Eat the Ones You Love
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
🌶️ Rating: 🫑
You might need to pick this one up if you like plant/ eco horror, small town settings, creature feature vibes, dark comedic edginess, obsession and a very different POV

I’ll admit, I don’t know if it’s that I forgot, or I didn’t realize but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Eat the Ones You Love was actually from the POV of the plant and not from the surrounding characters. This unique POV gave it such a different feel than any other book I’ve read and I was intrigued by the concept. It’s a strange feeling to find oneself reading from the perspective of a plant and not a person, the same connection isn’t there that I would normally be able to get when reading a typical POV, but instead I found myself feeling more of a creepy sensation overwhelming me. The fact that this was a sentient plant, that was fully describing everything and essentially living it’s best life over here, made me feel a lot more like all the plants in my house might be watching me and suddenly the 32 plants surrounding me felt just a liiiiiiittle less safe. Someone check on me in a few days to make sure they haven’t taken over - thanks.

Michelle "Shell" has moved back to her parents' in the Dublin suburbs, having left her fiance and lost her job in the pandemic. Wandering the mostly abandoned mall of her childhood, she spies a sign that says "Help Needed" in a floral shop, where she meets Neve, the captivating woman who runs it. Neve hires Shell (whose background in graphic design isn't related, but at this point, even minimum wage is ok....) and invites her into the orbit of her life. What Shell doesn't know, and what Neve is barely controlling, is that the orchid that lives in the back of the shop is sentient: his name is Baby, and he has an insatiable hunger for everyone around him, Neve most especially.

I rarely pick up horror, but this weird sort of Little Shop of Horrors adaptation about love and identity and possession sounded super interesting. Baby is the primary narrator, and he knows and sees all, because his tendrils are everywhere. I found his POV clever and creepy, and kind of loved him, even as he infiltrates the minds of Neve's friends. Neve has to forbid him from eating her friends, and he only reluctantly agrees. The story verges on the absurd, in a speculative fiction sort of way; it never strays to the intense or scary, which I appreciated.

This book would be great for readers who enjoy a slow build and a unique narrator. It was an interesting concept.

This book is like if you combined little shop of horrors and Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval and the outcome is somthing I am absolutely obsessed with! The perspective switching and the slow prgression of the plot that builds up to a nail biting ending make this book a must read in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC! This book was released in the US on April 22, 2025.

There’s something immediately intriguing about the idea of a haunted mall, a cursed orchid, and a queer florist at the center of it all—but Eat the Ones You Love didn’t bloom the way I hoped it would.

We meet Shell at her breaking point—jobless, newly single, and back in her childhood bedroom. She’s adrift in a recession-shadowed town, her once-clear life plan unraveled. Enter Neve, cryptic and alluring, offering Shell both a job and a slow-burning invitation into a much stranger world. The novel roots itself in a decaying mall and an otherworldly plant with sharp teeth beneath soft petals. I wanted to love this story about monstrous love, eco-horror, and emotional possession, but it never came together for me.

The horror here—an orchid that wants to devour what it cannot control—should have been devastating. And conceptually, it is. The orchid’s hunger for Neve and later Shell is a brilliant metaphor for the way femininity is so often shaped by being wanted, used, or held in place. But that thematic core gets tangled in too many underdeveloped plotlines. Shell’s former life, the younger coworker, and Jen’s late-stage POV all felt like detours rather than layers. And the writing never quite earned the slower pacing it leaned on. I didn’t like the characters, and worse, I didn’t understand them. The emotional stakes felt smudged rather than sharpened.

That said, I was compelled to finish the book. There’s something raw and unnerving about the way the novel speaks to loneliness and grief—the way monstrous love can sometimes feel safer than no love at all. The orchid is the most vivid character, full of cruelty and ache. It becomes a metaphor for all the ways we justify the things that consume us. I just wish the story had trusted its terror more, and trimmed the excess to let it thrive.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Blood (minor), Gore (minor), Murder (minor), Child Death (minor), Sexual Content (minor), Alcohol (minor).

Looooved this funky weird horror book! Horror involving plants or other nature is one of my soft spots, and j especially enjoyed that much of the story was told from the POV of Baby, a plant.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF Eat the Ones You Love at around the 25% mark—not because the concept wasn’t compelling, but because I personally struggled to connect with the writing style.

This twisted tale of workplace love affairs and carnivorous plants definitely stands out for originality. My main challenge was distinguishing between the third-person narration and Baby’s perspective. The shifts in tone and point of view often felt jarring, and I found myself re-reading passages to figure out who or what was speaking. That disrupted the immersion for me and made it difficult to settle into the story, which is why I ultimately put it down.

That said, I think this is more of a “me” issue than a critique of the book as a whole. Readers who enjoy experimental narratives, horror with a touch of romance, and offbeat storytelling might find this a haunting and wholly original read.

Eat the Ones You Love is wholly unique. Narrated by a sentient orchid that has taken root in the crumbling confines of a nearly decrepit strip mall on the brink of closure, it has been tended and loved by Neve, who happens to own a flower shop there. It pushes and pulls at relationships, making itself known only when and to whom it wants, orchestrating relationships as Shell, lonely and lost after losing her long-term boyfriend and job, becomes intrigued by aloof Neve.

At its surface, this is a strange tale about workplace romance, but if you dust it off it is so much more than that. Obsession and love, the lengths we go to to be truly seen by another, how much it means to belong, are just among a few of the overarching themes. I loved this wicked tale!

I love it when a book has an unconventional narrator and I was here for the omniscient evil plant (named Baby) here. The build up was a bit slow but after the halfway point the creepiness really picked up in this one. It’s a unique take on obsession, with some dark humor and some drama sprinkled in. I also enjoyed the dying mall setting and commentary along with the LGBTQ rep.

Shell is a bit down on her luck and has just moved back home. When she stumbles upon a “help needed” sign at the flower shop in the (crumbling) local mall, she sees it as a sign towards reinventing herself. It doesn’t hurt that she’s immediately drawn to the owner, Neve, and she can’t help but hope the connection isn’t one sided. But Neve has some baggage of her own.

The moment I realized who the second narrator was in this story I knew I was going to love this book. I can definitely see the homage to Little Shop of Horrors, but Eat the Ones You Love is a completely different breed. I knew I avoided orchids for a reason and I think Baby has put me off of them for life. We follow a few different POVs throughout the novel and I loved following Baby’s most of all. He is completely unapologetic about the lives he takes and relishes the power he has over Neve and then Shell, to a lesser extent. The imagery of his violence and the body horror we experience on the page is graphic, though beautifully written, and I loved this author’s writing style so much.

Eat the Ones You Love is a horror, but also so much of this book is about relationships, both the good and the bad. I love how the author uses Baby’s all-consuming “love” for Neve as a metaphor for the toxic relationships we can’t escape. At the same time, I ended up falling in love with all of the other characters who are connected to this dying mall. It really made me feel nostalgic for that time in my life. Minus the murder, of course.

Thank you so much to Tor and NetGalley for a review copy. I can’t wait to read from this author again!

Lush, verdant, and elicits the humid excitement of fresh starts and new relationships. A sweet love story surrounded by trailing vines and boxed into the neverending death of working in retail. Working in a dying mall is a lot like a bad relationship, and the push and pull of Baby impacts our main characters like work does. Atmospheric, gorgeous, and oddly comforting.

Such a wonderful book with a lot of deeper themes of being an adult and emotional threads. The little sci fi element with the plant was soo good.

This book was seriously weird. I love really weird books so that isn't a bad thing at all. I don't really know how else to describe this book other than little shop of horrors if you sucked all the comedy out of it. I mean that in the best way possible though. It was like if poison ivy was actually controlled by her plants. The duel pov made this so much better as well. I seriously just loved everything about this book.

“Lay waste to yourself all you like, I will grow in your ruin.”

Eat the Ones You Love is a dark, poetic, Little-Shop-of-Horrors-esque look into life and adulthood and change.

The plot is intriguing, despite the unlikable and toxic cast of characters. I enjoyed the voice of the narrator and found the story to be just creepy and unpredictable enough for me.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: April 22, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

This was my first book by Sarah Maria Griffin and it will NOT be the last. This book was the best wild ride ever. If you love Little Shop Of Horrors, this definitely will give you that feel and vibe and I was intrigued and obsessed with this book. You understand the complexity of what toxic and unhealthy relationships and friendships can do to a person. This is such a wonderful dark twisted LGBTQIA+ love/horror story.

We follow our main character as she moves back to her parents after a divorce looking for a change with her life and to start over. She takes a job in a florist shop and realizes that the owner of the shop has a lot of dark secrets and something lurkers within that shop. The secrets’ name is BABY who is a very hungry orchid.

If you’re looking for a book that’s going to give you that sense of dread, anxiety, heart pumping feeling and beautiful writing, this book is for you. You need to read this book to understand why I put this as one of my favorite reads of 2025

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books

Orchids are notoriously difficult to keep alive, who knew all they needed was human flesh?

I thought this was a fun concept, I loved the slowly dying mall setting and the way you bond with people you work with. I wish there had been more of a focus on the plant (Baby) and their past deeds. The plant tells the story but I want more of their story!

Definitely travels into the unsettling body horror near the end and the conclusion was very satisfying!

3.5

This dives into how love and attachment can go really wrong how something that starts out tender can turn obsessive and toxic. Baby, the plant with a terrifying craving for Neve, becomes this creepy metaphor for that kind of all-consuming possessiveness. Meanwhile, Shell, still raw and vulnerable from her own heartbreak, gets pulled into something way bigger and darker than she expected.

The writing is vivid but it’s also eerie, with people going missing and something sinister growing under the surface. What’s super unique is that a lot of the story is told from Baby’s perspective. It’s the kind of book that creeps up on you and sticks in your head long after you're done, leaving you with this uneasy, lingering feeling.

Thank you netgalley and torbooks for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/176309131-nicki

Creepy tale of a sentient plant in a crumbling mall. Slow start, finds its rhythm around the halfway point. For strongest impact, read in the middle of the night when you have insomnia. 3.5 rounded up.

A queer retelling of Little Shop of Horrors but with a modern twist, After losing her job and her fiance, Shell Pine is determined to get a new start and when she finds a help wanted sign at a florist shop, she is drawn in. There she meets Neve, the beautiful shop manager who is hiding a secret in the back green house... a dark and dangerous secret that will consume them all ( quite literally). Neve has a plant she refers to as "Baby" who has become obsessed with wanting to consume Shell... and as the romance begins to spark between Neve and Shell, so does Baby's obsession with wanting to eat Shell. Can Shell make it out alive or will she be eaten alive? This was definitely a unique twist and the ending kind of has you scratching your head wanting one more chapter or a little longer of an epilogue. I can definitely see this being made into a artsy horror movie and I think it would be really fun to watch. I loved the plant horror of it all and Baby was such a unique POV to read from. Seriously this is a fun plant horror story with a touch of queer romance!

Release Date: April 22, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I have mixed feelings about Eat the Ones You Love. On the positive hand, I really love the voice & perspectives that the story is told through. I also liked our main character, Shell, and loved the setting of the mall, as someone who used to be the store manager for a mall store. The orchid at the center of this story (and the mall) is superb and I really liked everything about him!

On the other, the pacing is very slow for the first 60% and then speeds up so exponentially that everything seems to happen all at once (which isn't the worst thing for a book under 300 pages) so I wish there was an extra 50-100 pages to pad out all of the things that happen at the end. I also found most of the characters to be very 2D, though I think this could've been on purpose considering the perspective of our narrator. I have a few more spoiler-y thoughts: I think the bits about Shell's old friends detracts from the story because her "before" timeline with her ex & those friends is not explained nearly enough. Without the necessary backstory & impact, it's a really disappointing aspect of the story that would've been better left out entirely. Also, while I do like the inclusion of Jen's character, I'm not sure the random emails were the best way to introduce her.

I did enjoy Eat the Ones You Love and the weird & creepy bits were easily the best! There are some minor themes that were a bit ambitious to try and include and ended up falling flat for me. But when things were happening, they sure were happening. The atmosphere and visuals really came to life in my mind's eye during some of the creepiest scenes.

Thanks to Tor Books & Netgalley for the chance to review Eat the Ones You Love!