Book Review: ‘Eat the Ones You Love’ by Sarah Maria Griffin (sapphic horror and carnivorous plants)
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
