Sarah Underwood’s Lies We Sing to the Sea is headed to the big screen, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Underwood’s young adult fantasy novel, published earlier this month by HarperTeen, follows Leto, an orphan girl who is sentenced to be hanged as a sacrifice to the sea god Poseidon but afterwards finds herself still alive, washed up on an island with a girl named Melantho. A critic for Kirkus called the book “inconsistent but intriguing.”
Ripley Parker, the writer and executive producer of Everything Now, which debuts on Netflix later this year, is penning the adaptation of Underwood’s novel.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with these characters,” Parker said. “To be handed someone else’s story for safekeeping is such a beautiful responsibility, and I only hope I can do it justice. It’s a truly incredible book, and Sarah is obviously prodigiously talented. The world will very soon be clamoring for more of her words.”
Underwood shared news of the adaptation on Instagram. “So so so ecstatic to announce that Lies We Sing to the Sea is being adapted for film by the absolutely extraordinary Ripley Parker and the brilliant team at Archery Pictures,” Underwood wrote. “Publishing this book has been a whirlwind dream and now there’s going to be a MOVIE.…my heart is full to bursting and I can’t wait for everything coming up next.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
