Reviews with content warning for Death - Eat the Ones You Love

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

31 reviews

idk_indigo's review against another edition

3.75

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm not quite sure how I felt about this one. I enjoyed the commentary on friendships/relationships and consumption or whatever. I was left a bit confused by the ending, but I think that was the point? Either way, I do sort of wish it had been a little more tied-up.

I think to specify how I feel: as a horror book, this was really well-done. The space of the Crown was creepy, yet tempting. Its descriptions felt off, but I could still imagine it clearly enough that it influenced some terror. The relationships between Shell and her old friends, her new friends, her boss/love interest, etc. were just shallow enough to feel isolating, but deep enough to feel unnerving. The man-eating plant was a wonderful narrator, with oodles of creep just oozing from him.

However, as a novel, I don't think this was great. The characters were shallow, their relationships did not do anything for me.

So overall...I liked it. Did not love, but I would definitely read another of this author's books.

Content Warnings

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Queen of writing liminal spaces

‘If you could see the ocean you could see the whole world.’

‘There are no olive branches in this grove, only nightshade and lantana, and every breath Shell took was poison in her lungs.’

‘She felt like an animal, running mouth open into a field, the barn burning behind her, paws wet with gasoline’

Content Warnings

clovetra's review against another edition

1.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

oh i hate giving this a 1-star. i was really contemplating whether i bumped this up but... naur this was not good! i was tempted to dnf this but i didn't because i had hope this would get better...... friends... it did not.
this book was such a nothingburger. nothing ever happened. ever. the plot? what plot? nothing happened! at most shell has an existential crisis over her relationship with neve, baby monologues, and alcohol is drunk. that's easily 70% of the book right there.
shell was an ok character i guess. i mean she wasn't exactly intriguing but she did have a past. but wants? goals? eeehhhhh kind of... but not really. neve had no personality. you'd think the love interest would have SOMETHING going for her, but Nope! and on the topic of neve being the "love interest" .... no the fawk she wasn't. remove the lgbt+ tag from this. seriously. hetero relationships get 10x more attention in this book. spoilers but at most there is One Scene where shell and neve kiss and THATS IT. are you fucking kidding me. i get the book wasn't about their romance but oh my god half the book is about their will-they-wont-they and there's barely any pay-off! bffr. every other character in this book is just There. jen, bec, daniel, and kiero have no depth beyond their job and Oh Yeah Kireo's Sister's Dead Lol. that's it.
nothing fucking happens in this book. i was like 70% deep and no horror had even come up! are you serious! the slowest-paced book ever. slow-burn has nothing on this. and what actually does end up happening is so disappointing - and might i add, NOT HORROR - and then bam the book is over.
im gonna expand on that actually. theres no fucking horror. i would say this is magical realism and contemporary at best. there was no horror. even in the "scary" moments, there would be a cut to black. what the fuck are we doing here. like yeah sure there was Some body horror but cmon…. i wasn’t scared at all. i didn’t even really feel dresd at any point except for when bec and jen went in the corridors. but then nothing happened! nothing ever happens! and the one time something Does Happen at the end with neve, instead the author backs out of fully committing with what happens to baby and shell! SNOOZE cmon you gave me NOTHING.
every subplot has no pay-off whatsoever. something is introduced and then it just… Fizzles out. it reminds me of litfic but with none of the charm.
the writing was nothing to write home about. it was fine. i will say it wasn’t bad in terms of the language employed, but i mean i can’t say i loved it, or found it poetic, lyrical, etc. i found it to be words on a page.
I'm actually so annoyed because this was such a waste of time yet it had such potential. this storyline could've eaten so fucking hard. but nothing, and i mean nothing, lived up to my expectations. everything was Mid. nothing stood out and this seriously evoked No Feeling in me whatsoever at any point. im so annoyed this didn't get better and i probably should’ve dnf’d this and saved myself the time. but i had Hope this would pick up. alas, it never did. evil to have such a banging cover and yet have this story inside 💔

Content Warnings

juffnstuff's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

chloeo_sullivan's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Little Shop of Horrors meets The Substance.

Content Warnings

lizdarkhorse's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Honestly for over 50% of the book this would have been a five star read for me. The reason I didn't give it a five star review is that the pacing slowed down quite a bit in the second half as things are revealed. I feel like when you

have a sentient plant as a character that controls the actions of others it makes it feel strange for the character motivations because it's not really them controlling themselves. Early on yes, later on not so much.

I did enjoy the characters and the writing, but I felt like the pacing is quite uneven.

Content Warnings