This book was an exquisite blend of history, heart, and quiet rebellion. The romance was tender yet powerful, unfolding with beautiful restraint. Set against a richly detailed backdrop, it explored love, identity, and courage in a time that rarely allowed it. A moving, gorgeously written story that stayed with me long after the final page.

** spoiler alert ** Still twirling after finishing the incredible historical fiction/romantasy novel, Disco Witches of Fire Island. It's 1989, in the middle of the fucking AIDS crisis. Who doesn't need a coven of disco witches to right the wrongs in the world. They may not be powerful enough to end the plague, but they can makes things better for some in love and life.

Joe and his best friend Ronnie leave their homes in Philly to spend what they hope will be a glorious summer on Fire Island. But Joe's still grief stricken over his ex, Elliot who died two years ago. He falls into a place to live with two eccentric older gay men who set out to protect him and make sure he's set on the right path for the rest of his life. But boy are there some snags along the way. Disco Witches of Fire Island is a perfect novel. If you lived through the era like me, it's like listening to the best dance music from 1989. If you're too young, it's a history lesson by way of a work of fiction that will have you laughing and cheering for the gang. I was picturing the screen adaptation the entire time I was reading it. This one's a keeper. Thank you Blair Fell.

Oh my gosh what an insane, heartbreaking, fantastic book. I absolutely loved it and absolutely recommend it! A blend of magic, history (if you can count summer 1989 as truly historic!), horror elements and a whole lot of emotional turmoil…

Set at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Joe is reeling from the death of his boyfriend Elliot. Terrified of the disease and wracked with guilt over how his last months with his boyfriend turned out, he accepts his friend Ronnie’s invite to spend the summer bartending on Fire Island, touted as a ‘gay paradise’. When there, he meets Howie and Lenny, two elderly gay men living on Fire Island, who take him in, allowing him to stay in their attic.

Rumours are abound about Howie and Lenny being some kind of witches, and as the summer drags on, dark powers are manifesting on Fire Island… can Howie and Lenny protect Joe from the horrors converging on him? And can Joe get past his crippling grief after the loss of Eliott and his deep-rooted fear of the disease killing his friends and lovers?

This book was whimsical and deeply sad - it discussed at length the horrifying effect of AIDS on the gay community and Joe’s terror really highlighted the crippling fear that so many young men (in fact folks of all genders) must have lived with.

The whimsical magical elements in the book were a complete offset of the misery of the epidemic and I think worked really well; it’s more spiritualism than magic and encompasses the ‘never give up’ spirit that so many people who joined protests and campaigned for change embodied.

Overall a sad, trippy and absolutely riveting read; I’ll be thinking of Joe, Howie, Lenny and the inhabitants of Fire Island for a long time to come!

Read DWOFI for:
✨ 1989 at the height of the AIDS crisis
✨ MC struggling with deep grief
✨ Summer on Fire Island, ‘Gay paradise’
✨ Emotional, twisty story
✨ Strange magical elements
✨ Complex, flawed characters
✨ Finding love after loss
✨ Hitting rock bottom to find yourself

Thank you to Alcove Press for an eARC of this book via NetGalley ✨ It’s available on 6th May 💕

Loved the concept of Disco Witches of Fire Island, but the writing style was just not for me. Such a bummer!

I received a free copy of, Disco Witches of Fire Island, by Blair Fell, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It took me a while to finish this book, even though I absolutely loved the premise of this book. I just couldn't get into it, sadly. The pacing was just too slow and I keep getting distracted with the language and dialogue, which was slightly ridiculous. Not the book for me.

Really fun and inventive plot!! I thought the writing itself wasn’t the strongest on a technical level, but the story and the history made me see it through. Worth it if you’re at all interested in this era of gay history.

It was interesting reading historical fiction about gay men on Fire Island during the AIDS pandemic. Also, it was messy and wild. I was hoping for more magic though

Blair Fells is a true mastermind!! I fell in love with his storyline in “A Sign for Home”. With that book he captured the true voice of the deaf community. This one is outside my normal reading genre but gives us a wonderful tale of an island of gay witches and a multilayered story. While I am not typically a fantasy reader- i would recommend.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this one.

Unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I wanted to like it but the writing style was just not working for me and the characters were grating.

1/5 stars: This is Fell's 2SLGBTQIA+ Fantasy Historical Romance stand-alone that's set in 1989 and follows a man floundering after the loss of his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as he sets out to spend the summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island with his best friend. The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners, who are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged. Despite being unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, when the Great Darkness threatens life as they know it they team up with the Disco Witches to save the island and the community they've built. Written in multiple POVs, Fell's writing and character work are well done. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me; leading me to DNF it at 13%.

I received this eARC thanks to Alcove Press in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

Disco Witches of Fire Island is such a fun and heartfelt read. The Fire Island setting is magical on its own, but add in a coven of fabulous witches and it becomes something really special. I loved how the characters were both hilarious and deeply human—Joe’s journey hit all the right emotional notes, and the witches totally stole the show. It’s the perfect mix of nostalgia, queer joy, and just the right touch of magic.

The setting of this story was very vibrant and interesting to me. The story is emotional and does not go easy regarding its narrative of love, loss, and belonging.

Where to begin? Disco Witches of Fire Island ... the title grabbed me straight away and the description followed up with big promises. And Blair Fell delivered on those promises.
There's a lot to this book. And I lot I couldn't always connect with straight away - not being a young gay man in the late 1980s myself. But the story telling wouldn't let me wander off confused to put the book down for good. That and the cast of characters. We have Joe who is an intriguing mix of vulnerability and wearily pragmatic. He's grieving his lover who has died of AIDS while heaping guilt on himself every day. He and his new friend Ronnie spend the summer on Fire Island. There was a lot of things going on that I didn't really understand: the man Joe spots from the boat on his first day, Ronnie's boss, what the story was about the stuff in the attic, a lot of Joe's behaviour and quite a bit of Fergal's.
It didn't matter to me that I couldn't figure out the whole disco witch thing - the whole thing was still great, picturing them all glammed up.
This book felt to me like a catharsis for the author to work out some of his past so when I figured that out, I let go of needing to understand every detail and just went with the flow of the tale. And there was plenty for me to flow with.

I should start with the obvious: if the words “disco witch coven” don’t immediately light up something deep and slightly damaged inside you, we might not be friends.

Blair Fell’s Disco Witches of Fire Island is an unholy communion of grief, glitter, desire, and 1989 gay drama. It’s a fantasy novel in the way that Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a road movie. The plot moves, yes, but it’s the costume changes, quiet elegies, and poppers-induced fog that make it sing.

We follow Joe Agabian, a twentysomething Armenian-American guy from Philly, who arrives on Fire Island to find himself broke, disoriented, and sexily haunted (literally, emotionally, and also by a man with possible gills). He’s grieving the loss of his boyfriend to AIDS, armed with only a mixtape, a lot of internalized guilt, and the kind of mopey-hot energy that make people want to feed him, fix him, or f...find him a nice rent-controlled apartment with a clawfoot tub and a breakfast nook.

Instead of a soft summer reset, Joe stumbles into a community held together by Tupperware casseroles, disco ball glue, and the rhinestoned rage of people determined not to die alone. The promised bartending job evaporates. So does the housing. Enter Howie and Lenny, a pair of elderqueer housekeepers with sequins in their bones and secrets in their broom closet. They run a deeply strange, deeply sacred household—equal parts gay sanctuary, makeshift hospice, and magical command center. (Think: Golden Girls meets Practical Magic but with more douching jokes.)

Turns out they’re witches. Actual ones. The disco kind. And they’re trying—desperately—to hold the fabric of the Pines together with sequin thread and ritual spells, in a community hollowed out by the epidemic. They’re understaffed, emotionally exhausted, and spiritually outgunned. Still, they dance.

The story blends romance, magic, and comedy in a way that makes you consider that those three words may actually be synonyms. Joe’s loathe-at-first-sight romance with Eldon, a dreamy bi deckhand with honest-to-god webbed toes, gives the book its soft heartbeat. But it's the chosen family—scrappy, aging, polyphonic—that makes it worth staying for. Especially Dory the Boozehound, a fabulously witchy eighty-year-old straight woman who runs a gay bar and lets dying men spend their last days on her oceanfront porch.

What Fell captures best is not the camp (though it’s delicious) or even the romance (though it's tender and more than a little horny). It’s the thick, ambient grief of the era. The way men were dying and boys kept dancing. The way loss became infrastructure. The way queer survival—then as now—relies on people showing up, not always clean or kind or sober, but with food and bad jokes and cassette tapes and a place to crash.

Also, it’s genuinely funny. Like, “is this character possessed by a demon or just from Queens?” funny. And there’s a running bit about gay ghosts needing poppers that I hope makes it to the screen, should this ever be adapted (and it should be).

If you missed the bleakest years of the plague, and god bless you if you did, this book might just be an incantation toward reclaiming a thread from that tapestry of souls you weren’t born soon enough to know. If you lived through it, Disco Witches might feel like a love (and dish) letter from someone you miss dearly. Either way, it’s a one hundred percent (emotionally) true story about facing what hurts, while still leaving room for the dance floor.

Which is the real magic, isn’t it?

This book has a super interesting premise and sets up a fun atmosphere with entertaining characters. There's a little bit of angst, a little bit of spice, and a little bit of witchcraft, but I found myself wishing for more of everything. Still, there were some poignant moments and commentary on the AIDS epidemic, along with humor and heart.

This book heard, oh is this "too much" "too extra"?? And answered with, well here's some more. The characters, ideas, fantasies, relationships, and history were insanely intricate and blown up. I am afraid that this book was at my limits for satire/humor/whimsy though- which I didn't even know existed. If you have similar tastes to mine, DNR

I am SOOO conflicted on this book. It has gutted me to a certain extent. I am a fantasy reader. Yes, I read other genres frequently, but fantasy is by far my go to genre. On the flip side, literary fiction is one of my least read genres because I really have a hard time immersing myself in it. This book...this book is a combination of the two. And my conflict comes in because...I enjoyed the literary fiction portions of the novel far more than the fantasy pieces. What is this dark magic?

The writing is incredibly atmospheric and the character work was lovely. I loved the detail about the location and the vibrant personalities of the supporting characters. The Fire Island descriptions were amazing. I felt like I could visualize it all and feel the vibes of the gatherings.

I did find Joe, the protagonist, a bit less likable. He was terribly insecure and fairly flighty. I understand the reasons for this, but it still caused me irritation. I just wanted him to grow up. Perhaps the fact that he got under my skin so well is another testament to the good character development.

Now the heavy conflict...the plot. The pacing was good, but I struggled with the transitions between reality and fantasy. I (oddly) loved the literary portions of the book so much that the fantasy parts seemed to take out the seriousness and felt a bit awkward to my reading. I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but I wish this book had been written without any fantasy components. I love the camaraderie of the Disco Witches, but I wanted them to be more real. There were so many ways that the plot could have still bloomed without the magical pieces.

Still...I did enjoy my read. Despite my inability to gel with the fantasy components, I appreciated the blunt and honest presentation of historical and political events, the exploration of gay culture, and the attention to the realities behind the AIDS epidemic. There was so much powerful discussion in the narrative and I was definitely affected by those portions. Blair Fell has stated that the story is based upon his own experiences as well as his summer spent bartending on Fire Island...this personal touch really shows in the final product. It's captivating and raw. My heart hurt through several sections.

I will be on the lookout for more from Fell. His writing is immensely rich and realistic (except for the fantastical pieces). He sets a scene with immense talent. I enjoyed his Fire Island depiction so much and could do with even more stories of the supporting characters.

** I will warn potential readers that they need to be prepared for the content. There is some definite adult material in the narrative and it is not a closed door situation. For those uncomfortable with spice, this may not be the read for you. **

I shouldn’t have sat on this one for so long and I’m kicking myself for it. This was a really great story that really felt like it took you back to the 80s and tossed in some magic along the way. The author did a good service to the heavy topics discussed and the pain of HIV/AIDS epidemic. I loved the community aspects of this book and really loved the characters in this book!

Due out May 6th

It's 1989, and Joe's boyfriend has recently died of HIV/AIDS. Needing an escape, he and his bestie Ronnie have planned a trip to Fire Island. While Joe needs healing from heartbreak, Ronnie is on the hunt for a rich husband. Though they've been promised bartending jobs and rooms, upon arrival things are not nearly as they'd been advertised.

Joe gets some lucky breaks, a room in the home of Howie and Lenny, and a job through their friend. We meet well described characters with their own hurts and secrets, and we learn that there's a gay coven working to protect their own.

While the witchcraft angle wasn't super compelling for me, everyone needs their people, and it touched my heart that these characters you fall in love with, in spite of their deep flaws, have a village to care for them.

Make no mistake, this isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There are PLENTY of people sick and dying of the virus throughout the book.
There's also LOTS and LOTS of sex, including one near rape, in case this is triggering.

All in all, there were some plotlines that didn't follow through for me, but this was a strong story of learning to forgive yourself and be open to transformation.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted so badly to love this book. From the title and the description, it was right up my alley. But I was almost immediately confronted with amateurish writing, dialog, plotting, and pacing. It felt like something a high schooler would write...if they were an old gay man. Every single thing in this book is predictiable, the author always makes the easiest, most obvious choice with dialogue, settings, characters, plot. I kept waiting to be pleasantly surprised but the disappointment just continued.
I'm sad to say that you should look elsewhere for a great book that combines 80s queer life and the supernatural.