Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

Book Review

Melody Bowles

Eat The Ones You Love is such a great title. I expected plant-based horror akin to The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham or A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock. What I got was a mashup of a literary novel about a shopping centre closing down and the machinations of the evil plant growing at its heart. As in the real world, shopping centres are emptying out due to rising rents and the global takeover of online retailers like Amazon and Temu. I feel it’s strange to imply the centre closing is because of an evil plant eating the patrons. The plant feels like it should represent something realistic relating to why shopping centres are closing, but…it just seems to be an evil plant? Or perhaps an abusive partner? These parts of the story don’t fit together; it feels disjointed. This is my main criticism of the book. It’s such a shame, as I love the near-empty, almost-collapsing shopping centre as a setting.

We mostly follow the recently dumped Shell, who gets a job in the shopping centre’s flower store, working with the mysterious Neve. Neve is a workaholic, also recently dumped. Shell has an immediate crush on Neve, but unfortunately Neve’s heart is taken. Whether that’s by her ex, Jen, or the murderous plant she calls Baby is initially unclear. Shell also develops a romantic relationship with Kiero, another tenant in the shopping centre. She actually goes out on dates with him, while her feelings for Neve do nothing but simmer in the background. It’s a little frustrating.

The aforementioned evil plant, Baby, is the narrator for much of the book. He can worm his way into people after they touch him and understand their thoughts. This can be jarring, as the book reads as written in the third person but then slips into the first when Baby wants to comment on something, usually ominously. The part where he explains human skin is full of tiny holes was absolutely chilling and foreshadows my favourite scene, where Shell wakes up with a garden growing out of her face. Although Shell is supposed to be the protagonist, she mostly lets things happen to her. I think she’s supposed to rediscover the importance of connection with old and new friends, which almost works. I wish we had experienced the story more from the perspective of Neve’s ex, Jen, who goes out of her way to try to stop the evil plant and save the shopping centre from closure.

I want to like this book. All the right ingredients are here, and it really picks up in the final chapters. But it doesn’t quite come together due to the disjointed concepts, the frustrating protagonist, and the pacing grinding to a near halt midway through while Shell tries to figure out her love life.

Read Eat The Ones You Love for a shopping centre-based soap opera with the horrific twist that one of the major players is a man-eating plant.