"A philosophically stimulating novel crackling with emotional liveliness... A thoughtful rumination on human mortality is achieved as well, one that cannily investigates the wages of too much knowledge" - Kirkus Reviews
"4.5 Stars Out of 5; Fletch Fletcher's JOYPUNKS is a sharp, gritty novel that examines predetermined mortality through the lens of addiction and friendship. Packed with booze, drugs, and existential dread, it's a wild debut that swings big and lands punches with its bruised-heart energy." - Indie Reader
Danny is an ordinary teenager who lives in a world in which everyone has the chance to find out the day they die when they turn 18. On his 18th birthday, Danny finds out that he is going to die when he is only 27. This sets him down a path of bohemian decision-making that winds up with him living with a hippie named Naomi and a drug dealer named Brian. The three of them, all destined to die before thirty, live a life of excess in a mad search for meaning before it's too late.
To make matters worse, the religious elite believe that your death date is a sign of morality. They judge Danny and others like him as sinners who are paying for their lack of character. These beliefs are only reinforced by the emergence of "Pacts," an agreement that you will commit a serious crime with a day left in exchange for the money.
Set in the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona, Joypunks is a book filled with booze, sex, drugs, strippers, robberies, and the gritty lifestyle of those struggling with their mortality. Will Danny be able to rein his morality in or will he wind up dying in a ditch somewhere?
