EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE by Sarah Maria Griffin – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Published by Tor Books on April 22 2025
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 288
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Little Shop of Horrors meets The Ruins in this weird love story, perfect for readers who enjoy body horror and atmospheric writing.

“I unfolded my green shoots and vines onto the tabletop like compassionate little garden snakes, and I wrapped them up her arms and shoulders and throat like the lover I am, like the lover she needs. She never resists this. I softly wormed a single vine up to the corner of her mouth, like a kiss, and she opened up, smoke on her breath, in a kind of surrender.”

Eat the Ones You Love may seem familiar—the comps above are pretty much dead on—but there are surprises galore between the pages of this story. At first I struggled a bit with the author’s writing style (the story takes place in Ireland and is full of Irish slang and some unfamiliar words), but eventually it grew on me. Sarah Maria Griffin tackles some relevant themes, like obsession and the darker side of love and relationships, and wraps them in a story filled with creeping horror.

Shell Pines is in her early thirties and has recently lost both her job and her fiance. She’s even had to move into her parents’ house until she can get back on her feet again, so life isn’t exactly great at the moment. One day while cruising through Woodbine Crown, the local mall, she spots a “Help Needed” sign on the door of a flower shop and decides to go in. Neve is the shop owner and tells Shell she’s looking for an assistant. Shell is intrigued by the beautiful Neve and accepts the job, not realizing that her life is about to take a dark, dangerous turn.

Unbeknownst to Shell, Neve has been cultivating and caring for a rare and very strange orchid, who she calls Baby. Baby lives in the mall’s atrium and over the years has been able to extend itself to other parts of the mall. Baby’s greatest desire is to consume his beloved Neve, but he’s going to need help. And Shell just might be perfect for the job.

Sarah Maria Griffin’s writing is simply lovely, and it veres more toward literary fiction than I was expecting. But that doesn’t make the story any less horrific, and from the very beginning the reader senses something is “off” with Neve and her obsession with her job. At first the story appears to be told in third person, but I soon realized something else was going on. With the addition of a few personal pronouns, it becomes clear that Baby is actually telling the story. I have to admit it was a little jarring at first. How can Baby see what all the characters are doing? Griffin solves this problem in a clever way, and the story takes on another level of creepiness.

One of my favorite elements in Eat the Ones You Love is the mall setting, and the author does a great job of capturing the vibe of a decaying mall. Once the center of robust social gatherings and endless shopping opportunities, the declining economy has all but destroyed Woodbine Crown (and no doubt, others like it). With only a few shops left struggling to survive—Neve’s flower shop, a hair salon, a travel agency, a supermarket and a scattering of food court offerings—the mall is in danger of being shut down for good. Many scenes in the story take place after hours, when Neve and her friends sneak in at night to meet in the empty food court and drink, or very early in the morning when Shell has to report to work before the mall even opens to the public. Griffin describes the mall as a huge, almost abandoned space, dark and dank, and it made me sort of sad that malls are a dying breed. I have so many fond memories of them!

And while there is plenty of horror, the story is rather relationship heavy. Neve and Shell are attracted to each other, although neither one acts on those feelings right away, so there is quite a bit of yearning between them. Eventually their relationship crosses over into horror, once Baby joins the mix, and it was really well done. We also learn about Shell’s breakup with her ex fiance, and Neve was also engaged at one point to a woman named Jen, who broke up with Neve when she found out about Baby. The story is interspersed with emails from Jen to her friend Bec (part of Neve’s friend group), who is very worried about Neve, and I absolutely loved this side plot as Jen becomes more and more frantic about Neve’s safety.

All these relationships converge in a thrilling and bloody confrontation in the atrium, and I loved that nothing really happened quite the way I was expecting. Even the way Griffin wraps up her story was surprising—there’s a time jump in the last chapter that shows “where they are now”—and while endings can be tricky if not done right, this one really works.

This isn’t a fast paced story, and the horror is sometimes only hinted at, but I really enjoyed this very usual tale, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.