Review of Fruit Fly by Josh Silver

Go gay. Go sad. Go dark. This is the writing advice Mallory reads online to reinvigorate her career as an author. So naturally she creates a fake Grindr account to immerse herself in the queer, drug-fuelled London underbelly that she’s going to use to fuel her writing. It’s all very ‘yaas queen, slay the house down boots’ of her, right? She soon becomes obsessed with Leo, a young man on the brink of homelessness for violating the rules of his sober half-way house. Mallory finds Leo’s life tragically glamorous and begins to shape her new novel around him whilst posing as a ‘therapist’. Leo knows he is being treated as this middle-class woman’s new pet project but he can’t quite figure out why or how. Through a series of unfortunate events, they both descend into a vicious spiral that leaves them relying on each other in unexpected ways.

This is a propulsive and turbulent novel that keeps you guessing from chapter to chapter. Josh Silver is an expert in complex and layered characters as you’re never quite sure who’s side you’re on and you can never predict what’s going to happen next. I loved how this novel explored class and gender politics alongside complicated family dynamics and the subtleties of domestic abuse. But the real talent marker is that Silver manages to do all of that and be genuinely funny!? This is a novel about the darkest elements of people’s lives. It is indeed sad, gay and dark, but alongside it all, you can’t help but read it with a cheeky smirk. I’m still not sure what that says about me or about the author but I think it’s something good...I strongly recommend reading Fruit Fly and finding out for yourself.

Published on 23.04.2026 by Oneworld

Reviewed by Abi

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