Thank you so much NetGalley and Tor Publishing for this arc!!

5/5 stars

This was such a wild ride!! I absolutely loved this novel. I love that it was set in Ireland, and each character had a unique and believable personality - including the plant! I read this so quickly, and I wish it was longer as I really really enjoyed this wacky horror. I can't wait to read more from this author!

From the description, I knew this book was my kind of read. I often find myself drawn to the "weird girl lit" genre and I'm obsessed with the modernity and fantasy elements in this book. I am looking forward to an even deeper read of it this summer.

This book felt like a Little Shop of Horrors laced fever dream. A book that has gothic elements, mixed with themes of finding yourself/starting over, found family in the unlikeliest of places, and sprinkles in humor and quirky, weird horror to top it off, it is one that people will not likely forget anytime soon. This book was fun, and interesting, and fresh.

Are plants creepy? I don't usually think so, but this book is trying its best to convince me. An engaging read about moving home and descending into madness - or is it just the pollen talking?

Eat The Ones You love is a beautiful, sapphic, modern-day Little Shop of Horrors (with an emphasis on the “horror” part.)

I loved Shell’s absolute obsession with Neve and watching her spiral into the flower shop and shopping center as a whole. The commentary on the retail industry throughout the book was interesting and entertaining and I felt such a connection and understanding with many of the characters.

I ended up listening to this one on audio thanks to Libby and the narrators absolutely crushed it. The voices were perfect and I couldn’t stop listening to this one.

The writing was absolutely perfect and I will be on the lookout for more from this author! Check this one out if you love horror, plants, and LOVE!

**Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this one, sorry I’m late!**

I absolutely loved the concept of this book. I am a big fan of Baby, the anthropomorphic orchid that has a hold on Neve, the florist that has caught Shell’s attention and who hires Shell on to help at the shop. I didn’t connect very well with some of the characters, but I was very absorbed by the overall plot. The pacing was perfect for this little shop of horrors (yeah I did that on purpose). I did find Jenn’s letters to be an interesting added perspective as she is the one that escaped from Baby and knows there is something wrong with Neve and the florist shop.

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

If you’re looking for something that is more horrific from the perspective of possession (but not by spirits) than just from the creepiness side of things, I think you’ll really enjoy this one. Honestly, working retail is the biggest horror of all in this.

Thank you to @torbooks for my copy of the book! All thoughts are my own.

I thought this was intriguing and it def had sweeney todd vibes but I found the writing style along with the slow pacing of the start made it hard to get into.

A perfect blend of queer romance and Little Shop of Horrors. While the writing was strong, it never overshadowed the plot. The characters were well-developed and interesting. I loved this one and have been recommending it to everyone.

The writing was very unique and I definitely had to focus on it to not miss something, but it was beautiful. I really enjoyed the story and the consuming nature of the plant. I wish the ending had a bit more oomph, but overall would definitely recommend.

What was set up fairly well from the beginning unravels slowly, and almost painfully so. The perils of a toxic love in place of loneliness are explored well, but it just didn't have a lasting effect due to its pacing and (possibly purposeful) mundanity that won't be for everyone.

With hints of Little Shop of Horrors, Eat the Ones You Love gets off to a strong start. It’s bizarre and unsettling and kept me reading eagerly, but somewhere along the way, it started unravel, and in the end left me wanting less rather than more.

Barry McStay and Lauren O’Leary do a good job narrating the audiobook.

Thank you Sarah Maria Griffin, Tor Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Little Shop of Horrors, but make it Irish queer romance. I really wanted to enjoy this book because I thought the premise was great, but it fell really flat for me. Despite the emotional ups and downs Shell seems to experience, the narrative feels extremely one-note and dull. It’s also the slowest-moving horror I’ve ever read.

Shell– newly unemployed and single– comes across a HELP WANTED sign in a flower shop window. The lovely, enigmatic florist named Neve offers her the job, and it feels like a fresh start to Shell. But things are not what they seem. The decaying mall surrounding the flower shop houses a very strange plant that’s very, very smart, hungry, and possessive.

This is some excellent, unsettling horror. In an unexpected twist on an omnipotent third person narrator, much of the story is told from the point of view of the plant, which has its vines in nearly everything. The botanical horror is also intensified by the very real decline of in-person retail and the particular hellscape of the current job market.

The concept and most of the book is thoroughly engrossing, but the relatively quick resolution didn’t seem like a match for the slow build-up. But this is a fairly common critique I have for the horror genre in general.

A creepy tale of the danger of obsession. Subtle social commentary entwined with body horror. A flawed but relatable heroine who is struggling to find her feet, her identity, and maybe even love falls victim--not just to distorted social media expectations, but to a malign supernatural force.

Unfortunately this was just too weird and open ended for me. This basically “You” if Joe Goldberg were an alien plant and as much as that sounds amazing, apparently that isn’t my vibe. I didn’t love that most of the book was told through the “villain” perspective. I never enjoy that. I also didn’t love that it swapped to being mostly about Jen by the end? Also what happened to her??? I feel like a lot of this book went over my head and I just didn’t understand anything happening. A definite miss for me.

With a trip through my hometown (the real home behind the fictional Southeast Texan town of the Bless Your Heart series) just around the bend, I’ve been thinking a lot about the landmarks of my youth. The internet cafe, the family-run bakery, the high school, the skating rink. But not even the sprawling cemetery where my grandmothers lay buried, where I tagged along on weekly rituals to refresh flowers and polish stone, hold a candle to the place I spent most of my childhood: the mall.

Memory moves me through Parkdall Mall: visits to Santa’s Village, tween allowances parsed out at Claire’s and the food court, angsty teenage weekends roaming the bookstore and flirting in the arcade. My grandfather, and later my mother, worked years at the jewelry store. I was never hired by any of the stores—but my son was. Suffice it to say, Parkdale and I have history.

Set in a crumbling mall in Ireland, EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE immediately piqued my sense of nostalgia, as did its LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS vibe and slight aroma of Hailey Piper’s chimera QUEEN OF TEETH. I’ve been reading it slowly over the past few weeks, letting it unfurl in tendrils within me as I moved through the crumbling halls of The Crown just like I once moved through the corridors at my own hometown mall. This book is best absorbed in those small bites, I think—like a tasting. Let it spread under your skin and devour you whole 🌱

This was so unique and SO fun -- but also super gross at times, haha. The body horror was intense in the best ways, but definitely noting that in case anyone is really put off just so they don't go into it without knowing & end up giving it a poor review because of that. If you love your horror to be dark, weird, gross, with lots of themes about social and relationship-related dynamics and constructs, you will LOVE this! I know I did.

I went into this book knowing that it was going to be weird and it did not disappoint!

Eat the Ones You Love follows a ragtag crew of workers inside a mall that is slowly falling apart around them. Shell, who has recently moved home after breaking up with her fiancée, gets a job at the flower shop in the mall and is quickly taken in by those that have worked there for years. But there is something growing in the walls of the mall, and Shell's new boss, Neve, might know more about the danger it represents than she is letting on.

The premise of this book is super fun. There's a plant that basically acts like an abusive partner and the girl running the flower shop is tangled in this toxic relationship with it. There's a bisexual baddie that comes in to save her from the weird, definitely male plant. Lots of fun gender and relationship constructs to dig into here. Also, the body horror (when it happens) is unreal. There is a scene towards the end of the book that made me physically shiver with disgust while listening.

So why only 3 stars?

Well, the first 5-10% of the book is pretty standard - set up, introduction of characters and the situation they're in. Then the middle like, 60%? of the book is just...very slow. There's two will-they-won't-they relationships and a bunch of scenes where the denizens of the mall get together for some (somewhat pathetic) drinks in the food court after hours. In terms of plot advancement, though? Basically nothing.

Look, I love a good found family story and this had the perfect set up for it. These people all work in the same retro mall! They're all lost in life and looking for direction! There's a horror facing them that they're barely aware of! All very cool. Instead of focusing on this, though, the book really digs into he POV of the plant (which doesn't become a real danger to anybody until the final 25% of the story). The word that kept coming to mind as I was reading was meandering. Where are we going with this? When is the danger going to finally ramp up?

Kudos to the author for giving us a cast of characters to cheer for because I really, really was. The mall folk quickly felt like old friends and I wanted all of them to come out of things okay. The scenes of the group drinking cheap beer and box wine under the neon glow of an after-hours food court was warm and inviting and safe, which really juxtaposed the danger lurking in the foundations of the building. Shell, especially, made me smile every time she swiped through a message thread and thought the best reaction would be some inane gif that only vaguely related to whatever conversation was going on.

The pacing, though, is something I had a really hard time with, which is why the star rating sits lower than I thought it would. People who like weird fiction and, specifically, Little Shop of Horrors will definitely enjoy this one - I just wish we had a bit more action in the middle of the book to even things out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a DRC of this title.

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin is a dark, poetic descent into hunger, love, and identity. The writing is rich and feral—each sentence casts its own spell, blurring the line between craving and becoming. Griffin doesn’t simply tell a story—she devours it from the inside out, letting readers feel every pulse, every ache, every transformation.

This is body horror at its most intimate—laced with myth, stitched with tenderness, and soaked in blood. It’s not just about what the characters do to survive, but what they must consume—of others, of memory, of themselves—to keep moving through a world that never stops asking for more. The mythos isn’t merely backdrop; it courses through the prose like a fever, like longing. The monstrous and the divine become indistinguishable.

There’s something primal and deeply feminine in the way Griffin writes about pain, hunger, and desire—like each wound sings. Emotion doesn’t simmer here—it scorches. It peels back skin, revealing truth in muscle and bone. The characters are ferociously human, even when they’re not. And the love—sharp, raw, complex—echoes long after the final page.

Strange, beautiful, and haunting, this book lingers like a dream you can’t shake—and wouldn't want to. It’s a hymn for the wild parts of ourselves we’re told to tame.

Was super super interested because Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorite musicals! At first, I was not very interested and the first few chapters were very hard to get through, but when the scary part started happening the atmosphere was great, just wish there was more of it.