Michelle "Shell" Pine is in much need of a fresh start in life. Down in her luck in romance, finances and having to move back in with her parents, Shell decides to pursue a career at the hustling florists located within the declining Woodbine Crown Mall.

Run by the confident and attractive Neve, Shell soon finds herself drawn to her new employer, feeling a potential spark growing between them. However Neve can never give herself fully to Shell's advances. Hidden in plain sight at the very heart of the crumbling mall is an unassuming young orchid. Yet, this is not like any other orchid. Baby, as he is known, is a sentient being, rooted throughout the mall with a sinister craving. Though nothing can satisfy Baby's cravings as the desire to eat Neve.

As the relationship between Shell and Neve blooms, Baby winds his way into their lives, determined to satisfy his craving once and for all.

Blending The Little Shop of Horrors with dark sapphic romance, the slow unravelling of this twisted tale captured my attention from start to finish. Griffin sets the atmosphere with precision, the build up of tension adding to the unease and overall eeriness felt throughout as you become aware of the consequences for the characters.

A delightful infusion of humour and dread, Eat the Ones You Love had me hungry for more as I devoured each page, leaving this novel to one of my favourite reads this year.

3.5/5

My, my…this was one *hell* of a slowburn, which was kind of fitting for a story about a plant. It was as though the tale was growing from page to page, not be rushed, not to be hurried, but instead just building dread one inch of green vine at a time.

I loved the world of this story. The mall, the florists, the Green Hall, the supermarket…they all felt so grounded, real and tangible. That mixed with the drudgery of retail life that is brilliantly captured here makes this story feel rooted (boom boom) in reality…despite it being, as its core, a slice of supernatural sci-fi horror with a good dose of body nastiness thrown in.

The characters here are great, too. A small but vital cast of well-drawn and believable folk. It’s just as easy to fall into their world as a reader as it is for Shell to be accepted into the fold in the story. None of them are clichéd, they all serve a purpose and, again, they feel real.

The outright horror elements of this one are fairly sparse, but they’re effectively done when we do get them. Aside from the body horror, there are some excellent, creepy set pieces as well as some moments involving eyes that got under my skin.

But it’s the narrative style that impressed me most here. The story is told by Baby, by the plant, but in a clever way I’ve not read before. The use of the first person in the narrative is only occasional, with the rest of it being more a traditional third person omnipresent. However, when we do get those slips back to the direct voice of Baby, you’re reminded who is in charge and it adds to the level of unease that winds its way through you as you read this, like a strange plant curling round your ankle while you’re not watching.

This won’t be everyone and I imagine many will lost patience and give up. But it’s absolutely worth sticking with. Original, unsettling, and a bit odd…I really enjoyed this.

Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for the review copy.

My thanks to Net Galley and Titan Books for a free DRC of "Eat the Ones You Love" by Sarah Maria Griffin.
A Literary Horror about the challenges of older shopping centers, working in retail and plants that hunger for human flesh.
As soon as I saw the cover, I knew I have to read this book as I am deeply fascinated by nature and plants that are alive.
From the start I felt we are going to have a villain POV and I expected for the story to be so compelling that I can somewhat relate to that antagonist.
While I did not related and somewhat lost the initial interest due to the repetitive narration of from the 20% mark to the 40% of the book, I still had some things that I could relate to.
I appreciated the mentions that once a flower is cut it is literary dying, that the author try to stay honest about the challenges of working in retail, with most of workers being paid minimum wage and the work being a difficult and challenging (not the romantic version wee see in Cozy Fantasy for example).
Overall I am glad I got to experience some social aspects of Ireland, a few atmospheric plant Horror scenes and some queer representation.

I sadly DNF’d this at 35%. I was really intrigued by the synopsis and was looking forward to this one. However I did find it incredibly slow and my interest wasn’t holding. I found having the POV of the Orchid was good to have.

What a uniquely disturbing story! I went into this one blind, with no idea what to expect, but I ended up loving it. This one is set in Ireland and LGBTQIA + rep! It felt like between Little Shop of Horrors and a Sally Rooney novel if she decided to write horror instead of lit fiction. If you end up reading this one you might never want to buy an orchid ever again, I know I will.
I’m really into cannibalism at the moment so I’m kinda digging the flower-eating humans! The creepiness of it being in a dying mall, you could picture it!

My only negative aspect of this book is that it’s a very slow burn. Overall, it’s still an amazing book!

Thank you to Titan and Netgalley for my ARC.

This is one of the weirdest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading and I ATE IT UP!
I am obsessed with Neve Shell and Baby and everyone else.
Not only was the story so quirky and original, but incredibly well written. I felt like I was right there, in the story with them.


Eat The Ones You Love is out in the US now and out in the UK and Ireland in June!! Please go and pre order it now

I was drawn in by the cover and the description that I'd heard circulating online. But, I'm not echoing the popular opinion on this book. But it was just too much of a slow burn. I think it may have worked better as a short story. I just wasn't excited to pick it back up.

An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats—nobody he eats—can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

Shell, back home after breaking things off with her ex-fiancé, finds herself taken in by a ‘help needed’ sign at a florists in the dilapidated shopping centre of her youth. Neve, the florist who captures Shell’s immediate attention also recently broke up with her ex-fiancé, has a secret; Baby, the man-eating orchid living in the heart of the shopping centre, and he is waiting patiently to feast.

With a growing unease similar to Julia Armfield’s Wives Under the Sea and the symbiotic strangeness of Mona Awad’s Bunny, Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin brings a new take to plant horror with a litfic sensibility and a building action that grips you till the end of the book.

“She didn’t feel like a tourist: she didn’t possess the self-awareness to perceive herself in that context. She felt, rather, like she was entering into some kind of romance with the space—though that might have been a residual high from listening to Neve talk about the roses.”

Griffin creates an interesting mundanity as Shell walks back and forth to the Crown mall, as she sits drinking wine with her mum at the dinner table watching endless YouTube videos of flower arranging, as she gets closer and closer, day by day, to being enthralled by Baby who is lurking in the cracks of the shopping centre, in Neve and soon in the cracks of her skin, in her thoughts, in her actions. Between the collective delusion of Neve, the group of stuck retail workers turned friends and Shell herself, Baby’s perspective—his commentary and machinations amping up the looming tension—and Jen’s letters that polarise the absurdity of a parasitic plant taking over the mind of her ex-fiancé, Griffin weaves narrations that constantly put on and take off rose-tinted glasses, trapping the reader in Baby’s thrall.

“…in time coming, she would know me and learn to identify this feeling, my presence my gaze. But she had no vocabulary for me just yet.”

Stronger horror elements would’ve gone far in this book, a lot of the uncomfortable moments were dulled by its somewhat contemporary litfic air. More tension, body horror and darker themes surrounding the murderous nature of Baby would’ve rounded this out and made it feel less safe—some of the best parts in this book were the plant body horror and the imagery from those scenes were captivating, I was just waiting for some bigger moments with higher consequences.

“I will tell her this, I will leaf my way into the parts of her that can hear and feel and I will assure her that the eyes of others slip off her like furniture, she is unremarkable, objectively ordinary.”

I enjoyed this read - it was unlike anything I’ve read before for sure and it’s a bonus that it’s by an Irish author! The new weird girl book of the summer for sure 😎

The environment where the story is set was so interesting as I’m sure everyone has that one dying or already dead shopping centre in their town and it was so easy to picture the disrepair, eeriness and abandonment and the characters complex feelings about the place shutting down and falling apart!

The only thing I’d say I didn’t overly understand is the pacing & the fact that it seemed like Shell’s relationship with Neve was going to be explored more and then Shell ends up having a fling with someone else completely? I really hoped for more of the sapphic storyline & I feel like it could have gone a different direction completely if Neve and Shell became involved further and Baby saw that as a bigger threat, etc etc!

I also feel like it wasn’t really a horror, I wasn’t *that* freaked out?? I think the whole scientist/lab angle made it feel slightly more sci-fi? I don’t know 😭

Nonetheless I found this to be an enjoyable book, very easy to read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Eat The Ones You Love was a bizarre, twisted and terrific story of obsession that I adored. It is uniquely entrancing – kind of a postmodern Little Shop of Horrors esque tale.

I adore Griffin’s writing style, having thoroughly enjoyed her previous work. There is a lyricism and delicate beauty surrounded by deadly thorns – it gets stuck in your mind as you’re entranced by this beguiling horror. She also brings such fantastic concepts to the table and enrichs them with cracking characterisation and an emotional depth that pulls you right in. This delivers once again on both counts.

It is a strange story but also one that speaks to that chasm of loneliness from the path you didn’t know you were going to take. It is a lonely, isolated pit of despair that Baby emerges from and exploits. There is an inevitability to events – a lingering feel of dread that slowly escalates. It is a deeply human horror story, rooted in the messiness and complexity of relationships and changing dynamics. There is also a lot to be said about homecoming and family, feeling like that aspect of your life is already mapped out for you. There is a particuar scene with Shell that comes into play later in the book that rings through my mind.

Both Shell and Neve are caught in their own spirals of destruction and recognising that is heart-breaking. Their relationship is fraught and full of fissures with the secrets they are both keeping. Baby as a narrative voice is domineering and all-consuming, you cannot help but want to listen to the murderous obsessive plant. That darkness is monstrous and unnerving and yet there is a kernel of bleak humour woven in. It is not a book that shies away from the murky morality at play here. Without giving anything away, I really loved the ending and the final note the book decides to leave you with.

Eat the Ones You Love is ultimately a deeply character-driven horror about obsession, trying to break free from the fate assigned you to and queer love.

Imagine a book about a 30-something woman at a crossroads in life. She's lost her job and her long-term relationship and has to move back into her parents' house in the town she thought she'd left behind. She sees a 'help needed' sign in a local flower shop window and her life changes forever.

Now imagine this is a story directed by David Lynch.

I've been wanting to read one of Sarah Maria Griffin's books for ages and I'm so glad I picked up Eat the Ones You Love. She's a wonderful writer - the prose in this book are absolutely gorgeous. It's a slow burn of a story driven by the characters rather than plot, and she keeps you totally compelled by the familiar faces - in a way, we all know the people in this book:

The girl who has just been dumped and is pretending she's fine (even though we all know she's not fine).

The guy who never managed to break out of his small hometown.

The kid who has so much potential, if only he can get out.

The person who had her life totally planned out until it suddenly fell apart.

In many ways it's a quiet story about a group of friends in a Dublin suburb getting on their lives. I think this was my favourite aspect of the book. Griffin makes these characters shine in their own way and you really feel like you know them because, in a way, you do.

And then, of course, there's Baby.

Baby is our narrator. Baby is also a monstrous, sentient orchid who has crept into the mind and life of Neve, the florist. He is frightening and hungry and a total joy to read as he looms large over Shell's life (though she doesn't know it yet). As someone who has always wanted a triffid to be my friend, it's not terribly surprising that I loved Baby. He's just a little guy doing his best to survive and love.

I loved how unapologetically weird Eat the Ones You Love is. Will it work for every reader? No, probably not. But if you like your books strange and surreal, I can't recommend this one more highly. I can't wait to dig into Sarah Maria Griffin's backlist and experience her writing all over again.

I have been waiting for this book since I first heard whispers of it on instagram and I am delighted to say that it did not disappoint.

"Eat The Ones You Love" is the perfect combination of "Little Shop of Horrors" meets "Twin Peaks" meets north suburban Dublin. There aren't many authors that can take the liminal space that is an old run down shop centre and bring it to life.

The story of "Eat The Ones You Love" strikes true mixing daily minutiae with surrealism in an acceptingly fluid and skilled way. The reader from the out-set finds themselves accepting the notion of "Baby" a controlling morally obnoxious orchid without a blink, no more than we accept that Shell is trying to re-find her balance after she ends her engagement and loses her job. I think Griffin also perfectly captures that weird space in between in your 20's and 30's where everything and nothing hang in the balance all at the same time. It will particularly resonate with millennials who have had no choice but to abandon the path's our parents walked because they are no longer realistic. There is always catharsis in seeing a thing named and I think a lot of the horror of "Eat The Ones You Love" deals in is the fact that it names things for what they are either directly or indirectly. We have all stayed in relationships that damaged us, we have all stayed for too long in friendships that were damaging to all involved, and often, whether we like it or not we have all being the villain in someone's story. Griffin captures those things beautifully and gives them a voice through the ever malicious Baby. Shell narrates the often softer, more insidious fears that can cripple us, our self worth, whether we made the right choice. She is the voice of "How did I end up here?" while also trying to justify it to herself. I won't give spoilers but I find that Shell's voice was deeply reminiscent of those moments where you have no idea who you are and are desperately trying to establish who you'll become.

It also has to be noted that "Eat The Ones You Love" is a strange love letter to the north Dublin suburbs that time is rapidly erasing. As a born North-sider there is deep nostalgia to be found in this book, I can picture perfectly the shopping centres of my youth that were once bustling with business that now have more shops closed in them than open. I understand the dynamics of the sprawling housing estates that Griffin lay's out for us. I know what it is to be loyal to a place even when it starts to fall down around you.

It is safe to say that Griffin's skill as a story-teller is exemplary, I've devoured her work for years and enjoy it more with each book. She is the rare wonder of a writer that can truly suspend mundane reality for her readers and twist it into something else. This is a book that I will be recommending to many. My thanks as always to Sarah Maria Griffin, and netgalley for the eARC.

Shell is starting over. After the end of an engagement and being laid off from her job, she wanders through the local decaying mall looking for meaning when she happens upon a help needed—not wanted—sign outside a florist shop. From there, we meet Neve and a cast of quirky characters tethered to the dying mall in some way, shape or form, and of course, Baby, a plant creature with an insatiable and unsettling appetite.

Eat The Ones You Love is fascinating, dark and creepy but shines brightest when it examines the late 30s malaise through a uniquely millennial lens from Shell's perspective. This novel is as much of a latent coming of age as a plant horror story. Everyday horrors like losing your job, which leads you to question your self-worth and purpose, losing connection with your friend group you already should have left in the past, and the end of a relationship you thought would go the distance is just as scary. With no road map to follow like the one our parents had in a world that no longer exists, growth in no particular direction is frightening.

Baby is the most enjoyable character in the story for me. Hear me out! He is vile, and his constant weaponized (and often fake) incompetence, the constant reminder that he is a baby, is both maddening and relatable. He is also, I believe, the manifestation of the very quandary of getting older in this era, especially as a millennial. We are getting older but do not necessarily feel any more in control or further along in our lives. So, we hold on to when we should let go. Stay in friendships that don't serve us because we don't know what's next and may not want to find out.

Neve is his biggest enabler, and so are we. His voice is alluring, and the precision with which he clocks Shell, her insecurities, and how far she's willing to go to maintain this new shadow of a life is alarming but eerily compelling. After all, what other option is there, starting over again?

If you're a millennial at a crossroads, chances are you'll love this twisted tale that intertwines commentary about grieving the life you thought you would have or never did. Get ready to eat up this generationally relevant horror with Griffin's lyrical and sharp writing.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eArc!

Thanks to Sarah Maria Griffin and Netgalley for a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Eat The Ones You Love tells the story of florist Neve, new assistant down on her luck, Shell and one very hungry plant who gets between them. This books was more of a slow burn and introspective ride but I really enjoyed my time with it. I related a lot to Shell, at a loose end in her life having moved back in with her parents after a break up with her fiancee and distancing herself from the groups of people who are supposed to be her friends. A new start is what she needs and she thinks she's found it in the small flower shop in the local crumbling mall with the 'Help Needed' sign hung outside. But she's about to get more then she bargained for, both with the florist's owner the strange Neve, and in a certain plant called Baby who has wound his way around the shop and its environs.

I really enjoyed the story this book had to tell, bouncing back and forth between Shell who was an easily relatable protagonist, Neve's ex girlfriend, Jen, and the plant itself who has a starring role all his own in the narrative here. Whilst I saw the inevitable conclusion for this story coming, it still was an eerie reading experience and one that tugged at my heart strings, and the ending felt... right, even if it was also bittersweet.

A really interesting story, and I would definitely check out more from this author in the future. Also seeing more horror set in Ireland was nice :)

Also, guess I should really get around to reading The Little Shop of Horrors now, huh?

Having just left her fiance, moved back to her parents and lost her job Shell needs a change so when she sees the help needed sign in the florists in her local shopping mall she decides to take a chance and the beautiful florist, Neve, she's working with makes the decision a lot easier. But the mall has something dark growing in the centre, and Neve belongs to him. He needs her to keep growing bigger and stronger, and he'll stop at nothing to consume her completely.

This was really weird, creepy, and unsettling but so much fun to read. This being told through the perspective of the plant made this so much weirder in a good way watching him consume everything around him and control Neve was very unsettling. I would've liked to have seen more of the plant doing its horrifying creepy stuff, though as I felt there wasnt enough. This has a big found family element and watching Shell get brought into a group of people who like her for her was heartwarming. if you like weird creepy stuff this one's definitely for you.

Loved this book. So atmospheric and such a good mix of friendships, relationships, the messy reality of life and then some WTF horror!

I am a huge fan of plant horror (I have a tattoo of Audrey 2, the og scary plant) and Eat The Ones You Love is definitely going on my list of great examples of the genre.

This book is a wonderfully wild and gothic story, set in Ireland, with lovely queer rep. I think the best way to describe this book is unsettling. It's not outright scary or gory, but you definitely feel off kilter and unsure about what's coming. This is in part due to the wonderful writing style, and the very clever POV shifts.

Highly recommend for people who enjoy feeling disconcerted, and a little creeped out. Do not recommend reading alone in a dark room with the seedlings you've been babying through the colder months.

A very deranged, gothic book with excellent LGBT+ rep, set in Ireland as well which I loved. Highly recommend

Do you like Little Shop of Horrors? If so I think you’ll enjoy this book. I read an eARC on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This book was absolutely wild and I could not put it down. It feels like watching something really horrific unfurling in real time.

There was something so wonderfully incisive about the writing. It would have been a really cool, weird and entertaining story anyway but the writing style made it so memorable. I was completely engaged with this story but the quality of the writing makes this book really exciting. I love that so much of this book is told from the monster’s perspective. What a fascinating narrator! So morally questionable and yet it’s really just in their nature. Their actions are horrific but it’s hard to fully blame theme. This made the book so entertaining, so graphic at times, and raised so many questions!

There was such an enticing positioning of beauty against rot and decay that the author executed exceptionally. Most of the book takes place in a shopping centre at the end of its life, decrepit, and yet loved for the memories, for the friendships formed there.

The plot was absolutely gripping as we follow Shell as she attempts to start a new life in the wake of a break up and job loss. We see her try to forge a new identity, explore parts of herself usually repressed, look for meaning and companionship, and put her old life on mute. I found her fascinating, and even more so, the monsters insidious affection for her.

I absolutely loved this book, gripping plot, fascinating monster, flawed characters, beautiful writing. Just an outstanding read.

I was excited to get approved for this, but I do this I judged the cover . Not a popular opinion on this book but it was too much of a slow burn for me, even if it was beautifully written. I don’t think it should have been so long,