Fruit Fly is the first book I’ve read by Josh and I don’t know why it’s took me this long to pick him up because WOW that man can write!I was starting to slip into a bit of a reading slump and this is exactly what I needed to drag me out of it. It’s dark, uncomfortable, and at times genuinely disturbing.. but also painfully funny. I was laughing one minute and then the next feeling guilty for it. It handles heavy topics like trauma, abuse & addiction but in a way that feels messy and unfiltered, just like real life. It’s chaotic, unhinged and sometimes frustrating at times which all felt a little too relatable because honestly same ? And the ending?? I stayed up until 2am for it and I have no regrets. It gives you just enough closure without wrapping up in a neat, unrealistic bow, which I loved.Definitely won’t be my last Josh Silver book.

Where to start with how glorious a read this book is? Fruit Fly is one of those novels that draws you in by looking like one thing, a sharp satire promising to pack a punch, and then quietly digs in its roots to become something far darker and more ambitious. Josh Silver takes a simple premise of a blocked writer hunting for inspiration and pushes it into a world that's wonderfully heartbreaking in its social commentary. The early chapters have a hilarious energy (Mallory on Grindr is a genuine highlight and not going to lie, reminded me of when my friends have tried to use it), but the humour quickly descends into something more uncomfortable and profound around who gets to tell a story and at what cost. Mallory and Leo are superstars of protagonists. Their dynamic is what makes this book so brilliant. Realistically messy, Josh Silver isn’t afraid to make these characters unlikeable but even in their more unlikeable moment, you can’t help reading on because you can understand their intention. Fruit Fly handles addiction, queerness, societal expectation and trauma without watering them down, choosing to face everything bluntly in the most magnificent way. So much so, I’ve already told multiple friends to get this book pre-ordered! This is the first book I’ve ever read by Josh Silver, but I can already tell it will not be the last. His writing is majestic. One thing that caught my attention was, and this is the best way I can describe this, he’s not afraid to make readers sit in the awkward silence. I’ve read many books where the author’s attempted to do that and it’s fallen flat, but Josh Silver makes you sit at attention, on edge. There’s an unevenness, almost like a spiral within the writing too, which feels intentional, to mirror the instability of Fruit Fly’s characters and the blurred line between inspiration and exploitation. Honestly, I cannot shout about the writing in this book enough! By the time you hit the last few pages (don’t worry, no spoilers here!), Silver has pulled off something brilliant by holding your hand from a satirical opener to a gut punch that will even how you questioning how you view the outside world and interactions with strangers. Fruit Fly is messy, provocative, darkly funny and deeply uncomfortable in all the right ways! It’s a book that lingers, not because it offers the answers on where society’s greying lines, but because it refuses to answer them and chooses instead to make you think! If this is Silver’s launch in adult fiction, I already cannot wait for whatever comes next…

This book isn’t slightly off. It is full-blown, lid-bulging, hiss-when-you-open-it rot, and I LOVED IT. It’s giving Trainspotting x Yellowface but sweatier, nastier, and way more interested in watching its characters absolutely ruin themselves for relevance. Mallory is circling obscurity like a vulture who’s just realised she might be the carcass. Midlife. Writer’s block. Candy Crusher. Friends who would eat her alive if it got them a better dinner party story. Let’s not talk about ‘The Husband’. Leo is an addict. They have two things in common. The are both mercenary, and both need a cash cow. Mallory knows authenticity sells, and she’s going to go gay, go sad, go dark. She’s milking Leo for his story and manufacturing the rest. This is sharp, snide, everything is sticky, and everyone is slightly unwell. Tea parties take on a whole new meaning, and I will not be elaborating. You don’t read this, you get dragged through it slightly dehydrated and morally compromised. This is not a book you shelve; you keep it in a lockbox. Evil, sweaty, incandescent. I am OBSESSED. Five stars, no notes. slaaaay