Lowrie is a suit-wearing, treasure-hunting tomboy, with a workshop full of tools in place of a walk-in wardrobe. She constantly has a chisel and screwdriver on hand. She’s blonde, and wears her hair in a french plait. She’s most often found wearing Shen’s mustard yellow jumpers.
Shen Zhang – Justin H. Min
Shen is a Chinese alien enthusiast, with a stack of books which he always reads acknowledgements first. He’s a night owl, a history buff, has a fear of mice (but not rats) and is a fair hand at coding. He can’t sing for toffee.
See also: commissioned drawing of Lowrie and Shen with their robot pal Mitch (who, for obvious reasons, I can’t actually fancast). Art by stoffberg;
Maya Waverley
Maya is the owner of an old social media account that Lowrie and Shen discover on the archives of the old internet. Lowrie starts reading about Maya’s life, drawn in by her account of the days after the infertility started – and her funny sense of humour, and the fact that she’s bisexual like Lowrie.
I can’t resist casting her as Tessa Thompson, just because I could totally see her playing a self-confident, chatty blogger like Maya.
Riz Stevens – Oscar Isaac
Maya’s cheeky internet buddy is a curly haired Oscar Isaac in my head. He’s fun and laidback and cool, and he writes a killer tweet.
Wren James is the award-winning British author of eleven science fiction & fantasy novels, including The Quiet at the End of the World and The Next Together (previously published as Lauren James). Their books have sold over 200,000 copies in ten languages, and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was optioned for film by Amazon MGM.
Wren is a story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper, which was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Also a RLF Royal Fellow, Wren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League and member of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability steering Committee. They work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on providing optimism and hope.
They have won the Sustainable Story Award and been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, Carnegie Medal and STEAM Book Award.
Wren’s writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Their latest titles are Last Seen Online, a crime thriller set in the world of fandom, and The Victors, a cosy fantasy graphic novel illustrated by Beth Fuller.
Wren was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where they studied Chemistry and Physics. They run a Queer Writers group in Coventry. Follow them on Instagram & TikTok at @wrenjameswriter or find out more at wrenjames.co.uk.
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One thought on “Fancasting the characters – meet Lowrie, Shen, Maya and Riz”
Wren James 
One thought on “Fancasting the characters – meet Lowrie, Shen, Maya and Riz”