A secret coven of gay witches can fight off evil spirits through the magic of disco dancing. That’s a literary premise I may have been waiting for my entire life, and for the most part, the author delivers with wit and campy fun. Set in the late 1980s, the story also captures a complex time to be gay, witch or not. In his author’s note, Fell explains that he drew on his lived experience from that era, and it shows in his evocative storytelling.

The book actually centers on an ‘ordinary guy’: twenty-nine-year-old Joe Agabian, who is a somewhat reluctant accomplice to his best friend Ronnie’s scheme to spend the summer chasing fabulousness and debauchery in the Fire Island Pines. They’re two young men from Philadelphia with nothing tying them down, and one could say their whole lives ahead of them, though it’s the height of the AIDS crisis, accompanied by Christian bigotry festering in national politics, which are ever-lurking terrors. Joe recently lost his ex, Elliot, to AIDS and carries guilt for not fighting harder for their relationship when Elliot defensively pushed him away. Still, he’s hopeful that immersing himself in gay partyland might help to break out of his funk, and when the summer’s over, he’ll be reenergized to pursue his dream of going to medical school.

The plan goes sideways as soon as they step off the ferry, and Ronnie confesses that his promise of bartending jobs for the two of them was a tad overstated. He’s got a housekeeping gig with board at the island’s hotel that will certainly turn into something more glamorous when the hotel owner recognizes the hot commodity he is, and as for Joe, he just needs to find work and a place to stay. Joe is livid, but stuck. He manages to find a room with a pair of older men, Howie and Lenny, who have space in their modest house while the third in their share is getting treatment for AIDS at a New York City hospital.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Howie and Lenny are two of the book’s titular disco witches. They have a pantry full of foraged herbs and medicines, and their personal stylings are a combination of Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company and Rip Taylor. Joe suspects there’s something odd going on with the two guys, which makes him a bit uneasy, but meanwhile he lands a job at a low key bar that suits him better than the flashy clubs in town. He’s also distracted by a handsome ferry worker, Fergal, who either hates his guts or wants to get down his pants. The vibes he’s picking up are confusing.

We learn more about the coven through Howie and Lenny’s point-of-view scenes. In addition to their ailing friend, Max, their quintet (a requisite number to channel their elemental power) includes an aging Earth Mama, Dory, and their equally flamboyant contemporary, Saint D’Norman. They’ve been working together since the late 60s and (vaguely) protecting lost young gays from murderous ‘egregores’ escaped from the Great Darkness. Howie and Lenny sense that another egregore is near, with maximal possibility of bridging worlds on the upcoming blood moon, and that Joe may be pivotal to averting disaster, unbeknownst to Joe himself.

There’s a ton to like about the book. The characters are well-drawn and appealing, the fantasy elements are fresh and delightfully ridiculous, and perhaps most of all, Fell captures the Pines scene with the perfect balance of over-the-top queer merriment and the gay beach town’s uglier strains of ageism and class snobbery. One feels though that the story tries too hard to be everything to everyone, beginning with the publisher’s claim that it’s “perfect for fans of The House on the Cerulean Sea, the Tales of the City series, and Red, White, and Royal Blue.”

Huh? Someone on the marketing team sure likes hedging their bets. And unfortunately, bowing to market trends, one supposes, the things the author does so well, like embracing the paradox and nuances of the time period, are interrupted by emphatic romance conventions that are probably too few and far between to satisfy mm rom-com fans anyway. Meanwhile, those expecting Armistead Maupin will skim over the heavy-handed love scenes, wondering when they’ll get back to Howie and Lenny, who have the more interesting stories to tell.

Well, it's a strange time we live in. I caught a social media thread about the book proclaiming Fell as “an Armistead Maupin for the new millennium.” Nevermind that Fell has been writing for decades, and he and Maupin are from the same generation and take inspiration from gay life in the twentieth century. Everything old is new again, I guess, but one wishes that a story about being queer in the 1980s didn’t have to struggle with the notion of widening access points.

Reviewed for Out in Print, to be published in May 2025

Disco Witches of Fire Island is incredibly fun and unapologetically gay. I immediately was hooked by the quick-witted writing style and the queer joy seeping from every page. For a book that takes place in and consistently discusses the AIDs crisis, it felt surprisingly light– emphasizing the joy in finding a like-minded community and the love that can come from being surrounded by those who understand and support you. The magic in this book is simply the magic of belonging, of a support system for even the most lost gays. I really enjoyed this.

Handling the AIDs crisis with an adept pen, Blair Fell paints the picture of a world where queer joy and even queerer magic can resist even the harshest of realities.

This is an incredible read. Gripped me from the get go and held on tight as I read it in basically one sitting. Tough in parts, but it should be when dealing with the AIDs pandemic and fallout for the queer community. The whole book reads like a fever dream in the best way.

A fun romp to Fire Island (LOVED the setting!) with a colourful cast of characters, each struggling with their own issues that come to a head over the course of a summer. There was a lot of care and respect put into the focus of the AIDS crisis and how it affected multiple characters, overall striking a balance between serious and sad moments while also keeping it lighthearted with lots of witty quips and fun dialogue. However, I was disappointed in the fantasy aspect- we really only get a taste towards the end, and it was more magical realism. The writing style and pacing was a bit jarring at times and didn’t always flow, but I found it really shined during emotional moments between characters. I very much felt for each one struggling with their personal hardships, and I appreciate the care the author put into showing their growth or resolutions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC!

I was really hoping for a campy good time but I got t a lot of weird phrases and cringey jokes. Joe could have been a great character but he wasn’t.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it was different than many of the others things I've read recently and made a nice change. I appreciated the harsh look at the AIDs epidemic and the how traumatizing and heartbreaking it was. Ronnie's growth, from looking for a rich sugar daddy to being happy on the island with Vince, and Joe's acceptance of things he cannot change while trying to look for the happier times, even in all the darkness made for a great arc. I loved that Ronnie overcame it all and became a Disco Witch in order to save his best friend. I loved the Disco Witches, and how much Lenny and Howie took care of Joe throughout the summer was adorable. I wish I could see their house in real life because the way it was described sounded amazing.

However, in everything going on, I felt like there may have been TOO much going on. Ronnie, Joe, Elena, Howie, Lenny, Fergal, Saint, Dory, the Gladiator Man.... all had their own stories in a relatively short time span. There was mythology, magical realism, romance, historical, and political aspects, and while they mostly came together well, it felt a little overwhelming at times. I don't think that Fergal needed to have a mythological parent, nor did it really add much to the story... sorry. And, personally, the sentence structure seemed short and choppy at times, feeling more juvenile in a very non juvenile book. But that is just a personal issue that I notice, and is something I think is happening more and more. No more lengthy, complex structures for us, just tell and not a lot of show in the publishing industry.

3.75 stars rounded to 4.

This is the story of Joe and his summer in the late eighties on Fire Island. Joe along with his best friend Ronnie decide to leave Philadelphia and take summer jobs on Fire Island. Ronnie was "promised" bartending jobs and rooms to stay at one of the most popular gay clubs on the island.  Joe arrives a few days after Ronnie. Both with the hopes of finding true love. Joe finds Ronnie working as a hotel porter / maid and living in a tiny room. Joe does land in the attic of a couple of friends and workingbas a bartender in a small club. The story is a dive into the gay community in the eighties when AIDS was a ruthless killer. The search for love and acceptance. Follow Joe and Ronnie's summer on Fire Island. A rollercoaster of emotions, highs and lows, love and loss. The true bond of friends.

I don't know what I was expecting, but this was not it. While I was intrigued by the whole premise of the book, I ended enjoying it way more than I thought I would! There were moments that were gut-wrenching, but also heartfelt moments. You root for Joe's healing and wish for friends like Howie and Lenny. I love a good fantasy read, but I feel like with such important topics like LGBTQIA+ representation and history and the AIDS crisis, too much fantasy would have been a bad thing. Disco Witches of Fire Island had just enough sparkle to make it magical, but not so much that the importance of preserving LGBTQIA+ history and spaces was lost. Hopefully one day we will see more of what came next in a second book!

I love the 80s so was delighted to read this book. Really enjoyed the description of Fire Island and the love and bravery of the gay community on the island through the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A romantic story but thought there would be more of an fantasy aspect. Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove press for ARC.

I wasn’t exactly a fan of this book, which is so disappointing. The initial premise of it seemed so incredibly interesting and something that would 100% be right up my alley but the execution did not give me what I was looking for.

The writing was hit or miss for me. At times, it was overly descriptive and I found myself lost amongst all of the information being piled onto me but there were definitely times that I found it charming and fitting for the story.

Like I said above, the premise is very cool. An island of disco witches in the 80s providing refuge from the AIDs crisis? I was like count me in! However, I think a large part of my disappointment comes from the characters themselves. Joe wasn’t very compelling to me and, while I did feel for his loss, I just found him annoying. Most of the other characters were also pretty annoying to me, sexed up and constantly talking about it. Maybe it’s the borderline asexual in me but I’m just not a fan of the “I’m horny all the time” archetype, especially in queer media.

I also felt like the book was needlessly long. It definitely could have benefited from cutting down on filler.

All that being said, it’s so extremely important for books surrounding queer problems and spotlight queer communities to be published. Even though this book ended up not being for me, I deeply appreciate the fact that this book was written and taken on by a publisher to be published and it definitely will be important and loved by someone out there.

3.25⭐

LIKED:
- The setting of Fire Island in the late 80s was fun to read as someone who was not alive during that - time. I’m not sure if it was the most accurate in description but it very much felt like its own little world
- The topic of the HIV/AIDS crisis during that time and how it devastated different people and groups of people was really emotional to read. The way that the disease and its aftermath affected the different characters was quite compelling.
- Generally, I liked the characters.They were very flawed, but each of them had something about them that was relatable or captivating in some way. Joe was deeply frustrating, which is kind of the point, so I don’t want to fault him too much. He was written in a way that made him feel way younger than he was (acting more like the 24-year-old he was lying to be rather than the nearly 30-year-old he actually was).
- Ronnie was my favorite character. I found him to be the most nuanced and his interactions were the most fun. Vince was probably a close second.
- I really like the cover. It’s very eye catching even if it doesn’t tell the whole story.

LOATHED:
- Saying that it is and marketing this book as a fantasy is a bit unfair to the readers. This book probably lies somewhere under the magical realism umbrella, but even so, I was left pretty disappointed in the aspect. The main draw of me for picking this book up was the magic and the idea of a coven of gay witches in the 1980s. We got a smidgen of it towards the end, but I think we, the reader, were left way too in the dark about their practices for the majority of the book
- Others have also mentioned this in their reviews, but the pacing and flow of this book is clunky. There was a really lovely chunk of the book around 20-25% where I was feeling really invested and immersed, but then the character decisions and everything would take me back out of it.
- I did not feel any chemistry or interest in Joe and Fergal. I did not care. Actually, in fact, I wanted Fergal to leave.
- I also wanted more description and details about Fire Island. I wasn’t able to really make a mental map of the island, and having never been there, I think it would have helped me immerse myself even more. Honestly, I think I could say that about most of the locations, sans maybe the witches’ house. But I still could not tell you what Asylum Harbor looked like at all.
- The writing of the sex scenes or anything sexual was not for me and honestly quite cringe. There were some analogies and metaphors that just made me uncomfortable.
- This is a personal thing, but I don’t care for books like this writing real people into the story. Like, yes, Jerry Herman was a very important, prominent figure during the AIDS crisis in New York specifically…but him being there added nothing and just felt like a cameo for…a cameo’s sake? It also did not read like him at all.

LONGED FOR:
- More magic
- More descriptions and detail about the locations and the island overall
- Further character explorations that added further clarity as to why certain characters were making the decisions they made (Joe less so)

Will I read the next one? : Maybe? This was a tough read for its content. I’ve seen good things about A Sign for Home, so maybe I’ll possibly check that out.

(3.5 stars rounded up) At it's core, this is a queer found family story with magic. It is a blend of romance, fantasy, and history. There are a good amount of interesting concepts thrown in and the nostalgia is real, but it doesn't always hit the mark. Some info dumps make certain parts drag on and throw off the pacing. In the end, I think there is more to like than dislike, but I do wish it was a bit more polished.

This one... was a struggle. The writing style wasn't particularly compelling to me, but I was intrigued by the concept and loved the idea of diving into the world of late 80s Fire Island and the aids crisis, esp. with promised sprinkles of fantasy elements so I pushed through reading it despite wanting to DNF a few times.

Overall, this is a case of potentially fun concept, poor execution for me. The pacing was simply atrocious. Too slow for about 85% of the book where reading felt like pulling teeth and too fast for the rest where absolutely no time was spent on the resolution and climax of the novel. I think this could have benefited from being a much shorter story. And while I understand the fantasy elements were not necessarily the most important of the novel, esp. thematically, they felt incredibly underdeveloped to me which was hugely disappointing.

I will say I found most of the characters engaging, which was the novel's saving grace for me. Their grief and their fears and the sense of urgency to live life to the fullness and be reckless in some cases, or overly careful in orders, in the light of the aids crisis ravaging their community felt raw. Unfortunately, the moments where the novel engages with this fully without the disappointing fantasy plot getting in the way were rare.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story starts with Joe, the protagonist, having lost his boyfriend to the virus. He is alone now and on a night out he meets Ronnie, a wishful thinker who becomes his best friend. Ronnie convinces Joe to leave his job and go with him to work bartending in Fire Island for the summer. Things don't go according to plan and Joe gets involved with some peculiar characters.

The AIDS pandemic is the bigger context in this book. It's a theme that makes me feel queasy and uncomfortable. I've seen people get sick, people die, but also people living with it and carrying on with their lives. I'm thankful that things have been improving over the years, but I can't help getting worried or scared sometimes, and reading related stories triggers the fear and makes me nostalgic and sad. As I kept making progress in the story I realized that the context made the life and personalities of the characters shine brighter, and a lot more interesting. How do Disco Witches keep on living with death always threatening?

In the end the story put me in a down mood, I felt sympathy for the characters and the hardships they had to face. It's a story that goes into that space in fiction where tragedies keep piling on until we arrive at a cathartic end. A journey with romance and some spicy scenes, which is what I enjoyed the most. I would really like for gay stories to divert from drama and tragedy, but at least this one doesn't dance around the ugly parts.

I was so excited to get approved for this novel! This book is not for the faint of heart (strong language, sex scenes, etc.) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the elder gay men and their perspectives on things. I would recommend this book.

Everyone in this book talks and acts like a horny teenager. No matter if they're in their 20s, 30s or 60s. The book is also set in the 80s, but everyone sounds like they have a Tumblr blog.

Additionally, these quotes are ... something?

a low rumbling voice that literally caused Joe's testicles to vibrate



Literally? Please see a doctor

The psychic cilia inside my intestines are wiggling with joy



No really. Go and see a doctor

If I looked as good as him, I'd be shish-kebabbing so many bottoms I could open a Greek good truck



I had to read this sentence and now so do you

Vince kissed Ronnie with the right amount of push and pull by the lips and tongue, a good balance of wet and dry, hard and soft, with the perfect number of rest stops and a hungry tension, like a roller coaster climbing to a drop



I have read instruction manuals that were sexier than this. I mean ... rest stops? A roller coaster?

Vince's lips and tongue, like two small fists, beat Joe's mouth into submission, sucking and biting his lips.



You thought the roller coaster was bad? There's worse kissing scenes in this book.

Our orgies, though unphotographed, lasted days. Bliss exploded everywhere, staining everything and everyone with joy.



I'll leave you with this beautiful mental image, that hopefully makes you understand why I'm not going to read the whole book.

Blair Fell's Disco Witches of Fire Island is at its best when it highlights the resilience of the queer community, the power of chosen family, and the sheer joy of living despite uncertainty. The novel's treatment of HIV/AIDs is refreshingly hopeful, emphasizing love and support rather than tragedy. And, or course, the promise of disco witches is an undeniable draw - who wouldn't want more of that?

That said, while the book delivers on its themes of community and survival, it falls short in execution. The magical elements feel underdeveloped, with the coven of disco witches taking a backseat when they should have been a driving force. Joe's relationship with Elliot is meant to be central to his arc as a character, but because we see so little of it, his grief often feels distant. Similarly, his dynamic with Fergal swings wildly from hatred to love and back again without enough emotional groundwork to make it feel believable.

The pacing is another issue - much of the book moves very slowly, but when the long-anticipated climax comes, it feels rushed which undercuts its emotional impact. And while Howie and Lenny shine as fully realized, complex characters (based on the Authors note, this is probably due to their real-life inspirations), many of the other characters - Joe, Ronnie, and Fergal especially - feel inconsistent and shallow.

Ultimately, this book has a strong heart but struggles to balance its magical premise with its character-driven drama. It's a book with moments of brilliance, particularly in its depiction of love, community, and survival, but it leaves too many of its most compelling elements unexplored.

A tender, funny and emotional gay romance set in Fire Island during the height of the AIDS epidemic. While there is a love story and there are definitely disco witches, the overarching feel is that of a loving ethnography, a memoir of a time and place where so many felt hopeless yet there were always those offering care, support, and love.

The title pulled me in - I admit it. I love disco and wish I grew up in that period. Not that I'd actually go out and dance, ha. Witches are fascinating and have the best balance of reality and magic without going into the realm of the fantasy genre for me; it's not appealing to me. And I spent a few summer's on Fire Island, so I totally understand the culture, even if I was way too young when the book took place in the 80s.

I enjoyed reliving a few experiences, seeing the comedy of older gay men who try to look out for the youngin's, and being exposed to an entirely different side of life that can be shocking and entertaining. Tender moments interspersed throughout the story make for a proper balance of emotions. The magical moments went over my head and for me pulled the story down rather than showcase a tighter theme of tolerance and imagination.

Not a book I'd recommend for the faint of heart when it comes to promiscuity, sexual scenes, or even strong language. But well done in that it evoked a lot of depth to truth, personality, and the party scene.

Fell creates a fascinating image of life for gay men in the New York/Philly area during the AIDS crisis, which she interweaves with beautiful imagery and intriguing fantasy elements.