Blackout optioned by Obama production company and Netflix in nine-way auction

YA book Blackout (Electric Monkey) has been picked up in a nine-way auction by Netflix with Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and Temple Hill Entertainment.

The book will be developed concurrently as a television series and film adaptation. It is made up of a series of love stories between Black teens that occur when a power failure plunges New York into darkness, written by six American YA writers, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk and Nicola Yoon. It was published in the UK by Electric Monkey, the YA imprint of Farshore, on 24th June, and by Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins in the US.

It was pre-empted last year by fiction editorial director Liz Bankes and fiction publishing director Lindsey Heaven, who acquired UK and commonwealth rights from Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency. The publisher said it sold in pre-empts and auctions in all major territories around the world. 

The book is aimed at readers 12 and over. The synopsis reads: "When a heatwave plunges New York City into darkness, sparks fly for 13 teenagers caught up in the blackout. From the exes who have to bury their rivalry and walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn in time to kick off a block party, to the two boys trapped on the subway who come face-to-face with their feelings and the pair of best friends stuck in the library and surrounded by love stories and one very big secret, they are all about to see that when the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths, love blossoms, friendship transforms, and all possibilities take flight."