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About The Book 📚

Title: Eat the Ones You Love

Author: Sarah Maria Griffin

Audiobook Narrated By: Barry McStay and Lauren O’Leary

Audiobook Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

Cover Art: Ana Miminoshvili Portfolio: https://anamiminoshvili.com/

Publication Date: April 2025

Publisher: Tor Books

Genre: Horror, Romance, LGBTQ+

Pages: 288

Setting: Ireland

Click Here for Content Warnings (may contain spoilers)

Three Words That Describe This Book: plant, obsession, queer

About The Author

“Sarah Maria Griffin is from Dublin, Ireland. She is the author of the novels Spare & Found Parts and Other Words For Smoke, which won an Irish Book Award in 2019. She writes about video games for The Guardian, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Winter Papers, and The Stinging Fly, amongst other places. She also makes zines.” https://us.macmillan.com/author/sarahmariagriffin

My Review

› I read Eat the Ones You Love for The Literally Dead Book Club. Before we get into reviewing the book, let’s talk about the audiobook for a minute. The voice of the plant was eerie in the best way. The narrators were perfect, and I highly recommend the audiobook. And this cover! Definitely one of my all-time favourite book covers. I love the flower, the colours, and the two different coloured eyes with the brown eyeball looking like its eyelashes are teeth. I’ve never read anything by Sarah Maria Griffin before, but you can be sure I will be reading more by her. What a talent!

› The mall in Eat the Ones You Love is loosely based on the mall Sarah Maria Griffin worked at as a teen. Malls are dying in many places because of the internet. It has woven itself into our lives just as Baby has woven his vines all around him. She said it took five years to write this story, which she started at the beginning of COVID. In an interview, Sarah Maria Griffin said the original ending was different, and now I’m very curious to know what it was.

› Shell sees a “Help Needed” sign on a flower shop. Not a “Help Wanted”. A “Help Needed”. Curious…
Neve, the shop owner, hires Shell on the spot. And then Shell has already fallen in love. But, there’s something between Shell and Neve…something Shell doesn’t know about…A carnivorous orchid-type plant named Baby is dangerously obsessed with Neve.

› Neve is getting over the breakup with Dr. Jenn, a smart, witty, and weird scientist who moved away to try and get over Neve. She had a weird vibe about Neve and this strange plant, and it’s still on her mind. She communicates with their mutual friend, Beck, a travel agent, to get updates about how Neve is doing.

› Eat the Ones You Love in a way, yes, this is about love, but not quite. Baby says he loves Neve, but he doesn’t just love her; he is completely obsessed and possessive of her. Dr. Jenn is heartbroken, and I think she still loves Neve. Shell thinks she’s in love with Neve, but Quiero is in love with her. What is love? How is it different for each person? What would you do for the ones you love most?

Quotes That Stuck With Me

“You can feel the sorrow of a thing that is gone without wanting it back, like mourning the version of yourself who was happy—for whom this was enough.”

› Eat the Ones You Love has incredible character development and atmosphere. I loved the descriptions and writing style. Reading from the plant’s point of view was such a unique and creepy experience. I think the plot is well done, the pacing was great throughout, and I loved the open ending. I didn’t want to put it down, and this is going to be one of the best books of 2025 for me.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, open-ended, unconventional, tragic
Pace: fast
Tone: emotional, bittersweet, suspenseful, thought-provoking, dark, mysterious, creepy, gruesome
Humour: offbeat
Writing Style: banter-filled, conversational, engaging
Character: authentic, awkward, complex, flawed, likeable, quirky, relatable, strong female, unlikeable, well-developed, diverse, multiple points of view
LGBTQIA+ Representation: bisexual, gay, lesbian
Audio: character accents, multiple narrators, emotionally connected, animated, brisk, clear, intense

Read Alikes:
A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

› In the past, I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Eat The Ones You Love is a queer “Little Shop of Horrors” that is about community, friendship, loyalty, desire, love, and obsession. Highly recommend!

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