Unsettling and weird fiction is so popular at the second and this book fits the bill perfectly, The setting was also so perfectly described, I felt so immersed!

I worked in retail for over a decade as a bookseller, and my last few years were spent in a shopping centre that could be described, charitably, as on its last legs. While the shopping centre in this novel has different inspirations, I was viscerally reminded of the decrepit shopping centre I spent years in, where the staff elevators had cavities where phones used to be, decades of graffiti layered over the walls, and no signal. They sank into the basement storage area where it was commonly agreed the zombie apocalypse would begin.

This is a brilliant book about the horrors of working retail, of picking up the pieces of a life swerved off course, and figuring out who you actually are—and that it may not be good. But it’s also about what makes a home, the ties that bind you to people that aren’t about family but are still about love. And of course, it’s about Baby, the young sentient, malevolent orchid growing in the green heart of the shopping centre, who is always hungry.

Baby comes from the same pantheon as Sweet James, the monstrous owl in the wallpaper in OTHER WORDS FOR SMOKE, Sarah Maria Griffin’s earlier novel, and much like I can’t look at owls and wallpaper the same way again, I can now add plants and orchids to the list.

It’s okay, though. I was never much good at keeping them alive.

I finished this one last night and I am still amazed.
Kind of like Little shop of horrors but Audrey 2 is some kind of Orchid and obsessed with a human. And forget the comedy and make it real horror, really dark.
It also has lesbian and bi protagonism Wich is really nice!
And also make it king of gothic but in a old, decrepit, almost abandoned mall in Ireland.
So good!

My swollen hayfeverish eyes leaked in sympathy when trainee florist Shell’s itch started and 👀 shot open when murderous plant Baby’s big eye appeared. This was a very weird adventure into the dark depths of a near-abandoned Irish shopping centre and, despite slightly losing sense of what was going on towards the end as often happens with horror or fantasy, I loved it.

A one of a kind read - unsettling, zany, suprisingly lyrical in parts. It brings Sarah Maria Griffin's fascintating writing style into a whole new world. As a native Dub, the locale of a crumbling Dublin shopping centre is something I can vividly place this story in. The blossoming relationship between Neve and Shell is expertly offset by our ultra creepy narrator Baby, a monsterous plant creature. Such an interesting story, I'm always impressed by this author's work.

Shell has just broken up with her fiancé, lost her job and moved back into her noisy family home. She wants a change! So when she sees a ‘help wanted’ sign in a weird little flower shop in her local shopping centre she decides to give it a go. Shell starts working with Neve who she immediately fancies. There is another presence in the shop though, a mysterious creature called Baby.

I’m a plant girl! A flower girl! Naturally (lol) I loved all of that. The shopping centre where Neve and Shell work is perennially (lol) closing and the gang of people who still work there really add so much. They’re a hoot! Would’ve loved even more of them tbh.

Always fun to have a weird little guy which is something Griffin does so well. I will say I did find some of Shell’s choices to be a bit odd and out of step of what I thought her character was but it did keep me on my toes!

Raced through this. A great time.

Eat the Ones You Love is the perfect read for lovers of weird horror, literally horror and sapphic horror. I have to say I wasn’t sure what to expect but being a lover of The Little Shop of Horrors and the above genres I was excited to try. I’m so glad I did. This was a slow burn read with a unique and wonderfully weird storyline that gets its teeth into you (pun intended) and won’t let go.
The writing is fantastic and really keeps you in the story. You cannot help but become invested and want to know what will happen next. I adored it. I won’t spoil too much but I will say this is a must read for anyone who loves a bit of botanical horror.
As always thank you to Titan Books for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

I have to say, this is certainly the first story I've ever read about someone being in a toxic and abusive relationship with a plant. And boy, it was a ride from start to finish.

After Shell lost her job and broke off her engagement, she had to move back with her parents and sisters while she was doing anything in her power to find a job and move on. She stumbles on a job ad in a flower shop. Neve is looking for a florist assistant. What Shell doesn't know is that there's a plant living in this mall, obsessed with Neve and with his own designs for Shell.

I really loved the characters in this story. Shell is a mess but she's such a relatable mess for me. Having to move back home at 33yo to a city that's slowly being ruined by the current capitalistic nightmare and having no options of getting out is honestly my biggest nightmare. So it was very easy to understand the choices she was making and the bad decisions she was so set on going along with. Neve on the other hand is such a fascinating character because she's so charming and sweet from the start but the more we find out the more horrifying picture it paints and leaves us with a question... How much of her choices can be justified at all.

And then there's Baby, a mysterious plant and omniscient narrator of this story. It's both a brilliant narrative device and horrifying creature that you know from the start cannot have any good intentions.

This book is an enjoyable read, and it doesn't veer too far into horror to make it inaccessible to a casual reader in my opinion.

I have a penchant for weird, literary horror, and it’s always better when it’s sapphic and has sentient carnivorous plants so I really couldn’t ask for any more than ‘Eat the Ones You Love’.

What’s interesting about the horror in this novel, largely body horror, is that it feels more camp than anything. Possibly a nod to the most famous carnivorous plant story, ‘Little Shop of Horrors’? It’s a really compelling juxtaposition against the commentary around the cost of living, housing crisis, and degradation of the estates and suburbs around Dublin.

During a visit to her local shopping mall, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to bring some good into her life, so she takes a chance. And flowers are just the good thing she’s been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.

An orchid growing in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. The beautiful florist belongs to him, 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 will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

Infused with wit, heart and horror, this is a story about possession, monstrosity and working in retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow.

‘Eat the Ones You Love’ is also an examination of the intersection of desire, loneliness and community in this specific setting of a slowly crumbling estate and mall with finding a place and a heart of these communities and discovering a part of yourself that had been forgotten. The workplace romances and intense friendships that form in the Woodbine Crown mall are the heart of the novel and I loved getting to know them all.


The other heart of ‘Eat the Ones You Love’ is, of course, Baby. Baby is a sentient, carnivorous orchid who is rooted in the Green Room of the mall, having its hooks in Neve, the owner of the florist, and reaching for Shell to get what it wants: Neve’s heart. It’s campy and creepy, unnerving and also a little funny, and I mean that in the most positive way. It adds such a fun and compelling element to the story because of course I don’t want this malicious entity to win, but also, wouldn’t it be interesting to find out what that would look like?

The ending really took me by surprise and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened but also not wanting to let go of these characters just yet. ‘Eat the Ones You Love’ is a wonderfully dark and twisty addition to the sub-genre of sad women unhinged horror that I absolutely adore.

Thank you to Titan and NetGalley for the review copy. ‘Eat the Ones You Love’ will be released in e-book, audiobook and paperback on 5 June 2025.

Written by Sophie

After loving Other Words for Smoke and Spare and Found Parts this book was a no-brainer. I adore Griffin's writing, it's perfectly balanced between down to Earth and dark magical weirdness and Eat the Ones You Love definitely delivered on my expectations!

I listened to the audiobook of this one, as well as reading along via ebook, and I enjoyed the added drama the voice acting brought. This is, of course, inspired by Little Shop of Horrors, as well as drawing on Griffin's own retail and floristry experiences. The combination really allows Griffin to draw you into this incredibly realistic world of a run-down suburb of Ireland.

Small towns can bring their own creepy vibe on their own, and Griffin really leans into that to emphasis our main character Shell's separation from her "big town" friends and her previous life before she came back to her hometown. And our sentient plant, Baby, weaves his way into the life of her friend group and into the shopping centre itself. Let alone Baby's entwining with Shell and the flower shop owner Neve.

I adored the LGBTQ+ representation in this book. We specifically have gay, lesbian, and bisexual representation, and they are interwoven so naturally into the book. Just as a natural part of life, as they damn well should be. I'm very glad to see this becoming more common now in publishing!

The book really ramps up near the end, after a long slow build that really entrenches you into the world. The story draws you in, slowly, surely. Linking you intrinsically to Shell's life, to the shopping centre and Neve her new friends. Just as Baby links himself, slowly but surely, into Shell's being.

This book was everything I wanted from Sarah Maria Griffin and I'm so excited for everyone else to discover the Woodbine gang and become invested in this short span of their lives.

Every time the plant spoke I kept picturing Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

This was a slow grower, you can almost feel ‘Baby’ growing around the story as it develops and coming through.

If you like weird sapphic books with creepy plants then this will totally be your vibe.

3.5 stars which I will round up purely for the CMAT mention.

Eat The Ones You Love: Sapphic Weird Horror x Sentient Plants

🪷🌱 Eat The Ones You Love 🌱🪷

Sarah Maria Griffin @sarahgriffski

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First of all, I know what you’re thinking. A sentient plant? If you haven’t already gathered from that rollercoaster of a pitch, this book is Weird. This may be the wackiest book I’ve ever read (and I mean that in a wholly complimentary way). When recently dumped, out-of-work Shell stumbles upon a flower shop and takes a fancy to the owner, she makes a spur-of-the-moment decision. She resolves that she’ll work as a florist, at least until she finds another job. Who knows, maybe she’ll fall in love with the art of flower arranging in her new life. What she doesn’t anticipate is a sentient, stalking, controlling plant called Baby that wants to consume her.

The humour in this book was top-notch. The descriptions were so vivid and true-to-life. When Griffin was writing about the slow death of the run-down local shopping centre, I could see it in my mind’s eye so clearly. We all know a Woodbine Crown Court – it’s something that most of us go about our daily lives not noticing, a part of our landscape.

The small cast of characters are wonderfully fleshed out. I think the modest cast was a perfect tool to give Griffin the opportunity to really explore each individual character, especially Shell, Baby and Neve. My favourite scene in the whole book was when Shell had to confront her past at a dinner party with her old friends – the shocking and unnervingly close-to-home sensation that maybe our friends aren’t the people we thought we knew.

It also includes a lot of insights about life, which I loved. About adult and female friendships, about the secret fear that everybody in your life hates you, about the life we purport to live online versus reality. It’s a real smorgasbord of craziness interspersed with some hard-hitting truths, occasionally masked with humour.

If you’re looking for a sapphic weird horror, featuring hungry, sentient plants, with a dash of literary fiction in there (an oddly specific recommendation, I know), then this might be just the book for you! Think Little Shop of Horrors but set in a dying mall with a carnivorous orchid, slowly devouring everyone whole. Okay?

Eat The Ones You Love is out June 3rd! Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

I miss this book. That's the review basically.
Ugh I loved this so much, the slight creepiness just envelops you as you go, and it's so unhinged BUT in a subtle way. Don't get too attached to anyone in this book 😅

Eat the ones you love - Sarah Maria Griffin

I started to read this one and as I was getting into it I broke my iPad. So I’m unable to give a proper review unfortunately. Thank you for the opportunity to have the book I appreciate it and I will be looking for it when it’s released.

I couldn’t stop thinking about *Little Shop of Horrors* while reading this book.

Except—this one’s darker, creepier, and… no musical numbers.

*Eat the Ones You Love* follows Shell, who’s already going through it—her relationship’s fallen apart, she just lost her job, and now she’s back living with her parents.

So when she spots a job opening at the local florist, she jumps at the chance. New start, right? She gets the job, makes some new friends, and things seem to be looking up.

But here’s the twist—she doesn’t just connect with her boss… she also forms a strange bond with a *plant*. And not just any plant—this one has a taste for humans. It’s slowly, quietly, taking over the shop.

The plant—called Baby—is this orchid-like creature that completely pulls you in. His point of view is weirdly mesmerizing and deeply unsettling. At times, it feels like his roots are wrapping around *you* as you read.

This book completely lures you into its world. It’s creepy, it’s tense, and it has this slow, creeping dread that just builds and builds.

And if you’re looking for a sapphic story that isn’t overly sweet or cliché—and delivers a solid dose of horror—*Eat the Ones You Love* is it.

Totally worth the read.

Dublin-based author Sarah Maria Griffin’s unsettling story is closer to weird fiction than conventional horror. Although her setting of Woodbine Crown a crumbling retail complex, inspired by Donaghmede shopping centre close to where Griffin grew up, gives it a distinctly gothic flavour – demonstrated in the emphasis on this labyrinthine, haunted, decaying space. The narrator’s known only as Baby, a monstrous creature, ostensibly a sentient plant able to tap into the consciousness of the people it comes into contact with. But it’s not really organic rather something otherworldly, almost Lovecraftian, that’s crept through a crack in the fabric of space and time. Its desires, its goals are inextricably tied to florist Neve whose tiny shop is based in the centre, although creeping gentrification threatens its future existence. Neve is reeling from a break-up with girlfriend Jen when she meets Shell who’s equally adrift. Shell takes a job as Neve’s assistant a stopgap intended to help her get back on track after a failed relationship closely followed by redundancy. However, Shell’s overwhelming attraction to Neve causes Shell to jettison her plans in hope of a shared future. But Shell hasn’t reckoned with Baby’s insatiable needs and obsessive manipulations which have already resulted in a series of mysterious disappearances.

Griffin worked in retail for close to a decade and once trained as a florist which grounds her narrative in reality. A reality which encompasses a critique of Dublin itself, the communities being swept away, the local gathering places purged then replaced by a series of barren, luxury buildings. Shell’s situation and that of the people around her encapsulates the issues around class, the failure of social mobility, precarity and urban alienation that Griffin perceives as an inescapable feature of Ireland’s contemporary social landscape. And, although Griffin refuses any notion of Baby as metaphor, her malevolent narrator conjures visions of vengeful nature, of fractured eco-systems, a wider world that’s horribly out of balance. There are times when Griffin’s story falters, it’s slow-moving and could probably be trimmed back without losing any of its force. But its flaws felt relatively minor simply because the writing’s so incredibly fluid and hypnotic, overflowing with striking images and arresting passages. Although, be warned, it’s not a book for anyone seeking tidy resolutions or overarching explanations.

Shell gets a job at a florist and meets Neve, who holds a secret: she's hiding a sinister plant that wants to consume her.
This book is mainly told from the plant's point of view, which I thought was very effective, and I enjoyed all the possession elements.
I think my main issue was that I didn't really feel the characters were developed very much, and so I struggled to care what happened to them.
Overall a nice little horror story.

It is finally time for me to tell you about a book I devoured (and frankly, felt a bit devoured by) while in the grip of a weird fevery virus I had back in January. I was probably already a bit mad, but definitely felt it as I recorded a voice memo for myself with thoughts on the book as I read it like Dale Cooper if he was a sick little bookworm (some of those thoughts may make up a close read Substack once spoilers aren't as much of an issue).

Shell is back at her parents' place in North County Dublin, out of job and a relationship (and a friend group that came with that). She happens upon a job at the florists in her run down local shopping centre, and sees a new craft - and a very pretty colleague, Neve - as a great fresh start. But she doesn't know what lies behind Neve's cool exterior, behind the failing shop that feels like a lifeline, or lurking in the decapitated shopping centre: a small, innocent looking orchid called Baby who doesn't want to share his precious Neve with anyone.

Obsession infiltrates every physical space Shell moves through, as well as every element of the book - even an email chain between secondary characters has an edge of paranoia. A dread that simmers slowly until you find yourself in the full boil of a horror novel, like a glimpse of something in the corner of your eye, a hair raising on the back of your neck, probably nothing except you know: you are being watched.

It's a book about fear, and desire, sometimes opposed and sometimes one fuelling the other. It's about spaces that used to feel welcoming, and full of possibilities, and even creativity, now feeling like false promises long after being reeled in. I thought about the use of horror in this book, and how it isn't always something external - sometimes the call is coming from inside the house, inside the mind, inside the body, something you can't hide from, somewhere you can't outrun.

Eat the Ones You Love comes out on 3rd June, and will be such a delight to fans of Griffin's previous novels (Spare and Found Parts, Other Words for Smoke), or an incredible discovery of those who haven't yet had the pleasure.

the initial concept of a sentient, murderous plant sounded like an interesting horror
in reality this was boring, majority of characters unlikeable and making stupid decisions that make absolutely no sense

Actual rating - 3.5 stars (rounded up)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!
I unfortunately didn’t love this one as much as I was hoping to. It’s a riff on the concept of killer plants a la little shop of horrors, which is an amazing premise. However, I think this book had some issues with pacing and narrative voice that really affected my reading experience.

The pacing itself was a bit slow. I actually took a really long break from reading this about half way through because I felt like the plot had stalled so much that I had no inclination to pick it up for a while. I think it managed to get back on course for the last third but, I can’t ignore how stop start the book felt to that point.

The other major thing I didn’t love/felt could have been worked on more was the use of the plant/baby as this kind of omniscient narrator. The book was largely from Shell’s pov, with other chapters following some of the other main cast. However, the book was actually narrated by the plant a lot of the time, which would become clear when it would insert its own opinion or commentary into a scene. I think that the idea of the leeching, parasitic plant infecting the narrative to the point where you think you’re reading from one characters pov, only to find it was actually the plant all along sounds cool in concept. In reality though, it ended up being too jarring to the point it would make me pause every time it occurred, which was quite often, before I remembered oh yeah the plant does that sometimes. It felt more gimmicky and frustrating rather than an effective narrative device. I think the short chapters that were completely narrated by the plant were a more effective way of inserting its thoughts. I do like the idea of the omniscient plant presence, like I said, so I wouldn’t necessarily scrap it completely, but maybe only save it for nearer the climax of the book when the characters are more ‘infected’.

I didn’t hate this book by any means. I largely enjoyed my reading experience and I think it’s such a cool idea. With a little bit more editing, I think this could have been a higher rating and I definitely want to check what this author puts out next.

Also, bonus points for being the first book I’ve read to mention CMAT.