EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE follows michelle "shell" pine who—fresh off a divorce from her fiancé, the loss of her job, and the inevitable move back home with her parents—seeks a much-needed change of pace by asking after work at the woodbine crown mall's thriving florist shop. it belongs to neve, whose beautiful looks and commanding personality spark an immediate crush in shell, but neve belongs to something else in the mall: an unassuming orchid growing in the atrium at the heart of the mall. baby is young, starving, and has grown his roots all through the building. nothing—and no one—he eats can satisfy him as much as eating neve, and he will have her no matter the cost.

with her gorgeous prose and masterful characterization, sarah maria griffin explores the world of retail through a monstrous lens, following a closely knit group of friends who work in the woodbine crown's surviving shops and the ways they interact with one another—both in public and in secret—and wrestle with the rumors of the mall closure, which threatens to put a stop to the beating heart of their community and the lives they've built around it. as they nurse friendships, develop crushes, and begin workplace affairs, baby threads his way into their lives, determined to take everything he can get before it's too late.

EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE is a slow and relentless fever dream of insidious unravelings you won't be able to look away from. it shines with the peculiar sheen of the desirous and hungry, strikes with the fury of a person possessed, and blossoms as only the most beautiful of flowers can. it is a story about finding yourself, and finding your chosen family, even in the worst of times. the woodbine friend group at its heart is one of the most memorable and arresting casts i've read about in a long while, and i saw parts of myself in each of them, rooting for them all even as the world around them grew into a lush and verdant hell.

a horrifying journey that will leave you reeling all the way into its pitch perfect ending, sarah maria griffin's adult debut is an eerie and unforgettable triumph. the audiobook narrators are absolutely stellar and the production on this audiobook was perfection! whether you read the book or listen to it, you're in for a wicked and magnificent experience.

didn't really know what i was getting into when i picked this one up, but i knew it was queer and i loved the title so offfff we go. i figured we'd get some cannibals, some arm-gnawing, some soylent green is people. imagine my absolute delight when i realized we have been given a book that invokes LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. you gotta be kidding me.

shell's back in town and strolling through the mall, trying to take her mind off the fact she's had to move back home and she's recently become single. when she walks into a florist shop in one of those decaying malls of yore and is offered a job by neve, who is absolutely hot and could maybe heal her. the tea? neve's got a sentient orchid in the back named baby and maybe, just maybe, he's got a taste for human flesh.

this book was bananas. it's not often you get to read from the perspective of a carnivorous plant. but don't get it twisted - as insidious as it was, it was also pretty freaking funny. i was having the most fun when we were hearing from baby's perspective, so much so that the chemistry between shell and neve was a bit of a non-starter for me personally. also, i do genuinely love that this is another book to add to the sapphic books about consumption zeitgeist. super fun read.

ALSO, the dual narrators, especially when their voices were synchronized? incredible.

Sarah Maria Griffin’s Eat the Ones You Love is a darkly whimsical and emotionally resonant novel that intertwines horror, humor, and heartfelt introspection. Set against the backdrop of a decaying Irish strip mall, the story follows Shell, a woman grappling with personal upheaval, who finds employment at a flower shop harboring a sentient, flesh-eating orchid named Baby. Griffin masterfully blends themes of millennial disillusionment, queer romance, and the grotesque, crafting a narrative that is both unsettling and deeply human. The novel’s unique perspective, including chapters from Baby’s point of view, adds a layer of eerie intimacy, while its exploration of desire, identity, and the search for connection resonates powerfully. With its lyrical prose and inventive storytelling, Eat the Ones You Love stands out as a compelling addition to contemporary horror literature.