeyemi bypassing author fame en route to just regular fame on "Good Morning America" in 2018. The same year, she did "The Tonight Show."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW")
JIMMY FALLON: Thank you so much for coming on the show.
ADEYEMI: Thank you. This is wild.
LIMBONG: She was promoting her West African-inspired YA fantasy novel "Children Of Blood And Bone," which is the first in the bestselling Orisha trilogy and is the subject of a long-awaited Hollywood adaptation.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Your powers may be gone but that does not change who you are.
LIMBONG: The movie is set to come out this January and was supposed to be the pinnacle of everything Adeyemi has worked towards. Then this past summer, after the movie trailer dropped, Adeyemi posted and then deleted a video denouncing the movie, saying she was treated horribly and that she would never see it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ADEYEMI: This film, which I worked on to make it a little better for us to be alive, is also the worst thing I've ever had to live through.
LIMBONG: What happened?
ADEYEMI: I won't go into details about what happened. I'm going to leave that sacred. I think what I'll clarify for people who are listening is it wasn't really something to do with the adaptation or how it was being adapted. It was an actual situation that happened. That was really harmful. That was really hurtful. Mostly what I can say is I came forward to help myself, but not to be against anyone, not to hurt anyone.
LIMBONG: Are you still broadly, generally supportive of the movie? Would you encourage people to go see it?
ADEYEMI: I would be more neutral. Does that make sense?
LIMBONG: Adeyemi's new book, "The Siren," centers on Emery. She's a freshman at Dartmouth. She's the first in her family to make it to college. But she doesn't really fit in until she runs into a group of impossibly cool young women who take her under their wing, under some conditions, of course. It's a campus novel dealing with hazing, money, mental health, no spells or potions or majestic creatures.
Is there something that happened that made you think, all right, I'm ready to face this fear of writing in the real world? Or was it more like, I have to do this now?
ADEYEMI: I think it was a mix of being ready and knowing that this is where the story was meant to be told because it felt like looking at a death sentence when I started writing my first series and writing in a fantastical world, creating a world, that danger was still there. But there was also - it was like an oxygen tank. The fantastical atmosphere wasn't even fully escapism because I was still confronting what was happening in the real world. But it just allowed enough atmosphere for me to breathe in and breathe out and make it to the kind of person who could write a story like "The Siren."
LIMBONG: Tomi Adeyemi, thank you so much for talking.
ADEYEMI: Andrew, thank you. This was a lovely conversation.
PFEIFFER: And you can listen to the full episode on NPR's Book of the Day podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAVEMENT'S "5-4 EQUALS UNITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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