Strange is the Light
Will be published approx. on 8. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-80336-678-4 (ISBN)
Description
A childhood game of wild imagination takes a frightening turn in this moving tale of intense friendship, tangled secrets and betrayal from the acclaimed author of Eat the Ones You Love, one of the Sunday Times's Top Ten Irish Books of 2025.
For Daphne McSharry, Valentia Island was a place of joyful childhood holidays: independence, adventure and playing with her beloved friends, Ronan, Leonie and Finn. They returned to one game of their own making year after year, and let their imaginations roam free. But when the game is stolen from them by an outsider, it becomes something dark and strange, forcing Daphne to make a choice with a terrible cost. When tragedy brings her back to the island years later, she and her friends finally have to face the consequences of what she did.
Daphne never took her final turn... And there is a debt that must be paid.
For Daphne McSharry, Valentia Island was a place of joyful childhood holidays: independence, adventure and playing with her beloved friends, Ronan, Leonie and Finn. They returned to one game of their own making year after year, and let their imaginations roam free. But when the game is stolen from them by an outsider, it becomes something dark and strange, forcing Daphne to make a choice with a terrible cost. When tragedy brings her back to the island years later, she and her friends finally have to face the consequences of what she did.
Daphne never took her final turn... And there is a debt that must be paid.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Eat the Ones You Love:A book that dwells in the real and unreal, that has weirdness and darkness but humour and heart too. It's weird, yes - how could a book about a talking plant not be - but so at home in its weirdness that the world seems more magical when you put the book down.
-Sunday Times
Gorgeously written and incredibly atmospheric, this very Irish horror story is a brilliant exploration of desire, fear and belonging.
-Irish Times
Deliciously strange, delightfully wicked... Griffin thrives in the liminal space between genres, throwing out roots and blooming in weird and wonderful ways.
-V.E. Schwab
It's been an excellent few years for gothic novels, and Eat the Ones You Love is among the best I've read. It's certainly the most fun. Gorgeous, bewitching, full of heart and secrets and smarts, it kept me up late and turned my dreams strange.
-Kelly Link, bestselling author of The Book of Love
This murdery plant is my number one problematic fave. Eat The Ones You Love is intricate, unusual, and unlike anything you've read before. An eccentric, deeply sensual, and artistically sure-footed exploration of toxicity in many forms. I devoured it.
-Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
Sarah Maria Griffin is an artist of the rarest kind: genuine, vulnerable, funny, tragic and wise.
-Sarah Rees Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of Long Live Evil
Eat The Ones You Love is a masterpiece inventive, intimate, and so incisive on the way class shapes human relationships. Griffin's voice is absolutely singular; scalpel-sharp and deeply lyrical, every word unexpected and yet precise. Simply put, this book redefines the literary horror genre. Fans of Paul Tremblay and T. Kingfisher have found their new obsession.
-Laura Steven, award-winning author of The Society of Soulless Girls
Eat the Ones You Love is a beautiful, dark gem of a book. Sarah Maria Griffin writes with acute attention to the intersection between class and relationships, and the all-consuming effects of possession.
-Zoraida CUrdova, USA Today bestselling author of The Inheritance of OrquIdea Divina
Eat the Ones You Love is a visceral experience akin to stepping into a lush greenhouse and feeling your skin come alive, blood warm and tingling, as spring green vines brush your cheeks whispering promises of hunger. Decadent, heartfelt, delicious, dark, broken, sweet, and horrifying, this book is a journey of verdant, blooming love and creeping terror not to be missed.
-Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times-bestselling author of Bloom and Guillotine
This poignant and original examination of desire and decay is a stunner.
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
The ultimate complex relationship story, this horrific tale is infused with humor and wit via Griffin's prose... Fans of John Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In should pick this up.
-Library Journal, starred review
Sarah Maria Griffin's prose is intoxicatingly verdant - I found myself dying to get back to reading any time life forced me to put it down. Griffin's voice holds your hand through the pages with compelling surety. It's a palpable, skilfully executed horror where you can't see the florist for the trees until it's too late. This one lingers and I loved it.
-Courtney Smyth, author of The Undetectables
I devoured this book in a matter of days, but it will be snaking through my mind for a long time to come.
-Adrienne Celt, author of End of the World House
Eat the Ones You Love is a story that has everything: monsters, malls, and minimum wage. Griffin is a genius of suburban gothic, and like Baby, I'm always hungry for more.
-Caroline O'Donoghue, bestselling author of The Rachel Incident
Sarah Maria Griffin has cultivated something rare and precious, a tale that hums with love and menace in prose so stunning it will take your breath away. With Griffin's signature flair for beauty and complexity, this layered and immersive story of what binds and breaks us will wind it's way around your heart and sometimes stop it Deirdre Sullivan, author of Wise Creatures
Full of lush, visceral prose that brings all of your senses to life, it's a supremely satisfying read, equal parts unsettling and enthralling.
-Kel Menton, Irish Sunday Independent
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 55 mm
Weight
255 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80336-678-4 (9781803366784)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Sarah Maria Griffin is a writer living in Dublin, Ireland. She is the author of the novels Spare & Found Parts, Other Words For Smoke, which won an Irish Book Award in 2019 and Eat the Ones You Love which was a Sunday Times Irish Book of the Year in 2025. She writes about video games for The Guardian, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Winter Papers, and The Stinging Fly, amongst other places. She also makes zines. She was shortlisted for the Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year in 2025. She posts on Instagram as sarahgriffski.